Cobie Fair
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Posts posted by Cobie Fair
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Nice comparo of the bikes. I just about never ride touring bikes, we don't get tons at the schools, and pretty rarely ride 2 up any more. Stuman (coach) has a Kawi Concourse that he really likes, but doesn't ride it 2 up. My daughter is a more likely canditate.
Crash out of curiosity, what is your wife's height and approximate weight? Just curious about the fit and how tall/big she might be.
CF
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Hi Mr S,
Just to check with you, have you had a look at the Twist of the Wrist books or DVD's, particularly Twist 2? Reason I ask is we could talk about some things covered there.
Both the points on knee and elbow can be correct, but behind them would be what is the reason for it? In other words, without some solid piece of riding technology (I know, I had to say it
), to hang this all around, why would the rider do it? Then what happens when you ride another bike, it fits differently and this is harder to do?Best,
CF
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Jason,
That model was about my favorite of that line. Will for sure would be the top source on this, but one question I have is the bike straight, and are the wheels on straight? Bikes can come from the factory no straight. Or in a crash get twisted. In many cases not difficult to fix, but sometimes does require frame straightening.
I'd first check if it was straight, is the rear wheel aligned correcdtly (forget the swing arm marks) and the tires, how new, what brand, etc.
CF
ps--already stated, but there isn't going to be a better guy to ask then Will, and he will talk to you about it.
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Kai,
Thanks for putting the photo of Rossi up, perfect.
Related to this is the idea that the horizon needs to be leveled. Not sure if this is instinct, or if some have heard that is the way to go (say, that's a good poll question, you guys should sound off on that--if you level the horizon, did you just do that, or did someone tell you to do it?).
Maybe this was workable at some point, but with modern bikes and tires, the lean angles possible make it pretty hard to do and not have the upper body leaning back up over the top of the bike.
One point I've heard is that riders don't like it visually (not leveling the horizon to some degree). But, I've had riders at the school get used to it (having the head not leveled too much) in a session on track.
We have a corner here at the Streets of Willow Springs with 33 degrees of banking. One day goofing around I leaned my head past the lean angle of the bike, and got past horizontal pretty easily. Didn't really take long to get used to this. It wasn't my preference, but could get used to it. I imagine pilots must get over this pretty quickly.
Has anyone else experienced this?
CF
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Glad to hear the results!
Best,
Cobie
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Hi Slow,
Body position looks fine! Not to blow this off at all, but there are a lot of pieces to this subject, and we have to tackle one at a time at the school.
One of the first things we go after is how does the body effect the bike, both in terms of how much the bike has to be leaned over and then also how the body can effect the handling (riders can make the bike mishandle by giving the wrong/too much input to it).
This is tackled in sequence, starting with how to get the bike working and stable, then going on from there.
I know these are broad statements, so I will ask, was there a specific question you had about your position?
Best,
Cobie
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This is coming up more and more lately, we've been paying attention to how well riders can see, particularly when we get them on the Lean Bike, and work on getting them in to a good riding position. I think we covered this elsewhere on the forum, but like to re-visit this.
On many riders this has lead to pointing out they are simply having a hard time seeing out the top of their helmets, and as a result we get strange head and body positioning being used to "help" them see.
Do an experiement (if you haven't already): go and put your bike on it's sidestand (helmet on), feet on the pegs then get into your cornering position--whehter you hang off or not. Get all the way down, and look up into the turn and see how well you can see ahead.
Many cannot see well, and resort to twisting their shoulders back up, or twisting their heads sideways in an effor to see where they are going. Others just won't get down into the position at all, since they can't see.
What we started doing was cutting up strips of foam for students to use, by putting them on the insides of their helmet liners. This happened so often, a locker full of foam was all used up on the last road trip.
So, how many of you can get all the way down and into an aggressive cornering postion, and can easily see out the helmet?: you should be able to see up to some degree, in the event you had an uphill and/or banked turn.
One last note: when you do this, put on your riding gear, as in many cases the leathers/jacket/hump or back protector in the back was forcing the helmet forward and down.
Let us know what you find, or have found.
