hubbard_28

I have an '05 ZX6R, and my wife has an EX 650. While I'm waiting to get a seal fixed on mine, I'm riding my wifes bike. The biggest difference in the engines is the "pull." My wifes bike has power just about all the way through the RPM's, and my bike will lag until I hit 9 grand, and then there is a tremendous pull. The bike has a sudden boost of power. And you'll be able to feel that there is more power under you. If you're that uncomfortable, try riding the bike up one extra gear the first couple of laps. My biggest thing is the body position. You can get down farther on your bike, than I can on my wifes, but to me that's the bigger difference. You'll adjust pretty fast, like Cobie said, then you'll do just fine. Just remember to have fun. Lucky duck. And WELCOME TO THE FORUM!

How does the bike compensate for the slide? CF I'm guessing it's the rider and his weight distribution. I was wondering how it comes out of the slide without launching someone over the bars. Especially when leaning the bike and the spinning is stopped. Is it just that slow of a retraction?

"Smooth" for sure is a big, broad word (subject even). One thing a student I had noticed recenlty was that he was pushing on both bars while trying to steer the bike. He noticed it wasn't so smooth. LOL. Maybe he could have gotten the No BS bike to turn.

If done correctly the rider will not necessarily lose speed. I can't remember the GP riders name, but there is one who does it consistently, and effectively on Laguna with very good results. It is a way of "whipping" the bike around and changing the way the corner is taken.

Maybe "smooth" is a direct result of good teaching and experience. Everyone I know is told to take it easy and focus on what they're doing. Be it braking, cornering, and even acceleration, they're slowly increased and learned and improved upon. They're done with less effort, focus, more consistency, and better at faster speeds. That makes us faster while we're performing these often complicated tasks more "smoothly."

I read somewhere that sometimes amateur racers will cut slicks to look like DOT tires so they can race slicks. Sounds time consuming.

I think it has to do with traction. The racers at the track are more trusting in the bike for braking, accelerating out of a corner with more throttle, and leaning the bike into the corner with slicks because of the increased traction. If you're doing competitive laps on Pilot Powers (DOT approved) you should feel the difference in your riding and see the difference in your laptimes once you start trusting them more and pushing them harder.

Jay; The lean/slide bike will show you EXACTLY where that limit is and what it feels like when the rear wheel breaks loose. Kevin Regarding the slide bike, they always say "if you're ready." What constitutes a rider being ready to get on the bike?

Interesting view. I think that they can handle the bikes bucking and sliding due to their being so smooth in their control of the bike. I don't think one can have the success they do by just muscling the bike into and out of corners. I am dying to see it though.

Is he following THE DOCTOR or just someone wearing replica leathers? Not Rossi. I look for track video's before they race on TV so I can have an understanding of them. Mac sort of limits me as to which ones I can watch, but this one is wicked. I didn't even notice the leathers. To the right it says who it is.

If the camber decreases the the end, couldn't you change your apex and use throttle control to have the bike already coming up instead of picking it up?

I know it's not the right place to do it, but on East coming out of a small carousel in the summer (110+ degrees) I could get a small spin when I was straightening the bike back up. Nothing big happened, but like I said, it was a small spin. I didn't want to push it, because I've seen my share of highsides in the exact spot I spin the tire. I can't/don't do it anywhere else, but it's something I want to be able to do, just because of the awesomeness of it.

I wish I had your problems. I know it won't make me any better, but I want a big bike. And I want to ride Laguna. Riding around Laguna video. http://revver.com/video/688373/ride-around...2008-yamaha-r6/

You couldn't have said it ANY better, Kevin.

Howdy. I'm Jason, and I just read posts for quite some time before I started posting, and learned a lot. I started learning even more once I started posting, because half of what I think about riding is wrong, and I can be corrected by a few awesome riders. I was going to try to get in on an opening they suddenly had this weekend for a two day in Vegas, but my wife talked me out of it. By the way, does anyone want to buy a slightly used spouse? CHEAP?

My wife's EX 650 gets about 38-39 MPG. That's about 135 MPG per 3.5 gallons.

It sort of goes hand in hand. I want to go faster, but know that just whacking the throttle won't get me around the track any sooner. At a beginner level, they can't get away with near as much because of their lack of smoothness, and they seem to be focused on getting their speed down while braking to take the corner instead of thinking about proper position, getting into the corner, and setting up either the next turn, or getting the proper apex for a great exit. I've dedicated a lot of time to getting the bike at the proper apex so my exit angle and speed can give me the best push, and could usually be on the throttle faster than most of the people in my class, but I've moved up recently, and am having a hard time keeping pace with most of the riders. But I can be on the throttle as soon as, or sooner than over half of them. Before I even started track riding I wanted to learn everything about racing I could, and read that type 1 corners are the most important to take correctly, and have progressed off that fact. To be honest, I really don't have just speed in my mind while I'm track riding at all. Smoothness is always there. First, it keeps the bike more steady, and second, it will inevitably take time off my laptimes.

