lwarner

In the chapter on The Road We Ride in Twist 1 it talks about different aspects that make up the character of a road or track. You've mentioned uphill vs. downhill but not camber. Imagine a 45° lean angle on flat ground. Now imagine the ground sloping away: off camber. In that situation would you roll on more or less aggressively? Now imagine the reverse, the ground sloping towards you: you could have a 45°lean on a 45° on-camber slope. You would be 90°/perpendicular to the ground, effectively straight up and down. Would you be able to roll on more aggressively? Would you NEED to, in order keep the suspension from bottoming out? Not sure if this is relevant to what you're perceiving in the corners you are talking about but I hadn't heard it mentioned and it could be a factor.

Would it be any easier for you if you adjusted your brake lever to be closer?

Good to hear Scott, Connor and Johnny are top-notch!

Welcome! See you at the track.

Welcome to the forums! I hate tell you but I'm pretty sure your screen name is misspelled, pretty sure it has 3 m's: mowwwer. Maybe even 4.

Yep, usually Inn of Lancaster, I like it there. Others have given good advice regarding weather but out there in the desert we usually get good weather at the times of year we go. Welcome to the forum!

Welcome! If you make it out for a camp, ride the brake bike. Sometimes when people are interested in improving brakes it can be mind-blowing!

Welcome. NJMP is a fun track, one of my favorites!

Hit the nail on the head here: I thought this myself. I was not really happy when I discovered that the School used big 1000cc bikes for school bikes. After 4 levels with the S1000RR I discovered I was VERY wrong in my initial thinking. Here's why. 1. The S1000RR's power modes allows anyone to ride at a power setting that they are most comfortable with. 2. The S1000RR's traction control system inspires huge confidence and it's nice that it's there. 3. The S1000RR's ABS brakes are great at saving you from yourself if you hit an SR and grab a hand full of brakes. Don't ask how I know this as I'll never tell.

Welcome to the forum!

Well I've never done flat track so this is a bit of a guess but I suspect there is a wider window of sliding while maintaining control. In a car too, there's a big window of sliding while still having enough traction to maintain control. Which is kind of a long winded way of saying it's harder so less people do it... I think if you watch closely you'll still see some cool sliding going on. Take it with a grain of salt, maybe some flat trackers will chime in.

Hmmmm: (1) Knowing the outcome, a predictable result. (2) How confident are you? Hahah, I've been a 10 when I should've been an 8 but I've also been a 5 when I should've been a 6... pick any number. (3) How can you improve your confidence? Well, here I'm going to sound like a broken record but: by working on one thing at a time. An example would be someone who's never heard of throttle control coming to the school and finally making the bike stable (good TC) and experiencing increased confidence: when I roll on like this it makes the bike stable-predictable result. For me lately it's been reference points, finding RP's in areas where I lack confidence has helped me recreate my line precisely or know when I err from it slightly... predictable result, it worked last time, I'm duplicating it precisely, I know the outcome to a great degree.

Welcome to the forum Matt!

The only one I would change is "Trust your tires.", I think that could be destructive. If you're not sure if your tires have sufficient grip, blind faith is not a great idea IMHO. Trust yourself might be better advice? If you can't tell if you have traction it's probably not smart to proceed as if you do. With a few of the basics in place I think riders can learn to perceive whether traction is there or not. Once upon a time I was told was to just follow a faster rider: "If they can make it then you can too!". Although I was told this by nice people with good intentions I would categorize this logic as destructive advice. Rossi said something once like, " Today Lorenzo is riding very fast. And I tried to stay with him, and I should not have tried, and I crash." There are all different skill levels, tires, pressure settings, suspension and settings, etc. so all things aren't equal and just because one guy can corner at one speed doesn't mean everybody can!

Like Will said: looking forward to seeing you at Code RACE!