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Keith Code

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Everything posted by Keith Code

  1. What I love about forums is their thought provoking aspect. Rider?s comments, and personal experiences make me think. Behind every answer is a question and behind every question there is an answer. This trail-braking issue brings up a load of both. Ever since I first investigated trail-braking and graphed it and set up some guidelines for it in the first ?A Twist of the Wrist? book in 1981 I?ve mainly focused on its more basic aspect, that of a rider?s Sense of Speed. Sense of Speed is a rider?s ability to accurately judge differences and similarities in speed from one pass through a corner to the next time they encounter it. No matter how or when a rider is braking his Sense of Speed directs the whole activity. This is the irreducible part of the rider/bike/road combination which must be in good working order. Following right on the heels of this sense is the rider?s Sense of Traction and I?ll talk about that a little later in this. One of the other main issues that revolve around braking is the suspension action. The compression and extension that can occur with either 1) straight up braking or 2) trailing brakes into the corner. Cornering enthusiasts both feel it and understand that making the transition from on to off the brake(s) and entering the turn should be as seamless as possible in order not to upset the suspension (read traction). On a telemetry graph it would look like a continuous line as the rider released the brake and the cornering forces took over--that goes for either method of braking. Now if you look at this aspect closely you will see that there is actually another sense which we develop to comply with this demand to make that transition a smooth one. In order to make this work out we first of all must be aware of the bike?s dive attitude (how far down is the nose of the bike). In order now to make it successful the rider must also be aware of the compression the cornering forces will provide for the speed he has entered the corner. How much will it compress from that force? A straight line braker?s ability to reckon where the suspension compression will be once he is into the turn plus his timing of letting off the brakes and turning to maintain the compression at that level have to be very good. The trail-braking rider feels his way into the turn more on his sense of traction and has both forces (braking compression on the suspension as well as the cornering forces on it) acting on the bike at the same time so his job is simplified to a great degree. It more or less eliminates the precision timing and sense of the bike?s pitched-forward attitude that it takes to do it the other way. He approaches the lean, speed, traction more gradually and gets continuous feedback from them. With the straight line method the rider has to also determine by his feel and prediction just how quick his flick into the corner needs to be to maintain the suspension compression smoothly. A lot of multi-tasking is going on here. When you realize that this all has to be figured out just BEFORE he does it you see why the two methods are so different. Here is another way of saying it. The trail braking method privides the rider with feedback as he transitions and the straight line method doesn?t allow you feedback until after you already committed and completed it and there ain?t no fixing it, at least not on that lap. There is a high degree of confidence in yourself and your prediction of the forces and your other senses of speed and traction and your ability to quick turn the bike that are essential before you?d be willing to make this level of commitment. Beside all that, there is another huge benefit to learning the straight up/quick flick style. It provides a rider with valuable feedback about tire traction and cornering loads. When you quick flick the bike with poor timing you get a sudden load on the suspension and the tires. This is the thing that riders get into their heads will make them crash?usually they think they are going to loose the front and go down. They get spooked from that sudden load. The feeling of the sudden load came from releasing the brakes too soon before they flicked it. The front end comes up from the release and then dives again from the flick in. If you break that down you?ll see that the load, while it may have a little higher peak force, wasn?t anymore than they would have experienced if they had made that transition into the turn with perfect control timing. The sudden load came from their error not because it is part of the style of riding. This is another one of those things that can become confusing to any rider. They have simply misidentified the real cause of the sudden loading. It could and often is enough to make riders think that they are going to crash by quick flicking the bike. I think that the facts and the physics of the matter are this: If you had the front tire right at 110% traction and you flicked it in and maintained that load that you would be OK and have a killer turn entry speed. You would not have violated the traction limit of the tire (they like to slide a bit for max traction in any case) and would have learned an enormous amount about traction limits. It?s that commitment thing that makes this difficult. I have heard schools of thought that say that trailing the brakes is an ?advanced? skill. I have heard schools of thought that say you will get passed if you don?t learn to trail. That may very well be true, I don?t know everything. What I do know is this: Once a rider can successfully and confidently do the straight line method; once he can do it with flawless timing and clean seamless transitions and he trusts himself and is willing to make these commitments, learning the trail-in style is a piece of cake. Doing it in the other order is not so easy. Keith
