Archive for the ‘Riding Techniques’ Category:
Getting more out of Practice
I want you to do something next time you go to the track. Look at all of the riders who just ride around the track, aimlessly looking for more speed. What do you go to the track to do? You go there to get faster and have better technique. When you learn math in school, you don’t try to figure everything out in one semester. You break down one part and when you have all of the concepts down, you can tie them together. The same goes for moto. By breaking down each section of the track, you can concentrate and master it.
Start with your weaknesses and work up from there. If you have a problem with a certain corner, start with that. Of course, start extremely early or later in the day when the track is not crowded; no sense in putting yourself and others at risk. Start with the fundamentals like braking correctly, head up and looking ahead. Once this is like second nature, work on speed.
After you get some of your trouble spots conquered, you can start linking sections up. Take a few corners and string them together to get comfortable. Again, continue working on the fundamentals as this will lay a base for your speed to come quicker. Eventually, you can tackle the whole track and if need be, you can go back to certain sections again.
At different points in the year, instead of breaking the track down you can work on sprints or your endurance. If you feel like you can go hard the whole moto, try throwing down some fast laps to get the lap times down or try to ride a couple of laps more than usual. Simply going to the track each week is good to keep yourself from going crazy, but if you are looking for speed this won’t suffice. Get creative and work on your weak points to make yourself a more rounded racer.
Basics to Passing
This next weekend at Seattle will be one for the history books. The weather is starting to clear up, but the ruts will still be present. Even more important than that, making those crucial passes stick will take timing and persistence to make sure each rider gets every critical point. In any form of racing, passing is a necessity and it is not just about going faster than the other person. It is a planned strike in order to keep the other person from passing you back.
Preparation
If you are close enough to the rider in front of you, you can learn their lines and see what they do. Amateur races are somewhat short so time is of the essence, but if you have time to plan out your pass you will be better off. Look for sections where the leader is struggling; it could be rutted section or they could be taking a wide outside line. Pay attention to this and stay as close as possible going into the section where the other rider struggles.
In For The Kill
Once you know the section that you want to make the pass, commit to it. Life will be much easier if the other rider is on the outside of you because you can control both his line and your line. If things get tight, you want to try and keep you elbow in front of his which will prevent your front wheel from getting taken out. When passing in the corner, the best time is to get it done is in the apex (center). That way, the other rider can’t slide underneath of you.
Aftermath
If you get a clean pass through, charge ahead. Long battles usually just slow the two riders down and the rest of the pack catches up. I know racing is a contact sport, but don’t use the other rider as a bumper because there is always a chance that both of you could go down. By maintaining a clean pass, you save momentum and forward drive.
Not the cleanest move by Alessi, but this video shows the crude basics of passing:
Flowing through Rough Corners
It is that time of year again. Loretta Lynn Qualifiers are under way and regional races are right around the corner. More bikes and more riding time can turn a track in a torture chamber during these races as things can get extremely rough. Down here in Florida, the soil is soft and as Jeff Emig would say, “the track is alive.” One thing that is always a constant is the violent nature of corners. Half way through the races, some corners development nasty rollers and conventional techniques need to be modified a little.
When corners become too rough to sit down in, there are 3 things to remember: stance, flow, and correct gearing. Whenever you stand through turns like this, you want to be in modified attack position. You still want to keep you elbows up and head up, but have to be able to move on the bike. If you were locked in the standard attack position, getting the bike to balance under you while turning would be difficult. This doesn’t mean hang off the side of the bike like a quad rider, but just be ready to row back your front end tucks.
The stance and flow of this really go hand and hand. When I say flow, you want to stay loose on the bike and relax your upper body. If you let your arms and chest go with the motion of the rollers, you can almost find a rhythm through the corner and soak up the impact. As always, you want to grip with your knees to keep the bike from swapping under you. Another “secret” is to turn the bike with your legs. Pushing in on the outside shroud can help coax the bike in the right direction. Most of your control will come from the lower body; the upper body soaks up impact.
Finding the right gear through this section will help tremendously. If this happens to be a wide sweeper, don’t be afraid to shift up and let the RPMs sink down. The suspension will thank you. The forks and shock won’t bind up as hard to cause a harsh ride. You will have plenty of traction if you keep your momentum up. Revving the hell out of your bike might sound awesome to you, but shifting up in the rough stuff makes your life much easier. You will save energy and valves.
