khp

(Ominous silence) Nothing happening in the world of CSS? Kai

Aww that sucks! It's really fun to start passing other riders when you can do that safely, instead of getting passed. And keeping the 1000cc's behind you because you get the better drive out of the turns than then is .... well, ego-boosting:D If you think you've really gotten the track-riding-bug, I'd suggest you start looking for a used racebike with fiberglass fairings etc. Basically any 2000+ model 600cc sportsbike will work fine. Get back in the saddle soon! Kai

Hi Albert, Yes, confusing indeed! I'll try to explain it to the best of my limited understanding and ability: I think we can intuitively understand that OVER-weighting the front tire can make you crash: the weight + cornering forces are simply bigger that the friction available - poof, and you're down the road. Now, the observation here is that Force(used) must always be lower than the Force(friction, available). For the sake of the discussion, let's assume we the available friction is 100%. In the case of over-weighting/braking/leaning/turning, the used forces is larger than 100%. But the available friction is dependent on how much weight you apply from the tire to the tarmac. If you lift the front wheel (ie: do a wheelie), you have 0% friction available on the front tire. A less drastic situation is that you're riding over a crest or accelerating hard - here less than 100% friction is available, so applying the front brake may lock up the wheel and a very fast turn-in could require more friction than available, and thus causing a crash. I have seen at least two people crash from failing to letting the front tire settle before applying the front brake One of the turns on Ring Knutstorp is located on a crest (and is blind). Going over that one at high speed is ... entertaining ... and has definitely had it's share of crashes over the years! Hope this helps understanding why too little weight can also be a bad thing! Kai

The only reason I don't have Chicken Strips on the rear tire of my streetbike is that I had to use it for CSS Level 1 & 2 in Sweden last year (the Swedes require that you have an insurance on your bike for courses, and you can't get that on a racebike in Denmark) Trying to get rid of Chicken strips or getting your knee down on public roads is just an accident waiting to happen. And potentially a very big accident too - don't go there please. Kai

Hi Redshift, Welcome a-board! If the BMW boots are designed for motorcycling, they should be just fine. I would be rather wary of bringing a set of mesh-type summer gloves to the track, so I'd suggest that you rent gloves from the School. I'm not familiar with "armored shorts", but they should cover all the way down to your boots and zip together (all the way around) with your jacket/upper body clothing. If they don't zip together, there is a risk of the pants and jacket exposes a strip of flesh in case of a spill - don't do that, and I believe that the school insists on jackets & pants zip together for that particular reason. All that being said, I'm not an employee of CSS, just a student. Hope this helps, Kai

ABS systems surely have their benefits, but I fear you are putting far too much trust into the 1st and 2nd generation ABS systems. The first couple of ABS generations would not be able to save you from crashing, if you locked up the front wheel while leaning. Trust me on this one, I have seen too many beemers with these systems doing braking exercises, and their owners will readily agree to the 1st/2nd generation shortcomings. Regards, Kai

The "Big Four" (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha) all offer ABS on some of their models - at least here in Europe. While most of the bikes offered with ABS are in either the street/basic-bike or the super-tourer segments, Honda offers the CBR600RR and the CBR1000RR in both ABS and non-ABS versions. Off the top of my head, I can only remember Triumph, along the other brands, as delivering ABS-shod models. So yes, ABS is slowly being delivered on more and more bikes. As to reasons: there are multiple, in my opinion. * I read that BMW is now on their 7th generation of ABS. Up until the 2009 generation (or so), a good human operator could easily beat the ABS system on stopping distance, on dry pavement & good conditions. That applies for all the ABS systems more than two or three years old, actually (I've seen most of them as instructor at the DMC safety courses here in Denmark). With the latest generation, the ABS beats the human even on dry pavement (in the wet, ABS wins hands down). *What we have also seen, is a reduction in weight: BMW's system on the S1000RR weighs in at 2.5kg (5.5lbs), whereas older systems would add up to 10-15kgs (22-33lbs). * Conservatism within the rider community, and possibly a bit of unneeded heroism among the sports bike riders: "I don't want something between me and the bike", or even "I don't want X pounds of dead-weight added to my bike". What I expect to see over the coming few years is that all the bigger brands will figure out how to deliver low-weight, "super-human" ABS systems, which will proliferate to most/all models. That being said, I still believe that we, as riders, need to learn how to brake optimally, both with and without engaging the ABS system, since the ABS system CAN fail to provide the anti-locking effect - and that's where you really want to brake correctly. Now, enough of my ramblings... Kai

