Hotfoot
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Posts posted by Hotfoot
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Good stuff to hear.
BTW, did you guys know how Hottie wrapped up her year last year? If I recall correctly she wrapped up with 2 champioinships won (likely that is what she entered). At the last round in Vegas 6 races entered. 6 podiums, 3 in first--pretty cool huh?
Since racing in '09 (minus '11), it just as impressive, but I'll sum up one stat I also liked: no crashes, no DNF.
If I keep this up, bet I can get her to blush!
Well done! (albeit belatedly)
.Best,
Cobie
Wow, you DID get me to blush!
Thanks for the props.
(I was going to use the blushing smiley face but is has hearts all over it! No wonder no one uses it!)
So...I like your new look... is that.... um... a TRASH BAG sticking out of your leathers?
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I've got a race this weekend and my #1 goal is NOT to allow other riders to "suck me in" to the corners, making me brake too late. I am used to riding my light-weight bike on the track with larger, heavier bikes and they usually brake long before I do. But when I had to practice and then race against OTHER lighweight bikes last year on an unfamiliar track, some of them were braking later than I was, so I decided I needed to brake later. Well, guess what, that screwed up my quick turn and made me run wide (which is also what was happening to THEM) and rather late in the game I realized I was much better off getting my braking done sooner and making sure my speed was set properly AT my turn point, instead of charging the turn at the entrance.
Of course once I fixed that problem my I stopped running wide and my drives were drastically improved - especially in the last turn before the straight. I went INTO the turn a hair slower than the race-leading riders but held a better line, got on the gas sooner, and dramatically improved my drive - easily passing the leaders at the exit of the turn and then carrying that extra speed all the way down the straight and leaving them far behind.
It was a stellar example, for me, of how much more there was to be gained by coming OUT of the corner faster than there was trying to come INTO it faster.I certainly should have known better right from the beginning, but on a new track, it's easy to think somene else knows more about it than you do and get fooled!
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Ran across this tidbit from Keith recently, I though it was an interesting read so I'm posting up!
>>
Most crashes you see from the pro riders these days are going into the turns overloading the front with too much brake pressure while turning into the corners. It's called trail-braking, sporty car racers came up with that term, many years ago.
Since everyone has good traction control and spec tires, the exit drives are so close no one can make any time on anyone else on the drives unless they make a mistake. What results is that riders try and get into the turns with later and later braking, trying for that fraction of a mph higher entry speed and mid-corner speed. When they get over-enthusiastic, carrying too much front brake into the turns, it overloads the front tire and they crash.
You can tell when they are riding on the edge of traction in these scenarios. As they go into the turn you see the front dip and rise sharply. That is the front tire locking up and releasing. If the rider catches it and releases the brake, fine, he goes through the corner. If he doesn't release it quick enough the front end "tucks" under and they lowside crash the bike.
There are many tradeoffs and minute options the rider has and the one who gets them all exactly right wins pole position by a few thousandths of a second. What does that mean? It means he was able to average a ridiculously small fraction of 1 mph faster average around the entire track than the other guys.
For the average track day guy and budding club racer, trying to find the limit of front end braking-traction like this is not the place he'll gain those many seconds needed to get into the next faster group. This rider is going to have to discover what basics he is weak in. Harder, later braking will never gain those seconds for him.
Keith
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I'm wondering about recovery. After a lot of riding - especially multiple days in heat - what is the best thing for quickest recovery (both rehydration and energy level)? Should I be taking potassium and salt at the END of the day, whether I feel like I need it not? Is drinking Gatorade after heavy exercise a good thing, or is the corn syrup bad for you? Is there somthing better? ( I can't have anything with aspartame in it, so I stay away from any sugarfree drinks.)
What about for muscle recovery? If you KNOW you have just done some heavy work or exercise that is going to make your muscles very sore, are there any supplements that help minimize the soreness?
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So, forum peeps, do you have a favorite Keith Code quote? There are a ton of his tech points that rattle through my head when I ride, but he has written some other things about the art of riding that I really enjoyed reading.
