GregGorman

How to get faster? Here's my ideas: Invest in yourself, not the bike. Here's a picture of #86 Lars Remsen and me battling for 4th place here. In this picture, I'm actually trying to pass him on the outside (I never did make it around.) I'm going faster than Lars but look at the ground clearance issues Lars is having versus me. photo by Lisa Theobald. The difference is from a quicker turn-in, a different turnpoint, different body position and other things that combine to make the difference. How close to the edge do you want to be? It's all practice. Until I'm getting paid to go fast, it's all practice. In other words, I don't try to force it. I pay attention to the people passing me, where they're passing me and where they're gaining time on me in the corner. Prior to the next session I think about what drill from the school I need to work on to make that happen. For instance, if someone is pulling away from me at the exit of a corner I may need to work on the 3-step or the hook turn or the pickup drill. I then work on that drill. I ride just at the edge of my comfort zone. In a specific turn I'll push that zone, either on entry, mid-corner, or on exit, by braking later/earlier, braking harder/less, changing my turnpoint, my mid-cornerpoint, etc... 1 turn, 1 session. It's all practice. I either do this in the turn that makes the most difference to the fastest part of the track or that I'm just not comfortable in. For me, this does few things: 1. It pushes my comfort zone in one known area in a specific way. 2. It makes the rest of the track easier because my comfort zone is being pushed a little. 3. It makes my times more consistent. A lot of times what I find is that I start working on whatever I'm working on in every corner. This makes me work and I'm pretty tired after the session. Next session, I'll really work on getting the sames laptimes but getting relaxed. As for sliding, I've come to the conclusion that finding the traction band is a bad thing. What I mean by that is doing something and waiting to see if the bike slides and trying to feel when it does is a reverse way of riding. It's making the bike tell you what to think. You're riding around a corner going, "I don't know." I don't think that's so good - it depends almost entirely on reaction time. What I think is good is going, "I'm going to make the bike slide here." Intentionally, knowingly, sliding the bike. This way you plan it. You get your body set, you do the pickup drill. This depends mostly on planning and execution and much less on reaction time.

You know, I was just going to post something on this. After a 4 year break, last year July 27th-28th, I started racing again. I stopped waiting until I got in shape and lost weight and just did it. At 6' tall and 230lbs my first races were 7 seconds a lap slower than AMA racers like Robertino Pietri, Santiago Villa, and Barret Long. This last weekend, my best time was 2.5 seconds slower than the best of the event. Even better, I was consistently running close to my best time. I still weigh 230lbs. In the last year, I've had several close calls and only one crash. I can't really call it a crash, the bike never hit the ground, had no damage to it, and I finished 7th in the race - there's another post about that Daytona experience. After several thousand track miles this year between racing and coaching I say no, you don't have to crash exploring the limit.

Yeah, the highsides are happening sooner. Lorenzo's at Laguna's T5 was a really good mid-corner highside. His China looked like a combination of many things. He chopped the throttle at the end a right turn to flick the bike over to the left for a downhill left. I think the hill, the quick right-left flick, and the engine braking (what ever he has it tuned to) caused the rear to step out rather quickly. I've come close to doing that a few times with takeoffs. In my racing on my ZX-10, I'm noticing the rear is stepping out when or close to when I get on the gas and not really at where I would say I was exiting the turn. The tires are promoting awesome lean angles and adding acceleration is a real tricky thing.

Oh yeah, I know exactly what tires I was on, Dunlop Rain Tires.

What this looks like on video is here: at 2:33-2:40 and the big one at 6:49-7:02

Sorry... haven't had time. After the races Sunday, I flew to Salt Lake City to coach with the California Superbike School at Miller. Flew back on Thursday and have been going full bore on work, video and moving stuff. Have to drive down to Ft Lauderdale tonight - I'm moving there. Race report: Best results ever for the team and new personal best lap at Homestead. Thanks to the Waterin' Trough and Dunlop Race Tire Services for supporting me. Also I have to thank Susan, my wife, and David Bruce, my mechanic, for their help. Without all the support this wouldn't be possible. GTO - 10th: I wheelied off the line and hit the rev limiter before I could shift to 2nd. Jeff Holton, made contact with me because of that and moved my clip-on and repositioned my clutch lever a bit higher than I like it. I took a little bit of time in the first two turns to make sure I could still use the clutch and took off. I passed Jeff at turn 6 but was way too hot and he passed me back. I made the pass stick when he ran wide at 8. After that I did my personal best at Homestead, bettering my previous best by 1.5 seconds, a 1:29.073. If I had farted, I would have gotten a 1:28! I caught up to Charlie Mavros and woke his ass up. Mavros is pretty fast at Homestead when he wants to be and we battled the whole race with him getting 9th and me 10th. Video here: HD Expert GTO and Unlimited Supersport - 5th: This race started with light rain falling but I still ran 1:29 laptimes. I got a much better start this time and was 5th into turn one. Mavros passed me at turn 6 and I followed him until we passed #1 Brad Graham. Mavros and I then battled for 4th while catching up to 3rd. Mavros took 4th and cost me $100 of Kawi money - the bastard! Video here: Unlimited Superbike - 3rd: Due to heavy rain, eight riders decided not to race making this a field of three. After the sighting lap, the race was delayed 20 minutes. My suspension was still set for dry and was just bouncing over bumps and causing huge slides. I couldn't keep Gus Sanchez and Brad Graham in sight after the first 2 laps. Almost high on lap 4. Video here: Unlimited GP - 6th: Wet track with puddles. I was just not in this race. I could have gotten 5th but I just wanted to bring it home and get out of there. No video, it's boring as hell.

