acebobby

This style of riding you mentioned (coasting to the apex) is taught by alot of schools and race instructors world wide, I used to do this, and I never ever felt in good control of the bike until I got to the apex! I also found it difficult to chose a turn in speed as when you turn in the speed scrubs of very quickly and you just want to get on the gas! Since beginning educating myself in Keith Codes methods I have realised a few things about the coasting to the apex method- 1st of all you will reach the bikes limits very quickly, ground clearance wise as the suspension wont be working properly in the first half of the turn! (probably an easy way to get your knee down also since the bike is lower) this alone may appeal to potential students! 2nd you will be turning the bike in earlier to carry some corner speed = even more lean angle, can you imagine what it would feel like to quick turn your bike then have no throttle, getting slowed by the cornering forces and your engine braking, rolling it to the apex and just when you have all the weight over the front, and hardly anything over the rear you apply the gas, If you apply the gas gently you will be fast in slow out, if you apply it a bit roughly you will be fast in dont come out! The reason you will be fast in is because you will need to significantly increase your entry speed to compensate for engine braking and cornering forces as you coast to the apex! Learning and practicing the throttle control rule for me has made me and my bike so much better, faster and definately safer!

Yeah 2-3 litres of water a day minimum just to maintain sounds like loads, and its not just the body that suffers dehydration, it gets the brain too, can slow down your decision making process which isn't a good thing on a motorcycle! Possibly one of the reasons alot of trackday crashes happen later in the afternoon.

WOW! Thats a bit too extreme for me at my current level! A move like that sounds like a demonstration of ultimate motorcycle control! I would like to see it done to get an idea of what thats like, maybe the next time you are at Streets Of Willow Springs you could have the video bike record you and stick it on the CSS youtube channel! B

I think that I need to work on flexibility more than anything else as sometimes moving about the bike feels a bit mechanical rather than smooth and flowing! Over the winter I plan to work on my endurance fitness, my flexibility and aim to reduce my body fat percentage as its been creeping up lately! I agree with eating good food and keeping hydrated, another problem area for me is that I drink nowhere near enough water and probably drink way to much coffee, I remember when I did my level 1 we were encouraged to drink lots of water throughout the day and I felt great, this was at a rainy Rockingham so imagine the importance for you guys getting hydrated in the desert heat at some of the tracks you go to like Willow Springs and Las Vegas!

And I'm sure Valentino Rossi is NEVER wrong!?!?! I guess neither of you are familiar with Troy Bayliss' story? He was a painter until his late 20's. Or how about Max Biaggi, never even been on a motorcycle until his early 20's (or late teens, I forget). You are right of course, it was a silly statement to make, I realise that racers come from all walks of life, some born into it and some just decide later thats what they want to do, I just cant believe that it would be imposible for a woman to be competitve in pro racing! I could be wrong and so far history proves that but I feel there must be more to it than just being the wrong sex!

Watch this free video guys, its pretty cool, featuring Valentino and Andy Ibbot unfortunately you have to stick your email in , but its no hassle! http://www.ebike-ridingtips.co.uk/video.php lol I just noticed next to my avitar it has me listed as a cornering master, I assume thats because this is my 100th post. My riding has improved big time over the last year but I sure aint a cornering master! The sun has just come out here so I'm away to practice backing it in like Rossi! lol!

OK I am sure there will be enough world wide evidence proving your side of the argument since men outnumber women in racing about a million to one (exaggeration), Last year Valentino Rossi visited a primary school in Italy, all the kids were excited getting autographs, one 9 year old little boy asked him- Valentino what would I have to do to become a great motorcycle racer like you? Valentino looked at the boy and answered to him, there is nothing you can do as you are too old! My point here is that the best riders in the world learned to control a motorcycle before anything else, they have competed their whole life, The best in the world are born into racing, As for why dont women compete with men in motorcycle racing, they do, all around the world at club level and above, gradually more women are taking up the sport, but for a girl to be world class, she would need to be racing from a very young age!

I agree that I cannot argue with nature, and that obviously a woman could not be as light as a male pro racer maintaining the same muscle mass as of course a female would have to carry a higher body fat percentage. I am sure that in particular sports that may be an issue, but as far as motorcycle racing is concerned I dont see any reason why women cannot compete at the top level, There is no evidence to say that you have to be of a certain physique or build to be at the top! In Moto Gp there are many different sizes of guys racing, Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, Colin Edwards and Tony Elias are examples of this as they vary from the heaviest to the lightest riders in the championship yet are all capable of lapping within 1/10th of a second of one another, I think that technique is key to a successful racing career and that combined with good physical conditioning will make you the best you can be!

