Jaybird180

So a person's process depends on their learning style and their particular barriers??? Or is the learning style itself the barrier? What can I do to learn more about my own learning and style and/or barriers? This has obvious implications for any aspect in life and not just learning to ride a motorcycle well...but it can certainly be applied there.

Perhaps this is better suited to a new topic, but do you think this explains why its more difficult for women to be competitive at roadracing? I wondered why that is, considering they can spank us a things requiring good hand/eye like billiards.

Would it not be best to do level 1-3 once then level 4 ten times? Perhaps, but then it defeats the purpose of my question, which is about repetition of lessons and the order in which the repetition is done.

BAN Him. ....And delete the post

Where in the world can this be done? is it a CSS drill? Sounds like fun.

Um... okay. What do you think causes friction at the contact patch of a motorcycle driving in a straight line, Jay? Cool. You are the first person to say you understood my analogy. Thanks. So, what other force(s) do you think are involved? Erm... really? In what other direction does gravity act here on planet Earth? With all due respect, Jay, I think you might be mixing gravity up with some other force(s). Here is a link to an excellent online website for Physics and Kinematics (presented in plain English) that I found very helpful. http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/Phys/Class/BBoard.html Gravity strictly by definition is the attractive force between two bodies, which is why I said it's not necessarily "down". We are attracted to the center of that mass, the Earth. But as we know from Newton's first law, there is an opposite force in the opposing direction. That point is not really relevant to this conversation, but I just hope to clear up the muddiness of my other comment. The fact is that gravity's vector can change based on other influences. And since we love specifics, up and down are relative terms because the Earth is the sphere that we ride on. There is a constant F of G in the vertical, but as you get on the gas, the only Force we're concerned about is the one created by the change of direction in the horizontal, thereby giving us traction to execute the turn (and the road/tire forcing against each other) keeping us from falling onto the ground. I hope that I only cleared up my earlier comments. I do not want to throw my hat into the ring on the discussion of gyroscopic effect, as I have nothing of worth to contribute to that discussion.

I suppose that this isn't really a school question, but I expect an instructor to be best qualified to answer this. I would say that this question is more about the ways in which humans learn new things, and the structure of CSS is the best example. Suppose you take a rider, the worst rider in the world...say 10 years street experience with alot of bad habits. He was self taught in the 1800's and then decided to get that brand new Liter Bike to teach himself AGAIN to ride and has been practicing those bad habits and ingraining them. Mr. Rider comes to CSS, and the only thing going for him is time, money and a burning desire to improve. Given this scenario, he plans to completely retrofit his riding with 13 school sessions. He would like to take levels 1-3 thrice and then do level 4, afterwhich he plans to take another self-inventory. Should Mr. Rider do Level 1 thrice then progress to each level, repeating the same or go through 1-3 sequentially thrice? Level 4 will be the capstone of his regimen. My question is an exaggeration, but I suppose I wanted to know which learning strategy would be better. Thanks.

The heart rate thing was discussed in the DVD of FASTER. It was discussed that during those "puckering" moments Rossi is so cool and calm that his heart rate hardly went up. They just happend to use Biaggi as a comparison. Their rivalry at the time didn't hurt sensationalism either. In my small experience, I found that each session would wear me out. So much that by the end of the day I was trembling. For me it stopped when I began to realize that I wasn't breathing (LOL). I also got faster and began to relax (or is it the other way around?). I discovered that manhandling the bike (at my skill level) cuts down on me and not my laptimes. With that said, I agree that fitness can be of benefit to a rider or any person who's doing physical activity...look at ballet dancers, perfect example. They don't look it, but it takes alot of strength to do what they do. For some odd reason though, most Pro riders are heavily into cycling. I wonder why???

I have to disagree with you on the "because of gravity" there is friction point. The friction that we need in any land based vehicle is rolling friction and is an OPPOSING FORCE. It is this opposing force that gives us traction. I understand your analogy regarding moment and center of gravity and I think you're onto something with explaining one of the forces involved in countersteering initiating the lean angle. Let us keep in mind that gravity is not a force that necessarily is downward. Once lean has been established it is gravity that keeps us from falling over by application of throttle and is also why the suspension compresses and causes the bike to loose further ground clearance. Lastly, Just because you lost us in your explanation doesn't mean that we can't speak the kinematic language.

And I thought I was the only one

Some people teach and demonstrate hanging off differently than others. I've never seen a pic of mine, but I have a monkey hanging style. I get waaay off the seat (nearly 3/4 butt) and my inside foot is used as a lever to lock my position. I consciously focus on my foot pressure, and LOOKING INTO THE TURN. My head then is far over and faceshield into the breeze. My only task at this point is to add gas. Like you, I do find that it's easier to have the tendency to turn-in too early, but this is working on a carousel like section of practice area on the street. Darn traffic can sometimes be on my intended line.

