Pinned, Commitment..where Am I?

[Quinnx]

I understand the concept of knowing where I am in a corner, but still have difficulty really applying it. For instance, corner 5A - 5C at Barber. I turned as quickly as I felt comfortable on that great little yellow "X" and rolled on, but I always felt like I was heading for the grass/cones. Never did, but always seemed like I would. How do I tell that I'm "OK" to turn in faster, use more of the track without hitting the grass to know it? I never did hit the grass, but the pucker marks on the seat made me feel like I would. I understand the SR's are at work here, so I just kept the faith in rolling on.

 

Same thing with North VIR turn 1 (I belive), harder I turn in, light on the bar, the more track I seem to be using w/increased pucker rating. Level 2 so no video to help out.

 

Thanks

 

Quinnx

[wayneman]

I can really identify with that feeling on Trn 1 at VIR North. There were laps around trn 1 when I felt that I had made a good turn off the the "X", with a good line. but while going through the decreasing radius.......I felt like I was in a vacuum (a very weird feeling) and all I tried to do was just trust my line while rolling on the throttle.

I think that is what you are talking about....my sense of awareness was not 100% in that turn.

[wayneman]

I can really identify with that feeling on Trn 1 at VIR North. There were laps around trn 1 when I felt that I had made a good turn off the the "X", with a good line. but while going through the decreasing radius.......I felt like I was in a vacuum (a very weird feeling) and all I tried to do was just trust my line while rolling on the throttle.

I think that is what you are talking about....my sense of awareness was not 100% in that turn.

[Quinnx]

Yep, you got it...a vacum feeling with a lot of prayers. Lack of confidence yes, but still enough faith to continuosly roll on. We had already done the ride three parts of the track drill so I knew it was wide, but....

[motorthings]

where were you looking as you entered and continued through the turn?

[wayneman]

I will go ahead and antiscipate the answer as to where was I looking?

Obviously, I was not excuting the "2 Step Drill" properly!

But anyway, I thought when I turned off of the "X" , my eye was on my line looking at my apex, at least I thought it was.

[Quinnx]

So the game begins! Apex and then to the exit. Yes, I did sneak a look at the cones on the edge, but that was after (at least it seemed) I felt I was running wide. Barber 5A-5C is actually an increasing radius though decpetive, so I felt I was running out of space.

 

That's the bottom line to my question. Is the answer that no matter how wide or tight, as long as you look at the exit/vanishing point/whatever it's called you will be ok and not end up on the grass?

[Quinnx]

To contineue my last response. Gary my instructor was following me through this corner durning the pick-up dril and said I was doing fine. Problem was it felt like sh*t and I was lost with the impending sense of doom, but kept it rolling on.

 

Thats the key issue.

[stuman]

You feel lost in the turn, not sure if you are going to make it, not sure how close to the edge of the track you are, right?

 

So what tool can you use to help tell where you are on the track (hint: you learned it in level 2)?

 

Don't you think if you had a really good idea of exactly where you were on the track you would feel a bit more comfortable?

 

If you plan for turn one at VIR was to let the bike run out some in the middle of the turn and then bring it back in for the second portion of that turn, did you have something that would tell you how far to let it run out?

[Quinnx]

Stuman, obvioulsy it took time for me to think about this & two more track days at Jennings. I think the answer you are directing me to is actually both the Two Step and Wide View. Since Jennings is so flat I was forced to look more forward and out to determine where the turns were & which way I was & going. After taking the leap of faith I became confident I would not run out of track and could actually plan more effectively. Also the ability to start tringing diffenrent lines with seeing the results became more apparent.