geddyt
06-23-2006, 12:19 PM
Okay, so first time down to Portland and figured I'd put up a clip of a couple of laps and give my impressions of the track.
The short version: With the price of gas in the bike hauler, I personally won't be making the drive again anytime soon. PR for me, thank you much.
But, to be fair, the goods:
1.) Really well taken care of. Awesome surface, nice lawns, bridge to the infield. It's a "real" track.
2.) Runoff galore everywhere. Nice well-kept grass runoff, too.
3.) Very visible and well-maintained curbing on every corner (I seem to remember), although it's pretty steep and slick.
4.) The back straight is super-fun. How to make a straight fun?: Make it not straight! Leaning a little in that top gear is a blast.
Unfortunately, the bad news far outweighs the goods:
1.) Zero elevation change. Come to think of it, I don't even remember there being any real camber to speak of, either.
2.) Front straight is boooooring. I was drinking coffee between sessions to make sure I'd stay awake on that straight.
3.) Left turns? We don't need no stinking left turns! Hell, you can achieve the same effect with three rights anyway, right?...
4.) T1 through T5 without leaving third gear? Fun!...
Bear in mind that this is just one person's impression from being there one day. I think part of my negativity was also inspired by problems I was having with my bike for the day. Like a rear tire that was shot on the left side, for instance. The one real left, T3, is a man-eater. On a worn tire it was even worse. After the second near high side, I just abandoned that turn for the rest of the day and took it easy and worked on my right turns. Also, the straight was probably made more boring by my gearing being way off and topping out in 6th with a whole football field to go before the brake markers. Shifter and throttle response issues were icing on the cake.
Anyway, here are a couple of laps (http://procrasti-nation.net/media/lappingPIR.wmv). Please, no stopwatches; I'm embarrassed by those times. In fact, my only real inspiration for going back down there is to apply some of the lessons learned from watching the vid and pictures and bringing that time down to something respectable.
And to think how slow I must have been out there BEFORE the excellent coaching from Mike's staff...
Oh, and my favorite pic of the day:
http://procrasti-nation.net/media/pirweb/kneedown1close.jpg
The short version: With the price of gas in the bike hauler, I personally won't be making the drive again anytime soon. PR for me, thank you much.
But, to be fair, the goods:
1.) Really well taken care of. Awesome surface, nice lawns, bridge to the infield. It's a "real" track.
2.) Runoff galore everywhere. Nice well-kept grass runoff, too.
3.) Very visible and well-maintained curbing on every corner (I seem to remember), although it's pretty steep and slick.
4.) The back straight is super-fun. How to make a straight fun?: Make it not straight! Leaning a little in that top gear is a blast.
Unfortunately, the bad news far outweighs the goods:
1.) Zero elevation change. Come to think of it, I don't even remember there being any real camber to speak of, either.
2.) Front straight is boooooring. I was drinking coffee between sessions to make sure I'd stay awake on that straight.
3.) Left turns? We don't need no stinking left turns! Hell, you can achieve the same effect with three rights anyway, right?...
4.) T1 through T5 without leaving third gear? Fun!...
Bear in mind that this is just one person's impression from being there one day. I think part of my negativity was also inspired by problems I was having with my bike for the day. Like a rear tire that was shot on the left side, for instance. The one real left, T3, is a man-eater. On a worn tire it was even worse. After the second near high side, I just abandoned that turn for the rest of the day and took it easy and worked on my right turns. Also, the straight was probably made more boring by my gearing being way off and topping out in 6th with a whole football field to go before the brake markers. Shifter and throttle response issues were icing on the cake.
Anyway, here are a couple of laps (http://procrasti-nation.net/media/lappingPIR.wmv). Please, no stopwatches; I'm embarrassed by those times. In fact, my only real inspiration for going back down there is to apply some of the lessons learned from watching the vid and pictures and bringing that time down to something respectable.
And to think how slow I must have been out there BEFORE the excellent coaching from Mike's staff...
Oh, and my favorite pic of the day:
http://procrasti-nation.net/media/pirweb/kneedown1close.jpg