This weekend? Would they have any openings?

Dang.....I would be dreading riding in that. Tell me you wouldn't do it though.

Man, those are some wicked pics. I've gotten way into photography at the track, and have to get very creative because the owners won't let me closer to the track. I'm trying to get my wife on the track, but she's not riding much at all anymore. You look really smooth.

We have a pro who comes to Firebird, Kane Lasky, who's won every race he's in over the last couple races (sponsored by Kawi). He was trying out to take over the two up bike, and low sided with someone on the bike. Ted, the owner of aztrackday and the bike, was PISSED. Before that, Kane was doing great. The bike wasn't too bad off, but there were some repairs required.

Good to have you here. You seem to be doing pretty well. I was lucky enough to get in with the racers toward the end of my first year, so they kept hounding me about my body position until I've come up with a fairly good one. Start by getting your chest on the tank. Everyone says "put your head where your rear view mirror would be," but at speed that has meant very little to me, and I can't guage and adjust my position until the pics come out some days later. So get your chest on the tank and slide your body to the inside of the tank. I've come up with trying to put my outside shoulder the inside of the tank, and it's put me in a pretty good position. You're lean angle looks great though. I don't have that. My butt is always farther out than my shoulders.

One of the things always on the back of my mind is the pic on page 66 of TOTW 2, where it shows the pro's dip their bikes at a phenomenal speed. I work on it, for the most part, but in a back and forth type corner, I focus on smoothness. I don't want to sacrifice that for the potential of unsettling the bike just to maybe go a little faster. I'll get faster as long as I work on it, and stay out of the bikes way. I was also thinking of the Rossi video posted earlier, where Rossi shifts from one corner to another, and think I do it similarly, and can't wait to get out to the track (Dec 14th is my next opportunity) to see exactly how I do it. Entering a corner, I get the bulk of my braking out of the way, shift my weight while I finish setting my corner entry speed, and dip into the corner. When I lean, my primary goal is to hold the bike up, increasing my potential lean angle, and I keep my weight close to the side of the bike as to not interfere with the bikes cornering. It's worked well so far, and every time I successfully implement something I've been coached to do, I recognize how much smoother the bike is. Hopefully I'm doing it right, but the BP I've adjusted to so far seems to make the bike run better. The first thing I was taught was to get my chest on the tank, and I was alright doing it, but once I got over to the side, it started cornering just that much smoother, and a the bike stays over better, particularly on the longer corners. I think these pics are on the same corner, and the difference is subtle, but noticeable.

It's a nice video for the beginner (which is a category I still put myself in), and has a couple of things worth at least thinking about on the track, and I should make sure I'm doing. I have a few protective lines on a track I'm real familiar with because it has a couple straights just long enough for a liter bike to pass me on, but I know in the corners I'll pull away. It's usually just after I pass them in the corners I almost unconsciously go into those lines because they're still right behind me. We have drag racing occasionally at Firebird, so all the riders get to practice their starts. There is usually no one there, and a couple riders who went out there not to long ago said they did about 20 runs in a row because no one showed up.

No matter what you do, and how good a rider you are, there is always risk for a car to pull out in front of you. You can be the best rider, and have more faith than anyone in a 500 mile radius, but someone not paying attention, on the cell phone, pissed about something, or in a rush is going to run smack into you, and there will be no way to avoid it. Car drivers sometimes don't pay enough attention to register motorcycles, and I'm sorry I can't find it on the internet, but there have been studies proving this. Arizona, when I compare it to any other state (4 is how many I've ridden in over a year each) is the best at paying attention to motorcyclists, but the snowbirds come along, and it can get pretty hairy. I can't tell you how many times a month I get flipped off, but I'll lay on my horn if I even THINK someone isn't going to stop at a turn to yield the right of way to me, or think they might not see me. I'm very skilled at whacking high/low beams, and will do that in the morning if I see the roads are empty, or there are no cars to "hide" behind. I pay conscious attention to danger and death zones, and still have cars wanting to pull in front of me. Look at how auto accidents happen. It's not like they shouldn't be able to see cars stopped in front of them, a red light, oncoming traffic, but they don't sometimes, and when it happens to a motorcyclist, the results are horrible. We can only do what we do. We're narrow, fast accelerating, sometimes neutral colored machines that are always at risk. If it is going to happen, there is no way to avoid it.