  2. One of the things that Tony Foale brought up during his clinic/lecture at Doc Wongs was that as you brake you actually increase the trail up to (I think) 20mm. This could be another reason that they feel a bit heavy at the bars under braking and turning. The thing on the bike comng up if you brake in turns was something that I asked him about as well. Basically the contact patch's position is trying to steer the tire inwards which countersteers the bike upwards. The contact patch is on the inside of the center line of the bike is why. Keith
  3. You guys should take this over onto the trailbraking thread in the Racing Section, that is where we are looking at braking techniques. Keith
  4. Earlier I mentioned starting a list of things that are pluses and minuses on trailbraking. I guess yo guys are going to make me work this all out on my own aren't you. Let's see some data and be a little more scientific about it and then decide if and when the technique applies. I gotta go up and do the DOc Wong events this weekend but I'm hoping to get a list from you guys and next week start to pan it out for the nuggets of wisdom we can find. Keith
  5. History repeats itself over and over. When Honda coame into GP racing in the early 60's they cleaned up with their awesome bikes and top riders. SLowly the other factories started to catch up and win. The technology gap isn't as big as it used to be in those days. Data on small displacement high output engines has had over 4o years to brew and leak out into the hands of anyone. Rossi will smoke them enough to win the championship no matter what he rides. He is worth a second a lap all on his own, on anyhting he can throw a leg over. I love that guy he never really complains about the bike, tires, setup he just grins and flies. Keith
  6. JeF4y, I'd love to say that my team of guys are going to give you exactly what you want but I can't say it with complete honesty. Obviously we have four levels to our schools and they do follow a definite curriculum from Level I through III. Here is what I can say. If your throttle control is less than perfect, if you still have any problem with lines, don't always get the bike turned as well as you think you could, get rushed at turn entries, find the bike's handling isn't as consistant as it should be, if feeling more in control of your turn entry speeds would be a benefit, we can probably help. If you come looking for tricks we won't be able to help. If you feel as though your basic skills are 100% we won't be able to help you. If you never feel rushed or late or behind with your controls or moving around on the bike you probably don't need what we have to offer in cornering skills. If you are finishing races without even breaking a sweat and are winning them and your riding is as smooth as you think it should be, same thing, we won't be of much use to you. Here is what I know. You will be assigned to an instructor who can help you and can ride as well or better than you do. They will work with you every session on the track and after the track session. I or they will answer your quesions and set targets for you every time you go out. We will stick to the lessons and we will hound you to get them right. Look at it this way. I guarantee you will improve or you get to come back for free. If you come as a student and just follow the format as 1/8th of a million riders have done before you will improve. No one on four continents has ever gotten through more than one level of the school without noticeably improving. Keith
  7. Jim, You caught me on this one. There was a part of Pivot Steering that I had not understood when I wrote Twist II. Yes, you do go light in the saddle when you pivot off your outside foot/leg. The intentiion isn't to get off the seat it just happens to be a natural result of using the quads in your outside leg as you pivot from that outside peg. Yes, the weight that was in the seat does transfer: some onto your inside foot/leg some on the outside. No, you do not have to try to lessen or change the weight that is transfered onto one or the other of those feet/legs. This area of weight transfer and body position is a whole subject of riding technique and technology all by itself and it is very well explained in the Level III exercises we do at the school. I'll be covering it in Twist III as well but that isn't done yet. Hope that helps, Keith
