Top 3 Skills

[Hotfoot]

 

Seriously, though, your point is well taken. Where does basic become too basic? The reason I chose to start with steering is that I've seen a surprising number of experienced riders who still don't really understand how to properly countersteer a bike.

Benny

 

While I get Tyler's point about countersteering as a very basic skill, we did say "effectively steering" which, to me, defines the difference between a rider who can stay mostly in his lane on the street (basic skill) and a rider who can make the bike go EXACTLY where he wants it to go, with a rapid steering rate and no wasted effort (advanced skill).

 

As Benny says above, we see a remarkable number of riders that either don't specifically understand how countersteering works, or add some sort of (or VARIETY of) extra effort that they think is needed to turn the bike. Examples would include pressing down on the bars, gripping the bars tightly, trying to use leaning to steer, being very tense in their back, etc. - there are a multitude of ways a rider can complicate the simple action of countersteering the bike. Their relief in learning how to do it right is palpable, because it is invariably much simpler and more effective than what they were doing before.

 

On a more subtle and more advanced level, small errors in steering at a fast pace can create barriers to entry speed - the rider knows he can't go into a corner any faster because he perceives an instability in the bike (or just can't get it turned enough) - but has no idea why it is happening, blaming it on his tires or suspension, or maybe he just thinks he is "not brave enough".

[faffi]

 

 

1. High "SR" threshold... what can a rider do to reduce his SR threshold? What are the things that trigger SRs and what specific skills can be applied to reduce them? What what were/are your personal triggers & what have you guys done to reduce them?

Some doesn't seem to have much in the way of SRs, like Schwantz in my post above. Or like Marquez, crashing at 320 mph and still have presence to decide how to crash to reduce the risk of hurting himself, then going back out, bruised and battered, and riding even faster. Most people would hold back just a little after such an episode, but if you do, you will not win. Can you learn to be this fearless, or would you have to be born this way?

 

 

You seldom see idiot drivers/cyclist/bikers on the track do you? Or stray animals/leaves ...

 

Riding 90% like MM or ANY of the top gp champs on open roads is a death wish imho

 

They are just what they are: inspiriation.

 

As Mr Keith said: would you like to learn golf from tiger woods or from the instructor who taught him?

 

 

I automatically considered the question to relate to being a racer, and not a question about basic riding. It could be a made the wrong assumption, because if we are talking about riding in general or road riding in particular, my answers would be totally different. For street riding it would be:

 

#1: Being very careful.

#2: The ability to understand traffic situations and place your machine where you are the most conspicuous while retaining the best possible observation spot.

#3: Understand how fast you can ride while being able to stop within the distance you can see to be clear.

 

Being very careful on the road is more important than being good at controlling the bike, since the good rider tend to ride quite a bit faster. Of course, being both good and careful is better than just being careful

[ktk_ace]

 

 

 

1. High "SR" threshold... what can a rider do to reduce his SR threshold? What are the things that trigger SRs and what specific skills can be applied to reduce them? What what were/are your personal triggers & what have you guys done to reduce them?

Some doesn't seem to have much in the way of SRs, like Schwantz in my post above. Or like Marquez, crashing at 320 mph and still have presence to decide how to crash to reduce the risk of hurting himself, then going back out, bruised and battered, and riding even faster. Most people would hold back just a little after such an episode, but if you do, you will not win. Can you learn to be this fearless, or would you have to be born this way?

 

 

You seldom see idiot drivers/cyclist/bikers on the track do you? Or stray animals/leaves ...

 

Riding 90% like MM or ANY of the top gp champs on open roads is a death wish imho

 

They are just what they are: inspiriation.

 

As Mr Keith said: would you like to learn golf from tiger woods or from the instructor who taught him?

 

 

I automatically considered the question to relate to being a racer, and not a question about basic riding. It could be a made the wrong assumption, because if we are talking about riding in general or road riding in particular, my answers would be totally different. For street riding it would be:

 

#1: Being very careful.

#2: The ability to understand traffic situations and place your machine where you are the most conspicuous while retaining the best possible observation spot.

#3: Understand how fast you can ride while being able to stop within the distance you can see to be clear.

 

Being very careful on the road is more important than being good at controlling the bike, since the good rider tend to ride quite a bit faster. Of course, being both good and careful is better than just being careful

 

 

I apologize for misinterpreting...

 

And i do agree with your points

[Ventodue]

I'm with ktk-ace on this one, i.e.

1) Throttle control

 

2) Steering

 

3) Vision

... so just to throw something new into the mix. Now, I don't know whether these really qualify as 'skills', but:

 

1. A desire to get better.

2. A positive attitude towards learning.

 

You can't get very far without those ... . And I'm sure we all know plenty of riders who don't seem to have much of either

[Cobie Fair]

Great stuff. This ended up going in some directions I didn't consider initially, and possibly we should think of splitting this to just have it on street.

 

My initial question was simply overall skill. When I made the question initially, here's what I had in mind:

 

1. Steering, and quickly.

2. Throttle control to stabilize the bike.

3. Visual skills.

 

This can be looked at several ways: with too poor visual skills, one can get in deep trouble in any arena (street or track). But...if the ability to steer effectively is not there below that, options are reduced even with good visual skills.

 

I've personally known riders miss potential head ons from quick steering skill.

 

Stabilize the bike: so many instances of allowing the bike to do its job by making it stable, where good throttle control has saved the day, see it just about every day at the track.

 

Visuals: in the end, a rider is no better than his visual skills. But I put it 3rd, as the other 2 fundamentals need be there first.

[jnbazw]

Vision - Ability to process a lot of information at speed. (Wide View)

 

RP's - The ability to consistently put the bike on the right spot, at the right speed,every time

 

Throttle Control - Critical to develop "feel"

[ktk_ace]

I'm with ktk-ace on this one, i.e.

