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gary koch

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Everything posted by gary koch

  1. Thank for the info JeF4y, I figured that was the case. As far as sliding under power goes, is it not nessesay to puch hard on the high peg to hold the back wheel under the bike? For all I know I may be doing it with the bars and pushing on the peg is just a usless this I do. Please keep in mind that I am not talking about riding that hard on the street, as I am sure you know from racing F4Is, to get a power slid out of one takes some prayer, non race tires, and corners that are 1st or 2nd gear. For me the back end sliding usually accures when I am in the mountains and run over some ice, or the road is a little slippery with dirt or other things. When this happens my reaction (or SR) is to weight the high peg by picking my butt up off the seat with that leg and leaving the thottle steady as to not get it to catch too hard. I most likely picked this up from playing arround with my friends dirt bikes when I was a kid. When your raceing do you handle all the sliding soley with the bars? I can easily see in a racing situation where the bike is really at 98% or more, that picking my butt up off the seat mid corner while sliding could upset my bike. By the way, thanks for the info about making the F4i a track bike. Since I have only been an a track once (streets of willow about 6yrs ago) I think it would make a good bike to go out and get the feel of the bigger track. I'm going to get an 05 636 and turn my F4i into a track bike. If I actually am fast I will sell it and change the 636 into my track bike. This brings up another question, do they race the 636 in the 600 class? If not I will probably buy an R6 or a 600rr. Good luck at your next race, maybe the cherry pickers will stay home next time!
  2. Thank for the info JeF4y, I figured that was the case. As far as sliding under power goes, is it not nessesay to puch hard on the high peg to hold the back wheel under the bike? For all I know I may be doing it with the bars and pushing on the peg is just a usless this I do. Please keep in mind that I am not talking about riding that hard on the street, as I am sure you know from racing F4Is, to get a power slid out of one takes some prayer, non race tires, and corners that are 1st or 2nd gear. For me the back end sliding usually accures when I am in the mountains and run over some ice, or the road is a little slippery with dirt or other things. When this happens my reaction (or SR) is to weight the high peg by picking my butt up off the seat with that leg and leaving the thottle steady as to not get it to catch too hard. I most likely picked this up from playing arround with my friends dirt bikes when I was a kid. When your raceing do you handle all the sliding soley with the bars? I can easily see in a racing situation where the bike is really at 98% or more, that picking my butt up off the seat mid corner while sliding could upset my bike. By the way, thanks for the info about making the F4i a track bike. Since I have only been an a track once (streets of willow about 6yrs ago) I think it would make a good bike to go out and get the feel of the bigger track. I'm going to get an 05 636 and turn my F4i into a track bike. If I actually am fast I will sell it and change the 636 into my track bike. This brings up another question, do they race the 636 in the 600 class? If not I will probably buy an R6 or a 600rr. Good luck at your next race, maybe the cherry pickers will stay home next time!
  3. I was just wondering why the Bs bike won't turn when using the stationary bars. I know it won't turn well at all, but it should still be able to be leaned, especially at 20-25 miles per hour. I have an F4i with a throttle lock on it. When I get stuck behind a huge line a cars in the canyon I use my thottle lock and ride behind them no handed (breaks up the monotony of following cars). This works best at around 45 miles per hour, anything over 60 and the bike is very hard to turn, but at 45 it works just fine. I do notice a lag in the turning, kind of like a boat in a bay, but the bike still turns. I shift my weight, and sometimes if it is a tighter turn I will pull on the tank with my other leg. I haven't yet attended school, but I am a student of the books. I ride pretty well and practice the gosple, but I also use my legs and pegs in certain situations like when the rear is sliding under power (which is rare on an F4i). I find that it helps to hold the back wheel under the bike if you weight the outside peg when it is sliding. I know that Keith and Pridmore differ on this subject (and most of the time I agree with Keith's teachings) where Peidmore will teach peg steering Keith will stress using the bars. I tend to use both methods. Am I simply wasting energy by using the pegs to help hold the back wheel under the bike? Keep in mind that I do lock on the bike by pushing on the out side peg as I feel that I should, but when the back starts to lose it I pick my butt up off the seat with the outside peg which pushes the back wheel back into place. I realise that I may be subconsiouly correcting this with the bars and that is why I am asking about it. I don't want to be doing something that is waisting energy, and taking some of my 10bucks away. Thanks for the imput!
  4. I wanted to know if any of you have used the F4I as a basis for a track day/club race bike. I have an 02 with about 16k miles on it. It is almost stock, just a two bros high mount slip on and a double bubble wind screen. I really love my bike, but as the miles stack up (most are all canyon miles) everything starts to ware. When pushed really hard you can tell the suspention is not up as it once was. The breaks are not as good as they can be (getting steal lines today ) but everything I notice would almost be undetectable by the average rider. My delema is.....should I sell this bike (its in showroom condition) while I can still get my $ out of it, or would I be wise to keep it and as things get too warn replace them? I want to start going out to track days, and if my lap time are ok start racing. I don't make that much $ so to race would mean big sacrafices on the home front. If any of you have used an F4I for a track bike I would like to know the changes you made, and how much you needed to spend. Also I would like to know how much time these upgrades saved on your laps. Thanks
  5. I don't know if you have tried this, but it has worked for me in the past as well as all of my friends (which is only 3 people by the way). Find a piece of road that has good spots to turn around so you can section off about 2 miles. Ride this section back and forth (3rd gear turns work really well) paying close attention to your lean angle. Don't use the breaks or gas it really hard just practice getting the cornering spead a little higher. This works best if you really know the road, as if it was part of your favorite track. Go slightly faster in the turn, to the point where you can feel a little uncomforterble but know 99.9% that you will make it. Keep going that speed until it feels good, then go a little faster. As long as you have checked the road for slippery spots ect, and your not charging in too hard and are keeping a pretty smooth steady speed you should be able to keep increasing your speed until your knee hits, or your drag a peg. The trick to this is finding the right part of road, you don't want to be trying this on decreasing turns, they need to be constant radius. I know that I am comfortable enough to try to go faster if I can look at my speedo easily, which is another reason to only do this on constant radius turns. Also, if what if limiting you is a feeling based on an SR I have found that if you do other things that evoke the same feeling, and get comfortable with it, the feeling gets pushed back farther on the bike as well. I use my mountain bike for this. I noticed that the same feeling I get when I start to lose my front wheel on the motorcycle is that same sinking stomach feeling I used to get when I started mountain biking and thought something was too steep to go down, or did a wheelie too far and knew I was going to fall on my back. To over come my fear of the losing the front wheel on my motorcycle I used to take my mtb out front and purposly do a wheelie that was past the balance point, trying to use the rear break to keep from falling on my back. I didn't notice that this had anything to do with riding motorcycle until the next time I had a loss of traction in the front. Instead of losing 3 to 4 tenths of a second being scared about it, which ususally will get you into the oncomming lane, I just reacted, saving thoses tenths and keeping the bike in my lane. To this day my biggest SRs come from traction loss in the front end of my bike, but getting used to that feeling has made a huge difference in my confidence. For all I know this advice may be the worst in the world, I haven't yet attended school but I have read the books. I've been riding for 11 year, and going pretty fast for about 8 of them. I credit Keith's books for all of my progress as a sport rider, as well as saving my life as times though his teachings. Some day I want to attend one of his schools, if nothing more just to say thanks for allowing me to do what not many can, and do it safely (sort of). Don't stop riding, I tried that once and hated my self for it!
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