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I have a picture somewhere with my (then) YZF600R ThunderCat alongside a 2m (6'7") edge of snow, halfway up Dalsnibba from around 1998 . Oh, and the road up there is gravel

I remember Andy Ibbott retelling a story some years ago about the first time he went out on the S1000RR at a BMW launch for journos - the bike was a "wet" mode and when he came up to the braking zone after the straight, the ABS almost sent him into the sandtrap because it reduced the available braking power so much He saved his bacon, completed the lap very quietly to return to the pits to politely ask the BMW techs to turn off the ABS totally and utterly. Otherwise, I can only agree to have the systems there as a safety net. Just don't rely on it.

As I recall, the brits don't have a hard requirement on racing. But this could just be down to my bad memory... BTW, it's been a long time since I've seen any of the British coaches posting. Are they lost in the fog or sum'thin'?

Your suspension is likely to be a tad soft for you. My 03 R1 was set up from the Yamaha factory for a rider in the 150-170lbs range. I'm around 190lbs.

T, From my understanding, there are two contradicting points/opinions: 1) The fork (damping system) work best in the mid-1/3 stroke 2) You want to utilize as much stroke as possible, so as much oil is flowed through the valves and that you can adjust the valves best. For me, I try to adjust the fork so that I use almost all the travel - e.g. 110-115mm out of 120mm. I find that this gives me the best feel and feedback, without compromising stability. On my streetbike, I keep fighting with too little stroke: here the fork feels overly harsh, because the spring is so hard I can't get any stroke and thereby any damping going. As always, YMMV. Kai (off to Sepang tomorrow for the races )

Actually, you don't need to purchase a Kindle to read them, you can just download the Kindle App from the Android/Apple app markets and buy/download from there to view the books on your favorite tablet/phone.

Awesome.

I stayed in Lancaster, at the Inn (Lancaster Inn?) where the CSS team was staying.

You're welcome. That you're not using travel is a major indicator to me at least, that the effective spring rate is to high. Until your next track day, see if you can open up the forks and measure the oil level. It's the free-air level above the oil that's important. Also, if you already don't have it, consider to get a funnel, some ml-based measuring glasses, and a thing to suck up the oil from the forks so you can adjust them on the spot. Was there travel vs Force & oil-level diagram in your fork manual? It might be useful to study it to get an impression of the right oil level. Kai

If you mean crouching over the tank, then sorta-yes, sorta-no. I rarely ride with a fully vertical back, but with bent arms and some crouching. But getting into a full crouch is difficult, because the bike is really a bit too small. My elbows hit my knees/thighs and so on. As an example, when I do the Level 3 exercise where the elbow has to point straight down to the asphalt, I have to move my leg out of the way first, in order to do this. My friends claim that I make any bike look small.

Awesome, congratulations to Nic and yourself.

Changing the compression & rebound settings is not a good way to compensate for a spring issue (and we're not sure that this is a spring issue to start with). Mentally, you need to divide the suspension into two parts: travel damping (comp & rebound) and sag & maximum travel. The oil thickness (viscosity or sometimes called heaviness) can be a bit confusing, because affects both travel damping (by the oil thickness) and the travel (by the oil amount, which yields the effective spring rate). Apologies up front if you are well versed in how a suspension works, but it appears to me that you are mixing the suspension parts. Ideally, you want the spring+preload to determine the sag (it does), and together with the oil level, determine the maximum travel (all weight on the front wheel, hitting a bump in the road at the same time, etc). If we could statically balance the bike so parts of the weight is transferred to the front, the spring + oil level would determine the travel here too. Ideally, you would want the compression & rebound adjusters to handle all the dynamic effects (movement in time). But because the spring is always trying to return the fork to the statically equilibrium position, the (effective) spring rate also impact the dynamics of the suspension. OK, back to spring rate: I don't know what the "standard" spring rate is for your bike (a CBR 1000 RR, I presume - which year?), but for my R6 '08, a spring rate of 0.90-0.95kg/cm is common. I'm same weight as you and on my R6, I have 0.95 springs I believe (I don't have my notebook here). Have you put zipties around the fork legs to gauge the amount of travel that you are using? If you haven't, put a zip around a leg and go doing some stoppies in dry conditions to measure the travel. You should be using most of the travel (but not hit the hard stop). If you do use almost the full stroke, then I would start looking at softening the compression setting*. Just to confirm my understand of what you say, but when you say that "feels like its walking away" at mid-corner and exit, you feel that the front is going towards the outside of the corner, making the bike understeer? My immediate thought is that when you are unloading the front (because you are applying throttle), the tyre is not pushed into the track enough, causing it to "wander". A remedy could try to reducing the rebound damping, so the fork can be extended quicker. I grabbed my copy of "Sportbike Suspension Tuning" by Andrew Trevitt, and in the troubleshooting section it says: EXITING A CORNER Symptom: Bike running wide or is unstable over bumps. Likely cause: Excessive squat is causing the front tire to lose traction. Possibly remedy: Reduce squat by adding rear low-speed compression damping, adding rear preload, adding rear ride height, raising the front fork tubes in the triple clamps, adding front rebound damping, or raising the swingarm pivot. If you have other observations about the suspension, please put them up, because there are plenty of suggestions divided into entry/mid/exit-corner, straights, and braking. *) Mind you, just to make things complicated, the general recommendation is to have more damping with a harder spring and faster riding. Edit: Feel free to PM me. Kai

