Kevin Kane

It has been my perception that the first session is longer. They are fairly uniform thereafter but the first rotation of the three groups (riding Sessions 1, 2 & 3) has seemed longer to me but I have no facts to back that statement up. Maybe its the sighting lap (or two) that starts Sessions 1, 2, & 3 at every School (for each of the three groups) that causes my perception. At the end of the sighting lap(s) the students still return to the hot pit and check through Course Control before they're sent out so maybe that's why I perceive it to be longer. The next four rotations (Sessions 4-15) are pretty uniform in time. Have fun and we look forward to reading about how it went for you - you'll have a blast! Kevin

Shannon; I think you may have described the 2-Day Camp structure which is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. This weekend's Schools are their regular format with three groups: White, Yellow Green and if I remember, they ride in that order. Kevin

Biddy; That track Rocks doesn't it? The blind right hander (T4) is very much like Mid-Ohio's T7 just opposite hand and that bowl runs forever. The Pavement is smooth as anyplace I've ever been and the combination of the bowl (T8) with T9 down to T1 is amazingly fast. It's nice to read that it worked out for you. Kevin

Don; I do not speak for the School and I'm sure that after they wrap up at NJMP today, someone will respond but I will share a perspective. The Superbike School is all training all the time with a wide gap in experience of its students. You could be on track with a student whose lap times vary by 30 seconds or more and they have strick passing rules (6' of separation). Their timing format is set to show to the individual student how their own lap times improved over the course of the day and not in the context of how those times stack up against other student's time or times established for the particular track you're on that day. They will tell you and I will reinforce the notion that it isn't a track day - it is a School and as such, you and all of your classmates will have a specific drill to work on in every session you ride without exception so to be looking at your timer is to be working against your investment in your training. I share this with you from personal experience where I squandered opportunities to learn from them in the past. I would recommend you leave the lap timer at home. You can be railing around VIR with an open track only to come up upon a cluster of five or six less experienced students who are following their coaches at a slower pace then yours...poof! - there goes your lap time. You are allowed to pass, but not in the same mannor allowed in the advanced group with NESBA so you back it down until you're clear of the Hog Pen and you can safely pass on the main straight. Unless you have multiple beacons set, your timer won't give you splits from sections of track without traffic so the times you record will be meaningless. That all said, I can recall that Course Control did allow a beacon to be set up at an event at Watkins Glen a few years ago but after reaching the conclusion I share with you above, we took it down after the second session. YRMV Kevin

Duc 766; Your post read like it came from my own journal. Loudon is a tough track to ride on but even harder place to race IMHO. I had a similar weekend, crashing in the last practice session Friday and then in the same race you did on Saturday. I also was gridded on row 5 and in my race I was so tenantive from the previous crash that by the time I gridded at the end of the sighting lap, the one board was turning sideways. I wasn't even in gear so I was also late off the line. I didn't make it as far as you did as my throttle stuck WFO cresting the hill going down to the bowl (previous crash damage to the throttle) and I also left in an ambulance. You will make it back...it just takes time to rebuild your confidence but you will be back. BTW, getting stuffed in T1 is not uncommon there. Good Luck with your healing. Kevin PS I also ride a Duc.

Meat: The California Superbike School is a Cornering School, not a Camp Ground Conceriege Service. They travel all over the US starting in the first week in February and go until the first week in December. They bring their School to a drive distance that almost all of us can manage no matter where we live so to be upset because they don't also coordinate our accomodations is simply ridiculous. You can go to other Schools no question but the last time I checked, Kevin Schwanz's School is only at Road Atlanta, Freddie Spencer's School is at either Miller or Las Vegas and the others are either limited in venues or dates. If you want to offer constructive feedback to this forum I would suggest that you focus on the principles of cornering and leave the camping issues for a camping forum. Kevin Kane

hubbard; U-Haul Kevin

Forceten; These NJMP posts are really helpful and it was cool that you took the time to give everybody this information. There will be no institutional knowledge of this track to rely upon, especially for the Track Coaches so this is a real public service post. I know that pit out procedures at tracks like Loudon and Beaver Run are very critical and it sounds like it will be just as important here. Thanks; Kevin

