Second chances
It’d been half an hour since I returned to the pits after my fall. And, in the time I made my excuses and doled out apologies to the TVS race team for damaging their bike, one of the race engineers had already fixed my bike. So, I seized my second chance as soon as the pit lane reopened. It had gotten dark, and we were riding under the lights at Sepang. It was surreal but not as easy as riding under the sun with shadows obscuring my vision and reference points. And to commit under the veil of uncertainty was proving to be difficult.
Thankfully, the RR310 race bike proved easier to ride than I had imagined. It is fast, no question. And it drops into corners quicker than most road bikes I have ridden. And, of course, it stops on a dime. Not surprisingly, I was running tighter lines than I would have liked and braking way too early. And given the lack of aggression in my road-biased throttle hand, I was not using all of the track at corner exits either.
Plus, I was making mistakes. Not silly ones like I did in my first session, but more around lines and speed. I found myself entering corners too hot, running wide, and leaning way more than I would like to get back on the right line. Yet, the race bike dealt with my amateurish riding without putting a foot wrong. And that’s what impressed me most. This bike, at my pace, was forgiving, smooth, and very entertaining.
It was also quite tiring. You see, the riding position was quite intense. And my lack of fitness prevented me from tucking under the front fairing properly on straights. Plus, constantly shifting from side to side, corner after corner, and then folding myself back into that demanding riding position drained me. And before I knew it, my session came to a close. I dismounted, gleaming; partly because of the humid weather and exhaustion but mostly because I’d had a wonderful time. The bike was fun, the circuit lovely, and even though I went down quite unceremoniously earlier, I hadn’t broken anything. What more could one ask for?
TVS Apache RR310 ARRC OMC Race Bike Ridden!