RockMoto

 Jeff: “Hey Jess, we need people to break in press bikes at the Streets of Willow. Are you interested?

 Me: I’ll give you my first-born child.

 I use that a lot because I don’t plan on bearing children. Even so, I was long overdue for some track time, and riding brand-new sportbikes on a private track day sounded awesome.

When I showed up that morning, there were about 20 riders and a line of motorcycles covered in tape. I’d never helped break in press bikes before, and I’d never seen pristine bikes so carefully protected. It was just sinking in that it would be a really bad thing to wad one when we sat down for the Please Be Careful talk. In short: Remember that you’ve got new brakes, new tires, new everything, so ride at about 7/10ths and be REALLY careful for a few laps.
 

Lap after lap just flows, and if you didn’t like the way you went through a corner, you can hit it again on the next lap. And the next lap. The only catch is that it’s easy to keep going around, telling yourself you’ll come in after a few more laps, until you’re out there for way too long and you find yourself fried by lunchtime. I speak from experience.

Still, we had a lot of miles to cover. The track configuration we used was roughly a mile and a half long, and the bikes needed about 300 miles each. Sounds fine until you come into the pits with 237 on the odometer and wonder why God made knees if they don’t like to bend.

I'm schooling Curtis Adams on the proper way through Turn 3. No, he is NOT laughing at me.

I’d started the day on a Ninja 650R; with its upright seating position and mild manners, it was a comfortable and low-stress way to learn the track. Then I switched to a ZX-6R and spent a lot of time tucked in around the tank. Hence the knees. But it was worth it – that bike is so incredibly smooth and balanced, and on a technical track like Streets it makes life one delicious corner after another.