Here's one of my favorites quotes:
"Ignoring risk is a by-product of passion." -Keith Code
What sayeth the forum, anybody else have some favorites?
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OK I guess I should weigh in on this, too.
1984 Honda XL250
2001 Yamaha XT225
2003 Kawasaki ZX6R
1988 Yamaha YSR50
2003 Suzuki DR200
2004 Kawasaki ZZR600
2004 Suzuki Savage 650
2008 Kawasaki ZX6R
2008 Honda Moriwaki MD250H
2010 BMW S1000rr
2006 Yamaha F450 Super Single
Out of this whole list the one bike I have had the longest and NEVER considered selling is the YSR50. Heck of a fun little bike, starts EVERY SINGLE TIME and is still fully street legal. I get a lot of double-takes riding that on the street - it looks like a regular sport bike until you get up close and see how small it really is.
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As I recall, you were going to show me how, quit slacking and get me filled in!
OK I am here to help.
For anyone who isn't aware of this - the California Superbike School is on Twitter! It's fun to follow because there are great short tidbits of riding technology, updates on what the staff is up to, and great photos of tracks, staff and students, plus student & coach racing successes!
To just read the Tweets, you can go to the school's website www.superbikeschool.com, the Tweets show in a box in the bottom middle of the Home screen. If you click Join the Conversation, you can see a list of Tweets on a larger screen. This all works WITHOUT a Twitter account.
If you want to sign up to receive the Tweets as they are posted, via email or text message, you have to create a Twitter account - go to www.Twitter.com and sign up, it is easy and free and doesn't ask for much information (I think just name, email address, login name and password).
Once you have the account, you can choose to FOLLOW the Superbike School - Click Join the Conversation at the bottom of the CSS homepage, or you can just type this in your browser: twitter.com/superbikeschool and there will be a place to sign up. Then you'll be able to choose your preferred delivery method, email or text message, and voila, you will start getting the Tweets.
If you only follow the Superbike School, you will only get Tweets from the Superbike School - and those are only occasional, max 3-4 times a week and usually less than that. I have not gotten any junk mail or solicitations AFAIK as a result of signing up for Twitter (I HATE getting put on mailing lists) and as I mentioned before, it is free.
C'mon Cobie, go for it.
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Just signed on to the forum and wanted to take this opportunity to say hello.
I've only been riding for about 3 years, but for the last two years I've averaged approx. 30K/year. I love long-distance riding, but I need some serious work on my cornering skills. I've looked at the upcoming schedule and want to take the course as soon as possible, life permitting.
Ride safe.
Wonderful! Welcome to the forum and hope to see you at a school soon!
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Hmmm...didn't think about that search function, THAT might be worth it alone! I'm more old school, I actually read stuff that has paper in it, weird I know.
I can hear your gears turning Hottie, try and muzzle your self!
CF
So, how ARE things in the Dark Ages?
Any New Years resolutions? Going to try following the Superbike School on Twitter this year?
