Most Common Mistake You See In Yourself

[faffi]

Inspired by the recent topic about watching other people's mistakes, what about trying to honestly evaluate your own?

 

Personally, it's been overriding the conditions - against better knowledge. Death grip, stiff arms, charging corners, braking mid-corner when SR cuts in - I've done it all. A lot. But other than make me a bit ragged, those things haven't really caused anything other than make me look a bit silly. But consistently keeping cornering speeds way above what I can safely see to be a clear road, that's caused a lot of hurt.

[Cobie Fair]

I have to pay attention to not turning in too early.

[fritzdacat]

I chop up turn-combinations, I'm still too concentrated on when to give the steering impuls (and how fast I should go in), if there's a series of turns sometimes I sort of "wake up" coming out of one turn going into another and I have to refocus on finding the right turnpoint into the next corner. Does this make any sense at all? Sure hope so :-)

 

 

[Lnewqban]

Trail-clutching.

 

For turns that seem difficult to me, unconsciously, I extend the downshift process into the turn, releasing the clutch slowly for the gear in which I will run the turn.

 

It doesn't happen for easy turns.

[warregl]

There are too many to mention all of them but one I am working on is "wide view". I have a tendency to narrow my focus especially as my pace increases, which of course makes it even worse. Its going to be the focus of my next level 4.

[bradvanhorn]

There are too many to mention all of them but one I am working on is "wide view". I have a tendency to narrow my focus especially as my pace increases, which of course makes it even worse. Its going to be the focus of my next level 4.

I too am working hard on wide view. For me (and I suspect I'm not alone) it's an easy concept to grasp but quite difficult to consistently employ. I'm getting better though...

 

Have you tried the "Lenz stars" (I think I'm naming that right) on your faceshield? Mike put them on my faceshield last year when he coached me on wide view during the school at NOLA.

[daesimps]

You have me curious about "lenz stars" as no amount of Google foo will reveal anything to me.

 

I've tried working on wide view a fair bit myself but to no avail. I really struggle with keeping the wide view when cornering. For example, when taking a right hand turn (I'm in the UK so ride on the left) I struggle to look through the bend but keep the kerb in the wide view. This usually results in me drifting into the bend and away from the kerb earlier than I'd like. If I move focus to trying to remain out near the kerb usually means my focus of vision comes towards me too much and before I realise I can quick turn I'm already on the way out of the bend.

 

If I try the "look at the centre of a wall and notice the edges of the room" I find that I almost go cross-eyed or out of focus and really do not fancy the idea of that happening at 50mph on a country road

 

I've done level 1 but will struggle to do any more due to a combination of money and medical issues meaning a full day at school is too hard on my body so it's not something that I'll be able to address at school any time soon, meaning I'm going to have to sort it myself in the meantime.

[bradvanhorn]

You have me curious about "lenz stars" as no amount of Google foo will reveal anything to me.

Hopefully I'll explain this clearly (and correctly). The Lenz stars are small stickers (gold stars) that are placed on the inside of your faceshield, one to the left, one to the right, and just a bit to the inside of the edge of your peripheral vision (I think you don't want them at the very edge of your peripheral vision). I can post a picture of my helmet tonight after I get home. The idea is that if you're keeping your wide view open then you will continuously see the stars. If your vision narrows you will lose the stars. So, if the stars disappear, this is the indicator you need to reopen your wide view. It's a pretty neat trick.

[BLSJDS]

_{I tend to move around too much on the bike, especially when the pace picks up, which is completely counterproductive .}

 

_{When I get tired, I tend to use less body lean and more bike lean, which is also counterproductive .}

 

_{Basically my Level IV days go something like this: Ride - coach helps me identify issues. Ride again - previous issues fixed - coach helps me identify new issues. Ride again - previous issues fixed - coach helps me identify new issues. And over and over again .}

[tmckeen]

I think my biggest issue that I recognize is hanging onto the inside bar too much, I keep my elbow bent but i feel like I'm supporting weight with the inside grip. Followed by being lazy and glossing over my reference points.

 

Does riding "street lazy" on the freeway count as a mistake ??

 

Tyler

[Pepsi Drinker]

Easiest one for me to think of, as I no doubt have more than one.

 

Too stiff of arms.

Until the pace gets to near race speeds (on the track of course) I find myself sitting up more and elbows just about locked. So I constantly find myself on nearly all my street rides having to think about relaxing my arms multiple times a day.

 

I know this stems mostly from "street lazy" since there is not any big consequences at the moderate speeds of "pace" riding on the street, but it has grown to be more habit than occassional incident. One I need to start breaking and getting back to better form.

 

4 trackday events in May including 2 days with CSS. 3 routed "spirited" rides of 450 miles, 520 miles and 585 miles in May also. Well that will give me plenty of opportunity to concentrate on that and other areas that I no doubt will be made more aware of at VIR

Hopefully by June I will have that under control again plus 1 or 2 other areas.

 

We have had snow for the last 8 days straight. Seemingly like spring will not arrive soon enough for me. I did go out and ride in the 17* weather anyways, albeit only about 9 miles.

 

And here is another one from 2011 when we were pounded with nearly double our average snowfall. It hit 31* that Feb day and hadn't snowed in about 5 days so I went out and rode some 180 miles that day. Who says Minnesotans aren't die hard motorcyclists...lol~ It mostly stems from riding withdrawal ?