  8. JeF4Y, We first began doing that exercise in 1985 and we call it the "Change Your Lines" drill. Left side, right side, center. Your are precisely right on all your observations about what it does to your perception of the track. I first did this drill with some flat trackers who were learning to roadrace. Flat track guys sometimes ride the pole (inside) as a habit. It works well for that purpose if there is a good traction groove but isn't always the right place to run. I noticed that the guys I was working with were running that line in many of the corners because on asphalt the traction is good "everywhere" and they were simply thinking the shortest distance around the track where traction was good. This doesn't work out on asphalt because you often lose lots of drive when you get yourself stuck on the inside. Anyhow, once they got the idea that there were lots of ways through the turns the lap times started to come down immediately. Two of these flat track riders went on to win 4 US Superbike championships. Sometimes riders take theri visual skills lightly but I have identified an entire liist of errors that rider of all skill levels make that are directly related to how well they can use their eyes and that is what our Level II is all about. Keith
  9. That's the same as asking someone if they counter steer. Everyone trail brakes to some degree almost everytime they use the brake(s). The question on using it as a technique is different. If you ask: What can be gained and what can be lost you would come up with two columns of information, the potential pluses and minuses. Make a list of the positives and the negatives of trail braking then we can look it over Keith
  10. This is really long. Perfect Laps Here is something for you to think about. It?s not heavy technical stuff but it is good advice on how to conduct some light self-coaching when you go to track days. Wish List How would it feel if you had all the cornering skills, bike feel and personal focus needed to ride at pro-level lap times around a track? Highly entertaining wouldn?t you say? What cornering enthusiast wouldn?t want or hasn?t fantasized about experiencing that level of riding? Haven?t you ever? The Barriers The recent proliferation of track days have given us the opportunity to test ourselves. On the way to the track; everyone wants to go fast, everyone wants to get their knee down; no one wants to get passed and all non-superstar-mortals have the same nagging questions (on some plane of awareness) about lean angle, acceleration, tire traction, braking, turning and speed. Feeling completely comfortable with the limits of each would be the fantasy come to life. The problem is: without the library of sensations a talented pro possesses , gleaned from vast experience, these aspects of riding become black holes for our attention. But the question still lingers--How do you ?safely? find these limits and maybe more importantly, do you need to in order to go fast? Quit Dreaming Get off the podium at Laguna for a minute and put yourself in your own leathers and realize that without serious dedication, a history of fast riding or racing plus hitting the lottery and getting support from family and friend?s, the fantasy ain?t going to happen. Riding at the edge means living on the edge. On the positive side that means your skills are so good you literally don?t think about them, you actually can think with them. Make sure you get this point. Thinking about your turn entry speeds, throttle control, braking and steering, traction limits and lines is different than thinking with them. Huge difference here friends. Live With It The current level at which you are riding is what it is. It can improve, yes. Will it improve 10% in one day? It is very possible. Will it improve 10% from one lap to the next? Highly unlikely, at least not safely. Note: Take a track where a good lap is 1:30, a 10% improvement from a 2:00 lap time would be 12 seconds, that has been done before in one day by many. But now that you are running 1:48 how much improvement can you expect? 10% again the next time at the track? Hmmmmm. 5% would be 5.4 seconds and that would be a great day indeed. Simple point?the percentages become much smaller the faster you go. The main thing to remember is that the barriers which hold you back don?t change. Rapid Route to Improvement On the bike, at a track, you can and should work to improve your confidence base. You can do this economically or you can do it the expensive way. The cheap way is to go to school. The expensive way is to use track time to practice your mistakes and hope they will self-correct or that they?ll get to the point where you can ?live with them?. Are riding schools too expensive? Do the math. How many track days would it take to gain the same level of skill you will experience from getting professional training? Get Really Real Look over your track day lap times. How quickly can you lap without making any of your usual errors? At some speed you could do this, right? Let?s call this a perfect lap and the goal is simply no errors. In this riding mode, you don?t even bother to ask yourself about the bike?s limits, you aren?t trying to find the edge of traction