Who hates bear?

I've always used the back brake... and when I've tried braking just using
the front, unless you're hammering that as hard as possible and thus
transferring any useful weight to the front end to that extent, the back
does make a bit of difference.

Having said that, I don't tend to use the front all that much when doing <-
10mph in heavy traffic etc. - the bike is much more balanced, and I can come
almost to a standstill without having to put a foot down, due to the balance
of the bike not being upset by the compression of the front forks etc.

To put it another way... try and do a figure of eight like they get you to
do (or at least did), on your CBT, first using just the front brake, and
then just the back.

 

From my limited observations Champ is fast and smooth while Bear is fast and
always looks about this far >< from crashing.

I've only seen them ride on the road, but I've always had the impression that
Champ has a lot more in reserve than Bear when they do so.

Run, fat ****! Run!

BTW, today is "Pick on Bear" day

 

what, we have to stop tomorrow?

 

I've not - well not seriously. I've read the book, tho.

 

not that handy when you're actually on the bike though - for a start,
the pages are going to flutter around quite a bit.

 

****.

Off.

 

I think doing the actual course could well be good - though on the other
hand you'd probably find having to do the level 1 stuff first a bit of a
pain (as I think you're well beyond that).

I believe they now do a specific race school (as well as the Superbike
courses) which may be more your thing, otherwise there are others about that
offer similar.

I think (and please understand that this is coming from me, with my lack of
knowledge and everything else and therefore potentially utterly useless)
that you possibly just need someone to point out where you're losing the
speed and how you can pick it up - it might be lines, braking - I really
don't have a clue - but having someone point it out might be good.

You potentially _could_ get this in the fast group on a track day with
decent instructors mind you with less money - and it could be a circuit you
actually race on.

Really, flip wibble, stating the obvious but trying to help!

 

OK then, have you considered organising a ukrm-only track day.

Apparently it's about 5 grand for a track for a day, with ambulances and stuff,
and if we^H^H you could fill 90 places then that's only ... <takes off socks>
.... £55 and 55.5p each and, phew, sorry about that <puts socks back on>

And we^H^H you could call the three groups "Ginges", "Darsys[1]" and "Champs".

And if anybody binned it rather than ending the session you could send
everybody to that part of the track to point and laugh.

And if you were the organiser then you could ride in every group, which would
be a nice change from endurance racing because you'd be surrounded by fuckwits
- many of whom you'll have personally insulted at some point.

It's a winning plan ... for everybody except you.

[1] To pick somebody, at random, who isn't known for being either slow or
stupidly fast.

 

Nothing a bit of duck tape can't sort out.

I was thinking of printing motivation messages out in a small font and
taping them to the inside of my visor.[1]

[1] this is a mild in-joke for those who were at Snett - one of the
teams had big motivational posters stuck on the walls of their pit
garage. While I'd be the first to agree that racing is 90% a head
game, sticking posters on the wall that say "Be the best you can be"
are only going to be counter-productive imo.

 

Some of these would be better, wouldn't they?

http://www.despair.com/fatosu.html

 

I thought we'd agreed that we weren't going to mention that.

Actually, are you sure it was a 50? Wasn't it a 125? (He says, in a
desperate bid to salvage a little pride.)

 

I know what faster riders are doing - they're braking later, cornering
faster, and accelerating harder.

The question is slightly more meta-physical - *how* are they doing
those things?

For instance - Corams is a long RH corner at Snetterton. I have a
certain speed round there which I can do repeatedly. This is faster
than some riders, but slower than others. But how do I break out of
my comfort zone (bearing in mind that 'comfort' actually equates to
"jeez, this is fast, don't think I can go any quicker") and step up to
the next level?

It's all in the mind. There's companies like www.mindracing.com,
which work on this. I know a guy who's helped me a bit, and the guy
he's working with for the season is finding 3,4 and 5 seconds a lap at
some circuits.

 

It's all AndrewR's fault.

 

There are very, very few racing 50s around - they haven't been raced
as a class since the early 80s, and even then were only really popular
in europe.

A racing 125 *looks* like a 50 size-wise, and sounds like one too.
It's just that they do 140+mph, and corner like you wouldn't believe.

 

I always think I have lots in reserve right up to the point where I
need to dip into it, and find it much shallower than I'd hoped.

 

I didn't see you getting overtaken by it, so you could have kept quiet.

Well it was tiny, buzzy and had "50" painted on the side.

How much HP does a racing 50 make anyway? 20bhp or so and it must weigh the
same as a wet fart.

 

There's quite a thriving club scene for 50cc racers. One of the guys on
the MV list does it with some ridiculously highly tuned Derbi-engined
thing.

 

Drugs.

 

I used to hang my demotivator calendar right next to a 'proper' poster in my
old office. I know which one rang truer when working in local government.
And at least the statement on the calendar changed every month...

 

Oh gawd now I have a mental image of bear as a furry.

<shudder>