Maybe burning out the clutch is why other 600 riders start at 7 instead of 9 grand. How do you position your feet from a start? Sounds like you would prefer keeping at least one foot a peg? Yeah, I like to keep one foot on a peg. I prefer to keep the right one up on the peg to stay anchored. The left foot is going to be moving anyway to shift so having it be the down foot makes sense to me.

I race a 10. I set my RPM to 5k for starts. If I go more than that I burn out the clutch in a weekend. If I start from idle, the bike tends to bog when you give it full throttle. So my process went like this. First I started from the max torque of the bike, 9k. That burned out clutches. Then I started from idle. That bogged. Then 3k - not quick enough. Now 5-6k is where I start from. Just prior to the green flag, I bring the RPMs up and hold them there. Front brake on, letting out the clutch just enough to feel it. At the green flag, it's full throttle, release the front brake and a quick but controlled release of the clutch. Ideally to a small wheelie, 3-6 inches off the ground. As for wheelies, getting your upper body forward and low is a great idea but it doesn't do much until your feet are on the pegs. If your feet are off the pegs, all of your weight is on the seat as far as the bike is concerned. That means a high center of mass which makes for easier wheelies. Getting weight onto the pegs lowers the center of mass and will reduce the tendency to wheelie. If you could somehow start from underneath your bike, that'd be the bomb!

May 25th Palm Beach International Raceway, Jupiter, FL The Way to Happiness Racing Team, sponsored by The Waterin' Trough Dance and Saloon and Dunlop Race Tire Services, had its best finish in the hotly contested Unlimited GP race Monday at PBIR. Greg Gorman, rode the Corsa Motorworks prepared 2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R to an impressive 4th place in treacherous track conditions. The track was mostly dry but had several streams of water in key acceleration and braking areas. "Just riding in those conditions isn't really a problem. Racing in those conditions is another thing entirely. In the hard acceleration and braking areas of turns 3 and 4 there were multiple streams that forced you to really get the bike upright for braking. You had to wait to turn the bike really late where the dry pavement was then you were still uncertain if the tire would grip. Turn 6 was the worst though. It had multiple streams from the beginning of where you'd normally brake all the way to the apex. And then in turn 8 there was a single stream about a bike length in width right where we were accelerating for the back straight. Each time through the whole bike would just move sideways. I really have to thank my team, Susan, Chrissy, and David, for their hard work this weekend. Without them this would be almost impossible." The races started with the Sunday night GTO race in which Greg had a race long battle with Christopher Boy for 7th place. Greg finished 8th but was officially 7th as the winner, Barret Long, was disqualified due not having a transponder on his bike. "That was a good race with Chris. I'm really disappointed I didn't get around him but he got the job done and I didn't. Next time." Next time came on Monday during the Unlimited Supersport race in which Greg finished 8th. "Well, I got past Chris in turn 10 and then I missed turn 1 and Chris got by. I was intent on chasing him down but in turn 4 there was a crashed bike, a rider on the ground and a corner worker nearby signaling for an ambulance. I was expecting a red flag and slowed down slightly. Next lap, no red flag, bike and rider are cleared. I came close to catching Chris in traffic but again, didn't get it done." Greg also finished 5th Unlimited Superbike. "I got a good start and was riding hard but the lap times just weren't there. I was getting into the 1:20s but not into the 19s or 18s like I need to be. This track requires a different bike setup than Homestead or Jennings and we haven't quite found it yet. We're getting closer as the laptimes are more consistent but not quite there yet." The team will race again at Homestead-Miami Speedway on June 27th and 28th. The Way to Happiness Racing Team is based in Clearwater, Florida and sponsored by The Waterin' Trough Dance and Saloon, Dunlop Race Tire Services, and Corsa Motorworks. Find out more at http://twthracing.org

My dad taught me this when I was 9, I still get it wrong sometimes. By your statement, you get it right most of the time so you know you need to let the brake fingers slide over the brake lever when you blip. Practice doing that with the bike off just sitting in your garage. Practice it at different levels of pressure on the brake. Another point to look at would be are you using your index and middle fingers to brake with? If not, switching to those two fingers may help fix it.

