Hansi
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Posts posted by Hansi
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Keith, Thanks, unnecessarily i dropped my precious Black Night. I have a pattern of dropping at low or no speed. I know the causes but wondering how i can break this habit before attending school in may 2014. some caused are rocks, a little to much brake, poor road shoulder, sand. i know all these conditions can be corrected but what is it in me that makes me fall off by my own hand? this has happended about 4 times with my Busa...three times in the driveway and once on a low speed practice course in a community college and lastly most recently in front of my house when coming in to park...poorly dressed (jeans but sufficent jacket and helmet) and returning in a hurry to see my wife off to work...no damage to bike or self except tiny scrapes an one bruised lower lip. will be right back up on her today. if i had to guess it would be rushing hurrying or "I've seen guys in a hurry and they don't make it". so to make it i have to take my time and "get each concept firmly in my mind". overconfidence is another character issue. all responses welcome.
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?
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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!
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Wow. 59-degree lean angle? Really?
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 :-)
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Hansi, that's awesome, man! How much does one of those things cost? I've seen them used on motoGP videos & a lot of the Ilse of Man TT stuff, bu I had no idea mere mortals can ge them too! Any chance these apps are available for cell phones? They've got all the hardware: gyroscopes, accelerometers, GPS tracking...
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
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"Threshold braking". I have come across this term in plenty of riding instruction books. It is not a foreign term to motorcyclists. I use it regularly.
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...
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Will there be a third book or even a video series of some sort?
The third book would be the soft science one...
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So, here's what I'm trying... First, I'm working on getting the slack out of the throttle when first putting my hand on it, as the default 'neutral' position when rolling off. I'm also trying to learn the roll on speed that my bike likes. I've had a couple of instances where this came together and it was an epiphany. Perhaps try this before you try and tune?
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.
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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.
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Ride your bike in a straight line and move your but cheek over to the right and a generous portion of your upper body.
Now - for the bike to keep going forward you may notice 2 things.
1) the bike has to counter balance itself. It will lean slightly to the left
2) you will need pressure to the left bar.
So now your body mass is to the right side of the bike, the bike leaning to the left and pressure to the left bar is applied and you keep going straight.
According to basic physics, the masses of the bike + rider are at tendency to converge. Meaning - you will feel forces to go towards the bike and the bike towards you.
So at this point, and at the track, be it the braking zone, you are off to the right side of the bike, pressing on the left handle bar, and the bike slightly leaned over to the left. At this point you have created potential eneregy towards a right side lean. If you release the pressure on the outside bar, the bike will "attempt" by the laws of physics to come towards YOUR center of mass and will fall towards your body.
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.
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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...
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Hi Hansi,
Had a quick chance to look at the videos. I guess the questions, that's most important is how much better do you feel on the bike? How much more comfortable, confident and accurate do you feel? Do you think it's enabled you to ride better?
Now, my observation, is it's very clear you're visual are in an entirely different league. You're consistency in the first video wasn't very good, you didn't really get very close to the white lines, nor get yourselves very good apexs, nor drive of the turns. In the second video, all of things are massively improved to my eye, really shows how good the drills are doesn't it?
Great job. Keep practising.
Bullet
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.
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Video of me some weeks before the CSS training:
Video of me on my first track day efter the CSS training:
Comments?
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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.
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 :-)
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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.
OK here is the first youtube clip uploaded
Level 2, drill 5 "pickup", first 10 minutes of the session
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Just cruising, clutch usually both up and down.
Having-fun-speed, no clutch up, almost always down.
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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
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...)
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When I want to swoop through a series of quick turns, I feel much better looking up, leaning in and counter steering firmly. My eyes see where I want to go and counter steering makes the bike turn very quickly.
You wont know what you are missing until you practiced the hip-flick technique teached in level 3 :-)
Faster On Slicks?
in Cornering and Techniques
Posted
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"