Bpez Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Hi Guy's! I'm out in CA on business for the next few months and wanted to check out some of the tracks in CA. Since my bike is in PA I started looking at track bike rentals. Before I knew it, I found CSS. Answers my problems. I get out on the track with a bike plus instruction. Can't lose. I signed up for L1 this weekend 10/11 at Streets of Willow. I'm on the waitlist for L2 on 10/12. Hopefully someone drops out and I can get in. Looking forward to the 09 schedule. I would love to get out on Laguna and Infineon in the near future. Otherwise I'll wait for VIR or NJMP back east. A lot of people I know are waiting to hear what I think about L1. They're all thinking about signing up next year when you guys come out to the east coast. Anyway, really looking forward to meeting everyone from CSS this weekend! Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Hi Bob, Glad to have you on the board, and that you'll be at the school this weekend. The weather looks like it's taken a nice turn to the cooler side, so that's good. Come and say hello to me in the morning after you get signed up! Decent chance you can get it, and sometimes just showing up we can take walk ons, seems like it's pretty often someone no-shows (no guarnatees though, we don't over book). See you on Saturday! Best, Cobie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpez Posted October 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2008 Hi Bob, Glad to have you on the board, and that you'll be at the school this weekend. The weather looks like it's taken a nice turn to the cooler side, so that's good. Come and say hello to me in the morning after you get signed up! Decent chance you can get it, and sometimes just showing up we can take walk ons, seems like it's pretty often someone no-shows (no guarnatees though, we don't over book). See you on Saturday! Best, Cobie I'll have to wait and see about Sunday. Maybe the cold, windy weather will keep someone at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 13, 2008 Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 I'll have to wait and see about Sunday. Maybe the cold, windy weather will keep someone at home. Well, you made it out, and as it turned out you stuck for both days. Want to let everyone know how it went, or going to keep it to yourself? C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpez Posted October 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Yea, I signed up for L1 on Sat and was on standby for L2 Sunday. After Sat I really wanted Sun to happen. Trevor waited to the last possible minute to put me in. There were a lot of stragglers coming in late. Looking back over the weekend, I would have to say that doing L1 and 2 back to back is the way to go. The weekend could not have went better for me. My brief bio....40yrs old...rode dirt as a kid through my teens...first street bike in my early 20's for a few years...stopped riding....married/house, etc. Just got back into street riding 2 yrs ago...into track days this past summer. First track VIR north and twice at NJMP Thunderbolt. Problems...Entry speed, lean angle, mid turn adjustments, confidence, etc. Wanted to learn the right way before all these problem turned into bad habits. Perfect timing for CSS. I already knew Cobie and Misti from the forums. Introduced myself to both first thing in the morning. I was fortunate enough to get Cobie as a coach plus he was training a new coach so I really ended up having 2 coaches. We were fortunate to have Keith Code teach all of our class room theory himself. The structure is pretty straight forward: Class room theory, go out and put it to practice on the track with your track coach, and then debrief with your coach after you get off the bike. Then it is back to the class room for the next lesson. Each Level has five lessons and five track sessions. Each session was about 20 minutes. Then you do the ground school (turn bike) while you're waiting to go out. The first thing we worked on was Throttle Control. In the class, Keith explained how the suspension works, why loading the suspension properly is key, and all the ways your throttle hand is going to try and screw all this up. Mid corner throttle application was covered, and before I knew it I was back on the track with my coach with him showing me where to get off the throttle, and more importantly how soon you can get back on it. Cobie pulled me off the track to tell me to stop adjusting lean angle while getting on the gas...unless I wanted to crash. Didn't realize I was doing it. They had us in 4th gear only and no brakes. I was intrigued in this as soon as I heard about this drill weeks ago. It really worked well for me to steadlily increase my entry speeds. Second lesson was turn points. This helped me establish the correct lines which stopped my mid turn correction that Cobie pulled me off for. They use an X on the track. I do track days with Team Promotion. They use small cones on the side of the track for turn and apex points. I favor the cones since you can spot them from far away. 2 gears- no brakes still doing wonders for me. Third lesson was quick turns. Get it turned over fast and ease on the throttle sooner. Worked wonders for my smoothness in the turn. Combined with the next lesson of relaxing and then on to looking ahead by two step turning....and I have the perfect recipe I've been looking for. Every lesson built on the other and blended well. My lap times went down by 20 seconds at the end of the day. Averaged under 2.00 I liked following the exact line of the coach. You can really see what's going right and what still needs some work. The thumbs up from the coach is a great feeling. For Level 2 I had Paul as a coach. The day before I was ease dropping on some of his Level 3 coaching and was pretty impressed by him so I was glad to have him as my coach. At different times the coaches will sit on the side of the track and watch you come through the corner. They see everything from braking, body position, turn point, throttle on, relaxation, looking through corner then they follow without you knowing they're there. Everything gets critiqued which is exactly what I wanted. Paul gave me great feedback and the level 2 lessons were all about the visual aspects of riding. This combined with everything from L1 dropped my lap times another 10 seconds. I was averaging upper 1.40's by the end of the day which I was really happy with. Felt fast to me but still completely controllable. Basically, I moved my comfort zone to a whole new level. Would have been faster if it