This doesn't make sense to me. My idea of 1g is that it is simply a representation of the acceleration of gravity. So the only time 1g is equilibrium is when an object is not moving and the reason it's not moving is because the ground is providing enough force to counter the acceleration of gravity - we'll exclude earth rotational, and other larger scale movements for the sake of simplicity. For an object to change it's speed, whether that speed is 0mph or 100mph, a force must be applied to cause acceleration. The resultant acceleration need not be greater than 1g unless we are talking vertical acceleration. For road racing motorcycles, vertical acceleration is generally a bad thing. I think the 0.1g is correct. 1g, 32/ft/sec/sec, is a lot of forward acceleration.

I'm fairly certain that it won't be on this road trip.

Yeah, I'll do that. I've got 9 days of talking to them real soon. See you in joyzee.

Yeah, when I get on the gas it runs wide. There's a lot of grip at this track and it massively tears tires on the right side in one session. I think the grip may be part of the problem. Anyway, I didn't raise the rear, I lowered the front by 5mm. To address the tire wear, I increased the tire pressure on my NTECs to 30psi rear. That still might be a bit low. Next time out I'll try 31 and see what it looks like.

A good weekend I got a 7th, 9th, 5th, and 7th. I was having a lot of problems with tire wear and getting the bike to finish the turn. I finally made some improvements to both of those and that resulted in my 5th place and my best laptime at PBIR by one second of 1:19.5. First up was the GTO Saturday night race 7th: I ran 6th for most of the race but got passed with two laps to go and just couldn't keep up. From watching this video I noticed I was missing my mid-corner points and worked on that in my next races Next was Unlimited Supersport on Sunday 9th: Personally, this is my favorite video EVER! Takes me back to a video Keith made with Chuck Graves where Chuck passes the enitre Endurance racing field on his sprint bike. The story is we swapped tires and my mechanic forgot to adjust the tire pressure. He literally remembered at the last minute and stopped me from going out on track so he could let the air out. This caused me to miss the warm up lap and I had to start from pit road after all the experts and amateurs made their start. LOTS of passing fun. Then came Unlimited Superbike 5th: The batteries died for the video camera so there's no video. Got a decent start and did my first sub-1:20 lap time. I finally got the bike to turn a bit better and completely handled the massive tire wear problem. I caught 4th place in traffic and almost got him at the line. Finally, Unlimited GP 7th: Seven riders nose to tail for two laps until I make too many mistakes and lose touch. My best lap ever of PBIR at 1:19.5 is on lap two.

Just regarding the sliders, it looks like you should move where you place the knee puck. It looks like you're hitting only the top corner of the puck. Move it around to get it to slide flat or as close as possible. Also, you may want to try different knee sliders and see how they wear.

Oh... well that didn't work. I was trying to point out that riding in circle does not take into accout the rules of WHEN and HOW MUCH to apply the throttle. The two rules work together. Seperate them and you get all sorts of neat problems.

Looking at it from a speed vs. radius viewpoint tends to lead to, "Well of course, if you add speed you'll need to add lean angle to maintain the same radius." Also, the idea of riding in a circle comes in with that viewpoint as a hypothetical way to test the theory. Yes, you can add too much throttle, too little throttle, too late on the throttle and too early on the throttle, all of which can lead to running wide in one way or another. If you went out and rode in a circle, you'd find a constant throttle position to keep the constant radius. Would that put the bike in a 40/60 f/r balance? If you found a 40/60 balance in a circle, eventually you'd get enough speed to run wide. Is that applying the rule of when to start rolling on the throttle?

I sent a PM to the admin. He should be able to fix this.

Worked for me. It's so cool to read that and get the history I didn't know about, to read how the school developed.

Off throttle, I don't know. It'd be real easy to say suspension rebound but I don't think it's that simple. What I feel tells me that the sheer momentum of the left/right quick turn combined with the rebound, combined with rider movement, combined with the force of the countersteer work to do this. In other words, a lot of angular velocities that I can't really think with. And, for the front wheel to come up off throttle, except when cresting banking, I have to think it's technically a rider error - or rider fun. I mean it's possible to go from left to right real damn fast in a parking lot without the front coming up.

Eh, no convincing. The faster you want to go, the faster you'll turn the bike. That's just the physics of it. To really see quick turning from the pros, watch them in the esses. Especially watch national championships when the leaders are lapping the "slower" riders.

A quick turn in esses can sometimes lift the front. Say a left-right. Come out of the left hard on the gas and start your flick before you roll off the gas and viola - wheelie. Another situation is just banked esses where the left and right banking forms a crest in the road or track. If your flick is timed at the top of the crest you can get the front wheel off the ground. If you do this, just right, in the Corkscrew at Laguna, you can get both wheels off the ground. The interesting thing to remember is the bike has the momentum of the steering input so it continues to lean while one or both wheels are in the air. If there's enough front brake drag, the front wheel slows down enough to slide when it lands but it quickly gets back up to speed and traction in that situation hasn't ever been a problem for me. Of course I'm not talking huge, stand up and wave at the crowd, wheelies either. I think there's a picture in Twist I of King Kenny wheeling in the middle of the Corkscrew right on top of the left/right crest.

I found that off the shelf leathers wear at an angle for me. My custom leathers wear flat.

Yes, you understood correctly but it's a 15tooth sprocket. Stock on the '08 10 is 17/41