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California Superbike School – Level II
Well folks, spent April Fools day at Streets of Willow Springs raceway…drove up to Rosamond Friday night to get an early start Saturday…but woke up Saturday morning to rain!!! Bummer….
The track was wet, but dried out pretty soon, so after our first lecture, the track was almost dry during the first session. I was in the white group and we were on the track first…only problem was that I was COLD and I HATE cold…should have brought my own bike so I could use my heated vest….
So what is Level II all about? It is about Reference Points on the track. But for me, it was all about technique and getting old…and in pain…(I turn 60 YO in a few weeks)…
The first lecture was about reference points on the track…what they are and are not…and we were to make our first run looking for reference points at various turns…
Now, let’s discuss my personal experience….Oh, I used the school’s Kawasaki 636 and my personal bike is a ZX-10R…I got on the 636 and boy did it feel squirrelly….I must have my damper set up too stiff on my ZX-10R – something else to check when I get home…
On my first pass on the track, I was hauling ass, feeling pretty confident around the track…. got behind my instructor and was generally hauling ass, laying it over pretty far…my instructor pulled me off the track to inform me that my lean angle was so far over than I was close to low siding…riding on the ragged edge….I always felt my comfort level, confidence and lack of fear allowed me to really lean it down, allowing me to really fly….what I soon discovered that my ragged edge riding is more due to my lack of proper body position and technique…she also told me that I was pushing the bike down with my arms and holding my body position upright – I should just be using my palms to push the bars to steer - countersteering…my arms are not supposed to be stiff. They had a steering drill at Level I that made this pretty clear. To further illustrate this to me, I was looking at all he pictures they had taken during the day, and my pictures showed that I was more upright on the bike than just about everyone else…I am just NOT leaning my body over the tank like everyone else was doing…as I will discuss later, arthritis in my back may have something to do with that…
(let me digress a bit…at Level I, I was pretty much passing everyone I could, hauling ass down the track…I had a fast street bike and good confidence level)…today, it was a much different story…today, I let just about everyone pass ME through out the day, and what a learning experience it was…
So, when the session was over, Misti (our on and off track coach) review our experience one-on-one…and in the group session, we reviewed our reference point experience relative to what we were told was our objective…
Between sessions, we had the experience of using the lean bike…this was a bike set up so that we could lean it over without it falling…they taught us to shift our body position off center, leaning into the turn…using our knee pushing up on the Stomp pad on the tank…and showing us, with the correct knee pressure, you could release the hands from the bars and still hang on – when leaned over…As I was later to learn, this was more difficult for me, as I am tall and my butt kept sliding fore and aft on the Kawasaki 636 seat, keeping me firmly planted…(I don’t have this problem on my ZX-10R)…In addition, we were shown that is our upper body position that is most important to be leaned over, and not our butt’s…(contrary to what I have viewed during the MotoGP races…they wanted to see me move more of my upper body over to the left or right…and my butt sliding over less…during this experience, I found it difficult looking over the left or right of the windscreen…I have a tendency to look down the middle of the screen…when I looked left or right, I was looking forward, not into the turn…
Our next seminar was about changing lines around the track…they wanted us to expand our view of the track…first running through staying completely on the left side of the track, observing just the center and right of the track. The next lap, we were to do the opposite, ride only on the right side of the track, observing it from this perspective….and the third lap was to run down the center of the track…the objective, again, was to pick out reference points on the track…Boy, what an experience this way…going slow through the track allowed me to see MUCH more than ever before…I realized all the patches that were all over the track…all the rough spots, all the bumpy sections of the corners…I was just amazed how riding over the course at a SLOW speed improved my perspective of the track immensely…I came off the track with much improved confidence and knowledge of much more of the track.
The next seminar was about vanishing points…we were to look for this on the track…prime examples were turn one and I believe the new turn 4…we were to pay attention to this and be aware of the negative effect of vanishing points may have on our street riding…
Well off to the track and paying attention to these vanishing points…and wow, unless you have someone point this stuff out to you, how would you know what to know and look for?