1) Throttle control

 

2) Steering

 

3) Vision

... so just to throw something new into the mix. Now, I don't know whether these really qualify as 'skills', but:

 

1. A desire to get better.

2. A positive attitude towards learning.

 

You can't get very far without those ... . And I'm sure we all know plenty of riders who don't seem to have much of either

 

At the risk of sounding very snarky and snobbish...

 

I would say that that is the inherent talent avaliable to each rider (confidence AND psychological resistance to your own fears/other things on road/track)

 

For ex if a rider only have 0.5% talent, he would have to work twice as hard as one with 1% talent ... a rider with 2% talent on the other hand ... you get the drill

 

I already have "scripts" for every turn near where I live (ie which turn point (multiple) to take and visual vs throttle delay(ie 0.3S for turn A etc))

 

I brake drift my bike to get out of sticky stiuations , some say Im crazy but i see it as redundancy to get my ass out of trouble.

 

Skill on the other hand is what can be learned by almost anyone with enough time.

 

just my 2C

[YellowDuck]

 

#1 for me is something like Erik's "high SR threshold"...

 

#2 would be consistent line selection...

 

#3 is sense of speed...

 

 

 

1. High "SR" threshold... what can a rider do to reduce his SR threshold? What are the things that trigger SRs and what specific skills can be applied to reduce them? What what were/are your personal triggers & what have you guys done to reduce them?

 

 

 

This is a great question but I am not sure I know the answer.

 

At some point on the learning curve I spent a lot of time visualizing what to do in various situations. The most obvious one is when I feel like I have too much corner speed and the natural SR is to roll off, and maybe even pick the bike up...but I worked hard on convincing myself that, almost always, steady throttle (or nearly) and more lean angle was going to be the right strategy. The big breakthrough came the first time I felt I was in too hot, forced myself to crank it over farther, and made it through the corner safely with plenty to spare. That actually happened on a street ride in the North Georgia mountains in a spot where there was a heck of a lot at stake if I had actually gone off.

 

Those experiences accumulate and eventually you arrive in a mental space where a situation that used to incite panic is now just a "been there, done that" kinda thing and you just do what is required without even raising an eyebrow. It sure makes track riding more fun (and safer, and faster) when you are not constantly on the verge of terror, suffering big spikes of adrenaline every time things don't go exactly according to plan. You just handle it.

[Kevin Kane]

The big breakthrough came the first time I felt I was in too hot, forced myself to crank it over farther, and made it through the corner safely with plenty to spare.

YD;

 

Boy did this sound familiar; DAMHIK.

 

Rain

[mugget]

Can you learn to be this fearless, or would you have to be born this way?

 

I would say that yes you can learn to be like that. It would probably be a lot of work and you'd have to confront and deal with some pretty big personal barriers, but hard work beats talent every time. (IMO!)

 

If you want to be "fearless" I think you would need to adopt a certain mental attitude or outlook. Rather than reacting to situations emotionally, you would need to train yourself react logically and rationally at all times. Easy to say, but not so easy to do since people are all emotional to some degree. But if you can react logically rather than emotionally then by definition you ought to be fearless, since fear is just an emotion.

 

Actually that's probably a good exercise for everyone, at least to evaluate their own reactions. If you think of people who react emotionally while riding or driving, you probably notice that they tend to make poor decisions, correct? One way your could evaluate yourself is to think about whether your observations match the reality of the situation. For example new riders often feel that they're at maximum lean when they actually have quite a long way to go, so their observations are way out of sync with reality (a pretty scary thought)! But if they concentrate only on the facts, the grip level, recognizing the actual possible max lean angle, then they'll avoid all those emotional decisions such as "I feel I can't lean any more" etc. Basically you either can or your can't lean further. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. If that makes sense...? (Feeling is an emotional thing, so any time you're riding along and think "I feel..." that's an emotional response.)

 

However once you can look at situations logically it makes sense that things would get much easier for you. For example when Marquez had that big crash, he no doubt knew exactly what he did wrong, so looking at it logically he would have been able to say to himself "okay, I made a mistake. I won't do that again, therefore I won't crash again." But if he started to make emotional decisions he would probably start thinking that he didn't want to go out again, let alone go any faster because he could have just died out there...

 

I think probably more people get into that type of mindset than we might realise? I remember on my last track day I had made some good improvements and it was either the last or 2nd last session of the day (always my best ones) and the thought suddenly crossed my mind that I was going so fast that if I missed my turn point by 1-2 metres I would run off the track. Of course I was thinking this as I was coming into the first turn off the straight... and I did miss my turn point and I ran off the track. But up until then I didn't really have any fear at all, all I was concentrating on was the actions I had to perform. Perhaps the worrying part comes afterwards when you get a chance to sit down and think about what you've just done... some people may be scared about how they were riding and may put some kind of limits on themselves because of it?

 

I would say that CSS naturally creates that type of logical thinking in people as well. At least that is what I noticed from Level 1 - all of the exercises make you think about the things you should be doing, you're dealing only with actions and results and if you're working at it properly you shouldn't really have time to get all emotional about anything. That emotion comes when you're back in the pits likely with a massive grin on your face.

 

The other aspect that CSS helps with is teaching you all about the technology of riding, giving riders an understanding of exactly how things work on a bike, and understanding how their actions will bring about a certain result, even being able to work backwards and see how a particular result was caused by their actions. I'm sure that having a solid understanding of the technology of riding would go a long way to avoiding SRs. They may as well be called Surprise Reactions, right? And it's pretty hard to be surprised by something if you're expecting it.