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There is a tight banked corner I know of where you have to trail brake in to keep the front suspension loaded till the banking loads it. If you come off the brakes as you turn in it's too early and the front unloads and then reloads as it hits the banking making things very uncomfortable. I do remember reading about this kind of corner in one of Keith's books.

Thanks jrock, sorry to take a while to put that up, the toe/hard parts of the bike touching down is a great one and has caught me out before. The idea with this is to have a list of each SR trigger that we can mentally run through in our minds so that we are better prepared when the situation arises. For example if you were to picture in your mind your toe/hard parts of your bike touching down and at the same time you are maintaining good throttle control, then when the situation occurs you are much more likely to do the right thing. Then you could picture the same thing happening and you have a nice easy grip on the bars etc..

Fear of putting on the gas. Too much speed. Sliding the rear. Sliding the front. Front end shaking. Front end leaving the deck. Rear in the air under braking. Rear sliding into the corner. Other riders crashing in front. Other riders doing unexpected thing. Lots of lean angle. Quick flicking. Blown around by the wind. Rain. Chasing rider with their front wheel right up your tail pipe. Toe/ hard parts of bike touching down while leaned deep. Running off the track into grass or dirt etc. Above is a list of some things that can cause survival reactions. Please add any triggers you have experienced or can think of and I will add them to the list.

I think having good throttle technique and being loose on the bars as outlined in Twist Of The Wrist 2 will deal with the front end slide. An important point is that getting the throttle rolling on as soon as you are over will get you through any front slide that develops at the entry, if you've got the gas off and the front goes I think its time to taste the tarmac you've gotta be already coming onto the throttle to save it. If you can get it GSXR600 read Kenny Roberts book which details, amongst many other cool things, the point that Keith makes about getting the gas on early.

Keith's article http://www.superbikeschool.com/bbs/index.p...t=ST&f=11&t=111 helped a lot to improve my confidence in flicking a bike over

Yes you can play it online Stuman, sign up here and download xlink kai http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/?go=faq if you click on the link just above where it says statistics on the right hand side of the page it will tell you what you need to know.

Unless you've gone in way over your head I don't think you would 'react' to the front sliding except for holding it up with your knee. Ideally your technique is already doing all the things necessary to get you to the exit eg weight distributed correctly with the throttle and hands loose on the bars letting the front do its own thing. I've had the front let go a beauty on the racetrack so its tucking but I was already on the throttle and loose on the bars so it just rode through same as a MX bike. I guess this is where SR's could get in the way. I'm curious that you lost the front while accelerating, were you holding the bars a bit tight?

Wow Willow must be cool I see MotoGP 4 will feature online play

Do you mean the PS2 Namco MotoGP Stuman or the xbox one? I've put in a few laps at Phillip Island on the namco game, but haven't yet been to the track. That fast left before the hairpin must be pretty intense in real life (as well of course as the corner at the end of the front straight where I see all those great passing moves on the telly)

Dunno yet, it comes out here on March 11. What does the bump do to you?

I see Sears point will be in Gran Turismo 4, easy way to learn the track layout before going, from what I've seen they've improved Laguna as well to make it accurate.

Hey who else loves this book, I pretty much destroyed my copy! I was having a racing comp with a friend on the playstation (motocross game) that went over weeks, when he started beating me I started using the mind management ideas from this book and got the upper hand You can practice and develop this stuff on video games! And the more you practice the more it becomes second nature..

Maybe its easier to chop down through the gears without blipping on a world championship bike. I know it was Mick Doohans technique to hold the clutch in throughout the braking with no blipping, although he did mention that it was an unusual technique.

Do you have access to a Gym?

Keith recommends in one of his books to master using just the front brake first and then consider the use of the rear if you find a use for it. Sounds reasonable to me, there are plenty of champion riders around who use only the front. A rider I used to know just won Isle Of Man and when he was over here he was only using the front brake. I think also in TOTW2 it mentions that Doug Chandler only uses the front. I'm sure there are plenty of others. If you can get to this level of riding using only the front brake why waste your attention bringing the rear brake into the mix when there are other more important skills to be developed. When I was racing last sometimes I would hammer the rear brake because of dirt riding habits, generally it was a pain in the arse resulting in unnecessary squirming around.