Guys; Why don't you take this outside or at least off this forum... Kevin

Steve; You didn't tell us what kind of bike that you're dragging the pegs of but as a general rule, you don't want to do that very often - actually, you don't ever want to do that because if one drags too much, it will unload your tires and then...well, it will be "see ya!" It sounds like you may be pushing the bike underneath yourself instead of you hanging off more... Do you have copies of Twist of the Wrist vol's I & II? There is a ton of information in them that may help you understand why you are dragging hard parts. Kevin

Trippleg; I've seen all kinds of bikes from full dressers to touring bikes (haven't seen a Rocket III or a Gold Wing now that I think about it) and the riders do fine. The Thunderbird ergos are considerably different from the School's ZX-6R's but the principles of cornering are pretty much the same. You will learn a great deal about cornering if you choose to attend. Kevin

Acebobby; Wait until you complete the next 3 Levels... Congratulations on your successes so far. Kevin

Jay; For starters, I would pick up a copy of Road Racing World or check out their web page at www.roadracingworld.com for some options. They have a list of track day and/or racing organizations all over North America along with their schedules. You can also look at paying for Club membership at places like New Jersey Motorsports Park which just opened this summer but even with membership, I am not aware of any track that is exclusive for motorcycles every weekend - but they may be out there. From personal experience, as your track riding increases your street riding decreases proportionally. YRMV. Good luck. Kevin

Shane; I had to sit out the first half of this season with a medical issue so I didn't get to my first track event until ten days ago; I went with an eye toward racing (HA!). In the first practice, I was so far off the pace that I couldn't believe that I had a CCS Novice license. It must have been Divine intervention because the following morning an electrical gremlin ended my weekend. It was more than ten months and IMHO that is a lonnnggg time...I wish I was only 5 seconds off my pace from last season. It doesn't all come back at once, DAMHIK. Kevin

Shane; I think you might get more out of attending the School if you set aside your preconceptions of what to focus on and let the School take you through Level's I & 2. There are so many different factors that affect one's ability to corner a motorcycle that you may be surprised that what is holding you back is not what you think. I offer this as someone who has attended many, many CSS events at seven different tracks and as a corner worker at three. The School knows how to teach riders how to corner - that is a simple fact. You have invested in yourself by deciding to attend, let them do their job so that you get a maximum return on that investment. Kevin

Shannon; I have seen riders on FZR 400's smoke litre bikes all day long so you don't need a litre bike to be fast... Your RSVR is a litre bike with crank HP around 140; it is also a V-twin with very different power delivery characteristics from an in-line four - but it is fast and it can "compete". I agree with racer that if you are going to race it you will be down on power to any of the Japanese litre bikes but for just track riding, it is big enough. I can also appreciate that you may not want to risk wadding it up on the track. I had the same attitiude about my street bike so I bought a supersport version of the same model for the track; I wanted to match the ergo's and the power delivery of the motor while sharing many of the same parts. If you want a track only bike, a 600 is more than enough. Kevin

I will offer an opinion: If you remove your question from the context of racing and assume that the track is only open to one rider, then there is a preferred line. The line's placement would be affected by the size and type of bike. say 125cc v. a liter bike; or a sportbike v. motard; or a chopper v. a cruiser but all things being equal, there is a place that will allow you to corner a bike using the least amount of energy in the shortest amount of time. That said, racing changes everything. To your point of the SBK and MotoGP races last weekend I would suggest that Rossi v. Stoner supports the preferred line theory. Rossi controlled the race from the front because he blocked Stoner off the preferred line at every turn. When Stoner used his half second speed advantage to overtake Rossi on the front straight, Rossi would out brake him going into T-5 and T-8A (and did it more then once) to retake the lead each time. Stoner couldn't find another line around him and finally went off when he tried to force the issue going into T11. The SBK races would support your point because there were multiple off line passes in both races but your basic question gets compromised because you use racing as the basis of posing it. In qualifying, where racers are trying to find the most efficient and quickest way around the track, you will read about points leaders complaining of back markers being on the race line holding them back which strongly supports the preferred line theory. But bringing this back to the context of the School - where they have collectively enjoyed thousands of laps more than their students, I would think they do know where the line would be. ...but what do I know? Kevin

