rchase

I'm curious just how much easier the newer electronic packages have made this Tyler That's actually an interesting point. The MV Agusta F3 has the ability for the rider to adjust the amount of engine braking and a few other throttle related parameters which might help with that a bit. There's probably more bikes that have that option but I can't think of any off hand. As for the TC on most bikes all it does these days is retard the spark. TC would make that situation worse rather than better. You would have the TC adding to the delay of getting the engine RPM's up if it detected any kind of sliding or if the lean angle sensor got in its "oh no!" range. If I understand correctly he's applying throttle and slipping the clutch to keep the engine speed synced up to the wheel speed almost like a long lasting rev matched downshift. If you REALLY wanted some cool electronics stick that into an electronic system! With the clutch for some riders being a redundant control an electronically assisted one would be interesting if they could get it right. Some of the new Italian bikes have an Auto blipper for downshifts and a quick shifter for upshifts. With an electronic assisted clutch synced into the bikes TC system it would be like having a sequential manual gearbox and much better TC and quicker on the gas time exiting corners. That would certainly translate into more attention spent elsewhere and perhaps better lap times.

That's a good question. In Twist of the Wrist II Keith describes that by riding at 75% of your limit to avoid survival reactions / fear. I personally find this rather helpful as it gives me time to absorb and process information as I am riding and know what's working and what's not working. I have seen others who ride at 100% all the time and some of them make it work and some of them are not so lucky and end up crashing a lot. On the Mladin technique. If a professional rider says somethings "hard work" I certainly will take his word for it. Perhaps many many years from now when complete perfection becomes "automatic" for me that might be something to explore. But that's a long way off. I think there's a lot more speed to be gained by getting everything right in the long run before pulling out the specialized tricks.

Makes sense to me. While his approach for keeping the rear stable is a lot of work he does not have the lag of the engine spooling up and can get more usable power down faster. He's obviously done a lot of thinking about how the machine itself works. Quite brilliant actually as even small refinements can gain you a fraction here and a fraction there. All those fractions add up over the course of a race. While it makes perfect sense you won't find me trying that any time soon. He's using his huge leftover in his $10 of attention budget to doing all the work of modulating the throttle and clutch and constantly sampling the result. Most mere mortals like me use close to the full $10 of attention during braking and corner entry without enough leftover attention to do something that requires such a delicate touch and constant "feel" of what the bike is doing.

Jason, Thanks for those tips. I as well have seen the 300#+ guys riding in the advanced group terrorizing the stick figure people so I figured there are some tricks to managing where that weight sits on the motorcycle. I have come to the conclusion that part of my big problem is I keep switching around from bike to bike. I have been on 3 very differently shaped bikes so far and plan to add a 4th to the mix. From the School's BMW S1000RR to my teeny FZR400 to my MV Agusta F4. My plan this season is to ride my R6 and stick to that bike until I get a position that works really well for me. Luckilly the R6 that I have is quite similar in shape to the S1000RR so it's going to be somewhat familiar right away. Ironically out of all the bikes the F4 is the most comfortable for me on the track because of it's super aggressive riding position. You either get with the program position wise or you suffer with extreme back pain. Since the F4 is so aggressive and requires good position on the street to preserve your spine on the track it's much more familiar. Once that good position "clicks" for me. Watch out. "Fat Man" coming through.

Keith, Great article. A paved planet would certainly be a wonderful thing. Only one enhancement. A foam rubber paved planet. That way you could easily go well beyond the limits of traction and develop the feel of what happens when you get it wrong. I'm afraid I would have to schedule a lot of vacations there and spend it at maximum lean angle flicking from side to side and intentionally crashing myself just to build that "feel" for when I went back to the non paved planet.

That's what I've been hearing. I got away with it for a while but my pace has picked up enough that all the coaches I have ridden with have said something about it. Time to suck it up and spend some money. Not that I'm opposed to that. I just want to be sure I'm spending it in the right place. It's going to take a few weeks to get it torn down, shipped out and then reassembled but I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks for the input! Just an FYI. Traxxion Dynamics in Atlanta GA offers mail in service with pretty decent turn around. They also have a number of cartridge products for forks and other upgrades. I brought my R6 there in person but what impressed me is when I was there the suspension rebuild guy and warehouse guy were VERY conscientious about the UPS shipment when it arrived to get them out of the boxes quickly and get to work ASAP to try to get them out the door as soon as possible. On top of that you could do surgery or eat out of their rebuild area. Probably the cleanest work area I have ever seen.

