agabinet

Perhaps I am disqualified from this conversation because I gave up bikes . . . but while I was avidly riding, I went from modern bikes (including a CSS school bike that I bought from Will!) to a '96 Aprilia RS250 and a 1987 Yammie TZR250 with a way oversized 340cc motor. What I can say is that while the TZR was clearly faster than the Aprilia (and both slower than the 600cc Kawi), it was a lot harder to ride because it took so much attention to keep it settled. I had to be much more precise with both steering inputs (because of older suspension) and with throttle (because the motor was so finicky about gear selection). When I hopped off the TZR and onto the Aprilia, I rode the Aprilia much better because I had improved my controls and also because I was just more relaxed. I would agree with Keith that technology makes it possible to refocus because your attention away from some things and on to others. But making it easy to go faster just means that your mistakes will now show up at higher speeds!

Interesting comments -- after 12 CSS sessions, I did a 3 day spencer course, just finished it. In the classroom we got to watch films of Spencer's GP races, and man you should have seen Randy Mamola railing around corners with his outside leg totally off the bike. Sticking out in the wind, practically! I don't know how he stayed on (well, he did go off track a few times . . .) I don't want to get into the whole body steering/countersteering thing -- you know Nick Ienatsch and Freddie teach no countersteering, all body steering. I will say that all the braking drills and trailbraking practice indeed had me carrying higher speeds into the corner, but braking with a much lighter touch than ever before, even though I was braking harder. Somehow I doubt that I'll ever stop countersteering, though! I will also say that there is a lot of stuff that you can do with your body position when you're hanging off that seems to affect bike direction, but at that point I've already gotten the bike leaned over.

I'm pretty interested in this, as I have similar concerns but one thing that I was wondering about was a comment that I read on one of these BBs -- that your tires actually NEED to slide a bit to get maximum traction. Is that true, and if so, why?