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I'll try to get them in the order of ownership, however that may be alot to ask;
1973 CB350 (4 cylinder, first street bike. Rode it for 2 seasons and about 15,000 miles. Sold it for the same $800 I paid for it)
197x CB450 (2 cyl. high pipe model, the 350 I thought at the time was faster, but this was bike #2 and 20,000 miles more experience)
1979 CB650C (fully dressed in Vetter, and a CB and a radio w/cassette player...lol and for some reason I still did wheelies on it and dragged the bags~yes they pulled off if dragged too hard~ and pipes on cloverleafs. but 75,000 miles of being a squidly on this bike. The engine finally rattled so bad I ran out and bought the Sabre)
1982 VF750 Sabre (Last time of allowing a friend to ride one of my bikes ever, ran over by a tow truck at an intersection jumping the light)
1982 GPZ550 (racebike 2:10+ lap times were "fast" but inconsistant)
1982 CB750C
1983 VF750F
1983 CB900C
1983 CX650Turbo
1984 GPZ550 (racebike #2 2:07 lap times were more normal and far more consistant)
1984 Seca550
1985 Ninja 600R (3 of them...1 was totalled racing in an endurance race ~not by me~-the other 2 were raced, 1 in production(doubled as a street bike), 1 in SS classes for 4 years each...both of these had over 30,000 miles on them when sold..finally broke the 2:00 mark at BIR)
1986 Ninja600 RX (aluminum framed
. 50,000+ miles on that before selling in 92?)GPZ750 turbo
1987 Ninja 250R (racebike #6)
1987 Ninja 250r (had given this to my brother for his 16th B-day. but he wheelied it into the principals car, so I took it back)
1982? Seca 920
1988 Ninja 600R (kept this bike for 19+ years and 256,000 miles and 2 Deer hits wihtout falling down)
1988 GSXR750 (racebike #7 never got this bike sorted for me but ran 1:52 lap times )
RD400 (owned for less than a month, got it in a basket, rode it for about 1000 miles)
1989 Ninja 250R (Racebike #8....Kept this bike for 21 years, it only ever saw the track....28,000 miles when I sold it last Feb...This bike I ran 2:00-2:015's at BIRs long course even with the then new turn 9....after attending CSS. I dropped several seconds per lap and was very consistant)
1989 EX500 (racebike #9&10)
1989 ZX7R
1989 FZR1000
1989&90 FZR600 (racebikes #11,12...finally pacing in the low 1:54's)
1990 ZX10
1991&92 CBR600F-2 (racebikes #13&14, finally broke past the 1:50 mark and could run 1:48 when really pushed)
1993 ZX11 (58,000 miles and broke the crank in half, rode it home from Topeka Kansas on 2 cylinders in '95...it never ran again)
1993 CBR900RR (owned maybe 3 weeks, raced 1 race weekend on it and sold it...but #15 nonetheless)
1985 RZ350
1982? Katana 1100 (the old silver one with a partial upper fairing)
1997 ZX6R
1998 GSXR600
1984 Venture Royale (a fixer upper project that ran well when done but looked terrible)
2001 ZX6R (in 2 years I had 65,000 miles on it when I sold it)
1992 Katana 750 (there was nothing about this bike I liked after riding it, likely I did not even put on 300 miles in the 3 months it took to dump it)
2003 R1 (Really didn't like it much, nor did it get ridden much, sold it in 2004)
2007 ZZR600, (pretty much a 2002 ZX6R)...currently the only bike I own, 68,000 miles on it, a Deer hit 2 years ago and again no fall down. Plan on breaking that 256,000 miles mark on this bike faster than I got there on the 88'. Lets see I started riding this July 2, 2008, so 4 full seasons average is only 17,000 per, so 15 years time.
Just about everyone of these was bought new except the CB350, Seca 920, RD400, FZR1000, Katana 1100, Venture Royal, Katana 750. The list does not include a few dirtbikes I owned before I was legal to ride on the street; XR80, XL125, YZ60, XR250R.
After the 900RR in early '93, the only racing I did was on the 250 Ninja until 2003 and even that was only at 1 or 2 Endurance events each year. That also happened to be the year I widdled down from the typical 6-10 bike garage to typical 3-4 at a time.
That '88 Ninja 600R and that '89 Ninja 250 were the longest kept bikes by far. Looking at the list, I must of had lots more disposable income than I do now, or perhaps it was my priorities, or both.
Wow. I am trying to wrap my head around how many miles, total, you have put in on motorcycles, pretty incredible!!!!
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Hey, Ive got a track day in a week or so. I Have just had the suspension serviced. zx10. When braking at the end of the straights I have noticed that the back wheel moves from side to side at maximum braking. The front dips, feels solid, the back end goes light but moves side to side just before i start to release the pressure. I have read on a suspension forum that this can be casued by the front dipping too much.......well heres the quote from the site below
I have a zip tie around the fork legs and it goes to around 10mm from bottoming out
I have noticed this happening to other riders at the same point on the track when I am watching from the sides. Its not a violent movement from side to side but enought to make the back of the bike feel a little unstable.
