(I think this is applicable here, but if not mods can feel free to move it to Riding Techniques)
Well, I think I can say that my track cherry has been sufficiently popped. ;D
For those who don't know me or my exhalted poser status (
), I've had some confidence issues after a 1-2-3 punch of a hiatus from riding, death of a friend, and some silly newbie wrecks. This led to me not really riding as much as I would like to and increased stress and self-pressure when I'm on a group ride in the twisties. gm2 has been encouraging me to get out to the track but I've always had a reason not to: work schedule, lack of leathers, etc. Finally this latest round of encouragement came from gm2 and when I made excuses he pointed out that CSS was coming up, was on a weekend, and would rent me a bike and leathers. Out of excuses, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and signed up [thumbsup]
I battled a serious case of nerves and anxiety leading up to Saturday, but reading reviews on this board and talking more with gm2 and sexybill convinced me that it would be a low pressure environment more focused on skill improvement than track speeds. I didn't sleep much the night before and met up way too early in the morning with gm2 and steveg to carpool up to Streets of Willow @ Willow Springs. We made really good time and quickly went through the assembly line of signing in, leaving a deposit, getting group/gear/equipment/coach assignments and grabbin a quick bite of breakfast.
The first task of the day was to work on our throttle control, an area I'm absolutely horrible with in turns on the street, and it resulted in us doing a couple of single file orientation laps and then starting our first on track session with the instructions of 4th gear only and no brakes. I started out as a nervous wreck, thrown off by never being on a track or on an i4. The terror of coming out of a decreasing radius turn 2 and going down hill into a double apex turn 3 heading back uphill without being able to slow up led to an absolutely abysmal starting laptime of 2:47. I slowly started to warm up and had shaved nearly 20 seconds off by the end of the first session.
The classroom instruction was good (though I greatly prefer Keith over Dylan), but I got way more out of the on track coaching. My coach would give me things to work on independent of the individual lesson for the session, and was often giving me big thumbs up and head nods indicating my improvement of these areas while we did a lead-follow. After the first session, I was really having some problems with a 90 degree left hander with bumps all over the apex (turn 10) and asked my coach how to better handle it. He advised me that it appeared I was coming in too hot for my comfort zone and would be better served entering slower, getting the bike over and getting on the throttle soon to stabilize the bike before I hit the bumps.
Our next lesson was on turn in points and they had been marked for every turn on the track. We were allowed to use 3rd and 4th gear, but still no brakes. Both of these helped me tremendously and encouraged by them I started to get a bit more aggressive with the bike. After a few laps to get the tires warmed up, I found myself coming into turn 3 at a speed I was certain was much too hot for my ability. I decided to try flicking the bike in knowing that it would either stick or I'd hurtle off the track and likely end my day (CSS has a no crashing rule :-\), but to my surprise it worked! This was the light bulb moment for me as I finally understood that the bike was capable of far more than I could imagine, and the day continued with edging up entry speeds and increasing lean angles. It would turn out that my "flick it" idea would be the next lesson, and I repeated this uncanny habit of trying something to help myself in a session only to go to the next class and find that was the assignment for our next session (after flick it was relax, and then two step turn-in and apex sighting).
My rider coach continued to help me identify and fix trouble spots on the course separate from the class's assigned lesson and with his help I became more consistent in my lines and my confident in my abilities. There were multiple times when I nailed a turn and grinned ear to ear as I realized I was doing it right. I am sure I was nowhere near even an amateur racer's level of currently executing the turn, but I was hitting the basics of a settled and stable bike at a decent lean angle and it was a pretty damn cool feeling. I did turns at speeds and lean angles that I would have never believed to be possible for a 400lb bike and 250lb rider according to the laws of physics. ;D
In the last few sessions I had improved from being passed by practically everybody to the point that I was regularly passing the one or two other slow guys because my lines and speeds were better. I barely scratched the surface of the i4, not being used to the powerband I was severely short shifting well below the power band but I was content focusing on using the now available brakes as little as possible and maintaining my smoothness. I continued improving my lap times in each session and ended the day turning consistent times 40 seconds faster than my first lap.
My coach closed out the day telling me how amazed he was that I was the same guy he'd followed being so timid during the first session. [laugh]
I really enjoyed the day and am eager to get some time out on my duc and see what and where I can safely apply my learnings. I'm not sure if I'm ready for level 2 yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll be heading back and completing the entire curriculum as I get to where I think I'm prepared for each level. Being on the track is a whole other world and I can't lie: I've been eying track bikes & leathers and considering completely eliminating what little "sporting" street riding I currently do