Best,
Cobie
PS--I personally had to stack 4 layers of foam in the top of the helmet to be able to see from my full race position on the bike.
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The SV has been around forever, tons of parts, easier on tires, cheap and they really do work well (had to chase a lot of them).
Also maintenance will just be less with a twin over a 4.
CF
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Just back from 2 days at Sears Pt (I find it hard to call it "Infineon", like I don't say "Mazda" Laguna Seca). Jaded, and old school, I know.
Fantastic weather, about as warm as I can recall having it up there at that time of year. That helped make for 2 excellent days of riding.
We had 2 of our foriegn coaches in town, one from the UK and one from Oz. Excellent coaches and riders, they loved the BMW's (unofficially of course
). In town for a whole week, then back out to the Streets for Oct 23-24, then CODERACE following that. The fall schools are some of my favorites, weather is nice, the team is working very well, nice time to be at the track.
Got a few things I've been meaning to bring up on the forum, so I'll get some threads going but on that subject, I have a request: please let me know what you think on those subjects: interesting, like it, stupid, want to know more, agree, disagree, whatever.
Best,
Cobie
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Hi Mike
I like the tag of L&P. Totally meaningless in the rest of the world but it's world famous in NZ.
See you in November.
Cheers
Darren
OK, fill us Yanks in on L & P.
CF
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One thing that we have noticed is that not all know how to warm the tires. Tires have to be flexed to be warmed. Friction isn't what does the warming, it the internal flexing if I have this correctly. We've had students ride too cautiously on the first laps, think the tire was warmed, hammer it and still crash on cold tires.
What has been clear is that starting slowly is key, then taking care to warm both sides of the tire, by gradually increasing the pace. For this, have to pay some attention to what type of turns are available at the track/road you are riding. If you have some long right hand turns and the tires warm on that side, but only a few short left hand turns (like Willow Springs), the tires warm faster on that side.
Best,
CF
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Pretty well known about Rossi and his heartrate compared to others. If his heartrate isn't out the roof, think he's working as hard as the other guys?
CF
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Hi All,
The east coast trip ended, but really there wasn't much of a break before we just rolled into the fall schedule of a few days in town, then 4 days at the track, repeat. We can't really complain though, had great weather and schools lately (2 more no crash days at Laguna, we like that).
The bikes continue to impress. Before the road trip we had a 60$ reduction in crashes from last year on the 600's. Quite a few have e-mailed and told us they have gone and gotten the bikes after riding them at the school. Can't recall if I said this, but one guy called his BMW dealer at lunch (on his first day) and bought the bike over the phone, excellent! If you come and ride one, don't say you haven't been warned!
.On that note, shameless plug: schools coming up at the Streets (Oct 7-8, 9 and 10) aren't quite full, you might be able to sweet talk the guys in the office into a nice deal. If nothing else, call the office and chat with us, we actually are in the US, we like talking to people and we know what we are talking about--weird, I know.
Got back from Laguna on Thursday night late, had a party on Friday (my 50th). Some great artwork came out of that, everyone had to do a drawing (no just sitting on your butt getting drunk). Now, if I could just scan it in and get it up, maybe Facebookie? I'll see if my son can help, not likely I'll do it.
OK, there are my 2 cents, now going to get caught up on what you guys have been posting!
Best,
Cobie
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Just back from 4 days at Laguna Seca. Weather forecasters were off the mark, it was pretty warm there the first day, then got cooler for the next 3, final one was absolutely postcard perfect. Several no crash days (we like those), and quite a bit of variety in students.
Looking forward to the rest of the fall schools, the next days coming at the Streets looks to be about perfect too. Maybe we'll see some of you there!
Best,
Cobie
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Cheers for all the replies! Definitely some stuff to look at and some handy info
Thanks
Luke
Hi Luke,
I think cycling is excellent. Aside from decent ab and back strength, also enough upper body strength to get the bike steered well. I'm currently trying the program by Dr. Al Sears, PACE. I don't know why the book is so expensive new, but so far I've liked it a lot, and it makes sense to me while being very easy to do.
Stretching is oft overlooked, I do well when I do.
Best,
Cobie
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600's really have been great packages for years, still are.
