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kocook

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  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
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    Houston, TX

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Cornering Enthusiast

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  1. Once you crack open the throttle, continue to steadily roll it open. The rate you use depends on many factors (existing speed, length & radius of turn, etc.). You only hold the throttle position if you determine that you have been a little greedy initially or have met with the unexpected. You will slow down with a steady throttle while leaned over. Usually 'coasting' is used to tell a racer (or someone trying to lower their lap times) that they need to either be on the brakes or on the throttle harder. I call it 'just driving around' on the track.
  2. No magic bullet or one-size fits all when it comes to body position. But I think you may have figured out what could work well for you. Try your own suggestion of positioning the arch of your OUTSIDE foot on the peg, but continue to position the ball of your inside foot on its peg. You may find that you can better use your outside foot, ankle, and thigh to provide substantial support and foundation for your abs to support you upper torso; while the inside foot and leg can relax a little and not have to support your weight. Adjust your feet position when you are adjusting your body position (left to right, vice versa). May feel ackward at first, but stay with it long enough to get the rhythm down to see if it will work for you.
  3. When humans try to learn something new, they become self-conscious of their actions. It is quite natural for them to doubt and second-guess their every move, including actions which would normally be second nature in a non-instructional environment. As a consequence, students can be quickly overwhelmed as actions which previously were being performed without conscious thought are now reassessed as they adjust to fit in the new actions. Thus, trust and faith seem like a more appropriate descriptors. Trust & faith lead to commitment. So it is important for the instructor to gain the student's trust and help that student build faith that they can successfully perfect the techniques and their skills will improve as a consequence. With that, comes commitment.
  4. Let me throw in another variable into this discussion. But first a definition. Trail braking to me is trailing off (slowly releasing) the brakes. That said, let me try to make a point or two. Increased downward pressure on the front tire increases available traction on that contact patch. A simple experiment will prove the point. Lightly stroke a pencil eraser over a smooth surface. Repeat that several times with increasing levels of downward pressure on the eraser. Which stroke provided the most traction--the light or heavy stroke? My point here is that by keeping some forward weight bias on the front contact patch with trail braking in a turn, you are actually gaining available traction on the front tire over what you will have with a rear bias when accelerating. Now repeat the experiment but add lean angle. You should be able to observe that when lean angle is added, our downward pressure on the pencil is not as effective at increasing traction. When we add lean angle, our pressure is a combination of down and lateral pressure. That tells me that I need to be careful my expectations of what trail braking will do for my traction as I add lean angle. How does this apply to braking on a motorcycle? For me it is that my heavy braking will occur while I have no or very little lean angle. As I increase lean angle, I will have to decrease brake pressure via trail braking. Why not just get all my braking done before turn-in? Mostly because the optimal slow point of a turn may not be the entrance and the bike steers better with weight on the front contact patch. Of course there are limits to everything. Front suspension travel and lean angle come to mind in this instance. However, the rider with the ability to operate up to those limits does better than the rider who is unwilling to approach the limits or the one who exceeds the limits (wash-out). So, the rider who understands all the variables and hones their skills well enough to use them becomes a better rider than the one who wants hard and fast rules to govern their actions. Does trail braking into a corner work? Yes (as someone pointed out, the top riders use it regularly). How well does it work? Depends on how well you employ it. To me this is not about whether one should trail brake or not. I just see it as another skill I will have to master if I want to be the best rider I can be.
  5. Weight transfer under acceleration is different from the rear-end lifting as the motorcycle's drive train applies force to the rear tire. However, they are not mutually exclusive, but can both occur simultaneously. You can literally feel the weight transfer from acceleration in your gut and butt. The rear-end rise, is not as apparent, hence the illustration of placing the front wheel against a wall and easing out the clutch.
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