Bullet

Hi Alex, Thanks for your question. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure if you can or not, but if you ring into the office on Monday, and speak to Lynn/Donna or Corinna, they'd be able to advise you on the exact specifics. Our R6's are full power models though, and you'd definietly need a full licence to ride one of those. Bullet

I'd like to echo Kevin's comments We do have riders of all levels come to the school, I've seen people who've literally past their test that week turn up and work on the drills. You can ce sure that the environment is safe, and we're able to improve people of all levels. There is however, one thing I'd stipulate, and that would be there has to be real willigness to learn, be open to us making ammendments, improvements to her technqiue. If she's open to that, her coach and the team are more than capable of nurturing her, and to be honest, these kind of students can quite incredible levels of progress, confidence and new found love for their riding. Will she walk away great track rider, probably not, but, she'll learn things, feel more in control and happier as result. One observation I've made over the years, is be sure it's something she wants to do for herself. i've seen many a couple where the bloke's really into it, wants to do the school and brings the significant other somewhat against their will. That can lead to tears and all sorts of emotioanl turmoils for you, so I'd just make sure she's doing it for her. Hope that helps, any other questions. Bullet

I think he's got a point Too bad engines aren't as simple as the theory. The pistons actually come to a dead stop during the stroke, valves float and cams lobes don't exactly do the job that visual inspection suggests. Inside the explosion container (cylinder) are supersonic pressure waves and other disturbances that engineers must tune after the prototypes are built. You're right, I'm not an engine designer nor coach, I'm a riding coach, who knows a bit or two about stuff on other things. This is part of the challenge of no trying to get deeply intricately lost in deep technical discussion sometimes, you try and simplify something as an overall concept rather than the intrciate details. You're right the firing of the pistons isn't every 90 degree's its the crank pin themselves that are on things like the new r1. If you want to reread more about R1 crank, why it's designed the way it is, http://www.yamaha-motor-europe.com/designc...ageTitle=Yamaha Technology 2009: Crossplane crankshaft&pageNum=2 Read this. There is a good article on i4's v Twins here. http://motorcyclebloggers.com/tech-talk-ar...s-inline-fours/ It's really deeply technical for those that really need to know in that much depth. The fact stil remains, regardless of rev's/engine speed though, a twin fire's half as much of the time as a i4, hence the tyre gets that little bit better of a break. You can believe it, or not elirik, but that's one of the main reasons they're trying to create offset crank and firing orders for MotoGP bikes. and i quote "Current performance 4 stroke engines utilize the big bang firing order to create a recovery gap during which the rear tire regains traction" on wikipedia, so it must be true right..? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big-bang_firing_order Bullet

Ok, the first bit we have consenus on, the later part I'm afraid isn't right. You'll only get a weight transfer back if you chop the throttle. What you will feel is as the bike starts to slide sideways the front wheel stays heading in the same direction as it was going, and naturally starts to turn into the slide. So, what you'll feel is the bars will start to turn around the headstock of the bike, so if you're in a right hand turn, the bike starts to slide, the bars will feel as though they'll point to the left a little bit. Bullet

So if the rear tyre is starting to slide (it will normally slide to the outside of the turn would we agree?) So what would happen to the front of the bike, what might you feel in the bars? Bullet

Actually, I've found that twins have less "flexible" engines than inline-four's. On my old R6, I could effectively use the upper 1/2 of the revs, while on a friends SV650, I needed to be in the top 1/3 to make it go fast (and hence many more gear changes). Perhaps I should have said Big twins. My RSV has a wonderful engine, though it's terrible at low speed stuff. Amen on the power! Bullet

The SV would spin up certainly if you had loads of lean angle on, and also in the rain it could as well. The GSXr750 develops about as much horspower as a 1000cc Twin like an Aprilia RSV, or Duacti 999, but not quite as much power as the 1000 cc fours, or the 1200's Twins. They're lovely bikes GSXr750, a really good half way house in performance and make tremendous road bikes, enough power, but not too much as you frighten yourself silly. Riding Four's and Twin's is different really one you ride on top end power (four), Twins on flexible grunt. Both tremendous, though I have to say, I'm a Twin man through and through (which is why I love the new R1 so much), but that said, I race in line 4's. As long as it's got wheels and an engine, who cares. Bullet

