I can chew mine from time to time. I definitely fit the marketing demographic Pirelli is targeting. Chicken or the egg, I don't know for sure!
I've ridden dozens of track days with at least a half-dozen different orgs, and I've encountered bad riders at almost all of them. I recall one combined Penguin/TPM event on Thunderbolt a few years ago where 21 Penguin riders crashed in one day! Meanwhile, not one TPM rider crashed that day. If your opinion was formed by one experience, it might not be accurate, or fair.
True as that may be, first impressions do factor into a lot of decision making. When those first impressions have been reinforced by prior/post hearsay and subsequent follow up personal experience... Let me at at least say, I was not a good fit for TPM's events. I gave them their chances...didn't work out well enough. It could be argued all day, one way or the other, that the days I attended were aberrations.
heard at early days of TPM events, with enough nudging riders could be bumped up to keep them happy. Just hearsay, but you never know what a company would do to keep customers happy.
When I started trackdays Monte let you pick your group. Some of the new CRs I've encountered are a bit elitist
Curious, which years are you talking about??? Not the case during the yrs I attended.....but will admit there were a few yrs where the staff changes were questionable and ran questionably. Man, that certainly wasn't exclusive to any one org, however, I'm pretty certain no club suffered that script more than NESBA.... Of all the clubs I attended some of the most screwed up AND pleasant days were with TPM....and the pleasant days def outweighed the negative. ACE was alright but you can only stands ONE track so many times per season. lol
I really liked the way a NESBA track day ran, but yeah they were rough in bumping folks, which I can attest to.
They are/were very structured and sometimes, its too restrictive to learn anything by just following a coach in a pack of guys and waiting to get the super secret wave to go to the next group.
From year one as far as hearsay. My possible first participation may have been before '08-'09 but I think I backed out of that one. A "for sure" participation occurred in mid-late '12 and there may have been a second event I participated in during that timeframe but the recollection is kinda fuzzy.
Getting a NESBA bump seemed to require spending time being social buddies with at least a couple of coaches in addition to what you did on track. N2 seems to have a little bit of that as well, but not as bad. I know I had to get bumped to make it to Advanced in STT. It is Roger Lyle's Motorcycle Xcitement where you basically get to assign your own group. TPM seemed to have a good balance on the group bumps, but they were not very good at policing the group passing rules and going after riders for unsafe riding. EvolveGT seems to have the best balance for me. I haven't been out with ACE and with those prices and membership costs I may never do so.
NYST has alot more people doing private days during the week, if you get into these groups it's been a great time, usually a good group of people, limited to 30 or so riders, unlimited track time.
Ok that was long after I was gone. I attended TPM events mostly from '01 to about '09......I was a CR for only 2-3 seasons, was asked if I'd CR again next season by Glen, then 3 months later cut but his new CR manager. LOL....they were certainly a 'clicky' group....the way it was done though was unprofessional IMHO so I decided it was time to try a new club (ACE).
With these private trackdays do they have ambulance coverage and all the safety procedures in place? I guess I'm asking is it a motorcycle thunderdome?
Yeah, same setup as the orgs do, the day covers the corner workers and ambulance Edit: the only difference is self tech, still have riders meeting in the am to go over passing rules, flags, etc
My brother an I were kicked out of TPM years ago because we were to vocal on their internet forum. We would speak up when we thought they were doing shady things. IE. Finding out when you got to the track there were 3 beginner groups and advanced and intermediate were combined into one group, finding out there would be car groups in rotation, changing tracks at last second like changing from summit Jefferson, to shandanoa. Glen actually called my brother and told him we were not TPM material and please never come back. I was fine with it because I always like NESBA better anyway. After nesba folded I started riding with absolute and like the way Roy runs things. If I could afford to do track days I would ride with them.
I never thought too restrictive, after thinking about it the first time. It is easy to let anyone into A, to fill a trackday. Their groups are the most structured I've encountered. Obviously having raced, I'm biased in wanting a legit A group that one can turn decent laps in, without catching sketchy traffic, on the second lap.
That could very well have been my demise too. However, mine happened in the coach section of the board and because they were in restructuring mode and asking for input positive AND/OR negative I gave it......
Their A group is squared away. Ive never had an oh shit moment when i first started in their A group. Their passing is clean, quick and precise. It still is today. Intermediate is restrictive, in my non-coaching opinion. Its probably that way because of the quality of coaches that make the decision to enter the A group. And now that i think about it, its for the better.
