Jasonzilla

I have long legs, and need to give very little effort to "lock in" on my ZX6R. Stompgrip is amazing, and even though the pegs on my EX650 won't allow me to lock in, I can lean my knee against my tank and the stompgrip does the rest. I did practice a bit on the track taking all the pressure off my inside foot while turning, and loved it when compared to weighting the inside foot. I was told a long time ago by a coach to weight the inside down and still consider it a wasted day. I was sore and couldn't walk right for almost a week. After doing laps with no pressure at all on the inside, I felt no difference at all as far as being sore. Picking myself up on the exit seemed more comfortable with the weight on the outside, the pickup drill, getting shaken and not making the bike rattle all seemed more easy to perform with weight on the outside peg. With the weight on the inside, I feel like I'm fighting the bike. And get a fast lean and have your knee drive into the ground with all the weight on the inside. Scared the poop out of me. It was coming out of the carousel on East that I realized weighting the inside was a bad idea. Obviously, though, it's preference. If you're comfortable doing it, do it. If not, don't. Either way, find some way to make whatever you like a habit. Consistency is the key to consistency. Repetitive motion teaches habit. I put a piece of tape on the tank, and have whatever I'm working on written on it. It reminds me what I'm focusing on. BP, a particular drill, or even a turn. Whatever I'm doing is on that tape.

Very nice pics.

I checked some lap times around here, and found that any competently 1000 ridden around a track is going to be faster. We have some small tracks around here, as short as one mile, and the literbikes have the records. The longer the track, the larger the disparity in the lap time is pretty much the result. I have no doubt there are tracks where 600's hold the time record, but they are probably newer tracks, or they don't have enough literbikes putting miles on them.

Howdy. I'm planning on hitting all the tracks in the area one day. Need some wheels first. I'm sure you'll have plenty to contribute being a 5th year racer.

Howdy. You'll learn a lot here, and can have clarified what you learn in the books and even what you learned elsewhere. Plenty of good people here.

I'm kinda playing with clutchless upshift right now, but with our offseason during the summer, am riding the EX 650 mostly. It feels weird on the twin. My ZX6R is smooth, and I'll start riding it to get used to it again before trackdays resume in mid-September. Haven't even tried the downshifting without clutch on either.

You're right down the road. That's pretty cool. I didn't know about the school when I lived in Vegas. Would have liked to have known. Would have been really helpful. There are also a few tracks pretty close to you. A couple of different Vegas courses, one in Pahrump. Chuckwalla is just over 3 hours away, and that track is a trip. Welcome to the forum.

It's the age, Bullet. I used to try leaning like Lascourz or Herrin, but have gotten to the point of just flopping down on the tank. Use that as an excuse to rest my back and am trying to spread it as technique so I don't look like some old dude napping on the tank while cornering.

Much..... camerawork..... needed..... I've seen him race at Firebird a couple of times now, and all these kids are great. I'm definitely a fan of them, and will go see them race every year I live here and they race. When I did Chuckwalla this spring some of the kids came out, and that track is so fast they didn't stand a chance against the literbikes when I usually see them passing the local racers here at will. It's a smaller, slower track. Thanks for posting this.

Thanks. I'm going to work on photography a lot more and will get some that actually look good next year. And there will be a next year. Greatest not actually riding the track time I've had since I got into motorcycle riding. Just want to see the 125's and 600's. Maybe Inde.

The only literbike I've really ridden is the Yamaha R1. Piddled around on a few, but actually got on the R1's and ridden them. It's a little short on the HP compared to the other bikes, but I'm telling you, I don't know how many times I had to check to make sure the '09 R1 wasn't an R6. Perfectly balanced, quick, good enough on power. Beautiful bike. I'd happily put my money into an '09 R1 without even checking into the other ones.