Salvaging Positions
This past race was pretty crazy. It seems like this season is the epitome of Murphy’s Law; anything that can happen, will happen. Stewart going down early in the main, knocking himself loopy and then remounts to set the fastest lap time. On top of all of this, he still jumps the massive wall! That is one thing every racer has to keep in mind; if there is chance of disaster, it will happen eventually. Going down in the first turn or later in the race requires control and patience.
One of the most important things to remember when you go down is to relax and stay calm. When you start to panic and rush, your heart rate goes through the roof and your breathing becomes short, quick gasps. You want to take a deep breath and concentrate on getting back to your rhythm. Panicking while riding will only lead to mistakes and arm pump.
Odds are slower riders will have passed you while you were on the ground. The fundamental race rule is not to follow and this definitely applies here. Finding alternative lines and smoother parts of the track will help save energy and tear offs. In the 250 main in Atlanta, Blake Bagget was following Barcia almost the entire race. He was obviously faster than Barcia, but he was taking his lines and settled into Justin’s pace. Once you settle into that rhythm, it is tough to get out of.
Last thing to remember is to ride smart. Stewart can get away with jumping a 10ft wall after hitting the ground because he is the fastest man on Earth…you are not. Sorry. By riding smart, you will stay on two wheels and avoid starting your bike again. This requires so much time and energy that could be used to gain a position or two, instead of losing a few.
Rough Racing
The 250 riders in the East are crazy. Barcia and Wilson had an epic battle in the front of the pack early in the race as the fireworks went off between the two riders. However, Barcia wasn’t content with 2nd place and made Deano aware of this with an aggressive pass. Wilson countered with another pass, but it was not enough and Barcia took the checkers.
After reading some of the posts in the informative forums on Vital, some were calling Justin’s passes as reckless and dangerous. I have to admit, Barcia is indeed the wild child, but that is his style. After all, isn’t rubbin’ racin’? Making a split second decision on whether to pass or not is usually a difficult one. As I have said before, you don’t just pass on a whim. If you want to make a pass stick, it has to be calculated…or you will end up like Blake Wharton and Ryan Sipes.
If you watch on the 4th lap of the main, Barcia plans his pass almost 2 corners ahead. He takes an alternative line in the rhythm section to clear the triple. He cuts to the inside and takes the line from Wilson. But Dean tries to get Justin back in the next corner. This back and forth passing is great for learning to set up passes. Below, I’ve got the whole 250 (trying to get rid of the term Lites) program.
What you have to take away from this is whether the pass is necessary or not. If you can get a front wheel on the other rider, odds are you can make the pass without any major crashing. However, if you try to bomb through the other rider, you WILL end up like Sipes and Wharton. Is this is the last lap in the final moto of Loretta’s or just a Saturday night race at a local track? Obviously, you will go balls to the wall to make a pass in Hurricane Mills. But, is that pass at the local track going to put you and the other rider on ground? It is all relative. As I said before, plan out your passes and be smart about it.
Making Passes
Anaheim has came and passed once again. It is great to finally have some racing back on and each class looks to be very tight, if everyone stays healthy. Something that caught my attention was that some of the riders were commenting that the track was a little difficult to pass on. Yet, James Stewart moved up and made his way to the podium. Finding a way around the rider in front of you requires a little creativity and planning.
One of the best times to make a pass on another rider is at the beginning of the race. The first lap is usually pretty tight and riders are still bunched up. Simple line changes can make a huge difference when a line gets clogged with too many people. For example, some tight inside ruts may be a faster line at your track, but taking the outside might sling shot you around the traffic jam.
Once everyone has spread out, the same rules apply. You never want to follow the leader’s exact lines. If you are doing what he is doing, you will never make a pass. If he takes the outside, come into the inside and try to sweep out to cut him off. You don’t need to take him out and be a dirty rider, but you just need to show a wheel and make sure he knows that you have the line. Again, if he goes inside, try to rail around the outside.
Getting creative can get a little tricky on tracks that don’t have elaborate rhythm sections, but hitting braking bumps at a different angle or squaring up a corner to avoid rough lines can make a life easier. When the track gets rougher, the more creative you have to be, so look to the edges of the track and try to find the smoothest line possible. Although it is not the main line, it will probably be faster because you can maintain your speed easier. Plus you will save more energy for later laps.
Having a plan of attack is also important as well. If you have time, watch for areas where the front runner is struggling. Maybe he is not jumping a double that you are. If that is the case, stay as close as possible to him and make your pass over the double. You might just have more drive out of one corner than he does; all of these subtleties can be the difference between 1st and 2nd. Like Ricky Bobby always says, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