wasn't for traffic. I could tell the guys out with me weren't used to getting passed by how erratic they got as you went by, so I tried not to pass too much. The one thing I will say about passing is that the only rules they have are to keep a 6 foot distance. I saw some dangerous passes just because people didn't know any better. I would think everyone would benefit from a no inside passing rule from the turn point to the apex. I'm flying back to PA this weekend and doing a track day Monday 10/20 at NJMP Thunderbolt. I'm really looking forward to using all this new found knowledge on another track that I know fairly well. Just need to remember to keep myself grounded and centered with all this and not do anything stupid. We all know what over confidence can do in this sport. My thanks to Cobie and everyone at CSS. Well run operation by a lot of people who clearly love what they do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpez Posted October 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 I hit NJMP Thunderbolt with Team Promotion today and got bumped up to intermediate before lunch without asking to be evaluated. Coach came after me in the pit and said lets go back out in the intermediate group. I followed, then led for a few laps. I'm in! Thanks CSS! Everything I learned last week is now coming naturally. Hitting the track again in 2 weeks. Loving every minute of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 I hit NJMP Thunderbolt with Team Promotion today and got bumped up to intermediate before lunch without asking to be evaluated. Coach came after me in the pit and said lets go back out in the intermediate group. I followed, then led for a few laps. I'm in! Thanks CSS! Everything I learned last week is now coming naturally. Hitting the track again in 2 weeks. Loving every minute of it! Great to hear it, and also an excellent write up of how it went (at the Superbike School). CF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racer Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 and a big hand goes out to the CSS moderator/admin team who killed that virus/malware attack in about five minutes flat from original post time that has to be some kind of record lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 and a big hand goes out to the CSS moderator/admin team who killed that virus/malware attack in about five minutes flat from original post time that has to be some kind of record lol i didn't even get to it, think the webmaster nuked 'em before I got there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racer Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 and a big hand goes out to the CSS moderator/admin team who killed that virus/malware attack in about five minutes flat from original post time that has to be some kind of record lol i didn't even get to it, think the webmaster nuked 'em before I got there. Kevin was up on the board when the POS posted the list of porno links filled with viruses and ActiveX malware. I PM'd him to point it out and BAM... another one bites the dust, hey hey, another one bites the dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Kevin was up on the board when the POS posted the list of porno links filled with viruses and ActiveX malware. I PM'd him to point it out and BAM... another one bites the dust, hey hey, another one bites the dust. Hey Racer--thanks for that. He told me he will be out of action from now until Sunday. I'll be in the office from now until Friday evening, but over the weekend--there won't be any of us regularly staying on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Kevin was up on the board when the POS posted the list of porno links filled with viruses and ActiveX malware. I PM'd him to point it out and BAM... another one bites the dust, hey hey, another one bites the dust. Hey Racer--thanks for that. He told me he will be out of action from now until Sunday. I'll be in the office from now until Friday evening, but over the weekend--there won't be any of us regularly staying on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaybird180 Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Seems there's a problem with write permissions on the forum's software. You may want to have the IT guys contact the vendor about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Hey Bpez--thanks for letting us know about these spammers, appreciate that. Not sure if any of the moderators will be available over the weekend though... Best, CF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kane Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Not sure if any of the moderators will be available over the weekend though... Cobie; I have been able to get limited internet access so I will try to maintain cover this weekend. Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
css Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 Seems there's a problem with write permissions on the forum's software. You may want to have the IT guys contact the vendor about it. What are you referring to specifically? BTW board is now up to v2.3.6 hopefully that will help with some things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaybird180 Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 Seems there's a problem with write permissions on the forum's software. You may want to have the IT guys contact the vendor about it. What are you referring to specifically? BTW board is now up to v2.3.6 hopefully that will help with some things. I hope that what we're seeing regarding spam is an improvement. By no means is it fool proof, or to the point of "set it and forget it". Take a look at the IP.Board forums. There are several strategies there other admins have posted for dealing with SPAM issues on this software. If you need any help, PM me and leave a phone number, or I'll send mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 I hope that what we're seeing regarding spam is an improvement. By no means is it fool proof, or to the point of "set it and forget it". Take a look at the IP.Board forums. There are several strategies there other admins have posted for dealing with SPAM issues on this software. If you need any help, PM me and leave a phone number, or I'll send mine. Hey Jaybird, Thanks for keeping an eye on this stuff and your willingness to help out. Some of these spammers, I'd like to.... Best, CF ps--going to be at the track for 4 days, and I know Kevin is also out over the weekend, hope we don't get tons of up here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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