spthomas

Yep. Welcome, you've come to the right place!

For sure. We are pretty impressed with them in general and on the cold days, there are times I'd wished I'd had them on! I have Qualifiers on my bike which I've used for both street and track and I'm pretty happy with them. I've never had any sense of slipping with them on the track- they've gripped just fine for me, even while pushing as hard I can (but I'm not an expert...). Other riders I was with had various slip problems with other tires, although it could have been their bike, throttle control etc. I've had 4 track days and >7K miles on them, but I do have a new set ready to put on this spring.

The thread with the Rossi link had interesting section on the rear brake: http://forums.superbikeschool.com/index.php?showtopic=1255

I do both. My commute is fairly straight and easy, a bit boring, but I still like it. I also go down to the Smokies with some friends and it's a tremendous amount of fun riding those roads- it's a different kind of challenge compared to the track. I think each type of riding can help the other.

Chapter 19 in TOTW II talks about pivot steering and putting weight on the outside peg in detail. This sounded counter-intuitive by I tried it my last track day and it started to make sense.

Yes, for the money you have to spend, do it right. Be aware of US and European sizing since a number of brands originate in Europe. My gear is Alpinestars which is an Italian company, and the suit, jackets, pants etc. have both sizes on the label, the difference being 10, so size label says "USA 38 EUR 48" "USA 40 EUR 50" etc. On me at 5'7" a 48 (38 US) is snug and not easy to put on, so I'm sure at your height you couldn't get into it. One thing to keep in mind is to make sure it fits with the back protector (get a good one (not just a foam pad) at the outset, don't put that off until later) and possibly chest protector you want to use. Some other guys may have experience with custom-fit leathers- that might be what you need. Hopefully someone can chime in on that.

I am 5'7" at 145 and have a 1pc size 48 (Eur) which fits pretty snug when standing, but on the bike it's completely neutral with nothing bunching or tugging anywhere. A friend of mine is 6'3" and got a 2pc with the pants in a tall size which helps in length but the jacket is roomy around his mid section to get the length he needed. A 2pc is nice to be able to take off the jacket at the track in between sessions on hot days. Just make sure it's comfortable in the bike position- you don't want to spend any of your "attention budget" on distraction from gear.

I had saved this one off from the motogp site. The rider's spine is more parallel to the lean axis of the bike and his butt is well off to the inside, more than just even with the left edge of the seat. The camera angle makes the lean angle look a bit exaggerated. What I find interesting is the footpeg isn't that close to scraping the ground but his knee is down; I have the opposite problem! Also, looking at the angle of the left foot, it doesn't seem he could have much weight on the left footpeg.

I can't comment on top level racers and how they got there. I do try to pay attention to my own learning though, it's something I'm interested in because I wasn't a very good student in high school but did really well in college. What I found works for me is to have both a mental understanding of what I'm trying to do as well as physical experience and the ability to tie the two together. It's not all book learning and it's not only experience, it's both together and being able to fluently switch back and forth. Sort of like being bilingual. My most productive track days are ones where after each session we'd talk about it while the experience was fresh, and then go back out again and try to apply what we talked about. The problem I have now is I've caught up with my riding buddies and I need to have track days with guys who are even better riders that I can follow, or have follow me and then exchange pointers, good traits, bad habits, etc. Getting a lot of riding in that environment I think would help make anyone a better and faster rider.

Ace; What's that diet all about? Kevin See http://www.absdiet.com/ It started a few years ago through the Men's Health Magazine. It's a bright orange book, easy to find at a local bookstore. It's almost like a Twist of the Wrist for your body

Trying to go around corners as fast as possible on two wheels removes all of us from the normal category

There was an article recently in Men's Fitness magazine about what Nicky Hayden does: http://www.mensfitness.com/sports_and_recr...reme_sports/112 I do not do any specific training for motorcycle riding. I do belong to a Master's Swim club that meets year-round, so we do about 3000 yards, 3x per week. In the winter I'll go and train at the gym 3x per week but in the summer I train for triathlons so I do a lot of running and cycling and little to no gym work. This keeps me from getting burnt out on either side. For diet, I do the 6 meals a day routine, with eggs and plain oatmeal for breakfast, either tuna and cottage cheese or salad with veggies and baked chicken breast for lunch, whatever is served for dinner, and small protein shakes for the in-between meals and before bed. This is pretty much along the lines of the Men's Health Abs Diet thinking and keeps me in the mid 140's weight-wise. This keeps me in good enough shape I don't really get tired on track days, and I've been fine on trips riding in the mountains for around 300-350 miles each day.

Just guessing... their classes usually coincided with the weekend of the AMA races, which are now in mid-July instead of early August. It seems the school usually takes July off, maybe as a break for the guys plus is usually hot. I dunno.

I grew up in Erie; when I was a kid my favorite season was winter and my favorite weather was gray overcast skies and snow. Raw material falling from the skies- you could make huge snow forts, sled ride- what more could a kid want!? Of course I didn't have a motorcycle back then, so now I don't like snow or even cold weather. But back then, to play, you had to put on your coat, pants, boots, gloves, scarf, hat, etc. and now to play, I do about the same thing. Maybe at least I learned to wear the right gear!