Hi Jase, No the thing that causes the difference in horsepower is a combo of a few things. No.1 the more cylinders you have, the more horsepower you can generate, i think it's to do with the amount of surface area you have, so if you think 2 big pistons and the surface area they have, against 4 smaller ones. Additionally because each of the pistons is smaller, they weigh less and can be this rev'ed harder. Horsepower is an equation of Torque x rpm. Bullet

The difference is really in the fact that the engine pulses are further apart so the tyre can recover from the explosion that fires the piston down and creates the drive. With a normal inline 4 cyclinder engine, the pulses are every 90 degrees of crank revolution, on a twin (typically), they're longer, say 180 degree's. This of course, depends on many factors, like V Angle, crankshaft spacing, but as an overall principle, that's why it's said to be the case. This another of the reasons MotoGP bikes and Yamaha's R1 road bike sound a bit like a twin. Although they're all 4 cylinder engines, they have unevenly spaced firing orders to aid the tyre to re-gain traction. This is typically only of benefit on larger capacity bikes that have an abundance of power and torque to overwhelm the rear contact patch, and is one of the reasons you really don't see the need on say a 600CC bike as it generally doesn't overwhelm the tyre contact patch unless lean angle is added to the equation. Hope that makes sense..? Bullet

I can't say for certain, as unfortunately for me, I've not ridden one. One things that's really obvious though is how the bike stability is controlled into the corners. Rossi for example doesn't even bother with blipping the throttle into the turn, just strolls up, whacks it down a few and brakes. Not of course there is a mechanical clutch, but it's electronically controlling the amount of slip, etc, etc. As I noted before, unless you had a full on board lap comparision side by side you couldn't really compare braking styles and the effects of the different riders, as it's really the corner itself (how sharp/how fast) that will dictate how much far you can brake or whether indeed would need to brake deep into the turn anyway. Bullet

Firstly, you must remember that those bikes are very, very sophisticated, they have incredible engine braking technology, tyre grip like you could only dream of, and just the best equipment in the world. Is he braking to the Apex, in some corners, sure, in every corner? No. You'll also notice they can lean on the electronics to some degree as well, they don't have to be careful (well, as careful) when they wind it on. Make some sense? Bullet

Ok, no problem. :-) You'll generalyl note if the bike is upright, you'll just start to here the revs raise as the bike spins and begins to loose traction, if it's leaned over, you'll probably feel the bike kick out sideways a little and what else do you think you might notice when the bike does this..? (related to your first observation). Bullet

Couple of immediate questions. From your level 1 drill, what do you think would enable you to get the best feel you can from a bike? Secondly, when you're talking about driving the bike, was the bike straight upright, leaned over at all? At what point was this sensation you talked about? Bullet

We used to have a great guy, James Campbell Wilson, but he sadly departed us all early last year, and we've since yet to replace him, not sure if we will, he was a very dear close friend of the crew. So, I'm not sure at this time mate, we didn't have anyone last year, who knows this year. Guess we'll see. Bullet

I guess the question you need to ask yourself is this. By having your shoulder leading, and your body pointing in the opposite direction to that which you want to go, (i.e into and through the corner), would that make it easier or more difficult to see into the turn? After all, thats the diretcion we're going right..? Bullet

A very tricky question, and one that gets asked a lot. depends on so many factors, cash, ability to learn, fitness, etc, etc. In my opinion, and it is just that, I think you're better to split it up, get something concrete to work on from your day, go away work on that on some trackdays, and when I say work on it, I MEAN work on it, not just bowl around at a trackday aimless, then come back and work on something else. If you're still in intermediate level, I'd bet there is without doubt some progress can be made on your understanding and application of the visual drills and timing, so working on this aspect would normally improve the space you have, giving you a good improvement in laptimes, speed etc. You need to be aware of what goals you have, and have a plan on how you think you could work through it. The coaching staff will try and help you get to those goals for sure. Question is, are you sure what they are, and where you need to improve? Bullet

Well, that's very cool of you to say so mate, though I can definitely say you'd be mistaken, Keith is Yoda, I'm more of an Ewok by comparison. Enjoy, keep up your development mate. Bullet

