Couldn't ask for nicer weather at Infineon today [thumbsup] I spent the day at Keith Code's CA Superbike School. Did level 4 and what that means is that I've completed all the lecture/classroom specific instructions and ride drills and now I get to work on whatever I want -- well, more like whatever I need in order to ride better [cheeky]
I went in with 3 goals: Fix my fear of downhill turns, improve braking, and learn to pass. Why these? Because I noticed on my twisty rides, I don't feel confident with downhill turns. Some braking remains a mystery to me and that just limits my riding. Finally, if I am going to let myself do a regular trackday, I think I should be decent at passing or handling traffic.
I got two coaches - one is a ride coach who observes me on the track, the other explains things to me and figures out my riding problems. So...my fear of downhill...why is that...because I have too much speed going into the turn...so slow down...I do that by braking...but I do that too late and that upsets the bike...and I freak when the bike is upset. To fix that...treat every turn the same...set up properly before turning the bike, turn bike, roll on throttle...and onto the next turn...judge entry speed as part of set up...brake before turning the bike if I have to...but light braking or trail off braking some distance before turning the bike so the suspension has time to settle for the turn. This is what I practiced on every turn especially on the downhill turns there.
Along the way, my ride coach noticed my bike would run wide sometimes. So we had to fix that. That's me hanging onto the bike too tight with my arms so the bike's front suspension can't do its thing so the bike drifted, drifted wide. Okay, with downhill fear and run wide fixed...ride coach noticed that I've max'ed out the lean on the bike. That's not good because that leaves me with no margin for when I need more lean. So we had to fix my body position. Hang off is the solution for me there. Right now, it's hard for me to hang off while keeping the same pace as before. It's another thing to do and to do it consistently. For the rest of the day, I practiced that.
Overall, I shaved off around 10-15 seconds. Lots of room for improvement...I won't be chasing the Tigre's tail any time soon ;D BTW, I rode the school's bike - that green Kawi 636. Sweet bike [thumbsup]
I went in with 3 goals: Fix my fear of downhill turns, improve braking, and learn to pass. Why these? Because I noticed on my twisty rides, I don't feel confident with downhill turns. Some braking remains a mystery to me and that just limits my riding. Finally, if I am going to let myself do a regular trackday, I think I should be decent at passing or handling traffic.
I got two coaches - one is a ride coach who observes me on the track, the other explains things to me and figures out my riding problems. So...my fear of downhill...why is that...because I have too much speed going into the turn...so slow down...I do that by braking...but I do that too late and that upsets the bike...and I freak when the bike is upset. To fix that...treat every turn the same...set up properly before turning the bike, turn bike, roll on throttle...and onto the next turn...judge entry speed as part of set up...brake before turning the bike if I have to...but light braking or trail off braking some distance before turning the bike so the suspension has time to settle for the turn. This is what I practiced on every turn especially on the downhill turns there.
Along the way, my ride coach noticed my bike would run wide sometimes. So we had to fix that. That's me hanging onto the bike too tight with my arms so the bike's front suspension can't do its thing so the bike drifted, drifted wide. Okay, with downhill fear and run wide fixed...ride coach noticed that I've max'ed out the lean on the bike. That's not good because that leaves me with no margin for when I need more lean. So we had to fix my body position. Hang off is the solution for me there. Right now, it's hard for me to hang off while keeping the same pace as before. It's another thing to do and to do it consistently. For the rest of the day, I practiced that.
Overall, I shaved off around 10-15 seconds. Lots of room for improvement...I won't be chasing the Tigre's tail any time soon ;D BTW, I rode the school's bike - that green Kawi 636. Sweet bike [thumbsup]
May hit you up.