At this point im bracing my weight with my legs against the tank, rather the outside leg and but is off to the inside.
The cause here is way too much front end weight transfer under braking. The front end is compressing so low that the bike's weight tries to pivot around the steering head, causing the side-to-side movement. The quickest solutions here are to increase the front fork spring preload and/or raise the front ride height by dropping the fork tubes in the triple clamps, or decrease the rear ride height by shortening the shock (if possible). try increasing the fork spring preload first, and progressing in small increments until the handling begins to be negatively affected (remember to watch the rebound damping when increasing the spring preload). If that doesn't work, try the ride height modifications; watch for adverse handling reactions in other areas when doing this as ride height changes drastically affect how the bike corners. Other solutions to try--although less effective--are to increase the compression damping in the forks (if possible), or to decrease rebound damping in the rear (to allow the rear tire to follow the pavement quicker). Again, watch for adverse handling reactions in other riding situations when test riding.
Any opinions? I would like to see if I can rectify this at the next track day. However, it may be a normal result of hard braking. In which case, all good!!!!! I'm running bridgesone R10s on warmers. Would gentle back brake settle this? My front fork height has around 1 mm left before its as far out as it will go in the triple clamp.
thanks
I'm not a suspension expert but I certainly have experienced this. I mostly agree with the excerpt you posted above about how to tweak it - EXCEPT that if you are otherwise happy with the bike's handling I wouldn't be too quick to mess with ride height. Personally, here is the order of things I would try - check the body position stuff first, before you start changing bike set up stuff, otherwise you can end up chasing your tail with bike adjustments:
BODY STUFF
1) first, make sure you aren't stiff on the bars during braking, get locked in really well with your knees so you can be loose on the bars - stiff arms can definitely make the bike weave under hard braking (A Twist of the Wrist II can provide more details on how and why.)
2) Make sure you are not sliding forward during braking. You can also try sitting back farther in the seat (if possible), to shift some weight to the back end - if that is easy and comfortable for you to do that may solve it entirely without any suspension adjustments
3) Relax your back, taking as much braking force as you can in your knees and legs - sitting in a slouchy position with a relaxed back can help absorb bumps and make you help the rear suspension instead of fighting it, and helps keep your arms loose on the bars, reducing back tire skipping or weaving
BIKE STUFF
1) I would start with decreasing the rear rebound damping (especially if it is set quite heavy/slow right now) and test it, see if it helps and make sure it doesn't have any negative effects in other areas
2) Sounds like you ARE compressing the front quite a bit, consider adding preload in front or stiffening the front compression so it doesn't dive quite so much - but do one at a time and look for adverse effects; if the bike no longer feels solid or planted in the front that may indicate it has gotten too stiff for your liking. Be aware that significantly increasing front end stiffness can make the front end more likely to slide in corners, so make small adjustments and ride well withitn your limits as you are making changes.
Ride height adjustment is a bit more involved; body position adjustments can be done on the fly, and compression/rebound/preload adjustments can be done in seconds in the pits, but ride height takes more tools and possibly a second person to change; I'd be hesitant to mess with that unless the other options don't help. Raising the front ride height could help but usually makes the bike steer slower, personally I wouldn't to slow down my steering response unless the bike was feeling twitchy in other ways (headshake, for example). Lowering the rear can cause the bike to squat and want to run wide in turns.
If there is a suspension tuner at the track, sometimes you can get the bike set up inexpensively and often that person will be willing to continue to make adjustments through the day.
The back end moving around under MAX braking is a pretty common thing - when you are at max braking the back end is light and will move around some, especially if the pavement is ripply. The Las Vegas track is a good example, the hard braking area at the end of the straight has some wavy bumps (that you can't see while riding) that make you think your rear suspension is having a problem, until you realize that the bumps are there. If it only happens in one place, you might try walking the track and see if that is the underlying problem!
Hope that helps...
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I downloaded A Twist of the Wrist, Kindle edition, from Amazon today. Now I can read it on my iPhone, hurray! I was pleasantly surprised by how good it looks in electronic format - it's very clean and easy to read, and now I can highlight stuff and best of all I can search the text!!!