Welcome to the site, am sure you'll settle in just nicely with the rest of us. Feel free to moosey around, see what you can learn, their is loads of great stuff on here for riders of all levels! Enjoy Bullet

Yeah man, that thing sounds amazing. Great report Stu, really enjoyed reading that, I almost felt there doing it with you guys. Brought back so many cool memories of riding a new bike for the first time.. I felt like that when I rode the Growler R1 on track. That also the switchgear modes, and it sounds much the same. Normal is the best mode, rain is very soft, and A is almost unridable (too snatchy for me mid turn). I can't wait to try and blag a go on one from one of my students. Bullet

Hi mate, Sorry I've been busy, and not had access to Youtube when I saw your post to review it. OK, well, I'd definitely agree you've got more of the track to use, on the way into some of the corners, and you're definitely giving yourself a big margin on some of those apexs. What benefit do you think you'd get from using more of the track? So for example at about 46 seconds in, look where you are on the road. also in that turn, do you think you turned in early? What was the result of that, what did you not do from then in that turn which perhaps could give some good improvement in the exit? Last turn, I reckon you'd be able to get on the gas properly with correct visuals about 1:30 onwards, whereas you went about 1:33-34, so all that extra speed you could have carried down the straight would have might quite some difference. What levels have you done again, I cannot remember. Bullet

Point 1 yes, and Point 2 most definitely I agree, Point 3, I don't agree with really. Survival reactions are the demon really, the bodies natural ability to look at the things we should avoid which of course on a motorbike is completely counterproductive. That's the real issue, that and the ability to turn the bike quickly to avoid things should you need to. Whilst it's not the body's natural desire to be that way, you learn to go with the bike as it leans. Leveraging point 2, you can get to a situation where you'd really not give it another thought, but as with many things in life (Survival reactions in particularly), you have to adpat and become used to it, it becomes less of a focus on your mind, and your attention moves to something else. Much like when you start riding a bike, changing gear is a task that takes much attention, in time, you don't even remember doing it, it's require 0.05% of your brain's attention to do it, and so can become the case with this. With acceptance and agreement that there is benefit an understanding an improvement and an ability to adpat to can be achieved, much like any skill in the world. Now, we're done. Bullet

You're getting bloody great at this mate. Big Gold star! ;-) Bullet

Your first statement is correct in part, yeah more grip required, so they have to be leaned for as short a period of time as they can. hence the squaring affect makes better use of that kind of bikes attributes (i.e. power and speed). 125's have less weight, and less power. big bikes well is it easy to apply 220hp with the bike really leaned over? How compliant is a bike? What's the bike going to want to do if it starts to loose grip? Bullet

125's are all about corner speed and maitaining momentum is very key to lap times, but it's nothing to power. Weight is much lower on a 125 bike than a MotoGP bike, so it can carry much bigger speed for the same lean angle. Conversely opposite to that is the WSBK bike, it's even higher weight, means its corner speed is lower again. Power is a factor on control of the corner, but the reason they square corners of more is because of what perhaps? What do they need more of to be able to use all that power? How do they get it do you think? Bullet

I was looking at my YT stats and discovered this thread. In fact I discovered this forum so hello everyone. That's my video from Rockingham last year - I was having a ball and felt really relaxed, so it came as a major surprise to find myself hurtling through the air. Having checked the data logging it appears that on the previous laps I had applied about 18-20% throttle as I exited that corner; the time I fell off, I applied 35% However I have had some correspondence with a coach who watched my video and who has been very helpful in determining what went wrong. Whilst I may have given it too much gas on that particular exit, a lot of the problem stems from the fact that I was going through the corner with a completely closed throttle, so opening it again resulted in a harsh transfer of weight; and also that I am probably hanging on to the bars too much and thereby not allowing the bike to self correct when the rear breaks traction. I'm really looking forward to putting these theories into practice this year... Hi, Thanks for coming and looking into our site. You're more than welcome, and maybe we can help you out with that their throttle control. Your friend/your understanding of your problems are very good, you definitely had no stability in the bike, then just wound on too much throttle. A highside was always likely at some point riding like that, certainly when your tyre grip starts to ebb away a little. i know somewhere you can be helped with your throttle problems my friend. Bullet