Hansi

Just changing from sport tires like the Dunlop Sportmax Sportsmart to Dunlop D211 GP Racer "track day" slicks give me about 3 seconds quicker laptimes (from 1.18 to 1.15) on the track I ride the most. Mostly because my bike steers much better with the more aggresive profile that the gp racers have compared to the sportsmarts. Or maybe it is just because the bike "feels better"

Can you without any effort let go of the left handlebar, "play the piano" with your fingers and/or flap your arms easily while riding at any speed?

Last year, the instructors of the swedish riding school actually did play around a bit riding blindfolded. Every year at spring time, after a long winter with little or no bike riding for several months, we arrange one day for ourselves, and a few other days for local riders to come to a large space such as a big parking lot, old airfield runway or even the big purpose built training facility used for the mandatory low-friction riding skill day that is included when you train for your your car driving license in sweden. On those days, we practice braking at different speeds as well as low and medium speed manouvering. Just to get the feeling of the bike back after all those months of not riding. Well, the last time one of the senior instructors talked about why vision skill is important, and I joked about that he should try the cone track blindfolded. Well, long story short, we ended up with him blindfolded and with a mobile phone stuck in the helmet to receive instructions on which way to turn to negotiate the cones. And after he tried it, several other instructors had to try it too. No crashes and a lot of laughter!

In my video? The right hand part of the S curve is heavily banked, I have logged up to 60 degree lean angle there. Related to horizon, not tarmac :-) looked again, yes there was briefly 59 degrees in a small left. One of the fun parts of the track where you can bottom out your suspension :-)

The thing that does the lean angle and g-force is dirt cheap http://www.leanometer.com/ £79 or so I use a starlane gps laptimer, there is a g-force module available for that too. Alternatively, look at http://www.speedangle.com/ $489 laptimer with lean angle and g-force

Noamkrief - on threshold braking - I didn't really mean that people might interpret that as holding the lever as hard as possible (although they could, I suppose) - more what I meant was that some riders might misunderstand 100% braking to mean - braking exactly the same amount from start to finish, versus modulating your braking to ease it off as the bike slows and you approach your turn point. Maximum or threshold braking seems a little tougher to define on a bike compared to a car. For example, even on identical bikes with identical setups, one rider might slide or stoppie much more easily than another, due to stiff arms or uneven bar pressure. How about "1G" braking. I always try to be as close to 1G for as long as I can during braking. Using a G-force logging device greatly helped me improve braking. How's that for using data acquisition :-) Now I know how my bike feels at 0,7 - 0,8 - 0,9 - 1.0G after analyzing my log files and overlaying G-force bars on my onboard video. I always use my torque wrench and have most of the specs of my bike memorized....rear axle 150NM, Front Axle 72NM, Brake caliper bolts 40NM, Pinch Bolt....damn what was that again, 9NM or so. Actually I usually cheat and fit the pinch bolt by feel as I have to go and get a smaller torque wrench for that one...

The third book would be the soft science one...

You should be able to remove the slack using the adjusters on your throttle cables. Just make sure to check that you dont get your revs up when you turn the handlebars full left/full right and that the throttle does not get stuck at any steering angle - after you have adjusted the cables.

All levels = you can choose between level 1,2, 3 or 4 depending on what levels you have done in the past. You need to do level 1 before you can do level 2 and so on. 2 day camp = you will do two consecutive days. My understanding is you do one level per day, so you can do level 1 first day and level 2 second day, or the same level both days if you like to repeat a level or are at level 4. I also think if they have any of the "special" bikes like the lean bike, camera bike, no bs bike etc you are more likely to get to try them on a 2 day camp. Code Race = you will actually practice racing including starting, real races within your group.

The bike will lean to the left because you are "counter steering" it to the left, thats what you are doing with that left bar pressure. It is not balancing itself. If you let it be it would turn slightly to the right. You can use this to some advantage as you save lean angle when you enter the turn and stay on the brakes harder/longer. And your feeling of "stored energy" is not wrong as you have already prepared your counter steering. Compare what you do to the hip-flick techniqe taught in level 3. Also compare what you are doing with how we like to prepare body positioning by moving the butt way ahead of the corner. And how that does NOT make you need to balance the bike by pressing any bar to keep it going straight. How much would then that kind of body positioning with the butt out but head still behind wind screen help in any way with lean angle and corner speed? The negative comments here is because everyone here "knows" that "body steering" is not very effective and totally without precision. I dont think much effort was made to understand why you find it useful to move the center of gravity towards the turn before you enter the turn.

