tmckeen

Thanks for all the responses, I guess my main issue is the bike feels exactly like its always felt, it isn't bad or unstable or anything, but I don't know if it could be better as I have nothing to "benchmark" it against. My current setting for the forks according to my notes are as follows Sag Front: 33mm ( Travel 120 mm ) Compression Fast: 0.374" ( Range 0.31" - 0.47" ) Compression Slow: 10 clicks ( Range 1 - 16 Clicks ) Rebound: 7 clicks ( Range 1-17 Clicks ) the stock spring rates should be right on for my weight, according to the online calculators I've looked at, assuming that the forks have the stock springs in them

HI and welcome to the forums , When exactly were you out instructing at MCBH ?? I was stationed there for a few years and am curious if our stays overlapped. Tyler

I do believe he had a pretty successful motocross career as a young child, after which he took a long break before buying his first street bike and taking up road racing. Netflix has a documentary series on him, its not half bad IMO. I think I disagree, to a point, on this "1. The ability to effectively counter-steer the bike. " Now for me personally , I view this as a basic operational principle of the motorcycle, not a skill/technique. Of course quick flicking the bike is IMO entirely separate from this, much like knowing how to operate the brakes is very much different from good braking technique. If I were to play devils advocate along these lines I could list the top 3 skills as 1: Owning a motorcycle, 2: knowing how to turn on and start the motorcycle, 3: Knowing how to operate the clutch / gearbox. All three of these would be required before one even got to the point of needing to steer, but they are kind of silly in terms of the top 3 riding skills/techniques. Perhaps the difference lies in the interpretation of the question. The "Top 3 riding skills/techniques" for a new rider might not necessarily be the same as the "Top 3 riding skills/techniques" for a experienced track day veteran. Much in the way that the 3 most important skills, might not be the same as the 3 most important fundamentals or the 3 most Basic skills etc. etc. Tyler

I find the best regimen is not to do a crash course in hydration a few days prior , but to keep your body properly hydrated all the time. I don't know offhand how many glasses of water doctors recommend you drink every day, but I know its a lot more than the average person does. Personally I drink about a gallon of ice'd tea a day, non caffeinated, and just keep an eye on my urine color. Tyler

I've done a little googling, but I can't seem to find a good answer to this question How much of your total fork travel should you be using ?? obviously you don't want to be bottoming out your forks, but should you be fairly close to using all of it ? or 3/4 of it ?? after a few track days with a Zip Tie on my front fork , and some very aggressive braking on the straight at SoW I've only managed to use 84-86 mm of my 120 mm's of total travel. Should I be using more or is that perfectly fine ??

Welcome to the Forums , starting out with some good instruction is always a great idea, I'm sure you'll have a blast at the school in Vegas Tyler

#1 Vision, Eirik summed it up quite nicely #2 Confidence, without confidence in both yourself and your machinery all the techniques in the world are for naught #3 Sense of speed, the better your sense of speed the more consistent you can be, and consistency will result in better lap times I would also toss in a sense of traction , or perhaps a sensitivity for machine feedback, being able to read what the bike and tires are telling you Tyler

Yikes, they must have jacked up their rates, I've stayed there like 2x, but it was 60$ then, totally not worth 90$

nice link Eirik, some good points in there, I was surprised by how plainly Spies says he simply cannot ride the Yamaha at a front runner pace with his technique. With the exception of CoTA, which is brand new, when was the last time Rossi was at a "New" track anyway

First off Welcome to the forums, you mention this in reference to long sweepers Are you referring to making your one steering input for the corner or to having to maintain a input on the bars for the entirety of the corner ? If its the first, why use only one arm, a push pull combination would allow a quicker steering input than a push or pull alone, If its the second, why are you making a constant input on the bars through the corner ? Tyler

I think thats a little unfair of a observation, If Marquez tried to ride a 500 the way he does, I'd bet money he wouldn't make it through a entire season. Rossi won his titles at the transition from 500's to 4 strokes and before the onset of the major electronic revolution so to speak. As the technology evolves, so to does the technique required to exact the maximum from the machine.

Theres quite a few corners at Streets that lack curbing, I'm gonna say thats Turn 6

Currently MV Agusta has the record with 18 titles, followed by Yamaha and Honda with 16 and 15

I heard somewhere that this is a result of the difference between the Yamaha and the Honda, It might have been Ben Spies doing commentary at Indy but I'm not sure. Basically Lorenzo needs to get that early gap to be able to run the flowing lines and utilize his superior corner speed, due to the Honda's superior power its very difficult for him to pass and it's easy for the Honda riders to hold back the Yamaha's mid corner speed and gap them on exit with their superior drive. Kinda like riding a 250 against a 1000, get out front pull a gap and use your superior lap times to pull away you can win, but get stuck behind and your held up mid corner and left in the dust on the straights Tyler

They came very close to winning WSBK last year, are currently leading the rider championship , and a very close second in the manufacturers championship, with 7 Race wins this year

I think after my experience this past weekend you're looking at it wrong, I'm most likely never going to be competing for a podium once I get my expert License, but there's always gonna be guys around my pace that I am competing with, someone who was a little faster then me last time, but perhaps I can improve this time and beat them. Theres competition to be had at lots of different paces, and you don't need to be a front runner to have a good time,

Yeah you linked it to the 4th page, took me a few to figure out why it started mid interview question, I did find the bit about Closed course racing being Illegal while open road racing isn't very odd

I just got back from my first Club Racing weekend, and It was a Blast !!! The New Racer Licensing Course with CVMA is actually taught by a former CSS coach and he was very thorough and focused heavily on the safety aspect of what to do and what not to do as a club racer. I made some pretty good improvement's on my Lap times over the weekend, Qualified Saturday morning with a 2:08.9, Managed to improve that in my Race saturday to a 2:06.3 and a 2:05.8 in my race sunday. All told it was a great experience and I can't wait to head back next month for the next round. Tyler

I think if you are looking to pick up riding technique and tips from watching racing, you might get more out of watching some of the lower level Superstock and supersport stuff. There you're at least watching pro riders pushing the same kind of machinery to the very limit

He was looking especially smooth and particularly lazy on saturday in the BMW. But he still had a big old grin on his face .....

I wouldn't say there have been any more Injuries this year than other years, I think the injuries Lorenzo and Pedrosa suffered are just getting about 10000% more commentator coverage because they talk about it about 6 times every race

I do my own Oil, Tires, Chains, Sprockets, Valve Adjustments, Brakes I do have my fork seals changed by a local bike shop, but aside from that I try to do most everything I can myself

I camp out at Streets every time I'm out there. This weekend they had Drag Racing on saturday night which was rather fun to watch

I would say there is nothing a normal rider can learn from watching a MotoGP race, the level of technology in the bikes and tires and the way they ride them is soooo far beyond anything you have access to its irrelevant to a average rider. The riding style that Marquez uses is clearly not something you would want to emulate at a normal track day pace, and without the electronic aids that he has would likely result in a serious accident, but you would have a hard time convincing him that his style is "wrong" his results speak for themselves. They also brake so incredibly hard at lean angle that even the lines they use are mostly irrelevant to the average rider. Id say its about as useful as trying to learn better driving technique by watching a F1 race, its just so far beyond where a normal car is the physics and rules are different. Tyler

Bob wasn't there this weekend, It was the other younger guy from eTechPhoto, Great to hear you had a good time, sux about the heat getting to you and missing out on a session, I was going through gatorades like candy all weekend for sure. Which group were you riding in on Saturday ?? Tyler