ThomasDark

I ride with a Dainese HPC with straps over the shoulders. It extends from my C5 to about 1" above my tailbone. I like that it covers so low on my back as tailbones take a lot of abuse. When I road tested it last year out at Miller it was great as I had little to no bruising and no soreness. I ride with it under my JoeRocket 2-piece which has full armor. I thought it was going to be tight at first, but after about 10 minutes I found I didn't notice at all. Now I feel naked if I have just my suit on and no back protector.

43 views, no replies. Someone out there has to know something about this...

Hey all, I've got a question on Clip-on angle. My father is considering changing his clip-ons from some less-than-adequate aftermarket clip-on's to something more reputable and he's stuck deciding between a 7º clip-on and a 10º clip-on. I figure that since he says he doesn't experience arm-pump (which seems to be the largest detractor with larger angle clip-ons) the 10º would make it easier to modify his grip on the throttle to the "screw-driver" position during cornering as well as make the "hook-turn" maneuver easier and thus be preferable. Please shed any light you have on this as I don't know how to answer him with much confidence. He rides some street but likes to spend most of his time at trackdays, but does not race (at this point). He rides a 2005 CBR600RR. At this point I don't know what the angle of his current clip-ons is. I think 7º is stock but he doesn't have the stock clip-ons so who knows what was installed. Thanks! Tom

I'm looking forward to more short videos like this... Great idea.

Explain yourself

The pivot steering idea is simply to obtain a firm(er) connection between your outside leg and the bike. I like to slightly lengthen my ankle and lower leg using my calf and then flex my quad to "lock" my leg to the tank. From that platform you can more quickly and precisely execute the "push/pull" on the bars (I find the push to be enough so I don't pull on the outside bar) that initiates the quick turn lean-in. Does that help?

Anyone on the staff is welcome to it. I just couldn't find a forum category that I thought it would fit under. Thanks again for your help last weekend Cobie. Level 4 was AWESOME! Brian is a great coach and I had a great time with him.

Will, Thanks for the help with my suspension and chain on my Black/Red/Green/Yellow Repsol Honda CBR 954rr this past weekend at the school. My bike has never felt so securely 'stuck' to the track as it did this weekend and I suspect you had a lot to do with that, so thanks agian. On a different note my dad (man with the concussion), brother and I have left a unintended 'gift' for you on the cyclone fence east of the Streets building at Willow springs. If you go to the southwest corner of the building and walk to the 4' cyclone fence adjacent to it you'll be able to find a Thermometer that is slipped through one of the loops at the top of the fence. You may not want to know what it's telling you but hey, who doesn't need a thermometer for random readings. Thanks again for the help with my bike and I'll make sure to swing out to Miller when you all come through town and say hello.

AGREED

As far as I can figure you can never use the inside leg to "lock" on the bike as if you drag your knee it's not touching the tank for most of the turn anyway. This may well be true... except Stoner, who basically showed Rossi what's fast... like a boss.

Or hit your local Harbor Freight and ask for "Self-Adhesive Rubber Safety Step Tread". $2.79 for a 4" x 17" piece. 10% of the price of purpose made products if you're into the DIY sort of thing.

Shakabusa, As a rider that first put his knee down aboard a CBR 1100XX I can say that the "hyperbikes" are hard(er) to do it on. I found that as long as I was focused on touching my knee down it seemed soooo hard. Once I started to focus on my line, body position, and looking through the corner to the exit all of the sudden the knee was down. All this was before my introduction to any CSS classes. As I took Level 2 last year on my 954rr I found I was so occupied with body position, RP's (all 3 of them), and throttle control I found my knee just did it's own thing and a few times I even was surprised that my knee was already on the ground in corners with no attempt to "stretch" my knee away from the bike to find the ground. It's a good feeling to drag a knee as long as you havn't put yourself in a bad situation as far as body position to get there. At this point I move on cheek of the seat and push my elbow what I feel is "toward the ground" and then just ride like Level 1 and 2 taught me and the rest works itself out. Good luck, and don't worry about the size of your bike... you can do it easily if all other aspects are properly aligned. I did enjoy Keith's article up top of this thread quite a bit. Good thing you commented on it so it came to the top of the queue.

KTK_ACE, I am sure when trying to learn people find themselves closer to the limit then they'd like and I do feel that when anyone is going to flirt with spending all $10 in a corner all the help they can get is welcomed. As suggested in all of Keith's books I make it a point to NEVER get close to 'going broke' in a corner and risking getting broken. As I do not race but do attend a few trackdays I *TRY* to keep the same attitude on the track as I'm not going for prize money and I'm a firm believer that the biggest win you can get at a track is walking away at the end of the day with an intact bike, body, and wallet and making amazing memories. For me, the need is just not there. I also feel that for 95% of sport bike purchasers the need isn't there either. I guess it's cool to have all the bells and whistles of Checa and Hayden for some. Just not me. I'm not cool. I would find it frustrating as a customer to be severely limited in tire choice by my bike. I would also hazard a guess that most of the owners of a spiffy new Duc with this type of fairly obscure limitation are unaware how their tire profile is going to affect their TC and will happily make their machine more dangerous without even knowing it on a 'sticky' set of Michi's or Bridgestones or whatever their cronies deem to be the newest flavor of choice when it comes to rubber.

well it's just my opinion after all. To each their own. For my riding (street riding) if i find myself so close to the limit that I'm wishing for TC I'm doing it wrong.

