sporting a set of pre-heated slicks. Never
ridden one? Read on...
Ok, I’ll be upfront here. I’m not a Daniel
Falzon. I’m a fast group trackday kinda guy,
I’ve done a bit of racing and even won a couple
of low key championships over the years.
And when I say low key... I mean grass-roots.
I am the proud winner of the 1996 Yamaha
RD250LC EMRA championship in the UK. Yup,
that was a biggie. And I’ve also had a couple
of goes at hill-climbing over the years; that
sport where you race for 30-50 seconds up a
twisty tar-seal hill as fast as you can on cold
tyres and, upon getting to the top wonder if
there’s a racing Viagra you didn’t get, because
you were soundly beaten by half a dozen dads
and grand-dads on old bikes, wearing baggy-
arsed leathers. Eventually I won the British
championship in that. My point? I can turn a
wheel, but I’m certainly not a pukka ‘racer’.
Fast group at a track day and I’m pretty happy
with that.
So, this is going to be a six lap account of
what it’s like to ride a pukka national level race
More grip and lean angle than you
can shake a shitty stick at...
100 KIWI RIDER
bike that has had a lot of success at Daniel’s
hands. It’s not comprehensive, I can’t analyse
it and, no, I didn’t scrape the surface. For you
normal riders out there who wonder what it’s
like, this is for you.
RIDING
First off, it’s hard and vicious. The motor
spins up fast with just the barest whiff of
throttle. The bars are low and the seat high
and uncomfortable. I’m still sitting in the pit
lane at this point. I have to remember the
gears are race-pattern, with first gear one click
upwards and the rest down. So, I put it into
first – shit, no, that was second. I didn’t feel
this was shaping up well, especially as team
mechanic Jo Falzon, Daniel’s Dad, has already
taken me through the bike and is still standing
next to me. He asks what I want doing with
the traction control and wheelie control.
“Umm, what does Daniel run?” I ask. “Oh, he
has the traction control and wheelie control
on. Cameron ran it like that too,” is his reply.