Oh, I have personal experience about that. Good news is that it's my legs that are abnormally long (38" inseam). Thanks for the concern

Dylan, I'm sorry to hear about your crash. I have some experience with Ohlins parts, all of them very good (both the parts and the experience). replaced the front springs with Ohlins in 3 bikes, and added Ohlins rear shocks on two. My trackbike had Ohlins parts in both ends when I bought it, so I can't claim fame to that part. First of all, can you be more specific about "the bike still felt horrible". What was feeling horrible? straightaways, over bumps, entry/mid/exit of corner, etc ? Secondly, a -10 spring sounds very stiff to me. What oil level are you using, and have you taken a look at the oil-level/effective spring rate diagram that comes with the Fork internals manual? The front suspension on my streetbike (R1 '03) is really stiff, and has been since I had my mechanic change the spring (the spring is so heavily preloaded that I couldn't fix it myself), and I suspect that there is way too much oil in the fork (a thing to be checked when I get it out on the street again). On my R6 '08, I've played around with the oil level to generate the "right" amount of maximum fork travel. This was fairly easy. Do you know how much travel you used (out of max what)? In general, you should have a softer suspension setup for rain than for dry (because you want similar travel, but will use less harsh input). Can you explain how/why the rear came around? - my initial guess would be that you don't have too much rebound damping, so the rear tire looses traction.

OK, so why should a taller person necessarily have a wider neck? I'm 6'6" and my shirt necksize is 40-41, ie around 16 inches. For me, I experience that whenever I start up after the winter, my neck is sore the first couple of weeks of riding, due to the helmet getting bobbed around by the turbulent winds. Then it stops being a problem again

As much as I cheer for Rossi, I am in deep awe for Lorenzo's 5th spot at Assen with the broken collarbone. You could see the pain from his body as he passed the finish line, and his face in the garage.

I took Level 1-4 in two year (1+2 first year, 3+4 second year), and then retook level 3+4 the year after (and since then a host of Level 4s). Last year, I did two level 4's as a two-day camp at Big Willows, and then CodeRACE the following two days. I agree with Cobie and Warner about taking level 3 first. Level 4 is customized to your needs. As for your BP, the only thing I noticed on the posted pics is that you seem to have a very long thighbone (welcome to the club!), which could makes it hard for you to get a good lock-on to the tank/bike. It's allowed to pass closer on CodeRACE than on a usual CSS day, and they have a passing drill. However, my drill partner had never passed anyone on the track until we did the drill, so I didn't get much value from it. I did have much value from Jon 'Gloom', though Cobie: how's Gloom's new knees doing, btw?

On the trackbike (R6 '08), the things I haven't done myself is renovation the rear shock (pressurized nitrogen canister, special tools), taking the engine apart for valve adjustments (because I haven't had to yet), and dynoing it. I've changed tyres, wheels, renovated the front fork suspension (new oil), replaced wiring loom & ECU with YEC, added quickshift, changed clutch (to slipper), fairings, footpegs & handlebars when broken, brake pads/lines, and the exhaust (from an unbelievably loud Yoshi TRC to the standard). Oh, I even changed the gasket under the top lid with the help of a pro mechanic who happened at trackside (a "gift" from the previous owner. Thanks, buddy!). Plus a few other things, I've forgotten since then. Edit: oh yeah, engine oil & cooling liquid (water) replacement/draining.

Congrats! I'm sure Nic (and you) will have a blast, I sure did last October. Kai

Doohan used a thumb-operated rear brake all of his championship winning years, due to the Assen accident that left him with little movement in his right ancle. Kai

I won't be participating, but congrats on attending! I'm sure you will have a great day. Kai

The Dunlop Qualifier II are sold in Europe (but apparently not in the US) - they should be fine. Try using the search function; I recall Steve answering about the Q2 vs Qualifier II.

I've fallen a couple of times and mostly the injuries are crubbed skin because of abrasion between the skin and the inside of the underwear/suit - I think this would be (very) hard to avoid. In August 2011, I highsided (a very small one though), and hit my wrist on something while going over the bike and broke the radius bone in the wrist. Braking any bone in a joint like the wrist is really really bad (I have reduced movement and strength in the broken wrist now, thanks to doctors not paying enough attention to bone bit dislocation). Armour: my suit (from dragtdesigneren.dk/d-wears.dk, which have them manufactured in Pakistan) had some simple removable foam rubber "protections". I removed them and use a Knox back/chest protector instead. As for general strength, make the suit out of as few pieces of leather as possible. Use hidden stitchings. I used to use Held Phantom gloves, made of Kangeroo leather. They were "pre-formed" and the entire palm and fingers were a single piece of skin, so there we not stitchings to annoy the palm and the fairly thin leather gave really good feeling for the levers and gas. They took two lowsides with hardly any damage to them. I retired them after about 6-8 years due to the stitching dying.

Blueing doesn't mean anything - it just is. Here's Steve's take on flipping tires. Kai

IANAC, but in my opinion, your father should choose the clip-on angle that is the most comfortable to him ... and the scr@w the exact angle. Make sure the wrists are as straight as possible.