I tried shifting body position, but felt myself just not secure on the bike. My butt was shifting for and aft…and I could securely put my knee against the side of the tank…I was all over the track and couldn’t hold a line…I had trouble seeing out of my helmet with my head down and my back hurt shifting from side to side…maybe I AM getting too old for this stuff and I had guys whizzing past me on the right and left while I was practicing position shift, going slow on the track…
During this session, my instructor watched me and pulled me off again, telling me that my hands are still too rigid on the bars, when leaning off...I told her that I was not secure with just my knee against the Stomp knee pad and couldn’t let my hands release their death grip…she took me over to her bike and had me get on…watched me shift my body position and told me to raise up on my toes on the pegs when shifting my body position….THAT MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD…I could press my knee with confidence and let the bars go…she said that all I should be doing with the bars, is push with my hands to countersteer…well see on the next session…
The next drill was about wide view…taking your typical tunnel vision on the bike, and expanding it so that you see the whole track and everything around you while riding…We has some clear examples of this in class and were to try and use these techniques during our next track session reviewing reference points on the track…
So getting back on the track, I tried raising up on my toes when shifting body position and felt MUCH MORE SECURE going around the turns…I was able to hold a line now….followed my instructor around at what I thought was a pretty quick pace…we went flying through turn three and four and she pulled me off the track again…I leaned the bike over pretty far going through turn three and again, she cautioned me again about my extreme lean angle…telling me that I didn’t have to hold a line with the risk of a low side…for me to realize that I had the whole width of the track and to use it if I go in too hot into a corner…she also indicated that my leaning allowed me to have much faster entry speeds into the corners…That I noticed. In addition, I felt more confident going fast around the track using my body to lean off the bike, rather than to lean the bike over extremely…
I am still not confident in moving my body back and forth over the tank. I need to put my body farther down on the tank but my back protests my doing this…and taking 6 Aleve a day isn’t helping enough…may not be able to do much more with this physical limitation…(getting old is showing up again)…
I really would like to start doing some track days to practice my new skills…I only know a few people I ride with that would join me…I am not comfortable trying to do this alone, loading my bike in the truck and just taking off…but time will tell on this…
I did learn what I am not doing to ride fast, safe and comfortable…and have been “steered” in the right direction…
I can’t recommend these schools enough…Thank you, Misti, for your terrific help yesterday with this crazy old fool….keep your knee down…
Well folks, spent April Fools day at Streets of Willow Springs raceway…drove up to Rosamond Friday night to get an early start Saturday…but woke up Saturday morning to rain!!! Bummer….
The track was wet, but dried out pretty soon, so after our first lecture, the track was almost dry during the first session. I was in the white group and we were on the track first…only problem was that I was COLD and I HATE cold…should have brought my own bike so I could use my heated vest….
So what is Level II all about? It is about Reference Points on the track. But for me, it was all about technique and getting old…and in pain…(I turn 60 YO in a few weeks)…
The first lecture was about reference points on the track…what they are and are not…and we were to make our first run looking for reference points at various turns…
Now, let’s discuss my personal experience….Oh, I used the school’s Kawasaki 636 and my personal bike is a ZX-10R…I got on the 636 and boy did it feel squirrelly….I must have my damper set up too stiff on my ZX-10R – something else to check when I get home…
On my first pass on the track, I was hauling ass, feeling pretty confident around the track…. got behind my instructor and was generally hauling ass, laying it over pretty far…my instructor pulled me off the track to inform me that my lean angle was so far over than I was close to low siding…riding on the ragged edge….I always felt my comfort level, confidence and lack of fear allowed me to really lean it down, allowing me to really fly….what I soon discovered that my ragged edge riding is more due to my lack of proper body position and technique…she also told me that I was pushing the bike down with my arms and holding my body position upright – I should just be using my palms to push the bars to steer - countersteering…my arms are not supposed to be stiff. They had a steering drill at Level I that made this pretty clear. To further illustrate this to me, I was looking at all he pictures they had taken during the day, and my pictures showed that I was more upright on the bike than just about everyone else…I am just NOT leaning my body over the tank like everyone else was doing…as I will discuss later, arthritis in my back may have something to do with that…
(let me digress a bit…at Level I, I was pretty much passing everyone I could, hauling ass down the track…I had a fast street bike and good confidence level)…today, it was a much different story…today, I let just about everyone pass ME through out the day, and what a learning experience it was…
