FieryRobot

How far are you leaned over for that 'kink'? From the diagram it seems like it wouldn't be very much...

I'd think the key characteristics were: highly visible so you can spot at speed as you approach unmoving (i.e. a fixed pole, line, dot, etc. and not a cone. Or a tortoise—yes, I've heard a story about that).

Is there not anything trackside that you can use? You could combine a pole/mark, etc. with track position, etc. no? Or are there none there in a good position (sorry, never been there).

Let's see if this works. First track day ever. Sonoma. About 4 days before my first CSS day ever. This was last October, and I had been riding about 6 months after a drought of 15 years.

Is that from CSS? There's X's on the track and talk of the camera bike in the thread.

I currently plan to either do Sonoma or Laguna at the end of March/beginning of April. Just need to figure out which track I want to do more. Each has its strengths.

Thanks all. I think I'll concentrate on getting faster before dipping my toe into that. So maybe I'll do another 2-day level 4 early next year and see what the rest of the year brings.

I realize this isn't CSS, per se, but I was wondering how one knows one is ready for the race school.

I'm now remembering why the school bikes seemed to turn in better than mine. Their fork heights are set to the 4th line. Mine are on the 2nd. That's quite a difference in the front. Both are supposedly stock. Hmm. I have a 2013 and they had 2014 bikes. Could they have really changed that that much?

Wahoo! (and all that)

Is there anything like a power commander for suspension? That is, something you can program per track to adjust itself depending on where you are? EDIT: Hmm. I swear I read that a PC can change its power delivery on the fly based on the track. Am I crazy? I read too much stuff... If it doesn't do this, it totally should!

I swear I've read/heard that according to the bike telemetry, there is no change with leg out vs. keeping it on the peg. The bikes doesn't seem to care or react. So I think it's about what feels good. I believe I also read that Rossi said he doesn't know why he does it, it just feels good/right. Haven't we already had this conversation :-)

No, as per the pic I posted, you turn the small eccentric upside down. This forces the back of the bike up about 4mm or so, which I believe results in a 1mm change in trail. So you get a bit faster steering at the expense of some "stability". As I mentioned, when I had it set this way, the bike just wanted to fall into corners, which is super for track, not-so-super for street, such as a slow turn onto a side street, etc. I've not experimented with this since then, but I probably should revisit at some point. But I have too many other things to work on that don't involve the bike (i.e. my skill set). (or are different people talking about different thing here?)

No, in this case it's a small eccentric part where the shock connects at the top. Look at the S1000RR shock top and you'll see it. Flip that over and you'll raise the rear a bit for a fun geometry change. This part in the upper left:

To echo the fact about raising the rear: One suspension tuner at the track flipped the eccentric link at the top of the shock and wow, that made it super-easy to turn, but boy, it wanted to just fall into corners on the street. I had to flip it back to be able to safely ride to work. Very unstable there, but awesome on track. So that's one simple thing you can play with.

Holy hell, you can do this at the school? Hmm...

Yeah, my slipper does the job, but it's not as smooth as a blip. Not unsettling though. As mentioned, sometimes there's some wiggle.

I'd love to know how to practice this too. Fortunately, I have a slipper clutch so I can cheat. But I downshift sometimes when I'm off the gas and brake (again, cheating!) and would love to do this right. But I feel like I can't practice this on the street because frankly, I'm never going fast enough for it to work well (i.e. I don't need to brake that hard).

This might be the issue, then. The coaches at the school will call you off-track if they see you doing this. They also mention this being an issue in the movie. I'm pretty cognizant of this because in my first lap at CSS, I got called off for doing exactly this. It's apparently a huge source of crashes where the rear lets go. There's just not enough traction to turn and roll on. Set lean angle, and then roll on.

Indeed, just found this:

https://twitter.com/calcrutchlow/status/523863917420752896

It always freaks me out when I get off the bike and realize I just went 140 on that tiny thing. But when you're on it, it doesn't seem all that crazy :-)

Actually, Wes, that green guy had much better lines in the part of the track after he passed you. I would spend some time looking at his turn points and track position. That's why he kept making ground, I think. He was hitting his apexes pretty consistently.

Yeah, that looked pretty good to me. There are a series of apexes in the 'middle' of the track that you were always missing, so you probably need some new reference points there, but that looked better than novice group to me!

Well, the first one I mentioned is 44 bucks. If you get cheaper, you will get what you pay for. That's what I've found, at least...