I was really hoping the search function would work, and it works like a charm, I tried searching 'chicane' and it instantly returned all the places that word appears. Awesome.
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As is often the case, the simple physics formula makes some assumptions, and this is something we must all be aware of - many educational texts talk theory but ignore the effects of rider position, tire width, condition factors like wind, coefficients of friction that varies with surface and temperature, etc., etc.
Here is a pretty good article that describes the effect of tire width and wheelbase - plus some good info about gyroscopic effect.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics
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Either bike would be fine - bring whichever bike you feel most comfortable on.
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I think he looks great! If you want to nit pick things, you could ask him to tighten up that outside knee on the tank. But hey, he is workin' it.
I agree, he looks great. It might be difficult to get the outside knee locked in on that bike, it's a very narrow tank. I wish I could hang off that far on mine!
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"So if you are already leaned over and the front tire starts to slide, how could you change the weight to lighten the load on the front? In your post above, are you still on the brakes while leaned over in the turn?"
You would be off of the brakes at this point, the only thing I can think of would be to apply the throttle but if you are already coming into the corner at too high of a speed how would applying the throttle help if you are also increasing speed so let's assume that your suspension is already at 40/60 and it's not a matter of suspension causing the front tire to overload but rather too high of an entry speed. Would that mean you just hope you can use your knee to help push the bike up a little bit or hope that being loose on the bars will just allow the bike to fix itself?
Well, hypothetically if you are already at the ideal 40/60 weight distribution, BOTH front and rear tires would be at maximum traction so if you had too much speed for the conditions they would BOTH slide and you'd get a nice 2 wheel drift - or a crash. If ONLY the front is sliding, then theoretically you have more traction available in the rear and could shift some weight back there.
Of course there are limits to traction - 40/60 weight distribution is as good as it gets for getting each tire to carry max load but of course it is still possible to enter a turn way too fast for the conditions and pitch the bike.
Doing nothing at all and staying loose on the bars often allows the bike to regain traction in a slide, especially if the slide was due to a small slick spot or uneven pavement and is definitely far better than stiffening up or rolling off.
As far as saving it with your knee, I haven't experienced that myself (although I have saved numerous slides by either rolling on or doing nothing and staying relaxed) but have heard of other coaches doing it and it is discussed in A Twist of the Wrist (the first one). If you search the forum you can find at least one thread where one of the coaches talks about it.
Keep in mind that it IS possible to roll on the throttle and shift some weight off the front without actually increasing your speed; if you haven't already observed this, try a very slight roll on and watch what happens to your speed.
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Thanks for the replies
I'm keeping a constant radius because I'm trying to get comfortable on the bike in the corners. I know it's not an ideal line, but the more time I spend in a constant lean, the more I come to grips with being "ok" with it. I'm still at the stage where leaning feels unnatural - like the bike is going to fall over.
My reason for wanting to increase my lean angle is to increase speed. With more speed per specific radius, the more lean angle required.
From the photos from the track day, my knee is about 1 foot off the ground. As you can see from my video, i'm not perfect body position, but i'm also not just completely ON the bike without hanging off just a little bit.
From what other control riders on the track have said to me after the sessions, my bike can lean alot further without a problem.
I want to lean further so I can gain confidence in my tires.
Right now my max is lets say 35 degree lean. So whenever I'm at 35 degrees in a corner, I ###### my pants.
If I can lean to 45 a few times and know that the bike is still gripping, then I can be much more relaxed leaning at 40 degrees.
Does that make any sense?
OK, I see. Yes it makes sense. One thing that others have tried is to find a parking lot and just ride in a constant circle, at gradually increasing speed, to get comfortable with more lean angle in a gradual way without the pressure of a track day. (Wear all your protective gear if you do this!)
You mentioned a Ninja 250, those are a fun bike to learn on and inexpensive to run on the track (less costs in tires, fuel, etc.) and if you feel more comfortbale on that, it sounds like a good idea. Leaning over farther on a Ninja might be a safer proposition than on a 600 or larger bike since you have less power to the rear wheel. They are fun to ride and it sure feels good to pass a 1000cc bike on one.
