tmckeen

I'm curious Hotfoot, when do you Start hydrating for hot days in dry climates ?? are you drinking lots of water and gatorade two days prior to prepare for it or do you wait till the morning of to do it ? When I was in the Marines some guys raved about the effectiveness of Pedialyte for recovering after especially grueling P.T. sessions, tho if you can get it a few bags of Lactated Ringers works wonders too

Pro Racers are able to hang off without any significant "lock on" due to the ammount of G force they carry in the corner. Consider If your carrying 1 G of cornering load there is just as much force holding you on the bike horizontaly mid corner as there is when your sitting on the bike fully upright.

I think the lap times would not be as impressive as you'd think, but It's prolly a BEAST off the line

You mentioned that it was raining "Cats and Dogs" could you possibly have hydroplaned the front briefly, also do too the overly wet conditions I would imagine that the sliding the front would actually be a lot smoother then in the dry since there is less friction on the front tire.

Nah, you just wear a wet suit underneath them best guess is 2.5-3 car lengths in front of the rider

Curious did you order a precut pad or fashion one yourself out of some stock foam material ?

Legal, Ethical, Moral, Philosophical ... doesn't much matter I was just curious what some other "educated" riders around here thought of the situation. Clearly without the car the situation never would have happened, but the rider did have enough time to react and avoid the accident but failed to do so. Its basically the same as asking did the debris in the road, or the riders bad riding cause them to crash. As for the legality of lane splitting, I do believe California is the only state where its legal, and I've read that the law used to give a set speed range but they removed that wording to give officers more leeway enforcing "unsafe lane splitting" While I agree 100% that our safety is entirely our own responsibility, I have to ask if you have much experience with lane splitting or riding in and around the LA area? Having ridden on both coasts and in the middle of the pacific ocean I can say without a doubt the number of motorists who move out of your way and actually look for motorcyclists here in LA is significantly higher then anywhere else I have ridden. Something I attribute to the increased number of motorcycles on the roadways and lane splitting between traffic on all of the heavily congested freeways. It by no means makes riding any less dangerous as it only takes 1 driver to not seeing you to ruin your day, but I would disagree that the act of lane splitting alone is putting a rider at significantly higher risk then simply riding in a lane with traffic.

This morning on my way into work I witnessed a fellow motorcyclist involved in a accident right in front of me, thankfully its resulted in no major injuries. I had a pretty good view of the events unfolding and am curious which of the two parties involved you think were more "at fault" for the accident. The motorcyclist was splitting lanes between the carpool and leftmost lane, ( as was I ), he had become stuck waiting behind a delivery truck and a car that were a little to close together to fit between and when he had enough room to squeeze through he accelerated quite quickly to a pace that could be considered unsafe given the traffic conditions, faster then what I felt was safe anyway. Several hundred feet down the road a car quickly changed lanes from the carpool lane to the leftmost lane in front of him, crossing the double yellow line to do so, and I believe without signaling. In response to the car pulling out the motorcyclist first swerved slightly to the right, putting him on a trajectory headed right into the middle of the leftmost lane, he then attempted to emergency brake, but given the ridiculously raked out front end on his motorcycle his attempt to quick stop was insufficient and he plowed squarely into the center of the car, which by that time was completely in the leftmost lane. I'm fairly certain that had he not swerved to the right and just applied the brakes he would have missed the car completely. so who do you think is more at fault for the accident, the driver who cut across the double yellow or the rider to target fixated and ran into the car ?

I think along with all the practice everyone has mentioned you also need good instruction and coaching, for example if you have a bad golf swing all the practice and time is only going to net you so much improvement since your practicing a bad technique to begin with, at some point your bad swing will become so ingrained in your muscle memory that when you do learn the proper technique its all but impossible to relearn it. Also to truly become a master of something I think one of the most important parts is to start extremely young, the number of top world champion riders who started riding at Age 3-5 is astounding, lots of practice is great, but lots of practice while your brain is still learning how to interact and interpret the world around it is much better.

Interesting Side note, Per the lovely article in this months RRW on the Dunlop Facility here in the states. Dunlop is soon to release a new Dual Compound Slick, KR451, which is designed to be "flipped". With a softer compound on one shoulder of the tire you can run it in either direction based on the majority of the turns at your local track.

The Hook Turn is indeed a great technique to have in you "toolbox", the amount you can tighten up your line simply by shifting your upper body forward is a good deal more than you would expect. It is of course somewhat dependent on being properly set up for the turn, locked on and shifted over slightly on the seat, good body position etc. etc. I find its very useful when I turn in too early and end up on a wider line then I normally use and can tighten it back up to my normal line mid corner, but it definitely takes the presence of mind to think clearly mid corner and apply it. If you panic and SR's start taking over your most likely not going to even consider the hook turn as a option. As for the comparison of the hook turn to MotoGP riders and lines, that is kind of like comparing a Camaro to a F1 car. Those bike have SO much tech in them they are ridden completely different from a normal production based platform. They can hold insanely tight lines cause the GPS based electronics are modulating the engine braking to keep the bike on that line. There was a good article in RRW a month or two ago about the difference a full on WSBK Traction Control system makes, and I belive its most significant advantage was not the anti wheelie or the anti wheel spin or launch control, but the back in control that modulates the engine braking and adjusts the idle mid corner.