or acceleration or braking, etc. Any rider knows he or she could do this. You?d just go around with no frenzied attention on anything in particular. You?d feel secure with the traction, braking, lean angle, turn entry speeds and so on. You?d set yourself an enthusiastic pace that was a no load deal, just quick enough to keep you fully awake and interested. In this mode, making basic throttle control errors for example, would tell you right away you were going too fast, you were out of your skill range in that turn or with that technical point. If you found yourself uncomfortable on the bike in quick flick sections, same thing, you went past your own ability. Attention On The Controls Those errors are examples of thinking ABOUT the controls not WITH the controls. That?s what happens when your basics go out. Your attention goes disproportionately onto the bike and how it is responding. Can you think of a time when this happened to you? A positive indication that you are out of your range is the negative moment when your survival instincts, Survival Reactions (SRs), kick in. The moment you go tense, the moment you target fix, the moment your right wrist backs off the gas unnecessarily, the moment you twist around on the bike or stab at the brakes, the moment you make unneeded steering corrections. The moment you hesitate. You know exactly what I am talking about. Any of these tell you you are out of your skill range. We have SR?s and we know they are real. Use them as a guide. Your basics are the first thing to suffer once the SR?s kick in. In Range/Out of Range Forcing yourself to test your SR limits can also be a learning experience. One of our instructors told me he was able to follow the really fast guys at his club racing events for about two laps by doing exactly what they did at the speed that they were doing it?for about two laps. At that point the mental drain became so intense he had to back off. I?m not telling you to do this, it is very adventurous, it is probably dangerous but his basics are good enough to allow him to get the experience of that next level of riding. For two laps. This brave exercise would only be possible for someone who was able to think WITH the controls and would be impossible for anyone who was having to think ABOUT them. Do you see this? This might be a lot of things but it is not his perfect lap. Keep It Simple Striving to ride the perfect lap is also an interesting exercise because it more or less forces you to go for a defined result. It is the mode that allows you to focus and ride at the very best your true skill level permits. Your actual skill level not the fantasy one. The SR?s you run into, as above, can be handled in several ways on your route to your perfect lap. By the way, I think I know what your ultimate perfect lap might be?no errors and fast, knee down and looking fast as well as being fast. In other words?FAST. Anyhow, the point is this, if you can educate yourself and are one of the rare few who can overcome your errors by reading or watching others ride that is great. If you are like most riders, plagued with the same old problems, my advice is this: Get your basics in and don?t target the ?advanced? skills or off beat ones like sliding the back end going into turns?go for solid ground, go towards a stable foundation for your riding. That will inevitably be the basics, I guarantee it. Basics Rule! Anyone who knows my work also knows I have coached some of the best riders in the world: some at the beginnings of their careers, some in the middle of them and some who had already won world championships. Honest kids, their problems are solved by addressing the basics, the same as you. Don?t let anyone tell you different. It is never the fancy riding techniques, it is always the simple basics?applied at a different, higher level than yours or mine?but still basics. Basics are not slow, basics are not fast, basics aren?t the Keith Code method or anyone else?s, they simply are what they are. The good news is that basics do open the door to thinking WITH the controls; the speed; the lean angle; the traction limits of braking, cornering and acceleration. Valentino Rossi?s advice to Nicky Hayden this year was: knock of the fancy riding and stick to the basics. Simple and look what happened with Nicky?s riding towards the end of the season. Is it easy to get the basics in? Is there one technical point or technique that solves these things? Not a chance friends, it takes some time, some focus, some correct information and some great coaching from someone who knows what they are looking for. We?re here (for you) to coach and help to find your perfect lap. I hope some of you got the message here. Of course we want you to come to school, that is our business, but when you go to a track day, find out what your ?perfect lap? really is, that is your base line, then go from there. When you hit that big mushy wall of your skills barrier, don?t just sit and hope it will go away, go to school. You should be picky about a school but, in the end, any school is better than no school at all. Oh ya, remember to keep it fun, Keith Code
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