Negative impact on a street tyre from a tyre warmer? Honest, I don't know. They are mostly done with the same technology, but with different rubber compounds obviously. My gut feeling is that using tyre warmers probably wont damage a street tyre (very much). Probably not more than blitzing around the track will Of course, all tyres are affected by heat cycling - the question only remains "how much?". Speaking of tyres being affected: water has a large impact, as it functions as a lubricant for the stones and tarmac you're riding on. That is supposedly why you will see larger tyre wear when riding in the wet, even when you're going slower (street or track). I agree with Eirik on discussing tyres - it is very much a matter of 'taste', and a topic that can almost get you into a fist fight/take religious proportions. Speaking of Metzeler vs Pirellis tyres: Pirelli owns the Metzeler brand. I keep forgetting the other 'pair' in motorcycle tyres, but I *think* it's Dunlop and Bridgestone. Regards, Kai

All the best to you, and hopefully see you soon. Kai

Here's a video taken yesterday at Sturup Raceway. It's tight, twisty, bumpy in places, has weird tarmac changes in a couple of turns ... but, hey, it's the track closest to me and it's possible to ride there almost every Sunday Let's see if I can figure out how to embed the video... whee - it worked! (if you want the higher BW modes) Shot using the "ActionHD" mode (720p@60fps). Kai

Jaybird, One of the errors that my coach Paul spotted on Level two was that I tend to sit rotated around the tank (a big no-no today, but I was told it was the Right Way in '98 and took to it as a fish to water). Now, if I rotate around the tank, I tend to push the inner handlebar (which will stiffen the steering and will give you less feedback from the front tyre - not good). It sounds to me that you're doing either exactly the same, or something else that causes you to push the inside bar. I would suggest that you take a look at how you sit when in the hang-in position. If possible, try to move a little back on the seat and make sure that your shoulders are square to the driving direction (much like if you do alpine skiing) - that might help you to stop pushing the inside bar. Since I've been doing this for 10+ years, it's taking me quite some time to un-learn this and relearn the proper way. Hope this helps, Kai

+ 1 on that Bullet Here is something I have been thinking about for those that dont use warmers, warming tyres can sometimes be frustrating, especially when your getting passed by dudes that you know you are faster than but you need to rise above that! The thing is if you look through your CSS books you have 15 drills to work on, can you remember what they all are? I'm not going to list them all here but as Keith said, not a good idea to quick turn on cold tyres, so were down to 14 drills! You see every time I go on track I pick a drill to concentrate on but I'm tweaking that plan a little so now I will concentrate on a drill that will work with cold tyres for the first 5 or 6 laps, going through my books, the majority of drills will work with cold tyres e.g. all the level 1 stuff except the quick turn, all the level 2 stuff, and pretty much all the level 3 stuff, OK when I began writing this I thought I could eliminate more than 1 drill from the list, thats a testiment to how good the drills actually are so for me anyway my first 5 or 6 laps will be focused on throttle control rule #1 staying relaxed and all the visual drills! Bobby, you're correct on your observations - but I still disagree on using tirewarmers. My point of view is that a typical session 15-20minutes long, and with a laptime of 1-2minutes (depending on track & skill level), you usually don't get much more than 10 laps per session. So spending 5-6 laps to warm up the tires means that you're spending more than half your laps all day long, just to make sure your tires are warm. And that is a waste in my opinion. Besides, big heat cycles tend to wear out tires quicker, than the tires staying warm all day. Regards, Kai

I'm not a mechanical engineer, and it's been many years since I had mechanics classes at Uni (ie: expect lots of hand-waving). Cold tires will have less grip than warm (hot) tires. Going through a turn with more lean angle requires more lateral grip than when using less lean angle (due to the centripetal forces). As an example, using 45 degrees of lean will require up to 1 G of force, whereas 60 degrees of lean with require up to 2 G's of force. In Norway, there is a special club for people going down on lap one: IFFR (Ikke Fuldført Første Runde). In English: Didn't Complete First Lap. Some people tend to renew their membership on a regular basis

Holy Beanstalk Batman!!! :D I don't think that being tall and have long arms/legs is necessarily an advantage. In fact, the clip-ons tend to be too close ... twice. First, I need to apply a badminton-racket-type grip (see below) on the inside clip-on to avoid bending too much in the wrist. Secondly, I need to wrap my arms/elbows around my thighs/knees. With respect to requiring less lean-angle: yes, I have longer thighs. But, I also have longer calfs, of course, so my knees will be further from the ground than, say, yours to start with. Finally, requiring less lean-angle to getting your knee down may be good for your Ego , but bad for your corner speed. Getting quicker to knee-down can mentally stop you from getting the right lean, since you mentally is "at the limit" - you need to consciously pick up your knee to achieve the correct amount of lean. Cheers, Kai