It's a popular saying, but I don't really like it. It doesn't provide consistency. Finding a nice BP that: 1. takes weight off the bars and allows you to weigh the pegs as well as possible (I love pivot turning) 2. brings the center of gravity of the bike down and puts more weight inside 3. holds the bike up as much as possible while you're leaning as to maximize total lean while cornering 4. and being able to lead the bike with your eyes and head These are all things to work on. Just "getting your head where your mirror would be" isn't a very solid plan. And if you look at pics from a trackday you'll see that it's not the best way to go about it. I work on putting my chest on the tank, and aim to put my shoulder on a certain part of the tank depending which way I'm going. A much better gauge as to where you're at when you're reviewing your day. I'm not sure how they teach it at CSS, as I haven't taken level 3. Get a good BP and work on it a little at the end of the day when you're getting tired. A good BP is alright, but there are so many other things to focus on. You'll take better pics, but Matt Mladin, Shaky Byrnes and Tony Elias have all done well with a generic not as good as everyone else's BP.

That's nothing. These guys are so precise. You can watch AMA over and over and it's nothing compared to the GP guys. No picture, and no video does it justice. You've got to see it live.

Took a million photos. Here's a few.

Never would have thought it, and I was sure I'd embedded this aspect of riding into my repatuar, but I've got to work on my pickup drill, and I'd recommend everyone else re-evaluate it. There wasn't a corner in Laguna, besides the corkscrew, that the GP riders weren't really digging in using the pickup drill (totally different watching it live. If you've never experienced it, you absolutely need to put it on your bucket list). Three AMA Superbike and one Supersport rider came even close to doing it as well as the GP riders were. I would have never thought the pickup drill would be what I noticed about these guys' riding.

How many goals? (LOL) Haha. Just to clarify for the smarty pants on the site: 1. TP's, apexes, RP's (a line through the track to improve on). 2. Faster laptimes.

I was just in the same boat. Welcome back.

Howdy. I don't have a lot of friends who leave the scene and come back to it, but welcome back. Have fun.

I'd set goals in order and get as far as you can. I got to ride 2 brand spanking new tracks this spring, so there wasn't video or anything. One track in particular, Inde (WICKED TRACK), was hard to get the hang of. I had a hard time getting my TP's (learned the secret while I was at Chuckwalla a few weeks later), but if I had set goals for every session, I would have been set back and frustrated. Luckily I had two goals. TP's, apexes, RP's and faster lap times. At Chuckwalla I did a number of goals and advanced as I became comfortable.

Pickup drill. I love that drill. It wasn't an "aha" moment at school like the two step, but it was refreshingly easy to catch on to and put in my skill-set.

Because we're all going to be like these guys? The local riders in the area who are very good don't touch their rear brake. Trackdays or racing. Why? Because our skill level will never be that of Doohan and Dovizioso. I just do trackdays, and will never push enough for the need to make small enough adjustments to require the use of the rear brake. The only time I even remember they're on the bike is when I leave the pavement. I have better things to work on that will help me improve my times. Lots of other things.

I remember someone telling me that Laguna isn't optimal for schooling because it doesn't have as many turns. Can't remember who told me that. As much as I'm not a fan of Chuckwalla in California (the owner and staff that control the track are a**h****, and it's poorly run [except for the presence of Ti2TT people]), it has so many turns that it would be pretty good for the school. Exaggerations of both off camber and positive camber ( the bank is awesome), increase and decrease radius turns, elevation changes, long corners to work on where an early mid, and late apex puts you on the track, and long sweeping corners to work on, and adjust BP. You name it. I did levels 1 and 2 at the Vegas infield and thought it was pretty good for the school.

Motorcycles have rear brakes?

There is no negative about StompGrip in my opinion. Think of it as an investment in comfort and confidence. I ride with StompGrip on my street and track bikes, and don't see how it can be irritating. I understand that it does, but I ride with jeans, leathers, and scrubs using StompGrip, and wouldn't ride without it. Whatever they use at the school I really didn't like. Had no confidence in it after using StompGrip so long. It doesn't compare. I had a friend who uses griptape from skateboards and it's slowly eating through his leathers. It's what he likes though. If you have a friend willing to let you try out the traction pads on their bike I guarantee you'll head to your local distributor and grab some after trying it.

Howdy. My advice to you would be to just get on the track and start putting into practice what you've learned so you can better understand the why's and how's of riding. I waited years to get on a track, and one of my few regrets is every day that I went to watch a trackday, read about it and watched racing on TV, that I didn't just say "F*** IT" and put my tires on a track sooner. You're missing out. I've had a few mishaps, but they were all when I knew the risk was there. GET ON THE TRACK!!! You won't regret it. You won't know what's right and wrong if you don't get out there.