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The Most Difficult Corner On The Planet


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Definately need more riding!!! I live in farmland Illinois and 90% of the roads are straight and flat. And after doing levels 1 & 2 straight and flat is getting kind of boring. But there is good news: I am in the process of buying an old F3 for track days and I do live only 20 miles from the Autobahn Country Club track. So there are curves ahead. Don't worry Cobie, I'll be a coach before you know it.

I've heard of guys in the midwest who are so desperate for turns that they'll just keep going around the freeway cloverleafs. Man, that's desperate!

 

Yeah, I don't think I'll ever get to that point!!!!

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Definately need more riding!!! I live in farmland Illinois and 90% of the roads are straight and flat. And after doing levels 1 & 2 straight and flat is getting kind of boring. But there is good news: I am in the process of buying an old F3 for track days and I do live only 20 miles from the Autobahn Country Club track. So there are curves ahead. Don't worry Cobie, I'll be a coach before you know it.

 

Now we are talking, getting a track bike! We've only been to Autobahn once, and it turned out to be like hottest day in history, we were roasted.

 

C

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I can attest to the cloverleaf activity, when you live on the prairies they are a necessity for a quick corner fix. Anything decently twisty is generally a 2 hour ride, at least in sunny Manitoba Canada. Course the local constabulary can be upset about this behavior and you only get to practice your right turns. Traffic looks at you a little funny too!

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Back in the early/mid 1980's, I lived out on the east end of Long Island, New York while attending college prior to my first racetrack rides with the CSS. Bridgehampton Raceway was temporarily closed and AMARR was on hiatus at the time. However, there was a north/south four lane (William Floyd Parkway) built essentially for access to Calverton Naval Air Station and Brookhaven National Laboratory extending from the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on the north shore to Smith's Point State Park beaches on the south shore that was basically deserted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There were/are three cloverleafs, two of which connect the LIE (I-495) and the Southern State Parkway, two very busy freeways, however, the third connects to State Rte 25, better known as Middle Country Rd. An apporopriate name as it was, comparatively, a deserted country road at that point and perfectly made for endless hours of private practice (both ways) on clean, barely worn concrete cloverleaf. (Yes, we were crazy.)

 

I started out riding a GPz550 on that cloverleaf before trading up to a new, cutting edge, state of the art FZ600. Ahhh... those were the halcyon days... a couple hours on the cloverleaf and off to Smith's Point beach to meet girls... then a pulse raising blast (hopefully two up with a new friend) to the beach house (shared with two schoolmates) on Creek Rd for drinks on the beach deck with a view of the pretty lights at the nuclear power plant in the evening... sometimes followed by skinny dipping in the Sound after midnight. We never could be sure if our glowing skin was due to the moonlight... or radioactivity... lol.

 

Thanks for bringing up the cloverleafs. I'd forgotten all about that. ;)

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  • 8 months later...
Back in the early/mid 1980's, I lived out on the east end of Long Island, New York while attending college prior to my first racetrack rides with the CSS. Bridgehampton Raceway was temporarily closed and AMARR was on hiatus at the time. However, there was a north/south four lane (William Floyd Parkway) built essentially for access to Calverton Naval Air Station and Brookhaven National Laboratory extending from the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on the north shore to Smith's Point State Park beaches on the south shore that was basically deserted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There were/are three cloverleafs, two of which connect the LIE (I-495) and the Southern State Parkway, two very busy freeways, however, the third connects to State Rte 25, better known as Middle Country Rd. An apporopriate name as it was, comparatively, a deserted country road at that point and perfectly made for endless hours of private practice (both ways) on clean, barely worn concrete cloverleaf. (Yes, we were crazy.)

 

I started out riding a GPz550 on that cloverleaf before trading up to a new, cutting edge, state of the art FZ600. Ahhh... those were the halcyon days... a couple hours on the cloverleaf and off to Smith's Point beach to meet girls... then a pulse raising blast (hopefully two up with a new friend) to the beach house (shared with two schoolmates) on Creek Rd for drinks on the beach deck with a view of the pretty lights at the nuclear power plant in the evening... sometimes followed by skinny dipping in the Sound after midnight. We never could be sure if our glowing skin was due to the moonlight... or radioactivity... lol.

 

Thanks for bringing up the cloverleafs. I'd forgotten all about that. ;)

 

 

I wish we had some good cloverleaf on and off ramps here in Florida. We like to make the joke of 11 turn in 318 miles instead of Deals Gaps 318 turns in 11 miles. We have to hit the tracks for anything worth running. The few roads that do have good corners are just not worth the risk trying to ride sporty due to traffic or cops or other bikers who have trouble keeping control of their bike. For my tough corner I would have to say turn 7 at Barber, also called the Bama Coaster or Museum turn. That one really mentally gets in your head. I know I had huge improvements in that corner my last visit but still nowhere near where I can or should be with it.

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Bama Rollercoaster is interesting to get good at. Most ride over the curb, and waiting for the bike to settle in the 2nd part. Getting good a the level 1 skills of turning and turn points and throttle control are pretty key there.

 

C

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Bama Rollercoaster is interesting to get good at. Most ride over the curb, and waiting for the bike to settle in the 2nd part. Getting good a the level 1 skills of turning and turn points and throttle control are pretty key there.

 

C

 

I know at first the fact you can't see the downhill curbing or the right handed corner after it till you are coming over the crest is a bit spooky, but the actual amount of time you have through the corner is a lot more then you would think or that your vision lets you believe you have. I go over the curbing myself and at speed that's a blast. The funny thing is what I think is fast is nothing compared to what the pros and some people do through that corner. lol

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  • 5 weeks later...

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