These ES's sounds like garbage to me. I'll stick with Honda who clearly believes traction should be managed by the rider, not a computer. To date I don't think they offer any type of TC on any of their bikes... just how it should be. All these computer-aided systems will never be as good at their jobs as a skilled pilot, IMO. Where's Ducati at in the world championship anyway... oh yeah, trying not to get beat by CRT bikes in one and still *HOPING* for a race win in the other. LOL. IMO prototype racing shows the true engineering ability of a company and Ducati doesn't have it.

If you come to Willow Springs June 8th/9th you can bring your own bike and it's two one-day classes in a row on a weekend. I'll be driving down from Utah for it so you'll see me there if you join us! TD

NicsDad, I do the timing and scoring up in utah for the "Masters of the Mountains" road racing series. We too have a young gun running around the 250 classes up here. May I suggest you bring Nic up and they can battle? Our kid (Gauge Rees) doesn't have really anyone near his age/size to race against so he goes out against full sized adults and has a blast. I'm sure he'd enjoy another kid to ride against and probably would make a new friend outa the deal. Good luck with your little guy. I have a 7 month old son who I hope one day wants to try racing... first we'll work on walking, then we move toward riding/racing. HAHA. Tom

Perhaps he doesn't. After some looking through all the images of Jorge Lorenzo that google had to offer the closest I found was this...

All I'm saying is he does do it sometimes... I think i've seen him do it coming into turn 6 at Qatar. I can't say whether he did it last race (Jerez) or not as my Eurosportplayer subscription expired so I didn't catch the race yet. He may have never done it but I am pretty sure it's a tactic that they all use when applicable. It's possible that due to his EXTREMELY smooth riding style he never gets in that position, but I've seen him brake pretty dang late before and am 80% confident he's done it during his career. We're still talking about the leg off thing, not the rear tire up while leaned over thing, right?

False

In this instance I usually move my shoulders inside and forward more and *SLIGHTLY* increase the rate of my throttle opening. I guess I need to crack open the book again and read as I just don't remember what it says. I just know that decreasing throttle will make you run wide and if I want to make the bike turn tighter (in emergencies) to fight my intuition to chop the throttle and actually open 'er up a bit more to tighten the radius of my corner... just don't be aggressive with the opening or you risk your back tire trying to pass on the outside which is never a good thing. Read on and let me know if I've gone wrong.

I'm pretty sure that it's because they're trying to sit as far back on their bike as possible to limit the rear wheel lifting during heavy braking. At the same time they're trying to shift their body weight inside to execute a faster quick turn. Since they're not big people the possibility of setting their body inside the bike before they start their turn as well as sitting far back on their seat is not a comfortable or stable position. It seems to me that as they put the foot back on their also quick turning and their upper body is 'trading places' with their leg. In summary, I think it's an attempt to get inside the bike prior to the turn AND sit as far back as possible to keep their rear wheel on the ground. After all, a quick turn in basically impossible when both wheels are not on the ground.

Truer words are hardly spoken

Coming from riding a "country club" style track and taking the CSS at a "seasoned" circuit I think there's actually LESS to learn at COTA than, say, Streets of Willow Springs. Every track has tight corners, few as tight as the last 3 at S.O.W.S., and having a rougher surface definitely helps you understand the whole 'keep a loose grip on the bars' thing and how a bike will ride through almost any bump unless the rider messes it up with unnecessary inputs. While it is a novelty to ride the tracks that you see on MotoGP, that's all it is. I frequent a 'country club' style track out here in Salt Lake and can definitely say the novelty of being on the WSBK course wears off before you hit turn 1. It may even hinder the riders ability to focus on learning the skills and not where Marquez dragged his knee. Having a CSS session that isn't miles and miles away is definitely a plus, but in motorcycle track riding having to travel a day or two to get there seems to be no big deal.

ells, For starters, I'm 6'5", 225 which is well outside the "desired" measurements for sport bike riding. I ride a completely stock CBR 954rr. I used to have issues wearing myself out trying to get "off the bike" with my lower body. This is what I've found: 1. The majority of your mass( or any human's mass) is above the hip bones, regardless of "girthiness". Therefore what you're doing with your shoulders is more important than your hips. 2. When I move my hips further off the bike I find it turns my shoulders to the OUTSIDE of the turn unless I'm VERY diligent about straightening my outside arm. This leads to feeling (an likely being) "crossed up", which unless your last name is Doohan is likely hurting your riding ability. 3. If I move my butt off the seat LESS, but turn my hips into the corner, (sometimes referred to as pointing your d!ck at the apex, or at least trying) I am able to break at the waist much more effectively. This allows you to drop your chest/upper body to a lower position AND you don't have to crank your head as far to find your exit points and other visual queues. 4. Since your chest is usually the most elevated portion of the "mass" that is your bike and you (ultimately those two bodies determine your Center of Gravity) being able to bend at the hips in a more forward direction, in line with the normal directions of articulation of your body, will GREATLY lower your Center of Gravity. In essence, Lower CoG=More vertical bike as you don't have to lean as far to resist the angular force trying to stand you up and make you go straight. Just my $0.02, so maybe I'm right maybe I'm not. Turning my whole body to face the inside of the corner seems to work for me.