Rick; The two day camp covers two Levels; one Level per day. If you have never attended before you will do Level's I & II. If you have Level I under your belt, you will do Level's II & III and so on. Good Luck. Mid-O is a GREAT place to attend your 2-Day Camp. Kevin So what are the pros/cons of the two day versus two days of the 1 day (besides price)?

OOps. I found them on page 3.

Now in my 1st reading of T2 and I thought I was paying attention. I missed something somewhere which got me to this thought: I know that SR1 is throttle on/off and #2 is tensing up. Now Ch16 para 2 is introducing SRs 4-6. Where did I miss #3? Is there somewhere I can find a list of all of the SR's?

Prelude: Forgive my uniformed writing as I'm on my first read of T2, now at Ch 14. With that said, I think that is the reason the body position should be set prior to approaching the turn. It upsets the bike to do it midcorner or while cornering (which I think I saw Corona Honda rider Jake Holden doing, not sure). But also doing it early in the last part of the straight, leading to the turn is not without penalty too as one has to countersteer to counter the effects of the uneven weight, which under race conditions would contribute to front tire wear. Personally, I'm waiting for Twist3 to get further into the science of pivot steering as Mr. KC himself expressed desire to update that chapter's content. In my meager experience when in the turn, fully cranked over and on the gas, it has helped to consciously focus on putting pressure on the inside peg. Getting to the outside peg to stand the bike up has been a no go for me. I have yet to experience slamming a bike over with foot pressure, which would seem to me to give results counter to what KC was trying to prove with his NO BS Bike.

Can we assume then that tracktime is 20 mins and classroom is 40 mins?

Thanks for your well written reply Leftlaner. I agree with you about choosing whom to listen (and I'll have to go back to find out what you mean in TOTW2). The technique that I described is purported to be a track technique. I recall Keith in my DVD (TOTW) saying that 'it doesn't matter what you ride or where you ride, the principles remain the same'. I have found agreement with that by my own experience. I've also found, like you that some things (like knee dragging) don't work well on the street.

I've been a magazine reader longer than a rider. I'm especially a fan of the Sport Rider Rider Skills Series. I've realized that not everyone subscribes to Mr. Codes' ideologies about riding and that one may get ideas about riding that don't mix well with the way Keith teaches riding. In particular some authors describe a cornering technique that I would describe as tip in on brakes, get off brakes, coast until apex and then get on the gas at the exit. I noticed it in particular on pp 104 of the September 08 issue. I'm not debating the merits/ demerits of trail braking (there's a long thread for that). I'm only wondering how many other places where there's riding advice given that doesn't mix well.

I wonder why one would want such a thing at a Level 1 school. I understand using the timer as a benchmark for improvement, but shouldn't that come later?

Perhaps I've been using the Han Solo riding plan - just some simple tricks and nonsense. Maybe you should try riding with the blast shield on your helmet down, erm... a dark tinted shield on your helmet so you can't see anything? So that's my problem!?

Okay, I'm pestering: 2009 ViR Heck, 2009 anywhere on the East Coast

I noticed a couple things. 1- It seems that your knee is in, rather that out. 2- Your toes. Use the balls of your feet rather than the step of your heel. Before my first time, I had everything right and when I quit focusing on it and working on lines, throttle control, etc I felt something grab my leathers. During the lap I thought about it and realized it was the ground. I then resolved to go faster thru that corner and within 2 laps it happened. Touchdown! Prior to that, a coach at NESBA had been trying to get me to touchdown. The results of that were bad.

UPDATE: Sometime after these questions arose, I tucked the front on the brakes (Damn SR). Once I pulled the forks, I found that one was bent & the lower tree looked crooked too. The front had been making a weird noise from movement and now I know where it's from. The suspension shop says that one tube is unrecoverable, so I now need a new plan. This would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn how to disassemble forks. I suppose the best solution is for me to find a set of n-used tubes and transplant them onto my forks along with a n-used lower triple. Then I can also shop around for a bling bling upper triple (Vortex about $140). I saw the Attack Adjustable Triple trees (very nice). How do I know if this is needed, especially at my riding level (novice)? Or do I just stick with stock triples and disregard GMD computrack's ranting about sweet geometry? (Bike worked very well BTW; turned on a dime and stopped hard enough to pop my eyes out of their sockets without the rear dancing)

Waaaa

Excuse my ignorance, but why does your bike smell? Mine is parked in my living room without issue.