Minibikes are another option - riding something like an NSR50 on a go kart track is cheap track time (often under $40 per day) and a great way to lean WAY over without have to go 90 mph to do it.
I don't want to harp on this point too much, but there is a safety issue here - be cautious about setting up your turns so that you are FORCED to make a steering correction at the end to avoid running wide. Adding throttle AND lean angle at the SAME TIME can easily (and very quickly) overload your rear tire, resulting in a high side - and in that situation, where you are adding load two different ways simultaneously, you don't get much warning. Also, sudden concern about running wide can trigger a lot of survival reactions - chopping the throttle, grabbing the brake, stiffening the arms, etc., and those types of things can overload the FRONT tire, resulting in a low side, even at relatively low speeds or moderate lean angles.
You have mentioned that you sometimes make steering changes (leaning it over farther) in the middle of the turn, AND sometimes lean it more and get on the throttle at the end of the turns - if you try those things at steeper lean angles it could land you on your butt and I would be remiss if I did not point that out to you.
Take a look at Twist II at the chapters on line and steering, they can give you some great tools to get down to one steering input, so you get your radical lean angles done early in the turn and in a safer manner.
I hope this is helpful, please let me know.
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so I get on the gas (smoothly) to speed up a bit but that would require me to increase lean angle.
Why does getting on the gas require increasing your lean angle?
To maintain the same raidus, if I accelerate, lean angle must increase.
Are you trying to make the turn a constant radius? To what purpose? Wouldn't it be a better solution to change your line so that you can have a straighter drive out of the turn and be able to accelerate harder without adding lean angle?
If you are wearing your tires to the edge, you are already leaning it over a fair amount, and in the video it looks like you are leaning it plenty. I recognise that you are trying to get more comfortable leaning it more, but I am not sure why, since we normally are looking to mimize lean angle to maximize traction and suspension efficiency.
If you could go significantly faster, WITHOUT increasing your lean angle, would that satisfy your goals? Or is leaning it over more a goal in itself, and if so, why?
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Here is some of what of I feel: That at a certain angle, i'll hit the sharp edge of the tire, and my contact patch will be as tiny as a needle. At this point, my tire will surly give up and slide!!!!!
To address this part of your post - generally when you lean over that far, that sharp edge folds against the rim of the wheel and flattens out so you continue to ride on a contact patch, not on that sharp edge. It's not easy to describe but if you look at a photo of a rider leaned over a lot and zoom in REALLY REALLY tight you can see it. I think Brian from CaliPhotography was out there over the weekend, his photos are super high resolution, you should be able to zoom in enough to see how the edge of the tire flattens out.
Having said that, I do want to stress that it certainly IS POSSIBLE to low side a bike if you make a steering correction, mid-corner, while leaned over, ESPECIALLY if you have any tension in your arms, or are dragging the front brake, or chop the throttle; a stickier tire might save you, or it might not - but with consistent good technique you can ride on cold tires, worn tires, or crappy tires and still keep the thing upright - and without that nagging scary feeling that you might be about to fall down!
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Hopefully one of the coaches can put in some info on what they have experienced and found what does/ doesn't work to try and save it.
I thought you guys were doing pretty well on your own, actually
... but I'll chime in.We all seem to agree that we want the optimum weight distribution (40 front 60 rear) to maximize traction.
What errors can riders make that can INCREASE the load(s) on the front tire beyond the basic load of cornering?
What actions can a rider take during a turn that can increase the load (unfavorably!) on the front tire?
Not locking the knees on the tank and putting the weight on the bars, improper trailbraking such as having too much brake applied while coming into the corner, improper body positioning on the bike (being too far forward), coming into a corner too hot and excessive lean angle and chopping the gas while in the turn.
Out of all of these errors and actions I listed the ones that I think would make me encounter a possible front tire slide would be coming into the corner too hot. I am using this as in the racing world, not just riding the street or trackdays but say you are trying to pass someone on the inside coming up on a right hand turn. You wait a little bit later to get on the brakes so you can get around the other racer, you realize that you are coming into the corner too hot and you are already at maximum braking and the front tire starts sliding.