Yeah the camera survived despite getting run over by a few cars and getting some road rash. I was probably going maybe 40mph when it left the bike. I was 110% certain the camera was on their solid but did not tether it like I normally do on the track. I'm going to be a lot more careful in the future.

Today was a great day. New camera mount arrived. Got it solidly locked onto the bike and went for a ride. Got maybee a few thousand yards from the house and it came right off. :/ I was trying to get the exhaust note of the bike for a Youtube video. Not enough screaming F4's on there. I got to hear the bike in a way I never expected. Leaving the camera behind. Figured I would share and perhaps keep people from being pelted with Gopro's at the track. I really thought that sucker was on there solid. WRONG!!

Sorry to hear your issues with Racetech. That probably explains why last year when I was wanting to get Gold Valves in my FZR my suspension guy that was going to do the work was trying his best to steer me over to an Ohlins product that was actually cheaper than the Gold Valves. Time of course was not in my favor that day and I ended up not being able to let him have the bike all day to do the work so I still have no valves.

Oh. And as for the "how has it worked out for you" question. In every case suspension work has completely transformed the way the bike handled. On my MV that had not been serviced in a while it took a bike that was normally a bit twitchy and difficult to ride fast into a bike that was rock solid everywhere and is now quite easy to ride fast on. For a while I had accepted that the grumpy and twitchy way the MV handled was just part of the perils of owning an exotic. The R6 went from being quite vague feeling to being rock solid planted and very precise feeling.

I have brought 3 bikes to the suspension gurus and did one myself. On your sag problem. Stock springs are designed for a very light rider. Even most 180 pound American men often need spring replacement. With new springs you won't have any problem hitting the 30mm mark. I have done business with Superbike Supsension for an R6 and my MV. Their prices were pretty decent. To respring and setup my R6 it was around $330. A full rebuild and springs on the rear of my MV it was $880. I took my track R6 to Traxxion Dynamics. Full rebuild of the front forks and revalving as well as a full springs on the whole bike and a rear shock service and setup ran me $1100. They even put my Elka rear shock on the shock dyno to test it's operation and the suspension guy told me that my shock scored a lot better than some Ohlins units that he's seen. On the bike I did myself it was my FZR400. New springs all the way around and a service of my Fox twin clicker. The FZR's have "shimmed" preload adjustment which was a lot of fun to figure out on my own and required opening the fork for adjustment. I spent around $300 servicing the Fox shock and a while getting the sag and some of the settings right. It's not as perfect of a job as a trained professional could have done adjustment wise but it's pretty competent on the track. Hope this helps even though mostly I let the professionals do the hard work.

Benny, I have to agree. Barber is my favorite too. In fact I love Barber so much that it's exit off of I20 is my bike number on my R6 that I will be doing trackdays on this year. See you there!

Benny. Wow 4 days at the track with the best instructors on the planet. That's going to awesome! And at Barber none the less. Jennings GP is a bit of a drive for me but I have been tempted a couple of times to do a private rental on their track. The weekday rates are dirt cheap and I can't think of anything more posh than having a racetrack all to myself for a whole day. Might have to check Jennings out and see what I think in person on a track day this season.

Have a good list going here already. Here are a couple of additions. -Aircraft Style Hose Clamps of assorted sizes -Spare Master Link for chain -Brake Pads -Voltage Regulator -Battery -Jumper Cables (for when a Battery or Regulator does fail) -Assortment of Fuses and Relays that fit your bike. -Multi Meter (diagnostics) -Butt Splices and extra wire (for those last resort repairs) And of course if you ride Italian like I occasionally do fuel fittings and extra fire extinguishers everywhere you can. They come in handy as I had to put out my Range Rover once. :/

Forwarded this to some Las Vegas friends.

I am trying to manage to get there those same days, level 3 and 4 on my bike. A new local track was scheduled to be built not too far away but alas that fell apart so likely relagated to the same old tired 1.1 mile track at the local school Very cool. Hopefully we will bump into one another in the paddock. Not trying to scare you but when I registered there were not many slots left. You might want to get in while you still can. How's that for a measure of how popular the school is though? This early in the year and already almost full.

