Well, I've gotten somewhat used to my new bike. It is still pretty cold here in New Jersey and I'm not about to push anything. Still, I noticed that the f3 is handles very differently than my 1000f. If you take the weight of the bike and myself, it is about equal to the weight of the 1000f without me on it. That makes a big difference. It seems much more responsive and the acceleration above 7krpm is pretty damned imressive.

Basically I bought this bike to ride on the track and improve my skills. It think I made a good purchase. I'm patient, though, and willing to take things slowly until my skills improve to the point where I can begin to exploit the performance of this bike. I will probably never get good enough to really use the bike's full potential; but I'm pretty certain that I will be faster on this bike than I was on the 1000 last year when I started doing track days.

I'm definitely going to take some more training through my club and probably do some individual tutor sessions with the coaches. The more information I can get and the more I can have people who know what they are talking about critique my riding, the better I'll get. Baby steps for now. I'll be going to Millville on the 9th and 10th of April. Maybe I'll see one or two of you guys there. In the mean time, I'm hoping for some nice weather so that I can get pretty familiar with the bike before taking it on the track.

 

I will be starting track days on my 97 f3 this year. they are a fun bike. Is yours just a track bike? I am debating on suspension. Not sure if I want to put money into this bike or not. Hope to have a track only bike next year.

 

I debated having a track only bike. I could have bought something from the guys in my club with some nice mods already installed for about the same money as the f3 I bought. Problem was that I would not be able to just take the bike out for a ride and it would spend most of the time in the garage waiting for the next track day. For me, it made more sense to have a bike that could do both. If I progress and get really fast, I might go that route next year.

As for suspension, the mechanic at the dealer I bought it from suggested that I would want to install an after market shock since the one on the bike is probably too soft for track use. He suggested Penske racing. I checked them out, and they are about $1000. Yikes! I think I will do a track day first and then determine if the bike needs to be upgraded. It is set at it's stiffest settings now and feels very stiff to me. Time will tell.

 

Look for one of the old fox twin clickers. They're fully adjustable. I don't think they make new ones anymore. They pop up on eBay every so often for 200-300 depending on condition. My f2 has one. I only use it on the street but it's still nice to have it be fully adjustable