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I just signed up for a two-day camp in Vegas in the middle of November, and I’m excited! I haven’t done a CSS since May of 2019 & it will be my first 2-day camp! I need some help in identifying some bad habits and figure 2 days of level 4 is the best way to get me back on the right track. Some things I’m working on to prepare for class are… Figure out best way to and from the track, I will be staying on the strip with my wife. I would appreciate any suggestions. Learn the track Is the layout is the same as on the map here track map Can anyone confirm if the track will be run counter-clockwise both days (The map says Day 1, does it change for day 2)? Review my notes from previous classes & twist of the wrist 1 & 2 Work on conditioning… When I ride for me at a track day I tend to get sore / tired and skip a session or two, when I Control Ride (intermediate 1 or novice), I find I have no issues. I figured the slower, learning pace would likely be easier on my body (like control riding), but wanted to see if others could confirm? It was hard deciding to do this at the end of November rather than the beginning of the season. I’ll have to wait until February or March before I get to put it to use… I just hope I can use what I learn to reset bad habits I have picked up and carry it into 2022. Can't wait to see you in November! -Steve

Ideally you would keep both knees tight and gripping the tank during braking, only releasing your inside knee as you are leaning the bike into the corner. Both arms should have as little pressure on the bars as you can manage. Do you have any grip pads on your tank to help your legs grip? Why do you have to release your left leg to downshift, is it awkward to reach the shift lever? Are you blipping the throttle to match revs on downshift? Have you ever learned clutchless downshifting?

Rider education and skillful handling are hugely important, of course, and rider training is probably always the best motorcycle investment you can make - but having said all of that, the S1000rr is an extremely rider friendly bike. It is nimble but not twitchy, incredibly powerful but amazingly easy to control, the suspension is electronically controlled so it responds to conditions, and of course the ride modes allow you to set the rider aids how you like. I have other bikes but every time I get on one of the school S1000rrs I breathe a sigh of relief at how comfortable, easy to ride, and confidence inspiring it is. A couple of my other bikes are amazing training tools - because they force the rider to have excellent control - but they are a WHOLE LOT less forgiving than the S1000rr.

Recommend you have a look at this thread and article by Keith Code as a guiding idea as you continue to seek answers to your specific problem

Hi recently I’m learning to move my lower body prior to braking. So when I downshift and brake, I find that I’m using majority of my right arm to support myself from the braking force. Left leg is not squeezing the tank as I have to downshift. Same goes to left arm is loose to downshift. Am I doing this wrong?

@Yakaru, my favorite color is purple, what's yours??? (line stolen from Problem Child movie, his favorite color was blue) LOL

@yakaru, I love the purple chair

I certainly don't need to justify a new bike! I awoke from a "nightmare" this morning asking my wife if I owned an R6. In the dream, the bike hadn't been ridden in 2-3 years and I was concerned about maintenance problems from it sitting unused. I have this problem in real life and I thought it was compounded by a bike I bought and had forgotten about. With that said, my only sportbike is a 2006 CBR1000RR that I did a makeover on it to make it stylish and functional. Upgraded suspension, brakes, new cooling system hoses to match the custom painted bodywork, CF wrapped frame, swingarm and wheels. I also have a software to flash the ECU to accommodate the quickshifter that I had installed, I'll get around to that eventually. The bike is cable to throttle bodies and has highsided me once on the track and I might still have a little bit of fear of it, which is why I refuse to ride it in anything approaching wet conditions at NJMP (site of last crash). My last CSS last month was at NJMP and I rode the BMW S1000RR and was able to ride that same corner, laughing each time in my helmet that I'd beaten that corner, while my coach had me work on finding how soon I could get to WOT there. Was it the bike, or was it I that had conquered the corner? Will I be able to answer this until I bring my Fireblade back to NJMP? Can I do it in the wet?

Here’s a YT video that explained so much about tire traction, throttle application and motorcycle engine design that I thought was so well done that I just HAD to share.

Absolutely. You will find the school well suited to exactly what you are looking for. Since you are in Georgia, the closest track for you would probably be Barber, in Birmingham. It's a beautiful track and a neat experience to go there. If you are interested in flying out and riding a school bike, Streets of Willow is the track that would most simulate street riding, with a lot of tighter technical corners. It is definitely OK if you are more focused on skills and techniques than on top speed, we are all about "the art of cornering" and the drills and curriculum will be on bike control and riding techniques, not about trying to get you to go as fast as you can in a straight line. There is no doubt in my mind that you will get what you are looking for AND have a great time doing it.

I am so pleased that A Twist of the Wrist II is available now on Amazon Video! I refer students to it all the time. One of the specific items I recommend it for is the great CG illustration of how countersteering works. It's much nicer to be able to stream it instantly instead of waiting for a DVD to arrive. You know what else? If you are ever looking for something to watch, when you go to the Twist II rental page on Amazon, it suggests other movies that people who rented Twist II watched, and it is such a cool list of motorcycle movies! Here's the link, take a look: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B089ZNVBW9/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

How did I miss that? A confirmed mention of T3 in the works.