I'm getting jaded with this new BMW though. Crash statistics are down about 60% over the 600's we had last year. Shameless plug, I know.
CF
Believe me, Cobie - if I could swing the new BMW, it would be sitting in my garage right now
. I did Levels 1,2, & 3 on the BMW and it was THAT bike that made me realize what I am missing. The 600 is a great bike, but I will own the BMW in a few years 
.BTW - when does the 2011 schedule come out??
I know what you mean, the bike is sick!
. 2011 schedule will get up about mid November. We have to wait till we have a solid idea of what the season will turn into, coordinate the trips--a real juggling act! -
Greg,
Great to hear about the Endurance race. I wish I had known you were there. I had friends who raced so I was at pit lane for a while. I would have gladly ridden a few laps to keep you in the race. I want to get into that next year.
I ran in the Senior Superbike Novice finishing 2nd and had the 5th best lap times of the Expert and Novice field and ran in the National Formula 1 race finishing 5th. Let me know if you are going to be at Road Atlanta for the WERA GNF and I will look you up.
Endurance racing is a blast. One part that I really enjoyed is it really turned the whole activity into a team sport, great fun. I think the last one we did was a 24 hour (that was a long race, and really just an accoplishment to finish it).
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Just got a chance to check this out, whee!
Did you guys have a look at when he was at the end of the slide and started countersteering the bike up? I had to watch if a few times to catch that.
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Hi rebobd,
Razor put it nicely. It's really a cornering school. Most will be on sport bikes of one kind or another, but we do get all kinds of street bikes, your's will fit right in. Some enjoy trying the S1000 out, it's a lot of fun to ride (and not overwhelming when in the lower mode).
Hope you can make it out! Southampton is a great place, worked there for a summer.
Best,
Cobie
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600's really have been great packages for years, still are.
I'm getting jaded with this new BMW though. Crash statistics are down about 60% over the 600's we had last year. Shameless plug, I know.
CF
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How about Rossi and the other GP lads coming into the turns with their foot off the brake pedal?
CF
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We have Tech Spec on our school bikes, works well.
A few of the coach bikes have Stomp, and using a heat gun or hair drying, warming both the tank and the pad worked really well.
Saw a lot of this tuff on AMA bikes at VIR and NJMP.
CF
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Don't expect to get much traffic on this one, but I got an interesting result from this stuff.
I often go for extended periods without riding my personal bike, and now with shuttling kids while in town, that's still true (not gonna do sidecars). So, I've had to clean the carbs a few times from gas doing what it does when left too long.
Cleaned out the carbs earlier in the year, it wasn't a perfect job, a month or 2 later the pilot jets were a little clogged. A friend recommended Marvel oil. I put a few caps through it, ran about 2 tanks, maybe a little better, but not perfect.
Did this last trip, gone 6 weeks. Had Whitney run it once while I was gone, got a chance to ride it this last weekend, expected it to be worse and lo and behold, the carburation was just about perfect! I was pleasantly surprised.
Anyone else used this stuff?
Cobie
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Hello All!!!
Wow, it only seems like it was...6 weeks ago that we left! Excellent trip back east, the schools went very well both started and finished at NJMP, and weather at the end was perfect. Very nice track, I can see why it's as popular as it is.
We have a pretty full fall schedule, with lots of short trips, but I'll be in the office regularly, and up here regularly.
Glad to be back!
Best,
Cobie
), to hang this all around, why would the rider do it? Then what happens when you ride another bike, it fits differently and this is harder to do?
. I did Levels 1,2, & 3 on the BMW and it was THAT bike that made me realize what I am missing. The 600 is a great bike, but I will own the BMW in a few years 
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Gloves
in School Questions/General Discussion
Posted
Questions: What gloves do you guys have/use, and like most?
2nd question: anyone had success with getting good life out of the gloves?
Problem: we sweat in our gear so much that both the leathers and the gloves after a half season are getting thin and dry. We have done a number of things, even washing the leathers to get the salt out, recondition them extensively, but haven't come back to near as good as before.
Back to the gloves question though, any success out there treating? If so, with what?
Let us know.
CF