This is very interesting, I work alot on my quick turns and sometimes wonder what would be too fast, I think its probably best to keep your tyres on the ground but knowing you have the abbility to make the bike jump must give you the confidence that you know the limits of that particular area of riding, these are the limits that I would like to acheave! I am looking forward to getting on the lean bike as I feel that this will be a big step towards reaching the limits! I have a question though, in a chicane type corner, what would be the correct method of turning say you are all the way over to the left and want to flick right, should you stay on the gas left to right, back it of a little or close completely and crack open and roll on again when you have turned right? Thanks B

I dont think gender comes into it, I think there are more men in racing due to an out of date belief system! You must remember that the top level guys in Moto GP and SBK have been competing since like 4 or 5 years old, there fathers would buy them their first mini moto x bike when they could first start walking! as for the girls of racing they mostly have taken to the sport later in life like in their teens and some in their 20s and have probably developed a technique in a few years of riding that most of us wont acheave in a lifetime! I think its only a matter of time before girls start getting in to the top levels of racing! As for men being more aggressive, I think its known that the fast ones on the track are the smooth ones! I dont think anyone was saying that women cant be as competitive as men in racing, I think the statement was aimed at the difference in physical stature, when I ride my bike I am tall so have a natural 90 degree bend in my arms giving a full leverage advantage on the bars, the smaller the person (Dani Pedrosa) has less bend in his arms reaching the bars than Colin Edwards so has to work his upper body more to get the bars to turn! There are advantages and disadvantages being either small or large but I dont think its a gender thing!

I believe it can be practiced anywhere there is enough space, like in a paddock at a race track or a car park! dont know what sort of speed you should aim to do it at though!

seems to be loads of spammers recently, its so annoying!

Would it not be best to do level 1-3 once then level 4 ten times?

Thanks for that information racer! Im not sure what kind of roads we have here in Scotland that would compare to canyon riding but the roads I ride most often are country mountain roads (twisties), I dont spend alot of time riding in town! The reason I wondered about the Roadsmart tyres is that I was reading TOTW 1 and in the section slipping and sliding Keith has written that for instructional purposes use a tyre that will allow you to slide the bike around at your level of riding, At the moment I use michelin pilot power 2CTs, they are dual compound tyres, I really like them and they give me alot of cornering confidence but I am now beginning to wonder if they are too good for my level of riding and that I wont get the opportunity to experience how tyres perform at their limits! Does this make sense?

I saw that interview about Rossi's heart rate, Dr Costa said he resembled a child at play while riding he was just enjoying himself! I agree that fitness is definitely no substitute for technique, I have also seen some very fast overweight trackday guys, but not racers which tells me that its all very well being able to put in a fast lap time but the guys that make it in racing must be physically and mentality fit enough to do a fast time 20+ times in a row! Someone may be able to lap 2 seconds a lap faster than you but if they dont have the energy to finish a race and you do, then you are the faster guy that day! But the area I am interested in is the people on here, for e.g. I have heard that people finish level 3 of the school and have very sore legs, so would a student maybe get more out of thier day if they built up thier leg strength by cycling or running? Also I am sure even in his 60s Keith is probably alot fitter than the average 60 something in fact in this day in age he's probably fitter than the average 20 something!

Another thing worth thinking about is when you flick the bike back up, say a set of esses or what you call the knee to knee drill! e.g. if you flick the bike from left to right to 45 degrees does it require more effort in the upward motion (against gravity) than moving in the downward motion (with gravity)? Does the bike go downwards faster than upwards,

I wonder what you guys and girls think about physical fitness in motorcycle riding, 20 years ago racers seemed to be heavy drinking and smoking party animals, but now they all seem to be almost elite athletes, training constantly for a particular physique matching whatever class they ride in, all of them seem to aim for endurance fitness but different muscle mass is required for different classes of racing. e.g. James Toseland was 4% body fat when he left SBK last year and had to lose weight for Moto GP! I am starting this thread based more on how us mere mortals feel about fitness and riding motorcycles, do you even bother about fitness or do you just jump on your bike and ride it? If you do like to keep fit is there a specific area you work on to aid your riding e.g. flexibility, endurance fitness, upper body strength or do you just like to keep in shape? I am interested in what everyone does, students and instructors, racers and road riders. I wonder if I lost 20 lbs would it make me faster, or is knowing the correct techniques enough? I know that by losing weight this increases power to weight ratio of me and the bike combined, so thats equal to a faster package but with the same techniques, does that mean I could ride faster or is it the techniques that need worked on more?