So, when the session was over, Misti (our on and off track coach) review our experience one-on-one…and in the group session, we reviewed our reference point experience relative to what we were told was our objective…
Between sessions, we had the experience of using the lean bike…this was a bike set up so that we could lean it over without it falling…they taught us to shift our body position off center, leaning into the turn…using our knee pushing up on the Stomp pad on the tank…and showing us, with the correct knee pressure, you could release the hands from the bars and still hang on – when leaned over…As I was later to learn, this was more difficult for me, as I am tall and my butt kept sliding fore and aft on the Kawasaki 636 seat, keeping me firmly planted…(I don’t have this problem on my ZX-10R)…In addition, we were shown that is our upper body position that is most important to be leaned over, and not our butt’s…(contrary to what I have viewed during the MotoGP races…they wanted to see me move more of my upper body over to the left or right…and my butt sliding over less…during this experience, I found it difficult looking over the left or right of the windscreen…I have a tendency to look down the middle of the screen…when I looked left or right, I was looking forward, not into the turn…
Our next seminar was about changing lines around the track…they wanted us to expand our view of the track…first running through staying completely on the left side of the track, observing just the center and right of the track. The next lap, we were to do the opposite, ride only on the right side of the track, observing it from this perspective….and the third lap was to run down the center of the track…the objective, again, was to pick out reference points on the track…Boy, what an experience this way…going slow through the track allowed me to see MUCH more than ever before…I realized all the patches that were all over the track…all the rough spots, all the bumpy sections of the corners…I was just amazed how riding over the course at a SLOW speed improved my perspective of the track immensely…I came off the track with much improved confidence and knowledge of much more of the track.
The next seminar was about vanishing points…we were to look for this on the track…prime examples were turn one and I believe the new turn 4…we were to pay attention to this and be aware of the negative effect of vanishing points may have on our street riding…
Well off to the track and paying attention to these vanishing points…and wow, unless you have someone point this stuff out to you, how would you know what to know and look for?
I tried shifting body position, but felt myself just not secure on the bike. My butt was shifting for and aft…and I could securely put my knee against the side of the tank…I was all over the track and couldn’t hold a line…I had trouble seeing out of my helmet with my head down and my back hurt shifting from side to side…maybe I AM getting too old for this stuff and I had guys whizzing past me on the right and left while I was practicing position shift, going slow on the track…
During this session, my instructor watched me and pulled me off again, telling me that my hands are still too rigid on the bars, when leaning off...I told her that I was not secure with just my knee against the Stomp knee pad and couldn’t let my hands release their death grip…she took me over to her bike and had me get on…watched me shift my body position and told me to raise up on my toes on the pegs when shifting my body position….THAT MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD…I could press my knee with confidence and let the bars go…she said that all I should be doing with the bars, is push with my hands to countersteer…well see on the next session…
The next drill was about wide view…taking your typical tunnel vision on the bike, and expanding it so that you see the whole track and everything around you while riding…We has some clear examples of this in class and were to try and use these techniques during our next track session reviewing reference points on the track…
So getting back on the track, I tried raising up on my toes when shifting body position and felt MUCH MORE SECURE going around the turns…I was able to hold a line now….followed my instructor around at what I thought was a pretty quick pace…we went flying through turn three and four and she pulled me off the track again…I leaned the bike over pretty far going through turn three and again, she cautioned me again about my extreme lean angle…telling me that I didn’t have to hold a line with the risk of a low side…for me to realize that I had the whole width of the track and to use it if I go in too hot into a corner…she also indicated that my leaning allowed me to have much faster entry speeds into the corners…That I noticed. In addition, I felt more confident going fast around the track using my body to lean off the bike, rather than to lean the bike over extremely…
I am still not confident in moving my body back and forth over the tank. I need to put my body farther down on the tank but my back protests my doing this…and taking 6 Aleve a day isn’t helping enough…may not be able to do much more with this physical limitation…(getting old is showing up again)…
I really would like to start doing some track days to practice my new skills…I only know a few people I ride with that would join me…I am not comfortable trying to do this alone, loading my bike in the truck and just taking off…but time will tell on this…
I did learn what I am not doing to ride fast, safe and comfortable…and have been “steered” in the right direction…
I can’t recommend these schools enough…Thank you, Misti, for your terrific help yesterday with this crazy old fool….keep your knee down…
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