Yeah. That was one of the first things I did. The big problem that I have with the ergos of the FZR400 is that the gas tank is actually really a fiberglass cover. I put some round stomp grips on the tank that I bought from CSS but the flex of the fiberglass gave me some exciting times when I suddenly shifted off more than I expected. I eventually put thick foam between the tank cover and inner tank to stiffen it and also fabricated a custom foam race seat. It feels better but it does not really look better looking at some of my track photos. Now under heavy braking I slide forward in the seat and end up riding with both legs spread out with my knees right against the frame rather than the tank. Part of the problem is the TZ250 tail with the aggressive hump. In a perfect "lock on" position part of my posterior is right up against the tail. I tried putting grippy foam on it but it did not work out well. I love the little booger but the harsh reality is I'm too big for it. A photo of me braking ready to head into the Barber hairpin with my knees not even touching the bike. Not exactly a good solid base. I'll still use it on the track when it rains (its amazing in the rain) and as a backup. It's also pretty sublime as a canyon carver where you never really get super aggressive hanging off on regular roads. I may also revisit the rear sets and a different tail to give me room for my long legs.

The stages you describe, Lock on, Lower body and Upper body are great building blocks for "building" your own body position each with their own priority. It's also interesting to realize how bike specifics and gear can also affect body position. I'm going to do some small changes here and there and see what I can adapt to work for my "body position plan". Your comment also made me suddenly realize some amusing things I have experienced. When I attend CSS you guys coach me about body position on a BMW S1000RR and then I head out on the track on a BMWS1000RR. It's the same bike and I'm always completely blown away at the progress I make with the simplest things. I got some coaching on body position at a local trackday and spent some time sitting on a coaches GSXR1000 and thought I was making some decent progress. What was natural and comfortable on the coaches GSXR on the stand was awkward and just did not work on my little bike. The next session I spent quite some time trying to make the coaching work only to eventually give up and revert back to what I knew "sorta worked" for me. Thanks again for the enlightenment.

Finally scheduled with CSS to do Level 4 on May 30 and 31st at Barber Motorsports Park. This will be my second time doing Level 4 and I'm going to be taking my own bike this time. Really looking forward to getting some coaching and solving some specific problems. Of course now it's time to schedule some trackdays as well.

Yeah that's exactly my thought process. Different body shapes might lend themselves to different ways of approaching the problem. Hopefully someone might have some insight. While some of us could always benefit from some weight loss and flexibility some of the taller and therefore heavier people can only go so far with that. Unlike taking a hacksaw to your motorcycle frame human frames tend to not react well to that.

Yeah that's exactly what I am wondering as well. The bike of course is a constant and the rider in most cases weighs less than the bike. I'm just wondering how rider weight and that weight shift affects the physics and traction. For example my Range Rover has amazing traction because it weighs 6000lbs and you have that weight pressing the tires into the pavement/mud/sand/snow increasing traction but that's pretty easy to see how that works as you have that 6000lbs pressing directly down onto the tires. At an angle with centripetal force working against bike and rider it changes the physics considerably.

I think that's an entirely different planet of what I had in mind but none the less a good point. In those environments every gram of weight matters that's why all of those guys are so small in stature. I do notice however those riders use a much more aggressive hang off position than many of us mere mortals do.

So I have a rather strange question and figured I would post it here. When we covered body position in Level 3 we were given great instruction on how to position ourselves on the bike. I'm wondering however if "one size fits all" for position. With different sized riders of different weights are there optimizations in body position that can be leveraged to take advantage of more or less weight when hanging off? At 6'0 and a "few extra pounds" I'm at a disadvantage when it comes to straight line acceleration in comparison to very small people. Is there any way to turn that disadvantage into an advantage in the corners or am I banished to a life of salads?

Certainly will once I ride with NESBA. STT is a great org as well but I'm looking to explore some other groups and NESBA seems like a good one to find out more about.

Hotfoot started a topic about what was keeping you from the track and that got me thinking. How many CSS people are doing trackdays and where are they doing them? Might be interesting to say hello in the Paddock. I'll start. I don't have any dates arranged yet but I generally ride Barber Motorsports Park and Road Atlanta and will be riding with both Sportbike Track Time and Nesba. At the moment I'm riding Novice with STT but that may change soon. I have yet to attend an event with Nesba and look forward to that experience.