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Ventodue

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Ventodue last won the day on July 7 2017

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  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
    Yes

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    Montpellier, France

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  1. And Keith goes on to say this: "In real time and space, each 0.1-second that you stay away from the gas is over one bikelength of distance in a 60mph turn. In fact, it is 8.8 feet". (Page 26). That's a scary amount to lose, added up over the turns. You'll never gain it back. Me, I'm a terror for delaying getting back on the gas. But I'm trying to get better, I'm really am ..
  2. First off, all my sympathies for the crash. Never good, but let's try and pull some positive out of it. Well ... it's always so much easier to criticise someone's else's riding . But seeing as you asked .. How do you rate your throttle control? For me, I hear very little, or a much delayed, roll-on after you initiate your turns. Which, if it's true, means you're asking a lot from that front tire - and it's your front that lets go. To my mind, you're charging your turns. Cracking it down the straight is all very fine (altho' personally I make a point of slowing down on the straights ...); but you need to be fully in control by the time you get to the turns. Have a look at the rear view camera: you'll see a couple of riders* on what I suspect are machines with much less top end than yours, but who take the turns with considerably more ease and precision - and do so more quickly . * Not least the guy who was behind you when you crashed. HTH. Craig
  3. I find much depends on the tire, its make and its condition. I've been low-sided by a worn front Bridgestone with no warning at all (except that I damn well knew it was worn, but decided to give it one last outing. How stupid was that?). But a decent tire, properly warmed up, will squirm and wimper, twitch and wobble. Not much, but normally enuf ... I can't say for chassis respnse/feedback.
  4. 'nuff said ... "Over the past 48 hours my riding craft has easily tripled. My turn-point and line sighting happens more fluently, my throttle control is more intuitive, and my body position is honed in. I’ve moved from fairly competent on the street to a capable rider on the track, in two days."
  5. That's an interesting comment, ktk-ace. Never really thought of it before, but ... Me, I'm a 7 stone weakling and yes, I've noticed that a number of my 'stockier' road-riding buddies enter corners faster than I do. However, by mid-corner, I'm already up their exhaust pipes (if I'm not careful) and before the corner unwinds, I'm long gone. (Like I said, I've never thought of it before), but maybe suspension set-ups this is part of the reason ...
  6. Well done, Laura - many congratulations! I can well appreciate the amount of dedication it must have taken. Inspirational - as well as a fine advertisement for the CSS approach! And thanks too for your commitment to this Forum. I make a point of reading your postings, always well reasoned and clear (the one above on 'Winning by Not Crashing' is a typical example ). Much appreciated - please 'Keep on Keeping On ... Craig
  7. 'Like others before me ..' I see problems with your corner entry speeds. For me, those problems are arising because a) you're not confident about your brakes; (possibly/largely?) as a result, you're not paying enuf attention to both fixing your turn points and seeing your apexes. Put it another way, you're spending too much of Keith's, '$10 worth of attention' on something which shouldn't be costing much at all, leaving you insufficient funds to spend on more important stuff. You've got to get to love your brakes. Because if they don't inspire full confidence, you will always start slowing too soon. Knowing you can slow your bike down, as you want and every time is critical. Reading what you write about your current set-up, I suspect you may now need to make some equipment changes, if only to give you a renewed sense of confidence in them. Then, once you're confident in their ability to stop you, go back to basics and do some No Braking laps, concentrating on turn points and apexes. And you'll realise that this 'Slowing down for corners' business isn't actually THAT important anyway!
  8. That's an awesome article. Thanks for posting the link! Ditto. I particularly like this 'Keith-ism': "You can't steer effectively with the front wheel off the ground ..." No argument there ... Back to topic: FWIW, I asked Lnewqban's question when I did one of my CSS days. Andy Ibbott's reply was exactly as Tyler's, i.e. "Yes, in theory, no in practice." Craig