Whenever you get the opportunity, ask your riding buddy to sit on the bike while you are standing in front of it holding it upright for him/her. Ask him/her to move out his/her butt all the way and hang of "80's style" with the head still behind the windscreen. Then ask him/her to move the butt to the center of the seat or maybe half cheek off. And lean out with the upper body instead. But make sure he/she is careful, or you will drop the bike on the ground...

Use your senses to monitor the speed, not your gauges. You are not looking where you need to look if you can see your rpm or speedo. Raise your vision and focus on the apex and use your peripheral vision to spot your turn in marker. Listen to your engine and feel the vibrations of your bike to create a memory of what your senses register. Gradually increase the speed you can enter the corner until you reach a limit such as traction or lean anle. Then wait for that "memory" to match your feel for the speed you have while easing up on the brakes.

Yes, have done a lot of work on the visual skills. Also starting to get the hip-flick working which make things a lot less busy in the esses. The CSS drills have helped a LOT. Three days of "no brake/light brake" sessions have really worked "as advertised", I have a much better sense of speed when entering the corners, can go in faster and get better drive out (still room for improvement on the drive out, can probably start the drive a lot earlier and harder, maybe it is time to get one of those quick-throttle thingies instead of the standard throttle) Best of all, now it is FUN to ride on the track. It all feels so easy, and when I come home and watch the videos I beat myself "Aaargh i can go FASTER in this or that section" :-) Before, it felt like a lot of work and frustration to get around the track.

Video of me some weeks before the CSS training: Video of me on my first track day efter the CSS training: Comments?

OK here is the first youtube clip uploaded Level 2, drill 5 "pickup", first 10 minutes of the session The last 10 minutes of Level 2, drill 5 "pickup" Thanks for the thumbs up from the instructor :-)

OK here is the first youtube clip uploaded Level 2, drill 5 "pickup", first 10 minutes of the session

Just cruising, clutch usually both up and down. Having-fun-speed, no clutch up, almost always down.

Phew! I went ahead and booked 4 days of cornering school on the swedish track "Gelleråsen". First day was the swedish motorcycle association (SMC) (which is very similar but the staff/coaches are doing all the work without getting paid!) at level 4 (individual training) Second to fourth day was California Superbike School (UK coaches) level 1 to 3. We had super nice weather all days, maybe a bit on the hot side (30+ degrees C i think!), ending with a crazy thunderstorm right after the last session of the last day. Talk about timing, our bikes would probable have blown of the track if we were still on it, or we would have had to stop right on the track as the rain was unbelieavable. I actually had to stop my car on the road for a couple of minutes on my way home as I could not see the road ahead. Luckily i was towing the bike on a trailer, not riding home... I got a lot of work done on my visual skills, at one time i just had to scream "yahoooo!!!" in my helmet after a few amazing laps. Got to work some more to get rid of my habit of going back on gas just a bit too early, must get better on getting the counter steer finished before i start to roll on. I got that habit 1-2 years ago before I adjusted my throttle, it had so much slack that i started to roll on the throttle a little even before the turn just to avoid upsetting the bike as the throttle rollon would be to abrupt otherwise. Level 1 was going very well, coach pretty much gave me thumbs up on each drill, no need to go to pit for instructions. On level 2 and 3 i got pulled in to the pits maybe 1-2 times per day. And a bit of frustration from my coach on the 3-step drill, he did not know i got a big bug that hit me right where my left eye would have been....luckily i was wearing glasses! I was just about to pull down the visor after going on the track from the pits...pooof just blurred vision on one eye... The new skills that I did not have at all (at least not in any form of consciuos form, maybe i was doing it a bit without thinking about it) was the hip flick and hook turns. Skills that I had started to use a bit but finally got to practice more was the pickup and pivot steering. Well when i got back home first of all I had muscle pains and walked like a zeb macahan without his horse - just like Andy promised we would have after level 3. But most funny was that i woke up in the middle of the night actually hanging off of my bed! Cant wait until you come back next year so I can do a couple of days at level 4!! I had TWO cameras on my bike, one forward and one behind. The unedited footage is available on the piratebay bittorrent tracker http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5687456/SMC_och_California_Superbike_School_kurser_Gellerasen_2010-07-08 Please dont try to download all the files at once, i have bad upload bandwith so it would take weeks. Change priority or disable all but a few files. Front camera is the MP4 files, back camera is the .avi files. I will probably edit and upload some 10-minute clips to youtube in the future, with priority on when other riders are close to my bike and doing the drills. Thanks to all the staff and instructors, especially Andy (doing the theory stuff), Matthew (my level 1 coach), JET (my level 2 coach) and Hollywood (my level 3 coach). Sorry if I got any of the levels/coaches mixed up or mispelled, my brain was near overload att times...)

You wont know what you are missing until you practiced the hip-flick technique teached in level 3 :-)