I live in the UK, drive on the left hand side of the road and steering wheel is at the right hand side, what way do I have to steer to make my hot pasenger land on my lap? lol only joking! l understand most of what you guys are talking about, but I cant see how its easier to use a different type of vehicle as an example for the vehicle we all share an interest in! MOTORBIKES! First of all they are not the vehicle with the most narrow wheelbase since wheelbase represents the distance between two wheels at that point we only have one wheel, they probably do however have the shortest wheelbase and sportbikes have particularly short wheel base to allow them to steer quicker! maybe time to go back to bacics! and as a pre warning I am not a scientist, I am entering a discussion, not an arguement! If it takes 1 tenth of a secnd for an object to fall 1 metre, if gravity pulls the bike down, wouldn't it be possible to steer your bike to the desired lean angle in less than 0.1 of a second, can anyone steer this fast? Say from upright to 45 degrees probably a distance of less than half a metre. Take a sportsbike, at 20 mph it is easy to steer to 45 degrees but what about when you go faster say 60 mph, does it require more effort to turn? what kind of effort does it need? is it push the bars harder? or push the bars faster? or both? Sorry thats alot of little questions but I'm trying to bring this thread back to bikes, and understand how to conrol the gyroscope that is my front wheel, see I always thought the faster a gyroscope spun the more effort required to move it!

Of course, cold tyres lol so obvious I never even thought of it! especially when its 20 min sessions some people just want to go for it right away.

Hi Kevin, I can understand what your saying about reference points, or lack of in this case, but what we must remember is that not all trackday riders actually use reference points. This in turn causes inconsistent lap times, here you say that target fixation is the ultimate RP mistake but really target fixation is SR number 4 and having good RPs is part of the cure also for SRs 3, 5 and 6, I belive then that lack of reference points could cause you to run off track or become overwhelmed mid-corner at which point either SR 1, 2 or 7 or any combination of the 3 may come into play! I certainly agree with you that RPs become a contributing factor in a crash, but its the last thing that you did that caused it, and I belive most common would be to roll off the throttle.

This sounds like an accurate explanation of a front end slide, if so its good that your relaxed enough on the bars to feel it! I belive that the front tyre will walk giving a gentle feeling through the bars wobbling and that you have untill the 3rd wobble to save it! In the motogp movie Faster there is a bit where Sete Gibernau passes Rossi at the last corner in Germany and takes the win. Sete talks you through the last lap and at that corner he says I felt the front slide and just gassed it away and took the win! Hopefully someone with more knowledge on the subject can answer your question accurately as this is only my opinion!

Hi Mark, I did my level 1 at Rockingham on the 7th of july this year and it was heavy rain most of the day, I think we got one dry session all day but in the classroom Andy Ibbot said he loves riding in the rain and my instructor told me that the rain is good as it slows everyone down giving more time to concentrate on the drills. I think if you intend to eventually do all 4 levels you have no need to repeat level 1 at this stage as I believe that in level 4 they make up a training package focusing on your weak points from the previous 3 levels. Also you mention that you never got to cover body position but this is covered in level 3, Do you still have the little level 1 drill booklet you got at the school, this lists the drills for the day and I think that all of them would benefit riding in the wet, also it is worth investing in both of the twist of the wrist books, I am not an expert but I would say do all of the levels first then if you feel the need go back and repeat specific levels!

I had my only trackday crash about a year and a half ago, it was a lowside in the wet at my favourite corner of my local track. At the time I could not figure out what I had done wrong, I put it down to riding my road bike with street tyres (Bridgestone BT014) and getting lured into a false sense of security by all the guys riding with full wet tyres on! Since then I have read the TOTW books, joined this forum and done my level 1 and I now believe that I chopped the throttle causing me to load the front end in slippery conditions and inevitably ending with a lowside crash! I cant remember whether I did chop the throttle or not but after studying the sections on throttle control I do know that in future I will remember not to chop it! So I would say the leading cause of trackday crashes has to be SR no1 rolling off the gas! It can highside you when your sliding or lowside you mid turn!

We get the Qualifiers here in the US. Recently out is the Sportmax GP, but I don't know how that compares to what you get. Our UK guys would know, you could e-mail Andy: andy@superbikeschool.co.uk He'll know what's what on the tires over there. Best, Cobie Thanks Cobie, we also get the qualifiers and the qualifier RRs here but was just wondering about the Roadsmarts as they seem to be getting good review's in the magazines over here! I only wondered if anyone had personal experience with them. I will email Andy as I'm sure if they sell them they will have tried them out! B

Has anyone on here tried these tyres? I'm not sure if you get them in America but I know that they sell them at the European (UK) school, on the website they are described as a sport/touring tyre but are approved for use on 1000cc superbikes which makes me think that they should be a good choice for my cbr600rr! I currently use michelin pilot power 2CT but am thinking of going to the dunlops for hopefully better mileage, I ride 90% road 10% track!