I would imagine this is highly subjective to the design and materials involved in the back protector. Certainly Rubbers and Foams will lose their elasticity and break down over time, reducing their ability to absorb a impact. I would reckon to guess any back protector that is "reusable" has a effective shelf life before the materials degrade to a point of no longer being effective, and of course care use and cleaning would have a effect on that shelf life. Aluminum Honeycomb based back protectors most likely wont suffer from the same degradation over time that rubber or foam would, but would be much more susceptible to accidental damage rendering its single use, used so to speak. Much in the same way a fall from enough height will render a helmet "used" anything that would compress the aluminum honeycomb could have the same effect reducing its ability to absorb a impact. FWIW I have one of the Dianese aluminum honeycomb style with the shoulder blade protectors

Michelin actually has a "Pilot Power" and a "Pilot Power 2CT" in their lineup, one being a single compound and the other a dual compound tire. and I wouldn't consider either of them Sport Touring, I believe their sport touring tires are the Pilot Road 2 or Road 3. I've been using the Pilot Power on my R6 and have put about 6 days out at Streets on them, I felt their grip was plenty sufficient but I'll most likely be replacing them with a set of Q2's before my next track day as I feel my pace might be ready for something a little stickier

Repeat after me: "One the quote box is turned on, its used evenly and smoothly throughout the remainder of the thread"

1: Yes, only on my track bike at the moment tho 2: Newer style Stomp Grip 3: Control under braking and ability to lock onto the bike is vastly superior on my track bike as compared to my street bike 4: cause they don't make them for my street bike and I dislike the look of the generic square pads on a side note I was already planning on looking at the assortment you guys have for sale at the school this weekend for a set to put on the street bike

Sounds to me like Hotfoot needs to follow Cobie around the forums for a few posts, little professional coaching should have him sorted out in no time

I heard or read somewhere that most foam seatpads on a Suberbike tail would be thinner and usually harder then the stock seats resulting in less muffling of feedback through the frame of the bike, and since your backside doesn't sink in quite as much moving around in the seat actually requires less effort then with the stock seat. Armour Bodies sells precut seat pads for their Superbike tails. I decided to go that route and ordered one for my R-6 bodywork. The fit and finish on them is top notch and I've had a few fellow corner workers out at SOW comment on the quality of the seat pad, the grip level is quite nice and I believe its closed cell foam so it wont fill up with water and take weeks to dry out should it get wet at some point. Tyler

I don't think getting blisters is really a indication of having a death grip on the bars, consider how easily you can develop blisters on your hands from operating a shovel for 45 min, you never really death grip a shovel but the constant abrasion on your palms nets you a blister all the same. If anything I would say its a indication of just how active and demanding riding at that level really is. I read a interview quote once, I think it was Rossi but I'm not sure, comparing the state of GP riding now and of yesteryear which was basically that a long time ago it was quite common for GP riders to win the race and casually enjoy a smoke, but now riders finish the race and are physically exhausted, and as the technology has improved through the years the effort required of the rider has increased alongside it.

On the topic of exotic bikes I was always kinda partial to the Benelli TRE, as for Ducati styling, its the Desmosedici RR hands down but damn that price tag Now for the 1199 and WSBK , I think its mostly due to Ducati not having a factory team, Althea Ducati is a private team, and being a private team decided to stick with the proven championship winning bike over the new model and playing development catch-up all season

On a side note, the S1000RR just took top prize in RoadRacing World's Liter bike shootout, not too shabby for what is still a relatively new entry in the superbike market

My advice for your next track day would be to pick 1 corner to really focus on, not a fast sweeper or a slow tight one but something you could realistically carry a lot of lean angle through at a moderate speed and have good clear vision for the entire corner. Start by perfecting your throttle roll on in that corner, once you have that down pick some good reference points for the corner so you are consistently turning in at the same point and apexing at the same point and apply the 2 Step. At this point you should pretty much feel like the bike is gliding on a rail through this corner and you should be very relaxed and confident that everything is working as it should be. Then just gradually up your pace through the corner, as your pace increases you will have to turn in a little harder and carry a little more lean angle. Motorcycling takes a lot of confidence, confidence in yourself, your bike, your tires, the road. Its not something you can build on your own in leaps and bounds and its much easier to lose it then gain.

You can pick up about 100 waterproof gloves at your local Auto-parts store for 15-20$, I've yet to find a "Waterproof" glove that actually lives up to its name, but slip on a pair of Nitrile/latex gloves under any pair of gloves and your hands will only be damp from your own sweat, they are also fantastic if you head out with your summer gloves on and find its just a touch too cold for your gloves choice. As for actual motorcycle gloves, I really like Icon's I had a pair of Merc Long's forever, took about 4 years to wear through the leather on my throttle palm, I don't think they make them anymore but you can find leftover's on Ebay or some discount sites. I'm currently using the Icon Overlord Long for my track gloves and they held up quite nicely after a little face time with turn 3 this Saturday so I'd give them a big Thumbs Up in my book

Have you seen the tank on the KTM RC8 ?? In Austria tank locks onto you