Hotfoot

Nice! Was there any particular breakthrough that made it great, or was it just plain fun?

At high speed wind drag is a major source of deceleration. That is NOT the same effect as using the front brake. Wind drag is a tremendous factor at high speed, and practically a non-factor at slow speeds. Wind drag is proportional to velocity SQUARED so increasing speed causes a huge increase in drag. Not saying the whole throttle control rule #2 is about wind drag, but I AM saying you can't assume a hard-braking slow corner is the same as a slow or non-braking corner at very high speed. The radius of the corner will be substantially different so the steering effort is different, the forces on the bike are different, what the rider needs from the geometry is different, use of the brake is different, amount of slowing required is different, etc.

What source of added load?

Notice that it says "in any fast-entry corner", so this is not the same situation as coming off a fast straight to a sharp 40mph corner. You may be braking lightly or not at all. What effect would it have on the bike if you abruptly chopped the throttle from full on to full off, at high speed? How would this effect a turn entry? At high speed, what is the primary external force acting upon the bike that would make it slow down when you let off the gas?

Well, don't' know if you will see this in time, but I'd say focus on the RESULT you want (quicker lap time, or better entry speed, whatever) and communicate THAT and let the coach and consultant worry about helping you figure out which technique(s) to use to achieve that. Dropping 13s with steady drops in each session sounds AWESOME, really glad to hear you are getting good results, sounds like great fun and I wish I was there riding today too!!

If it is still on your mind when you get to L4, bring it up in your beginning of the day survey or discussion with your L4 consultant.

Let's focus on a single corner to work on. Pick the one that seems the most off to you on entry speed. Recall your approach to the turn - what are you looking at, and for how long? Were you able to do the wide view drill at your school, and were you able to maintain your wide view consistently for that particular turn?

Where in the corner do you feel like your speed is the farthest off compared to other riders? At the entry, middle or end? Have you, when you tried to increase speed, had any bad result (other than worry), like running wide?

Yep. Good understanding! If you have the Twist II DVD there is also a good illustration on there showing the effect on the front tire when you abruptly chop the throttle. Regarding your other question about the quote in Twist II on throttle control - I don't really know the answer on that one, I want to get that info from Keith or Dylan or Cobie but they are on the road at schools right now so I'm not sure when I will hear back. I'll post up when I have the info for you, or one of them will. It could be that he was referring to bikes that may have jerked a bit when the throttle was first applied, as opposed to our newer 1000cc bikes that have a much more predictable and smooth throttle response.

Here is the website for eTech Photo: http://www.etechphoto.com You can browse through your photos online (it may take a little time for them to get uploaded if your school was just yesterday) and there are ordering instructions on the site.

If your roll on is too slow you would not be optimizing the weight distribution for the best possible traction, and suspension efficiency. But, if you compare that to chopping the throttle mid corner, which do you think would have a greater effect? What would happen to the weight distribution between front and rear tires? How would it affect your suspension?

What a great post! Love hearing this, glad to hear you were able to take your CSS training and run with it the way you have.

I think he was asking you, since you brought up the topic.

This is a very good point, the power band for two strokes is a much different curve, the power hits really hard and it is not nearly as linear as current 4-stroke bikes. Tires are better, too, more predictable. Just those two factors alone probably make a big difference on being able to slide and wiggle a lot without actually crashing, compared to the older 500Gp bikes. And that's before even taking into account the advancements in suspension and frames. I do agree that they are really riding on the edge - I am always amazed, watching the races, how far they are willing to push those bikes. Maybe the better safety gear is a factor, too, keeping those bravest-of-the-brave riders in the game, rather than suffering injuries that limit or end their riding careers.

Glad you guys cleared this up, that definitely sounded odd to me too.

I put one on my ZX6R and really liked it. My reason for doing it was range of motion, the stock throttle turned so far, that to get it pinned that I had to re-position my hand in the middle of the roll on OR start out with my hand in a weird forward position to get enough travel to get from full-off to full-on. For street it was a total non-issue but for track riding it was a pain, so I switched to a throttle with a shorter travel and it worked great. I did not find it overly sensitive and easily adjusted to it. It really didn't seem much more "quick" than the stock one, I had no trouble with that at all.

A small dirt bike is a great way to get comfortable with bike control, using the clutch and brakes on a bike, and shifting. Look for a dirt riding instruction course, or a go-kart track that allows minis or small dirt bikes, that way you can get BOTH bike experience and track experience. Leaning how to manage the controls is the tough part - once a rider can comfortably start and stop, shift, use the clutch and brake, and ride around at 25 mph, adding speed is really not very difficult. We certainly have riders come to school that start out worried about speed but very quickly get comfortable with it, once they have some education about how to control the bike and have certainty about what it is going to do. I would send a relatively inexperienced to a school - ANY school - LONG before I would send them to an open trackday. Those can be VERY intimidating, and not all are well controlled. Generally the staff and other riders at a school are more accommodating and welcoming for inexperienced riders, take more time to acclimate them to the rules, etc. You should research the trackday org very thoroughly before you send someone with little riding experience and make sure they are open to that - some organizations are, but many are not - and make sure there is some good classroom instruction for newbies to give the rider an understanding of racetrack safety and etiquette (not just a 10 minute riders meeting) , and someone to help if the rider is having trouble getting around the track in control of the bike. Distractions like cars and dogs and kids and distracted drivers is a whole other thing - way scarier than riding on a racetrack, if you ask me.

That's a track question, CSS is certainly fine with it. Check the VIR website for detailed info on camping options: http://virnow.com/lodging/camping/ or here for really detailed info on policies and rules: http://virnow.com/about/policies/

Dave Moss

What were you going for when re-covering the seat? More grip, or less? Or were you reshaping them?

I really like how you can see how the bar movement correlates to bumps - you can see the camera (and sometimes the rider) bounce a little from a bump and you can see how the bars wiggle to compensate as the tire and suspension deal with the bump. He definitely does a great job staying loose and letting the bike do its job!

What a great post! Lots of good info in here and I am really glad you are experimenting and exploring - sounds like you are approaching it in a very smart way, working on your throttle control first, then changing one thing at a time on the bike to feel the difference each change makes. A lot of riders try changing a bunch of things all at once (different tires or tire pressure, and multiple suspension changes all at once), you are smart to take that systematic approach and notice - and write down! - the difference from each change. Well done and thank you for sharing, this was very interesting to read.

Sure, go for it. Or you can start a new thread if you want. It can be hard to correlate video to maps - sometimes what looks like one turn in the video shows as two on the map, especially if the rider rides them as one big arc. T2 and T3 on this video sorta-kinda shows that - you can see a second X to show the second turn point but the rider takes a smooth arcing line so you don't really see a straight section on the video in between the turns, even though on the map you can see one. IMO maps should show obvious landmarks, like bridges that cross over the track and large outbuildings or grandstands that are easily seen when riding. And, of course, elevation changes don't show on a flat line map, but there are some cool elevation maps for some tracks, I think the Barber website has one, they make the track look like a roller coaster.

If you mean where on the map, it is between turns 6 and 7. If you mean where in the video briang posted it is at 0.55 in the video, and again at 2:40. :).

My preference with my outside foot is to put the ball of my foot on the peg and drive my heel up into the heel guard which helps stabilize my lower leg. I have small feet and can't reach the heelguard if I slide my foot down to the arch/instep. When I began coaching I started to REALLY notice it when a rider would come by me on the freeway with their toes sticking way down past the peg. I know it's probably more comfortable for long rides but it sure does catch my attention. What about dirt riding? For those of you that do any dirt riding, where do you put your feet?