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mike kromjong

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About mike kromjong

  • Birthday 03/10/1958

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  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
    will do level 1 on may 17th

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    near Rotterdam, the Netherlands
  • Interests
    Racing, Anything involving an engine and a few wheels,<br />People, music, sports in general, photography . . .

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  1. A few questions. 1. Why would'nt you start next to the white line at the right hand side? 2. At what speed are you riding there? 3. Why would you want to give up your line of sight to the second bend thats coming up by driving on the wrong side of the road? Mike.
  2. Hi there Tweek, Sorry to hear about your crashes. As mentioned before, knowing why you crashed can make a differance. But i also know from experience that this is not always the case. The thing that helped me most to get in to the fast times again was to take it one step at a time and by doing the no brakes drill. It helped me in being singularly focussed on cornerspeed and experiencing the feedback you get from the bike without being troubled/worried by the distracting forces of braking. Since worrying about the griplevel of your tyres seems to be an issue, investing in a pair of tyrewarmers might be in order for you. Taking it one step at a time is not a fast but indeed a sure way of getting your confidence level up to where it was. Hope this helps. Mike.
  3. Hi Cobie, The front brake is it for me. I never use the rear, mainly because there's not much to gain by using it on the track. It would probably be to distracting anyway because i think that you'll need to spend to much attention to the thing while judging speed, turn entry-point, body-positioning and so on. Using the thing just before front-braking seems like a logical and sensible thing to do, but i have'nt gotten around to trying since there are still so many other things in my riding that could do with some improvement. As far as riding the road is concerned i'm still not using it when riding a sportsbike. When riding a touring bike like the bmw r1150rt i'm using both but still in a 70-30 percent ratio. Mike.
  4. First of all; Get comfortable on the bike i.e. get your body position in order BEFORE you start braking en be loose in the turn. Second; Develop your vision skills ! So try to look further ahead and into the turn, but make sure you have 'wide vision' turned on all the time. If you try this WITHOUT TRYING TO BE FAST , but just trying to be smooth, you'll notice a considerable drop in lap-times and a drop in number of riders that are overtaking you as if you were taking a walk in the park. Good luck! Be smooth, be fast.
  5. Hi everyone, Here is my input about the subject. For me the whole subject of countersteering seems to be the easiest to understand when you explain it like this: The center of mass of a bike is always situated somewhere under the imaginary line wich can be drawn through both wheels. Because of the geometry of a bike, you will remove the center of mass to the right of this line as soon as you turn the wheel to the left and vice versa. This removing of the center of mass is the only reason why the bike will start to lean over to either side. This effect is partially countered by the gyroscopic forces of rotating mass. Hence the bigger steeringeffort needed at higher speed. The papercup thing did'nt do it for me by the way. I think you're forgetting to take in account the deformation of the tyres wich in effect produces a flat piece of rubber sticking to the tarmac, and therefor can't be compared to the papercup with the two different radius. Did this help? Greetings Mike
  6. Hi Keith, Thanks for detailling throttle control for us. As far as i'm concerned, your right on the money again. Off-course we can't get by on practise alone. A firm focus on and understanding of the different levels(steps) of throttle control while practising is another thing altogether. Your step-by-step method is the way to go. I'm a perfect example af someone who did'nt do the step-by-step and has tried, and failed, to improve his riding by skipping some steps. Wich i was'nt aware of at that time, because i was'nt familiar with all the steps, or the right order. I've experienced that skipping steps will always lead to a riding barrier wich you can't overcome. You really need to go back and pick-up the missing pieces in order to improve again and go past your riding barrier. I guess it's the same as having an 'idea' instead of a plan for a certain turn. That turn will never be yours, not really and not concistantly because you don't have all the pieces of the puzzle. I guess my observation is true for every aspect of riding. Do you agree? Greetings, Mike
