How to ride faster and safer

..
Have someone time you on a very short circuit even a 5 or 10
second circuit. 30 seconds max.

Have the person flash you a finger count each time you pass
them. For that you need a stop watch that resets with a
single button push.... then put the timing marker a few
seconds ahead of where the timer guy is standing... you need a
big stop watch that you can read fast.

If you did a 12 seconds that lap, the timer holds up 2
fingers... 13 seconds would be 3 fingers. Thats quick. it
has to be or its no good,

The rider needs instant feed back on *each lap.


The magic secret is .... **do not attempt to ride fast**...
attempt to ride slowly, but with absolute perfect control...
slowly but with perfect control...always feeling perfectly
safe but never ever slower than that...but never ever faster
than what feels totally safe.....whatever feels safe is the
speed you ride... if it feels less than perfect control and
perfectly safe you are messing up...slow it down or
whatever...strive for perfect control 100% of the time.


If you attempt to ride fast with only enough control to keep
from crashing you will learn how to ride out of control....
out of control is not fast. and its dangerous.

If its dangerous you will break something, your leg or
whatever, then you don't get practice.... none of that works,


Control works.

You will end up like Alex Jorgenson, winning the Sacramento
mile... way beyond the bleeding limits... the fastest and the
safest... more or less

Alex is the first pic
http://www.rotax.net/photo_gallery.htm

For some reason many of the worlds fastest racers, later
turning to road racing came from the same track in Lodi calif.
Lodi Cycle bowl... Jorgenson (first pic) and Kenny Roberts,
most of the greats have spent time on that track... another
great track, and a league more advanced was Ascot Park in LA..
one hell of a nasty proposition, a banked dirt oval, with a
high jump at 70 mph or so landing in the middle of a tight
left... then onto a very very fast straight into the banked
sweeper...fearsome even to watch when the hot two strokes came
onto the scene (a few years after my time)..... it was simply
blood curdling.

****

I was with the world famous race car driver of the 50's and
50's Jack Gordon when he passed away at age 89... (he
sponsored my brothers sprint car right to the end).

I asked Jack for advice. Much of that is reflected in what I
had learned myself also, what I had not learned and what he
told me at the end was 'race the track, get a stable groove on
the track, develop several grooves so you can switch to them
to get around other riders, ... and *never race the other
riders*.... that was the key, he emphased that. Jack was
earning millions a year on race tracks world wide when that
was a lot of money so he knew what it took...and thats what it
took.


If you race the other riders you will be riding over your
head, or on a slower line or a line not compatible with your
most stable path around the track.... yes could win that
way...but will be unsafe... then you get hurt... you loose the
edge etc.

The gentle reader can thank Jack for that...

Here are the flat tracking pics again.... this is where most
of the best learned how to ride.

I tried for years to learn to do a feet up slide...no
luck..two broken legs. 2 hours by accident with a guy timing
me, and I was sliding feet up on the pegs, 2 hours... that
was at 40 to 50 mph though.

Below Alex is sliding sideways at 120 or 130 mph... most never
get that good, it took Alex 20 years.


A 17 year old young lady, Jennifer Snyder was hired by the HD
factorys Willy (madman) Davidson to be a factory rider...thats
completely unheard of...she is that good.


(I met willie on Molekai, in 1982, in his madman days,,then
later at the Aneheim convention center lurking around the HD
exhibit in disguise... the HD team had fixed her up with an HD
flat tracking frame but with a 600cc Rotax motor)

she rode sliding sideways between world class pro's twice her
age and with 20 times her experience..... until she clipped
the guard rail at Springfield in 2001 or so.... and broke half
the bones in her body and her throttle hand, which she used to
hold the throttle wide open as she tried to recover.

Jen snyder when she was not wearing her leathers, wore a
cotton and lace sun dress in the pits.

So how long did that take her? A few years. Her daddy built
her a half mile and quarter mile dirt oval in their back yard
in Texas.

He probably told her, don't strive for speed...strive for
perfect control..but I dont know for sure.... she had perfect
control though.

She did not gain that skill riding over her head...she got it
riding a little slower than she could have, but with perfect
control........ poetry in motion.

Fascinating isnt it?

http://www.rotax.net/photo_gallery.htm

We hopes this link woiks
http://www.cyclenews.com/ShowStory.asp?HeadlineID=9053

 

The secret is when it's slipping, think about a downshift.

 

thats clueless jb

 

No you are not the only one.

Bryan

 

Bikes, stripped to bare essentials, are very sexy.
But I like them to be little more racey.
E.g. the sachs beast:

http://stolk.org/motorfiets/beast.jpg

bram

 

Really Filbert? Then you two sound like a match made in heaven! Or whatever
the Scientology equivalent is.

 

Simple, classic, light... any specs with that? Looks lovely.

 

I like the concept, but do they sell kevlar pants with that exhaust pipe? I
am also into just slightly forward, but mostly upright riding positions
these days.

 

--
Phil Scott
Ideas are bullet proof.

just go to the mothah web site www.rotax.net or .com if that
isnt it. those bikes are built now only for the track, he
says 'no play bikes' now. about 20,000 dollars assembled
with tires. 15,000 not assembled, and no tires, chain or
sprockets etc. just the frame, forks, motor, tank and seat.

The rotax motor version can be had with a specially built head
that takes the 600cc single configuration to 100 hp. 2500
extra.

those are the best in the world though, Woods has won more pro
flat track races and nationals than any other builder.



www.atkUSA.com will sell a bike that runs on the same
tracks by a few of the nations top 100 pro's, that win
occasionally for about 8,000 dollars... its 30 lbs heavier in
the rotax version, Add 3,000 dollars if you want the 100hp
version in the rotax... these can be licensed for the street
if you see the right dealer (A and A Auto in redway Calif for
instance).

The yz450 yamaha version though is 200 lbs.



Or.... you can go to any AMA Sportsmans class event, and claim
any bike that anyone put on the track for $10,000 (they do
that so that no one enters a sportsmans event with a 20k
racer)... or you can be less agressive and just offer to buy
someones bike at the end of the day or season or whatever.

You could post an ad to 'cylcle news' for someones old race
bike (most guys build a new one every year or two), and most
in the expert class will rebuild the motor before they put it
on the market


Custom builts you know can be licensed ...there are laws that
allow this for small factories and owners that build less than
50 a year (thats how the ATK can be registered)... thats how
hot rods with custom frames and fiberglass bodies and home
built engines get registered also... they just have to pass
smog or whatever.



Phil Scott