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Spaghetti

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Spaghetti last won the day on September 27 2018

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  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
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    Soccer, Skiing, Go-Karting, Good food, Good wine, Good friends

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  1. I'm the mysterious pasta rider, saving the world from the low carb diet.
  2. You can also add a couple of PSI to the front tire pressure, provided you are within the recommended values. One or two extra PSI makes a significant difference at higher speed, above 80 Mph I would say. Another solution is to decrease the trail.
  3. The overlapping can only be with the rear brake. All flat track and cross riders use it extensively to maximize chassis stability and the traction/power delay is higher than on sport bikes. I can't begin to imagine how to overlap the front brake lever and the throttle.
  4. A major problem with the Hit Air is that it doesn't cover the side of the shoulders (first hand experience resulting in a shoulder separation). As noted in the previous posts is also bulkier, you have to remember to clip it before each session race and it is not really cheap: half the time the textile shreds after impact and you have to replace it with a new one. I rather save money in bike parts than in a suit airbag.
  5. Picking up the throttle slightly at the end of the trail braking loads the rear tire and helps to stabilize the rear grip before accelerating. Like you wrote, overlapping the two controls also stabilizes the chassis on the transition. Of course there is a difference between picking up the gas slightly and cracking up the throttle when you are at lean.
  6. Also an AMA bike has more braking power than a stock bike. The instinct coming from street riding is to rely on engine braking, but once you get used to steel lines and a racing quality master it will come more natural to control speed by focusing on the brake lever pressure.
  7. BeIN is still advertising the 2019 season on their website, so I think they have the broadcast rights in the US. The problem is the provider, I read that directTV dropped the channel from their service. You should be able to watch it in streaming from BeIN online. In the meantime MotoAmerica broadcast went to FS2 for 2019...
  8. Developing a feeling with the tire is half the battle of any motorcycle racer and it is one of the hardest skills to learn. A lot of tire and frame research efforts go into delivering good signals to the rider. If you drive any go-kart at racing pace you already know. In most corners you want to ride as fast as you can without sliding so you become very aware of how the tires are reacting. The knee is a reference gauge for any racer but like you say it doesn't mean it solves all problems. Max lean angle is a function of speed, tire technology, temperature, weight distribution and I am sure many other factors.
  9. The 250cc reaction to throttle is slower than a 600cc, especially on dirt: the engine engages traction, then it has to go up enough in rpms to develop some power, then it has to transfer power to the wheel, then the tire has to come to grip with the uneven dirt surface. All this process takes time (in fractions of a second) and it's slower the smaller the bike displacement and the surface grip (ignoring two-stroke engines of course). The extreme version of this example is a low powered go-kart. I'm sure you felt the urge to apply gas a bit before the apex if you drove one, once you got the wheels pointed correctly. None of the examples in my previous post describe an application of throttle and increasing lean at the same time.
  10. The lower grip on off-cambers is due to the bent on the track increasing the outside force (gravity) and putting slightly more pressure on the side wall. If there wasn't any difference in forces, then the bike and rider would just be on a different plane and the knee would still work as a lean angle reference point. Imaging pivoting the image of the bike+rider at lean from a flat surface to an off-camber one. The profile is exactly the same, you're just tilting the surface line. There is one small grip advantage though: when riding towards an off-camber apex the bike is going slightly uphill ("climbing" towards the apex). It's not always the case, depends how the turn is designed. This is more obvious on a sharp off-camber turn. The uphill ride loads the rear and reduces braking distance, so changing the racing line to maximize the uphill ride can improve bike stability.
  11. There are several reasons why you would want to apply throttle before the apex, but the very important point before considering any of this is that adding lean angle while accelerating put a lot of stress on the tire. In this situation the tire can react unpredictably, losing and regaining grip uncontrollably and shaking the rider out of the bike. At any rate, when giving gas in a turn we transfer the bike weight to the rear making the front easier to handle. In a chicane, peaking up the throttle in the middle of the turns helps with the fast direction changes (but definitely not while giving the first strong lean input). Also when riding on bumps ideally you want to open the throttle, for the same weight transfer reasons. Another reason is engaging traction sooner. Racers tend to give some gas before the apex to start engaging traction and power up immediately after the apex. This is a lot more obvious in flat track or dirt riding when riding through the turns with a smaller displacement bike. Finally in very long turns we have no choice unless we want to park the bike somewhere in the middle of the turn. I prefer the expression "picking up the throttle" to "maintenance throttle", because it the former gives better the idea of a minimal input.
  12. You slide the rear going into the turn (or going into the lean). Visually it almost looks like a slow motion sequence of the rider applying leaning forces on the bike. Once the bike is committed to the turn a rear slide can only cause stability problems. On the exit it can cause a high side.
  13. I'm having a hard time to improve my weak side corners, left in my case. My speed is lower and the lean angle is around 5 degrees less than the right corners. Are there exercises designed to train the weaker side?
  14. I will be at Barber 5/28-29. Would like to meet anyone from the forums, let me know if you're also registered for those dates. Alberto
  15. Yes exactly. Motorcycle racing is not a sprint sport. It requires constant focus over a full 40 minutes race. In facts you want to avoid excessive fatigue, a lot of work goes into that.
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