My experience is that physical size doesn't have that much to say in this respect - I ride a 2003 YZF-R1 on the streets and a 2008 YZF-R6 on the track, and I'm 6'6" (&190lbs). I don't find either bike as "cramped", although I need to put my elbows on the outside of the knees in order to get room: What I have found to help, is to make sure that you are well anchored for the braking. I move into the hang-in position (well) before applying the brake, but keep the inner knee "into the tank" so I can keep myself from sliding too much to the front by using the thigh muscles. In fact, getting thrown into the tank is more of a problem on the R1, since A: the seat is a bit slippery, and B: the seat(s) have a downwards slope towards the front, so any minuscule bump will throw me slightly up into the air and forwards . On the R6, the seat is flatter and more "sticky" so I don't get bounced around that much. Hope this helps, Kai

It's funny but I used to have that same problem. I'd use 1 finger for turn 1, my whole hand for 2 and then 2 fingers for the next. All over the place. Ty got on to me about it so I settled on always using 2. No matter what 2 finger. I don't blip the throttle. The ZX6 has an ok slipper and I feather the clutch out to help it. I use two fingers as well, using the ring-finger and the pinkie to blip the throttle (both on the street and on the track - I don't feel my R6's slipper slips). However, be warned that if you run into a situation where you suddenly need to brake very hard (e.g. an emergency braking manoeuvre on the street), you tend to use all four fingers. I would have sworn I'd never do that, due to 10 years of 2-fingered practice on street and track, but when came to showdown (had to brake for a car in rush-hour), I grabbed the front brake with the full hand. Cheers, Kai

Ah, now that WOULD explain the TC issue as well

Could you try again? - I didn't find a link in that posting :-) Cheers, Kai

I didn't spot any glaring errors the first time around I watched the 2nd video (but then again, I wasn't particularly trying to spot the error), but as I re-watched it today something stood out to me: the throttle roll-on happens only when you're almost at the apex! Just to satisfy my own curiosity: was that the "glaring error"? Besides that, I can only echo the words of other posters - Thunderbolt looks like a very nice track indeed. Dang, I miss going to the track (it's been since beginning of April). Maybe on sunday, if the weather permits. And then 3 days @ Anderstorp the weekend after Cheers, Kai

My friend I would love to be coming to Sweden, but I only get so many holidays from work and cannot out. They expect you to WORK at work ??? Can't imagine what you're talking about I still owe uploading videos from Lausitzring. Actually, I need to review them first and my computer isn't fast enough Cheers, Kai

Well, it was dry when I did Level 3, but not the day after, when I did (my first) Level 4. Are you coming to Sweden (Gälleråsen) this year? I'm in for two days of Level 4 on July 9th-10th. My photo-trigger-happy friend who took 5000+ pics in two days will take Level 1 & 2 on the same days. The plan is to hang around and just shoot pictures on the last day (11th). Cheers, Kai

Nice track indeed! It seems that you're accelerating much harder out of the corners than your friend. Also, he seems to almost consistently miss the apex for the second part of the chicane as well as the following right-hander before the track starts to descend. It being the UK, you were obviously quite lucky with the weather Cheers, Kai

Hey, its fixed the Firefox editing problem I had. Good work :-)

I use a Panavise suction cup mount (you can see it halfway down the page http://vholdr.com/contourhd/accessories on the right side called "Windshield Mount"), either mounted on front fairing like this: (snip) The Panavise mount isn't as stable as I would like it to; from the videos, the mount arm appears to be shaking a bit as the entire video is shaken. Maybe I should go back to the "a bunch of duct tape" method that I used on my old miniDV cam /PS: if anyone has found a way to convert/scale videos down from full-HD to, say, 0.5x, please let me know through PM. I've tried umpteen ways with VLC without success, and the graphics system built-in to the motherboard of my computer is not fast enough to show the videos with dropping lots of frames :-( Kai

I use a Panavise suction cup mount (you can see it halfway down the page http://vholdr.com/contourhd/accessories on the right side called "Windshield Mount"), either mounted on front fairing like this: or on the gas tank (the cam gets a little in the way): Oh, pics are from my 4-day frenzy at Lausitzring during Easter, taken by www.racepixx.de Hope this helps, Kai