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RobZA

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About RobZA

  • Birthday 03/27/1968

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  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
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    http://www.users.lantic.net/rob.bunyan/index.html
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    Cape Town, South Africa

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  1. My rear brake is used for scrutineering and wheelies only. Although yesterday some moron in a Mazda shot out in front of me and stopped. Had a pillion on the back and therefore could get away with a little light rear brake along with howling the front, but this may not even be possible on something more modern than my RD350LC. I suspect the new sportbikes which carry the pillion very high would still transfer just about all the weight onto the front in this situation.
  2. Hey Goods My understanding from the TOTW books and personal experience is that as you increase lean angle you reduce the amount of acceleration force the rear tyre can deal with before spinning, so you need to be rolling the bike upright as you gas it, not lower. Also, using throttle rule 1, you should always be trying to exit faster than you entered the turn. Solution, turn in slower (ie fewer MPH) and steer faster (ie quick flick) and trade lean for gas after the apex. To answer the original question, steering input changes lean angle. Once you are leaned, the bike turns on its own because of the shape of the tyre. If you have turned in correctly and are following the "one steering change per corner" rule, then you will only steer again at the exit. Mid corner, make sure you keep your arms loose and let the front find its own equilibrium. I think fastfreddie is right in that it is actually pointing slightly inward, but it doesn't really matter, just relax and leave it alone until you need to change something.
  3. In the spirit of Silvrluc's knee dragging post, herewith- my experience with entry speed. We've done lean angle and exits, so it's a matter of time. Once again, probably not too much here for the heroes. Most of us get "stuck" with corner speed at some time. You find yourself with lean angle to spare mid corner or track to spare on the exit, or you're getting passed, but your SR's won't let you turn in faster. Keith tells us to change one thing at a time. So firstly I pick a corner to work on, but I keep my speed up for the whole lap to maintain focus. This will either be my worst corner, or the fastest corner, because Keith says go fast in the fast corners. Now one day when I finally achieve my goal of all this extra entry speed and carry it all the way through the corner, chances are (assuming a peaky motor and a close ratio gearbox) I'll be taking this corner in the next higher gear, so that's where I start. But I'm still a wuss so now I'm turning in at the same (slow) speed, and I'm probably below the power band in my new gear. This is good- for now. It prevents me from "buying" exit speed with the right wrist because it won't go, and this now leaves me with 1/2 the track unused for the exit. At this point my entry and mid corner speed are unchanged, but I'm not getting drive at the exit. So now I start to ease up the entry speed to get into the power band in this new higher gear. This isn't threatening any more because now I know I've got 1/2 the track width to play with on the exit. Eventually I'll get to a point where I'm in the power band and I'm happy with my mid turn speed, but still have space to start the drive at the right time. Success Move on to the next corner and repeat. Now the fun bit: In doing this I found one slow corner where the spacing betwen the gear ratios was just too much to get away with this. If I entered in the power band in the higher gear, I ended up going too fast with too little track to exit. So just after the apex I have 3 choices: do nothing or drive out and run off, chop the throttle and blow the lap, or re-read Soft Science where Keith tells is sliding the rear is good (M'kay) I get off max lean, make sure I'm loose on the bike, and dip the clutch. The rear breaks traction briefly, oversteer ensues, and I can pick it up onto the meat of the tyre and nail it without going onto the green stuff. It's now part of my plan for that corner, and I'm experimenting with it in other slow corners. Comments, suggestions, etc?
  4. Interesting. I "developed' this technique about 5 years ago when I found myself racing on slicks in the rain. Just semed like the right thing to do to get drive in those conditions. Ended up going faster than most of the guys on treaded tyres. I've since always done this in the rain and always finished way better in the wet than in the dry, until for some reason I started doing it in the dry as well 6 months ago and instantly went from mediocre to fast. It's an excellent way of catching rear slides too.
  5. Thank you, Bones. That's exactly the kind of info I needed. Had a quick look at Soft Science and will check Twist 2 tomorrow. I have located but not yet read Twist 1. Andy, I'll get you all the info you've requested. Anything to get you guys out here Cheers, Rob
  6. Hi Andy Thanks for the reply. Nope, haven't done the schools. I'm in South Africa so getting to a school would be prohibitively expensive. I'll have to keep re-reading my books for now. My problem is not so much a steering problem as a location problem. I get it turned fast, but I'm not consistent on location, and after a race or practice I realise I had no reference point for the direction change- I was riding it like I would ride an unfamiliar road, whereas every other turn I have all my locations worked out.
  7. I'm having a little trouble with chicanes recently. I'm finding I'm too "busy" around the direction change point and can't get a consistent reference point for the mid-chicane turn. This makes me rely on gut feel which has me turn too early and run wide/lose drive/crash. Haven't found any chicane-specific guidance in Twist 2 or Soft Science. This wasn't really a big deal before but I've recently gotten a lot faster and now this deficiency in my riding has become very noticable. TIA, Rob
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