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Hello From South Africa


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Hello All,

New to the forum, new to bikes, new to corners.... terrified, petrified, and all those adjectives that goes along.

My name is Amit, am an orthopaedic surgeon from Johannesburg, South Africa.

been ridng for more than a decade, but only smaller bikes ( read 100cc) , got myself a Ducati Streetfighter 1098 s in 2011, and soon found the bike testing things that my riding skills cannot handle.

am not giving up on my bike yet, have decided to do what ever it takes to get it sorted. had a track day once and was the slowest on the track, reason.......... plenty of them, but mostly cuz i just cant take corners...... i am the most pathetic biker when it comes to corners.

So, decided before i dent my confidence any more, wont take to the track until i attend CSS.

heard u guys are coming to Johannesburg in september.... cant wait...... my last hope........... !!!!

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Welcome aboard Amit.

From reading your introduction your not new to motorcycles, but have let your new Italian mistress intimidate you.

I would recommend starting with Twist of the Wrist. Keith covers a lot of the basics there. A lot of the book covers how much attention you spend on actually riding a bike.

From your statements it sounds like you are spending all of your attention on the bike and not riding. Is that true?

Question: Were you terrified taking a corner at 40 kph on your smaller bikes? 10+ years of riding, I would think not.

If not, why now?

... Riding position? probably not.

... Sitting higher off the ground? maybe, but no.

... Sense of speed? hmm speed.

..... Is it your perception of speed?

..... Are you having a problem controlling your speed in a turn, If so why?

 

I am sure there you will get many more questions followed by answers and more questions.

 

Jeff

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Welcome aboard Amit.

From reading your introduction your not new to motorcycles, but have let your new Italian mistress intimidate you.

I would recommend starting with Twist of the Wrist. Keith covers a lot of the basics there. A lot of the book covers how much attention you spend on actually riding a bike.

From your statements it sounds like you are spending all of your attention on the bike and not riding. Is that true?

Question: Were you terrified taking a corner at 40 kph on your smaller bikes? 10+ years of riding, I would think not.

If not, why now?

... Riding position? probably not.

... Sitting higher off the ground? maybe, but no.

... Sense of speed? hmm speed.

..... Is it your perception of speed?

..... Are you having a problem controlling your speed in a turn, If so why?

 

I am sure there you will get many more questions followed by answers and more questions.

 

Jeff

 

Thanks for the reply.

i think , i have learnt whole lot of wrong things in my previous years. would love to un-learn them.

i did lay my hands on twist of the wrist 2, last weak, and been reading it, its an eye opener .

to answer ur question, i think i have never thought of taking corners at speed , my riding position and my perception of speed could use some help.

cant wait for CSS, in johannesburg in spetember.

hey, do u know if i need to bring my bike for the course or can i rent one from the school?

i prefer taking my bike though.

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Amit,

If you have never thought about your speed in the turns, why now?

Think back to what terrified you in the turns on the SF. What happened?

 

Riding position: Are you sliding around on the seat? If so you may want to look at a different seat for the SF. I know that the seat that came on my Ducati GT1000 had no grip whatsoever! I would slide all over the seat and that gave me great concerns while braking hard :o You have many options to make the bike comfortable for you. Think about what is bothering you with the riding position and correct it when you can.

 

Ducati's can be deceptive in the speed category compared to other bikes. It could be the fact that the motor is purring along where others require a lot more RPM's to achieve the same speed. For instance my bike at 80 mph (130 kph) is turning a little over 4k in 6th gear. I rode a Kawasaki zx6rr that turning the same rpm's in 6th gear was running 45 mph (70 kph). Tune your brain to the sound and speed. If you haven't learned Ducati's do not need a lot of rpm's to get to speed quickly :D Be gentle with the throttle and it will be your friend.

 

 

As for using your bike at the school, all I can say is that in the US it is preferred. Therefore I will leave that answer to the team that is conducting the school in South Africa. I am fairly sure that you will need to do some prep work to make the bike track worthy. You really need to talk to the people running the school in SA to get the details for bike prep.