Teretonga in Invercargill NZ. It is fast with a grippy surface. Turn 1 is the highlight, its a 4th gear corner (on a 250GP bike) that just goes on and on, you just about come round in a full circle, and there is so much grip you are leaned all the way over right around. If they made a track with 2 straights and that corner both ends you'd have to call it heaven.

I would recommend you concentrate on the basic techniques as they are detailed in TOTW 2 and also TOTW, take the oppurtunity to work on these fundamentals. When you have a good plan going in your head for where you want to be on the track and what you want to be doing you are more focused and there is not much attention left over for fearful thoughts. Also if you haven't done so yet you could read the Soft Science of Road Racing Motorcycles, it is an awesome book for the mental side of racing and will help you to choose and focus your mind on the most advantageous thought processes for each part of the track. I reckon the fun factor will come back to you indirectly if you apply the above advice. I am not yet an instructor and all the above is IMHO

If you can get hold of a small dirtbike like an xr100 you can practise locking up the front brake and also letting go of it and getting back on the throttle when it is starting to tuck under into a corner.

Cool. I can imagine 2 people circulating a track, one countersteering with their body held in place, the other on the no BS bike trying to body steer it - would be quite amusing.

I'm curious - when someone manages to steer the bike with their hands off the bars is there a countersteer at the initiation of the direction change (eg does the front wheel go out of line with the rear in a countersteering manner)

Thanks Stuman I think I might have been expecting to feel something and then trying to pick it up from there which I guess is not a good idea with cold ones.

Yeah your right about that comment about the outside peg, I am not used to putting it into words maybe just picking the bike up. I'm glad you talked about the lack of predictable traction because that was the big problem I didn't feel it coming. And no after 3 years of racing I don't expect to know everything in fact I don't think its possible for anyone to know everything about anything. I remember Jeremy McGrath still going to riding schools quite recently so you can always learn something no matter how good you are. As I said I was 'wondering' if there was a technical issue as I might have missed something and there are people on this sight, yourself included I think, with loads more experience than me, I did about 4 race meetings per year in those 3 years. Also I was using tire warmers later on so I haven't learnt a great deal about cold tires myself. I guess it just comes down to pushing the bike up before it can let go judging by the way you said 'of course'.

When I say short racing career I mean 3 years worth, I didn't race too much in that time because of job commitments but I have won races and have competed well at national level, I am happy to lose traction front or rear and don't throw the bike away often except once in practice and once on the first lap of a race both on cold tires and the setup of both bikes was questionable, but I was wondering if one of the instructors might have spotted a technical issue in my riding. I couldn't give a rats ass about looking good with power slides and would be quite happy to race either of you. And no I won't forget about getting it loose, its too handy a tool.

Hi there, in my short racing career a few years ago I crashed twice in the dry both times on cold tires and both times I spun the rear right around so it didn't highside it just spun right out because I don't drop the throttle when it lets go. I was always comfortable when the tires were heated up to have the rear loose probably from my dirt riding experience and I quite enjoy it like that anyway, and also when using tire warmers I felt %100 confident with the rear out of shape on the first lap. On both crashes the rear let go very fast. So if I am on cold tires do I need to push the bike up harder with the outside peg as I am getting on the gas or have I missed something?. I know cold tires are becoming less relevant with tire warmers these days but I am wondering if the problem will come back if my rear tire goes off (when I get back into racing)

Well thanks Will I guess the world plan would be a good base and then the rider needs to put in the time, effort and thinking to get the most out of the new machinery, especially the traction and handling from what you are saying. I guess when I get back on a racebike it will take a bit to get back near the limits. When you were riding in 92 were you as fast(comparatively speaking) as you are now? How much practice do you think is neccessary for good linear(roughly of course) improvement up to competitive national level and then for maintanence? Schwantz reckons he needed weekly practice to stay at the peak for GP.