CBR600RR - Bittersweet

In 2013, I managed to get in 4 days, nearly half of what I had planned for the year but it was beyond my control - sort of. On my 1st track day, I spent all day working on my lines/corner entry with the help of Dave Walker from 3 Walker Racing and his two young ones. Massive amount of respect for these guys and what they do, I owe it all to them as they helped get started on the right track and I'm forever grateful.
Returned for my second track day and had a mini-highside/lowside crash exiting 4B on the long track  @ Shannonville Motorsports Park. Got on the throttle too hard whilst leaned over after a heavy rain storm. The result was a crashed bike and a broken metacarpal (more on that later) in my right hand.

Needless to say, I was in a cast for 6 weeks and it took about another 1-2 weeks to gain full motion in my right hand so I can operate the throttle and front brakes properly. I missed the best two months of the summer. Bummer. 

Managed to get the bike back together and looking nice and fresh again in the two months I had to spare. 

My first day back as at CTMP aka Mosport. I was a little shook after taking my spill and being on such a fast paced track, I took it easy and managed to get the bike home in one piece again. Great feeling, though a little disappointed that my crash intimidated me and took that "edge" off. I did another day @ Shannonville in mid-September and that was the end of my season. 

It was bittersweet because after I spent all that money/time/effort on the CBR, I found out that I was not comfortable on that bike. The ergonomics were just not right for me. I was used to my GSX-R and I was extremely comfortable while riding it. The Honda was too narrow/small for my frame. I decided to sell it and grab another GSX-R for the track. :) 

I ended up selling the CBR in September and the hunt began for a new GSX-R to start 2014 on. 

Back to my hand injury - I'm sure I shattered my metacarpal due to the initial impact of my crash and the fact that I landed hand first. I was wearing FIVE RFX1 gloves. I was extremely disappointed by the outcome: 

As you can see the stitching in the palm area ripped right apart and as a result, I got a nice cut in my palm and you can see the blood all over the fingers of the glove. I originally bought these gloves brand new to do my M1X course and before this track day, they haven been worn less than 10 times. As I mentioned earlier, I had a mini-highside that turned into a lowside. I didn't slide for yards upon yards, maybe 20-30 feet or so as I tumbled and summersaulted down the track.

That being said, I will never recommend this company/brand to anyone I know as I have no faith in them. I'm now wearing Dainese Full Metal's and I'm 100% confident that these will protect my skin and hands in case I decide to go asphalt surfing again. 

It was a short riding season as I only managed to do about 4 track days and about 7K KM's on my GSX-R 750. 2014 is surely looking better...