  9. It has to fit = be comfortable. It should be as quite as possible. Weight bothers me less - hey, you can't have it all. Price? Well, how many heads did you come with? Appearance? Who cares? = Schuberth S1.
  10. Just on the speed and risk thing ... When I attended my first CSS school, the Instructor blithely tossed out to the audience, "Well, no-one came here to ride slower, did they?!?" Ha!Ha!Ha! Big guffaws of manly laughter ... And true, of course. But until that moment, I hadn't even thought about being there to ride quicker. I was there to learn to ride better. Which for me meant - and still means - with more control, with more consciousness of what I was doing or should be doing. So, in fact, actually reducing the risks inherent in motorcycling. So I'm with Eric. Motorcycling for me is not a speed thing. Frankly, I have as much fun on my little bikes as on a track bike. I learnt a long time ago that I don't like going over 140mph. To be honest, I just don't see (or process the visual signals) well enuf. But nailing that bend just as it should be nailed - ah, there's the buzz! Hell, I can even laugh myself silly on a push-bike. Just my 2 cents worth. Craig
  11. Many thanks to both Hotfoot (posts 29 & 30) and Mugget (post 26) - clearest explanations I've ever read . (Inspired by this Forum, I'm currently working hard on getting my braking and turning co-ordination better. Curiously with 'No Brakes', I seem to get it about right. But when I go back to using the brakes, I still have to fight over-braking and entering too slow ... Damn! Bad habits are hard to break! But it ain't gonna beat me ... )
  12. I'm with ktk-ace on this one, i.e. ... so just to throw something new into the mix. Now, I don't know whether these really qualify as 'skills', but: 1. A desire to get better. 2. A positive attitude towards learning. You can't get very far without those ... . And I'm sure we all know plenty of riders who don't seem to have much of either
  13. Thanks for those precisions, Hotfoot. Very accurate, very useful ...
  14. Well, not really by my reading. I suggest that what Keith is talking about being smooth at ALL times, not just when picking up speed or just during turns. But that said .. Well, short sharp ones always risk being a bit 'snatchy' simply 'cos the time available to do everything is a bit tight. But here's a question which may help get to the bottom of this: What exactly do you feel is not smooth? Is it you, the rider? Or are your actions on the controls super smooth, but the reaction of the bike isn't? If you're not sure which it is, one way to try and pin it down is to run the same tricky turn on a different bike and see what gives. Or loan your bike to another rider and see what he/she thinks. If it IS the bike, then Cobie has already alluded to what might be one potential cause, especially if the bike's fuel-injected: throttle cable adjustment. Or it could also be that your FI system is intrinsically snatchy. Or it may just need some fine tuning. Or maybe your suspension set-ups are off ... Alternatively, if it's you the rider, try and analyse your riding. Which is very hard to do for most of us (it's why we need coaches!); but are you giving the bike time to settle after you release the brake? Are you, for example, careful to release the brake gradually, not in a rush? And are you careful to get that little, little bit of maintenance throttle before opening up?
  15. Thanks for the explanation, ScrmnDuc. OK, I see where you're coming from. That said, my only caution would be to avoid the trap which I see a lot of riders fall into. They stop using their brakes all together when approaching turns! Indeed, for some, it becomes a sign of good riding to NOT use the brakes! Which is crazy ... Instead, they rely on excessively early roll-offs to set their corner entry speeds. And, unsurprisingly, those corner entry speeds don't go up... I leave it for an instructor to say otherwise. But unless I'm mistaken, the benefit - and indeed, purpose - of the "No Brakes" drill is to build your confidence about how much speed you can take into a corner, once you understand what quick counter-steering does. It should be a liberating exercise -"Wow! I can go THAT quick into this turn!". Braking too early/too hard suggests you're not confident about how much speed you can carry at corner entry. So, yeh: Keep up the 'No Brakes' drill. IMO, it's best done on track, because that's where you get the chance to repeatedly tackle the same corner. And it's repetition in an controlled environment that will gradually build your confidence.
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