 

As for the off track bikes it depends on the level you are taking and if there is room at the track for the off track bikes. Once again I'll defer to the folks running the school.

 

Jeff

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Welcome Amit. You are doing the right thing by seeking out some education. Motorcycles are something that most people learn by doing. You can ride a bike so you can ride a bike with a motor right? And so off we go. But riding motorcycles is not natural, we are not wired for the speed or the leaning especially. So it's not you, it's your evolution (but if we keep riding our decendents will be born to it ;) .

 

I imagine you are seeing many of the issues you have experienced detailed in TOTW II so that has to give you hope (BTW...if you can get the TOTW II DVD it's worth watching...often). The coaches at a CSS school can definitely help you become more comfortable cornering a motorcycle. I know it's cliche, but you went to schoool (quite a bit of school) to learn your profession. A little schooling to help learn you recreation is in order.

 

Let us know how it goes, we love hearing success stories!

 

Best,

Carey

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Hi Amit, welcome.

 

You made the right decision to come to CSS, we will help you!

 

We won't be bringing the Lean or Brake bikes with us but I assure you that you will have plenty to do and even more to think about on the School day. If you don't want to ride your own bike, have a word with Dave at dave@track-daze.co.za as he organises the event out there for us and I'm sure he'll point you in the right direction of a track bike hire company but frankly, if you're prepared to ride your bike on the streets of South Africa, riding it on a track will be easy!

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Hi Amit, welcome.

 

You made the right decision to come to CSS, we will help you!

 

We won't be bringing the Lean or Brake bikes with us but I assure you that you will have plenty to do and even more to think about on the School day. If you don't want to ride your own bike, have a word with Dave at dave@track-daze.co.za as he organises the event out there for us and I'm sure he'll point you in the right direction of a track bike hire company but frankly, if you're prepared to ride your bike on the streets of South Africa, riding it on a track will be easy!

 

Thanks Spidey , i did speak with Dave from track daze.

am planning on attending both the days 22 and 23 of september.

thanks again, cant wait

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  • 2 weeks later...
1344631108[/url]' post='28854']

cant wait.....

is it just me or is there any one else who is scared of leaning into a corner ?

You are not alone there. Riding a motorcycle is not exactly a natural endeavor so some fear is to be expected. This fear determines when your Survival Reactions kick in so as you develop your knowledge, skill, and trust in your ride you will see that fear decrease. Your SRs will decrease and you will increase pace. It is cyclic (and incremental), as you increase your pace you will bump up against your SRs again and you will beat them by refining your skills even more.

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is it just me or is there any one else who is scared of leaning into a corner ?

 

 

Absolutely! I definitely started off with that feeling (still working on it even now, to some degree). I reckon that anyone who says they were never afraid of big lean angles is either lying, or just can't remember back far enough to when they were scared...

 

Sounds like you will gain a lot from the School!

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

so after the heart break in september news has it that u guys will be in johannesburg on the 19th and 20th of this month ( november ). i have enrolled for both the days

i initially wanted to do level one both the days, cuz i am a novice and wanted to learn properly, but the organisers convinced me to do level one on 19th and level 2 on 20th.

good idea or bad ?

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My rear tyre is kinda worn out in the center, the sides are still alright. One of the tyre dealers adviced me to change the tyre. My worry , is it alright to go to track on a brand new tyre as am doing CSS in couple of days time

 

You will be fine on a new tire. Take it easy for the first session and it will come in for you. Modern tires scrub in very quickly.

 

I just notice the dates in your post and realized you are (hopefully) at your level 1 class today and have your level 2 tomorrow. Let us know how it goes for you!

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Hello All,

its been 4 days since i attended the school, but i must tell u , i still dream about those 2 days. by far one of the best 2 days spent on a motorcycle.

the coaches were very patient with me, i guess i was the slowest on the track, and probably the slowest learner as well.

thanks guys to putting up with me, and imparting so much confidence into me.

i might still not be most graceful thro the corners, but i sure know what i need to do when i hit a corner.

not sure if i can post pics here......

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  • 2 weeks later...

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