Embarrassing to say, but I don't have $18,000 for a track bike! But what's a good way or strategy to find a good track bike, used? Ebay? Local dealers? I suppose all of the above is a good answer of course.

My understanding is this kind of thing happens often. What was the other driver's story? I can't understand how something like this would happen, yet you hear about it frequently. The answer always seems to be the driver just didn't see them. I wonder if there is something that can be done to prevent this but I haven't come up with any great ideas.

Back on the original topic, does anyone have experience with Triumph's 3 cylinder bikes? It's supposed to have benefits of the V twin and I4. I see some of the bikes in WSBK supersport I think but not placing real high. The Street Triple R had a nice write-up in the new Sport Rider. I saw a Speed Triple with the Arrow 3 to 1 exhaust and it was a pretty nice looking bike (to me), maybe a good bike for riding twisties.

Welcome to the board. Start wearing earplugs- it sounds like a paradox, but I found that I could hear my engine better with them in. I think it's because it removes a lot of the wind turbulence noise but the powertrain sound is clear but not overwhelming. If you go to amazon.com and search for "moldex 6800" you can get a box of 200 for around $20.

I wondered the same thing. Do you have to sell it street legal so if someone buys it and drives it home it has the proper items? I do wish manufacturers would make it easier to convert bikes for track use- they are sort of close but not quite there. For example, I wish the whole tail section (brake lights, turn signal, license plate holder and light) could come off cleanly with a few screws and one connector. The same for the front- four bolts and one connector would remove the front plastic with headlights, mirrors and turn signals (with a jumper in the connector so the ECU knows it's in race mode...). Then you just put on a race plastic front in its place; the manufacturer could sell it for a few bucks with the same paint etc. I think they should do this if they are going to call sportbikes "Race Ready"! I just don't like the current state of taping, pulling certain fuses (even the fuses aren't grouped right for track use), pulling bulbs and so on. It's not that I'm technically incompetent, it's just at this point I'd rather focus on riding than wrenching as you said.

He's really fun to watch. He has shown that he is young in a few races, fighting with other riders. I think he'll transition to MotoGP well in a couple years. Maybe Kawasaki will sign him. Fingers crossed (not going to happen). If my wife doesn't watch the race, I still save the podium interviews so she can have a laugh at his fro. This brings up an interesting point- my wife doesn't watch races much but she likes interviews at the end. Watching those tired young faces stumble through an English language interview is almost endearing. Those few minutes of "human interest" story go a long way I think to make the sport appeal to a more general audience. My wife and I watched "The Kentucky Kid" on MTV earlier this year, so she's a fan of Nicky mostly because she knows his story. I believe it would help the sport to have more behind-the-scenes stories. Other sports like watching the Ironman or Olympics do this heavily. WSBK and MotoGP do a bit better with post-race interviews, maybe DMG will improve that.

I saw this on the Roadracing World website about the Aprilia RS125: http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34689 Should we be telling Santa to bring one!?

Now that you mention this, on my 2nd to last track day I found myself working the throttle with my thumb and index finger, and fingers 3 and 4 (piano lesson counting- 1=thumb, 5=pinky) on the brake. I wasn't blipping though, but I found it was nice in that switching between braking and throttle control took no time or hand movement. I will look up the other material.

OK, I understand your downshifting one gear at a time with the clutch, but when you say you blip for each gear, I'm taking that to mean revving the engine a bit to match its speed to what is needed for the new gear. Are you completely done braking at this time? The part that I'm not getting is holding the brake lever with your right hand, and at the same time rolling the throttle on a little for each shift. Sounds like a lot of tricky right-hand work. Your right hand thumb and lower palm are wrapped around the throttle with your fingers on the lever- it seems awkward to rotate the throttle in this position. Am I understanding what you are saying correctly?

In that situation, I will complete most of my braking before executing my downshifts. Normally, I wait until the last possible moment before downshifting. In a racing situation, I would time my braking to end at my turn point so I let off the brakes and immediately turn having already completed my downshifts. OK. You still downshift one gear at a time? What gears would you typically be going down through? In my case I was typically going from 4th to 2nd, but I've lost track so then I worry (spend attention $) that I'm not going into 1st or neutral. I've been watching the races on TV and it seems they click 2-3 gears at once (in one clutch pull).

Holding the clutch in and throttle on is called "speed shifting" and is hard on the clutch, wears it out too soon. It's not needed and doesn't really help anything. Just roll off the throttle for a moment, shift the gear. When I do commute, one can go from 1st-6th, around town, and back down, never going over 5 or 6K (usually 3-4k), shifting as needed up or down. It's easy, give it a try. CF I've never done the speed shifting before, so I guess I won't continue it. My off-track riding is fine. The only area I am not sure about though is on the track- if I'm going fast down the straight, coming to the end and I'm in say, 4th gear, coming up to the turn, do you downshift while braking and your speed is coming down? After the turn? I don't think mid-turn...