Yep! It is truly an amazing streaming free platform. I actually accidentally stumbled upon it while I was searching on the internet where to watch this really great series called “Welcome to Pathville”. It’s so weird because for such an all time famous seires, it was very very hard to find. Anyways, I just found out that you can even download in 720HD (which I very much enjoy, because I prefer to watch movies and series without the glitches). You know how the video just keeps being stopped and “glitches” because of the internet connection? In general, I highly recommend this platform

Hi there, I just tried this today, holding the inside bar as if it was a screwdriver. What helped me to understand the hand position is to keep the bar end into my palm. You then just have 2 or 3 fingers rotating the throttle. It 's amazing how relaxed and in control I was.

I live near some great mountain roads and want to get more out of my Speed Triple than my skills currently support. I'm not really excited by top speed in the straights. Anyone (to a point) can twist and hang on while the bike does its thing. What I'm very interested in is negotiating twisty roads in a way that maximizes the capabilities of my bike. I've been riding about 3 years (roughly 26,000 miles) and I'm at an age when most riders are choosing big cruisers, not sport bikes. Is California Super Bike School a good option to teach this old dog some new techniques?

You're asking a group of people who spend all their spare time and money going to racetracks to ride bikes whether or not you should buy a new bike?....of course you should!....everyone loves a new bike!! Interesting question though. I would say that it depends. Are you coming out of corners spinning up the rear wheel or having the traction control kicking in so that you need newer, lean-sensitive or programmable traction control? Same goes for the brakes - is it under-performing and you need the most advanced ABS out there to remove those moments when you are 'clenched'? Quickshifters are great as well, but with some practice and perseverance (and a few missing gear teeth) you can shift smoothly and quickly without one (this is one I have been working on recently and have finally got the hang of clutch-less shifts and throttle blipping - and I mean finally!) Lately, I was berating the brakes on my 300cc thinking that they need an upgrade from rubber hoses and stock pads to something more substantial, but then asked myself how often I lock up the brakes or get the ABS activating. At my current skill level I can't activate the ABS on a good, dry surface so the brakes' performance is above my own, so pointless upgrading anything, apart from perhaps myself. Those are just some random thoughts, I'm very much old-school as two of my bikes have kick-starters and the other two still have cable throttles - and only one of those has ABS! I'm interested in the answer myself from those that ride and have experience with more technologically superior machinery than my own. At the end of the day, do you need to 'justify' a new bike? 😉

Does the technology in current bikes make it really worthwhile to sell what you have to purchase anew? I'm happy with my current bike, but I understand the safety net the new bikes provide via technology. Can it help elevate rider improvement, enough to pop down $15k...or maybe I'm just TRYING to justify buying a new bike? (LoL).

Exactly, so turning in early makes it difficult, and counter productive, to quick turn the bike Your plan to investigate your two step sounds like a good starting point for improving your quick turn in those turns where you can see both TP and apex at the same time. If you can eliminate turning in early, you may find it much easier to improve your steering rate, which could then allow improvements in entry speed.

Slower steering and would also have to delay throttle roll-on.

Welcome to the forum and I hope you had a great time at VIR!

If a rider had a correct apex chosen but turned in a little too early, what would the rider have to change about the steering to still hit that chosen apex?

I'll have to go back and test to see if I have a good, working 2-step. Closer towards the end of day 2, I could get closer and more consistently to the turn point before cheating the turn. However, I do place more attention on apex accuracy.

That is a good observation. Do you give the turn point less attention in those situations? How much attention do you allocate to each point, or do you just view them together? If you allocate more attention to one point than the other, does that change during the corner? If so, when and what is the shift? If you increase your entry speed, do you still keep the same turn point or do you turn in earlier?

I don't claim to know this for a fact, but my first thought is this: countersteering takes the front wheel out of line with the direction of travel, creating the lean, and that creates resistance and some temporary deformation of the tire, and that if you try to push the bar quickly (but without increasing the force) the tire just sort of bounces back at you and you get a wobble instead of a real direction change, whereas a STRONGER push really turns the bars and creates a larger force at the contact patch to lean the bike over rapidly. That's my thought, but I'll try to get a more technical answer for you from the boss. The main thing we are trying to avoid is riders trying to "punch" at the bar, because that creates instability and a wobble in the steering. That is easy to test, go out and ride and try a very light (low force), controlled push on the bar and see how the bike steers. Then try a much firmer push with similar control (harder but not faster). Then try a very quick, low force stab at the bar (faster but nor harder) and see what happens. Which gives you a faster and more controlled steering result? When you try this, make sure you are going at a decent speed, over 25 mph, so that you don't accidentally oversteer and lean too far - it takes a lot less force to lean the bike over a very slow speeds so that makes the whole exercise of playing around with the steering more difficult.