More Help Please !

Inadzuma, on 11 May 2011 - 11:12 AM, said:

As some of you know, i've been doing a few track days and need some more advice! - (Sorry Jay, Magnets and the usual suspects :ph34r:

).

What I'm finding is that I'm hitting the lines much better but I'm just riding round as fast as I can but not THINKING enough. By that, I mean I'm not really selectng (and remembering) braking points, turn-in points etc. I know I'm braking too early and still not carrying enough corner speed - some of this is confidence and body position but I need to take in more information. I think...

In learning terms I'm at the conscious incompetence stage :lol:

.

Any advice?

zuma

I did the California Superbike School thing in Mondelo Aug '09. As on there website....20 odd years of biking counts for nothing. this is back to basics and learning how to override your survival instincts.

Level 1,

It was broken down to 5, 20 minute sessions.

Session 1 Speed judgement (Raining) , Drive around in 3rd gear without using your brakes or changing gear.....This was to alow you to judge your sensation of speed (speedometer was taped over)

Session 2 (Damp) again , no brakes, Counter steering......Turn(falling into) a corner without shifting your bodyweight. To turn right (Corner 1 in Mondello) push the R/Hand bar away from you while sitting bolt upright. Use the power that you would use to move a 2 litre of milk... (they said about a 5lb weight). It was amazing to override the thought that it didn't make sense. Surprisingly we've been more or less doing it subconciously but when you thing about it and try to do it on it's own it goes against logic (well my mental logic).

Session 3 (Drying) Turning in points (now allowed "teddty bear/2 finger braking"). You can turn in a lot later than you might think, think about creating an arc only this time make it more oval than circular. ie keep to the left of turn one and go as far in a straight line as possible, then nudge the R/H bar as you release the brakes and fall into the corner aiming for the apex but always keeping the chin up looking for where you want to exit the corner rather than apex the corner...your riding line seems to follow your eyepoint so if ypu look at the outside of the apex thats where you end up and not where you actually want to go. Look further than the apex towards the exit point of thearc and thats where you end up.

Session 4 (Damp after little rain, braking a bit more forcefully know), Holding the bike in corners by pressing your knees together and barely using finger tips whilst cornering to allow the bars to move a little bit, this lets the steering work on its own. If you hold the bars ear tight the suspension has to react against the bumps and unsettles the bike. A light touch on the bars allows the steering to move a little but as long as you are securly griping the tank with your knees/thighs and aiming for where you want to go it works.

Session 5, nice and dry now. Put all these together, be as smooth on/off throttle as possible.

This was level 1, I'm sure there is a hell of a lot more to learn on further levels and also this is from memory 18 months ago....

This worked safely as everyone on the track for that 20 minutes as was more or less
was doing the same thing, be a different story on a track day where most riders are going flat out, if you ride a bike regularly on the road I suggest practicing a bit there first at least just to get used to the basics....especially the countersteering sensation.

Hope this helps

Chris

This post has been edited by crispy: 12 May 2011 - 01:32 PM