  7. Looks to me as a combo of poor throttle control ( rolled it on first and then chopped it ) and poor to non-existing body-positioning. This combo forced him to get to a lean-angle that the bike-tire combination could'nt handle. But these are just wild guesses, cause the videoclip is of poor quality. It's also pretty safe to assume that the rider was gripping the handlebars to tight and was'nt totally focussed on that corner. But then again, who's to say that it was'nt just a greasy spot of tarmac that took him out of control. As far as i'm concerned there's no clear-cut reason to be observed in this footage, but the one i opened with seems to be the most likely. Mike
  8. [ Unfortunately, even after you have done it successfully in one corner there is no guarantee it will be solved in other turns! Keith, Thanks for yet another great article. It clears up my understanding of and thinking about throttle-control. One question though. I think that the above quote refers to the fact that you'll be leant-over for a longer period of time in one corner then in the other? And that you'll have to smear-out your throttle-control over a greater distance, demanding that the actual roll-on has to be even more precise then in the shorter turns? Is this a correct assumption? Or am i missing the point here? Please clearify. Greetings, Mike
  9. Very interesting indeed, but unfortunately nobody that i know of keeps track of these stats. Will inquire though, you never know!? Mike
  10. Cobie, In Holland we have a foundation that does scientific research on traffic-safety issues called S.W.O.V. I've got the stats from them. Best, Mike
  11. Cobie, Hope you have a great season. Wish i could say that i've started as well. But at the moment it's snowing over here. The crash stats are'nt going anywhere so take your time. But keep me posted, i'm interested to see the U.S. figures. All the best, Mike
  12. Cobie, About the crash stats. Since i could'nt really believe the numbers for first-aid and slightly injured for 2004, i contacted the statistics guy again. Apparently the numbers for 2004 that he send me were incomplete. So forget about these numbers and about my far-fetched explanation as to how/why this drop in numbers could have occurred. Best, Mike
  13. Cobie, Have got some crash stats. Hope you have comparable stats at your end. Here they come. year Motor all motorised vehicules 1986 120.997 5.154.024 1987 123.006 5.247.041 1988 126.997 5.419.009 These figures show the spectacular growth in 1989 131.981 5.612.002 numbers of registered motorbikes compared to all of 1990 143.000 5.800.034 the registered motorised vehicules together. 1991 159.013 5.929.096 1992 190.009 6.027.027 These figures relate to a population of about 1993 234.005 6.206.113 14 million in 1986 to up about 1994 270.016 6.378.013 15.5 million in 2005. 1995 293.993 6.529.087 1996 315.002 6.644.911 1997 354.053 6.859.086 1998 373.435 7.042.600 1999 392.459 7.318.515 2000 413.989 7.640.887 2001 437.798 7.927.246 2002 460.822 8.168.393 2003 494.450 8.387.766 2004 516.567 8.495.255 2005 536.934 8.627.207 crash-victims per billion traveller-kilometers (risk-analysis) year Motor 1995 2425,77 1996 2463,02 1997 2161,82 1998 1669,07 1999 2691,46 2000 2232,38 2001 2018,51 2002 2162,65 2003 1827,31 Number of motorcasualties Year Dead Hospitalized first- slightly aid injured 1988 62 693 897 378 1989 64 668 997 491 1990 72 749 996 678 1991 88 741 1.009 679 1992 91 830 1.052 947 1993 104 887 979 926 1994 112 974 957 1.096 1995 90 886 954 1.179 1996 91 949 819 1.047 1997 92 880 858 1.000 1998 76 740 692 816 1999 75 795 685 944 2000 89 749 610 839 2001 76 776 593 818 2002 93 821 598 782 2003 95 778 481 879 2004 83 653 10 12 The significant drop in 2004 for first-aid and slight injury may be explaned by the fact that this is the year that we implemented the clothing-rule for test-drive candidates. After all the group of new riders are always more accident-prone then the more experienced riders. And they were then used to and in possesion of proper leathers or other protective gear. This is however only my personal logic at work, it's not a researched fact. Hope you can do something with this. Best Mike Cobie, Sorry that the figures come out a bit garbled. The last columns should be read as follows. first colum is year second is - Dead third is - Hospitalized fourth is - first-aid necessery fifth is - slightly injured Mike
  14. Jerry, Have been thinking about jeF4y's report of Keith doing a side to side without unsettling the bike. My guess is that he can only gain extra stability, thus keeping the bike on it's rear stand, by gripping the bike with both knees before moving over his body to the other side. I've tried to visualize this movement in my mind whilst trying to 'sense' what i would be feeling in doing that and what kind of force you would need to apply with what kind of body-parts. Maybe this sounds weird for you all, but for me this usually works to a certain degree. My conclusion is that he would probably be focussed on solely using his legs to initiate the movement helped by throwing his upper body to the other side, with as less input to the handlebars as possible. Now this is just a wild, although thought true, guess. Would like to here from the guru if i'm getting close. Mike
  15. Cobie, We have an institute for all kinds of statistics over here. Give me some time and i'll try to get our statistics. I'm sure you'll be able to do the same at your end. And maybe they'll compare. Mike
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