That scenario right there is what is leading me to think "if the front tire were to start sliding, what would I do to try and fix it".
Good, lots of good answers there highlighting how the rider can create more load than would otherwise exist just from cornering fast - and thus potentially create a slide at a much slower speed than you'd otherwise expect.
So if you are already leaned over and the front tire starts to slide, how could you change the weight to lighten the load on the front? In your post above, are you still on the brakes while leaned over in the turn?
Another solution would be to prevent the slide in the first place, so let's play this out - if you enter a corner more on the inside than usual (because you are passing), what OTHER things do you need to change? What do you need to do with your turn point? What about your steering rate?
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so I get on the gas (smoothly) to speed up a bit but that would require me to increase lean angle.
Why does getting on the gas require increasing your lean angle?
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OK, you have made an excellent observation, which is that "leaning the bike over farther" in the MIDDLE of a turn is not a good idea! The crash video illustrates that rather well.
First let me just say that reading A Twist of the Wrist II, or coming to the Superbike School, would improve your riding so much that you will be astounded; from what I can see in your video you are missing some data in multiple areas and one day of school would make a world of difference.
Having said that, let's talk about "leaning it over farther". Instead of focusing on finding a way to lean it over more (because we agree that steering the bike again in the middle of the turn is not a good thing), let's investigate what happens BEFORE that. WHEN do you find that you want to lean it more? You said above that sometimes you are in a turn and want to tighten your line. So, are you running wide at the end of the turns, and needing to steer it again to stay on the track?
If so, let's look at what is causing THAT problem - why are you running wide? There are lots of reasons that can happen (read Twist II!) but go back and watch your video. In turns 5-6 (the left-hand hairpin) watch your buddy on the black bike behind you. Note where he ENTERS the turn - see where he turns the bike and where he is on the track - and also look at his apex. Compare this to your line; do you see how he enters that turn from the far right side of the track, and then comes very close to the painted line on the inside (his apex)? He is straightening out the turn, and this sets him up nicely for the exit.
By straightening out the turn, he is able to ride the same turn at about the same speed, using LESS lean angle than you. Where do YOU enter the turn, and how close are you to the apex? How does this change the shape of the turn that YOU are riding, does it make the turn tighter for you? Are you making it easier, or harder on yourself?
Chapter 4 in Twist II explains lines for more thoroughly than I would attempt to do here, that is the best place to look for more info.
Turn 6 at Fontana is a turn that routinely sucks riders in early (turns 5 and 6 combine to make one long left hand hairpin). The short straightaway following the turn also invites riders to roll on the gas hard. If a rider turns in early, and runs a bit wide on the exit of 6, he/ she might lean it over more to "tighten the line" AND roll on the gas harder at the same time. This combo greatly overloads the rear tire - what do you think might happen?
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Hopefully one of the coaches can put in some info on what they have experienced and found what does/ doesn't work to try and save it.
I thought you guys were doing pretty well on your own, actually
... but I'll chime in.We all seem to agree that we want the optimum weight distribution (40 front 60 rear) to maximize traction.
What errors can riders make that can INCREASE the load(s) on the front tire beyond the basic load of cornering?
What actions can a rider take during a turn that can increase the load (unfavorably!) on the front tire?
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So do all the 2 day classes use your bikes? I'm looking at May at NJMP.
Yes, 2 day camps use the school bikes.
Single day schools allow either renting a school bike or bringing your own bike.
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. 50,000+ miles on that before selling in 92?)
Favorite Keith Code Quotes Or Articles?
in Cornering and Techniques
Posted
Here's another one of my all-time favorites:
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We worship FORCE and it is packaged nicely for us by the manufacturers. We've prayed for and were promised direct, hot-wired, carbon/titanium spiritual enlightenment through track proven, saint tested technological advancements and all of our prayers were answered.
- Keith Code
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Anyone know what that is from?