Hi Imran, I've already answered with my thoughts (in some e-mails), but I would like to have some of the other forum guys get up here and give you theirs. best, Cobie Imran; I will respond to Cobie's request and offer an opinion. You say: “the only one I've started so far is Twist 2, finished the Throttle Control section.” My advice - Read both Twist 1 and 2 before you show up; these books will give you the foundation you will need to better grasp the program at the School. You ask: “ what do you guys think of the track? Seems it just opened this earlier this month. I think this would be the same config, but not sure. It seems pretty high speed”. It is new to everybody; I am a member of Team Pro-Motion (Philadelphia based Track Club) and the word on our message board is that it is wide, it has pretty good elevation changes and it is fast. You ask: “would it be a good place to learn technical cornering, or would you guys suggest doing the school at a different track?”. The only possible disadvantage I can imagine is that this will be the first time that the School sets up at this track. They will not have the institutional knowledge of NJMP that the School enjoys at their other venues but that will not matter to you. Their Coaches are so skilled that they will “learn” the layout very quickly. They did it at Barber, they did it at Miller and they will do it at NJMP. What will not change is the drills you will learn; I would recommend that your focus should be on those and not on the particular track where they are taught. The next question was: “I am doing the school on their ZX-6. I was also wondering with my limited experience, after doing the Level 1 and 2 on their ZX-6, would I be okay to move up to an 03-06 Japanese 600cc sportbike”. I would suggest that it is too soon to know. Make that decision after you attend. Congratulations on making the investment…it will pay big dividends for you soon. Kevin

My Bad Cobie...I need to retake level 3. Kevin

It's a technique taught in Level 3 that allows you to tightens up your line through a corner. Kevin

Our broadcast showed some of it (in parc feme) and it was where Rossi was interviewed by the network carrying the US feed of the race. It also showed prior to his interview Rossi exchanging congratulations with his crew and fans while Stoner and Vermeulen were with their people but also (appearing) to be joking with each other as well. If there was "an exchange" between them, I didn't see it. Kevin

I rewatched the race last night and it shows Stoner shaking Rossi's hand as they stepped onto the podium so I don't know where that comment came from either. Kevin

"Epic" says it all. I also agree with Cobie's comment: "...the pressure that Rossi kept up was virtually flawless, and Stoner just cracked after a while". Rossi had an answer for everything Stoner threw at him and even if it had gone all 32 laps, I don't know if the results would have been any different. Kevin Kane

Says it all. Dropping from sixth to second (4 gears) or from fifth to second (3 gears) after "hard brakes" sounds more like a race track environment than a public road situation; that's a lot of work in a very short period of time. There has been some good advice offered here already; what I would add is to take this exercise in much smaller steps, dropping one gear or two and to separate the braking from the equation until you have better throttle control. I would also suggest that you use your brakes to drop your speed BEFORE you do your blipping and down shifting. Once you get more proficient in these separate steps, you can bring the steps closer to each other until it all becomes second nature. Trying to learn these all at once is IMHO a recipe for trouble. Kevin Kane

Cobie; This is such an important fact to share with this Forum because (IMHO) too many newer riders consider it a litmus test of their riding skill and focus too much energy on touching down at the expense of smooth cornering or faster lap times. I remember getting the "tail" sign from one of your faster coaches at Watkins Glen and as we flew around the Carousel with our knees about 6 inches off the deck, we blew past and underneath a rider whose titanium sliders were sparkling like the Fourth of July...he looked cooler then we did but going faster was way more fun! ; ) Kevin