stuman

Hanging off the bike reduces lean angle which gives you more grip because the suspension works better.

Great read!

When Ben comes into a corner you see the rear of his bike sliding back and forth. It doesn't matter what bike he is on the back end always looks loose. Like Will said, I think this is because his arms are stiff and he is causing the bike to weave. If he were to pinch the tank with his knees and keep his arms loose the backend probably wouldn't move around so much. That said, it obviously doesn't bother Ben much in fact I've heard a TV commentator say he likes it, but we know how accurate they can be I don't know if he uses this instability in any beneficial way, but I doubt it. I think that other riders could probably enter that same corner at the same speed and brake just as hard and be able to keep the back end in-line. In fact I remember watching a race where someone passed Ben on the brakes and while Ben's bike was weaving all over the other rider?s bike was pretty stable. I'm not trying to knock Ben, he is one of my favorite riders. I just think that he is causing the back end to slide around on the brakes and I'm not sure if he does this on purpose or if it is just a by product of his riding style.

I might be interested Fred. I have a few buds that are talking about doing the races but nothing is set in stone as yet.

I run my tires till they look like this , then I figure I need new ones ...

I don't know if it was designed that way, but we ran Black Hawk farms in both directios this year. It was really fun!

Ok this is going to sound pretty lame but I'll say it anyway. I only know Sepang from playing MotoGP III on playstation2 but... I do the same thing when playing the game Because you come out of a really slow turn 2 and have a really long sweeping right hander that follows you don't want to shift in the middle of the corner while really leaned over and hard on the gas. The double upshift works great there, on platstation anyway Your trieing to just get the tire churning through that whole corner. I short shift my bike is going up the hill into turn 6 on the big track at Willow Springs. Turn 6 kind of crests a hill and if I don't short shift I would have to shift while I'm way leaned over cresting a hill hard on the gas. It seems better to grab a extra gear going into that turn while I'm still pretty much strait up and down. I think a double upshift might work comming out of turn 4 on the streets of Willow? Now I have to shift once when I come out of turn four and then again comming out of turn 5. Maybe I could do them both comming out of four? I'll have to try it next time I'm there.

Are we talking only Supermoto stuff or Roadracing? I wouldn't say it is necessary in road racing. In SuperMoto it might be but my experience is very limited in this area so I can't say. One thing is for sure it does look cool as heck and everyone wants to know how to do it.

From my experience when I do this it feels as if I'm falling off the inside of the bike. When I tiwst my hips around the tank my outside knee comes away from the tank and it's harder to get my outside knee really wedged into the cutout in the tank.

Just another observation. I noticed I was trail braking into turn 9 at infinion yesterday. Because it was a quick right left it seemed like a good place to do it as I could trail into the right and still get a good drive out of the left. Just another observation to put out there.

Most guys use the clutch-engine braking to back the bike in, not the brake, this is a different technique from trail braking. Plus most of the slideways stuff is happening before they put the majior steering input into the bars, isn't it? Seems like decreasing radius corners are good canidates for trail braking and increasing radius corners are not. Sound about right as a general rule?

Congrats Will!

I'm sorry but this is a complete BS statement. How do you know that all the moto gp guys trail brake? Even if they all do trail brake I would bet any amount of money that they do not do it in every corner. I don't think Will is saying that the way he rides is the only way or that it is THE fastest way around a race track. It is the way he rides and he is not conviced that he could go faster using trail braking. Back to the subject at hand. Do you trail brake in every corner? or just certin types? I do not trail brake in every corner. Let's take Laguna Seca for example... I would never even consider trail braking into turn 11 at Laguna unless I was trying to pass someone (and chances are,as we have seen several times, they would have a good shot squaring me off if I did) but I was trail braking pretty much every lap in turn two. Balistic- Do you trail brake in turn two at Laguna? This seems like a great corner for using this tech.

About 2 years for me. Although I did just about every school this year so it seem slike longer

Pretty cool. Way to go Jamie!

One other thing I just thought of ? All bikes have a tendency to stand up when you use the front brake while leaned over. Some do it less then others but all bikes will want to stand up if you apply the brake while leaned over. When trail braking you are fighting the bike's tendency to stand up. You have to push harder to keep the bike turned if you?re on the brakes. I think this may help explain why most people feel the bike is heavy when trying to turn it on the brakes. So I guess there?s one more for the con side of things? You have to push harder to get the bike to turn.

I agree with Steve on the point about the bike feeling heavy when trying to turn it on the brakes as do most people I have spoken with regarding this subject. I haven?t had anyone tell me that there bike turns quicker and feels like it turns in easier when on the brakes. I know in theory it seem like it should be easier to turn because the forks are compressed, but most people will tell you that the bike feels heavy when you try to turn it on the brakes. I think this is probably due to the extra load and friction from the front tire. One thing I think should be added to the Con list would be that you CANNOT turn the bike as fast when you trail brake. You have to turn it slower because if you don?t you could loose the front. This I think is the tricky part about trail braking. If you are not using the front brake it?s practically impossible to turn the bike too quick. This is not the case when trail braking, you can easily loose the front if you turn the bike a little too quick or use a little too much brake, it?s a very fine line.

I have th second that! I did this myself at a trackday and I learned more in a few sessions about setup then I had in years of riding. The program is in the booklet you get when you attend level 3 at the school.

Turn 9 on the big track at Willow Springs. I've probably got a bizillion laps around that track and I still haven't got that corner wired. It's pretty strait foward decreasing radius corner. No elivation change or anything too tricky other then a deperesion at the apex. I think it's just that you come into it real fast and have to slow some it's real hard to get your entrance speed right. Your sense of speed gets kind of twisted in turn 8

So Jeff, You trail brake to the apex in most-every turn?

I'd like to see Nicky do well. He really came around at the end of the year. With some good winter tests he could come out of the box strong and be a contender. One things for sure, it's going to be an interesting year

Ok I'll start the list. On the plus side - Trail braking allows you to extend your braking zone further into the corner. This allows you to brake later/deeper and is very usefull when passing another rider. In the minus side - You can not get on the gas as early if you are trail braking. One rule of thumb I have heard for trail braking that makes pretty good sense is... Never trail brake into a corner that is followed by a long strait. Obviously turn 9 on the big track at willow is probably an excption to this as I think pretty much everyone trail braks to some degree there, but it seems like a pretty good rule of thumb. By the way, yes I do trail brake in some corners.

The poll only lets you put 10 so post your favorite if it's not on the list.