[Hotfoot]

I sometimes get a little too attached to my reference points - stare at them just a little too long (mostly it's the apex of corners that I look at for too long), which chops up my visual flow and affects my mid-corner speed. It happens when I get a little tired and start losing my wide view - and it indicates that I really don't have ENOUGH reference points to pull my eyes along smoothly.

 

Oh, and when I get into a left turn a little too fast I always want to tense up my left arm. I rode a different bike yesterday and didn't have that problem - apparently I am not getting a good knee lock on my regular bike!

[warregl]

Have you tried the "Lenz stars" (I think I'm naming that right) on your faceshield? Mike put them on my faceshield last year when he coached me on wide view during the school at NOLA.

 

I did try the stars Brad, and they definitely helped. Last August at VIR Joe C. was my on track coach and was the one that noticed my wide view closing in when my pace picked up (get faster as something esle breaks right?). As soon as he mentioned it it made sense and so Lyle (as my off track coach) recommended we try the stars. They worked really well and I left them on my visor for quite a while.

 

For those that havent tried them, they give you a reference point for your wide view. When you arent practing wide view they will "disappear" from your consious observation, maintain wide view and they are just visible. Another CSS magic trick...

[Cobie Fair]

Trail-clutching.

 

For turns that seem difficult to me, unconsciously, I extend the downshift process into the turn, releasing the clutch slowly for the gear in which I will run the turn.

 

It doesn't happen for easy turns.

 

You could try clutchless downshifts, that would cure this

[Lnewqban]

Thanks, Cobie !

 

I have tried it, but I feel that I am hurting my transmission.

 

I prefer the traditional method of clutch in-blip-shift-clutch out.

 

Why do you think that I do what I do?

It seems a timing thing (maybe a SR?) or a compensation habit.

Any specific bad consequences?

[faffi]

May not have to be SR directly, but information overload making some functions yield for more important ones?

[Cobie Fair]

Thanks, Cobie !

 

I have tried it, but I feel that I am hurting my transmission.

 

I prefer the traditional method of clutch in-blip-shift-clutch out.

 

Why do you think that I do what I do?

It seems a timing thing (maybe a SR?) or a compensation habit.

Any specific bad consequences?

 

There is another thread, but I'll give a shortish answer.

 

It's OK to do the traditional method (for downshifting). But...many do that as they don't know how or if it is damaging.

 

Here's a bit of data: clutchless upshifting is the norm for most racers and most dirt riders. One simply rolls off for a moment, makes the shift, rolls back on. Timing is important, if mis-timed, it just won't shift.

 

Downshifing is done by slowing the bike (with or with out brakes), throttle off. Then a slight blip (on/off) of the throttle to unload the transmission for a moment, making it possible to shift).

 

This does no damage, and in fact is easier on the bike in some ways--there is no clutch wear for example.

 

If mis-timed, it simply won't shift.

 

Here is how one can mess it up: catch a false neutral, and then stomp it in...that's bad.

 

Constant pre-loading the shift lever, this can hurt some bikes after a long time.

 

Here are some more facts:

 

Most of my faster coaches don't use the clutch, up or down. I haven't since 1984. Never had to replace a clutch, never had a transmission problem (my bikes are actually known by the mechanics for the very mild wear and tear).

 

Make sense?

 

I tried to keep it short, there are some more facts, but this will answer some of it.

 

Best,

Cobie

[khp]

Especially in the long turns, I don't have enough reference points. The last two turns of Big Willows (Turn 8 & 9, iirc) drove this point home pretty hard when i was there in October. Thanks to Pete & Jon (Gloom) for working on this.

[ozfireblade]

lack of good reference points, choosing bad lines, left hand double apex turns are the main contenders

[Lnewqban]

.........Make sense?

 

I tried to keep it short, there are some more facts, but this will answer some of it.

 

Best,

Cobie

 

It does make sense: thank you much, Cobie !

[csmith12]

Lazy steering in the chicanes and sometimes charge turns.

[Cobie Fair]

Yeah, we do see that now and again .

 

CF

[aslcbr600]

I feel like I could get off the bike more, not that I am not at all but for me being a smaller guy I feel like sometimes 1 cheek just isn't enough. Not riding crossed up but sure feels like I could be getting off the bike more. Part of the reason I struggle with this is because my suit is a Cortec Latigo suit and the crotch area doesn't stretch like the higher dollar suits so even with a fist distance between myself and the tank if I try to get off the bike more then my knee isn't locked onto the tank properly.

 

I am sure once I buy a new suit this will help exponentially but I can't just blame the suit....

 

Next thing after that is trusting the brakes more, I am braking way too early and losing the corner speed that I want to enter the turn in. Very frustrating to say the least....going to spend a lot of time doing braking drills.

[Alfred.Rodriguez]

Tightening on the bars when approaching mid- to high-speeds. For some reason, never got used to higher speeds, ie., I can quick flick on shorter speeds; but when speeds start coming up, I hesitate and lose the moment.

[csmith12]

Tightening on the bars when approaching mid- to high-speeds. For some reason, never got used to higher speeds, ie., I can quick flick on shorter speeds; but when speeds start coming up, I hesitate and lose the moment.

 

This is very bad on a bike that can lift the front wheel at 100+ or when your airborn. Ask me how I know....