guy_ak

All I have is the leathers, back brace, helmet, glove, boots. Looking at the ugly looking bruise on my right thigh, I wish I had some padding down there, but no room available. As for the mouth-piece, what I would love to have is some kind of water delivery system, so I can drink during the race. My mouth gets so bloody dry after just a few lapse, it's unbelievable. I don't know how those guys that run 28 lapse race do. I'm still slow walking because of the ankle, and I still cringe when I sit and the wallet in my back pocket is just at the wrong spot, but it's all getting better. I'm pretty sure I'll be ready for the races on 14/15 July.

Yes, the lead is a different place to be, and I had never been there before. Thanks for the Welcome to the Club... I guess

I was told enough time about the two types of racers: the ones that have crashed and the ones that will. I'm just a brand new member of the first group. On my first race of the day I got a good start and ended up first exiting turn one. I was pretty excited, but knew that it was going to be of short duration. At every subsequent corners, I was expecting someone to pass me, but it didn't happen for a whole lap. That's when the excitement of the race got me to ride sloppy. I was no longer paying attention to my lines and body position, but I was just fixated on the engine noise behind me. Then I got a brilliant idea (at least I thought at the time) to try a late braking at the end of the straightaway so I could possibly gain or keep my lead. Well, that plan didn't materialize the way I imagined. When I (finally) started braking, it became pretty clear to me that I was a little TOO late. I tried to save it by going wide and pushing the lean angle, but the outer edge of the track in that corner had a little bit of sand from a previous wind storm, so the front wheel didn't hold and I went flying. Man that pavement is hard! The bike survived pretty well, with just mostly cosmetic damage, and I ended up with a very sore right ankle, bruised hip, and aches and pains everywhere but my head and torso, which is good. My helmet didn't get a single scratch, but my leathers took a beating. Thank goodness for those things! Anyway, lessons learned: Don't get fixated on the other racers, but pay attention to the riding, and DON'T try expert move when you're not one of them! Bonehead move Guy

Hi, I just came back from another fantastic track day in Albuquerque, albeit a little hot (95F), but I'll say Yeah! to the AlpineStar cooling shirt, they work! I was practicing my lines today among other things, and I kept missing the second apex on a double apex corner. One of the corner marshal pointed to me that I was always too wide. I worked on it the next session and realized, after chatting with other riders, that what made me miss it was something I was doing 2 corners earlier! Who would think (well maybe some of you experienced guys/gals) that something you do in one corner could affect two corners later. Well, I certainly learned something today! My exit at turn 3 (the hairpin), put me at the wrong place to enter turn 4, and while accelerating while exiting turn 4, lifted the bike too early and made me miss the entrance of turn 5, which made me miss the second apex of turn 5. Once I worked on fixing the exit of turn 3 and turn 4, I nailed the second apex of turn 5 every time after that. It's always great to solve little problems like that Guy

Thanks Carey! I have no doubt that taking Level 1-4 would be absolutely awesome and improve my track and street riding, but I have to fit it into my budget. From what I can see, Miller in Utah would be the closest for me, but Laguna Seca would be so incredible! Unfortunately, yesterday my refrigerator compressor seized on me, so now that's another 1K+ taken out of my motorcycle budget... ugh! I'm sure I'll make it some day, but probably not this year. Cheers, Guy

Thanks Kai. I like that saying, it's very true, except in my case, I'm afraid I won't be contributing very much knowledge as I'm still a newbie. Guy

Thanks for all the Welcomes! I'm going to unscrupulously suck as much knowledge out of this website as I can!

Hi. My name is Guy and I just registered to the Forum yesterday. Born and raised in Belgium, lived most of my adult life in Fairbanks, Alaska and for the last 4 years I have lived in central New Mexico. I started riding motorcycles at 15 (1960s 50cc Honda C110). I was a total nut with that bike at the time but somehow made it alive. Quit riding the whole time I was in Alaska, for obvious reason, but also because I know that I would have killed myself. Now I'm 53 and a little wiser, and since I moved to New Mexico which has perfect climate for riding, I decided to commute on a bike instead of my gas guzzling p/u truck. Bought a 1982 XJ550 about 3 years ago to commute and instantly rediscovered the passion for motorcycles (Street bikes). Two years ago, by chance I found a 2007 Honda 919 in mint conditions and very low miles. I bought it right away. What a fun bike! As the 919 is a fairly powerful bike, I started to think about getting some formal training, which I've never had. Started reading books (Nick Ienatsch, David Hough, etc) and took a MSF class: "Skilled Rider's Course". That improved my riding a lot, but I felt that I needed more, something that would improve my chance to avoid collisions on the street (cage driver's minds are everywhere but on the road). The owner of an Albuquerque motorcycle gear store suggested track riding. I didn't even think that was even possible to ride on a track not being a racer. I took my 919 to the track a few weeks later and scared the s$%^! out of me, but somehow got hooked. The people at the club (SMRI) are very friendly and helpful. Since I was so worried about causing any damage to my beautiful 919, I decided to buy a dedicated track bike. Found a 06 ZX6R at a good price, in really good shape, and all setup for track (just added a steering damper, that's all I did to it). Did a half dozen track weekend in Albuquerque and Deming, NM. Then, slowly, the racing bug called me ;-) I took the Racing School a couple of weekends ago and did my first two races. I've done a lot of cool things in my life, but that has got to be one of the TOP fun ones. I am so totally hooked now. Even my friends don't want to talk to me anymore, because motorcycle is all I talk about now. Anyway, now that I got myself into racing, I realize that I need to learn a whole lot more. I had heard the name Keith Code for a while now and just bought one of his books this weekend. While looking inside the book online, I bumped into his School's website... and here I am. Guy