Biking Techniques (Part 33)

The Real Double Apex

So is there such a thing as a double apex turn? Sure there is, but they're rare. To be a double apex turn, it first has to be one corner, which means one turn-in point. If with that one turn-in, your line takes you to the inside, back out a bit, and back in to another apex, it's a double apex.
There are no double apex turns on the VIR South Course.



From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 32)

The Lazy Line

Many riders take a halfway approach to a II/I Combination. While they'll take the second part correctly, turning in at the right place, a nice late apex accelerating hard out onto the straight, they'll throw away the first part.
I'm sure you'll hear a lot of this today. "It feels much better to take the first part of Oak Tree wide, then turn in for the second part." The line looks like this:



Well, the statement is correct. It does feel better. That doesn't make it the right line. It feels smoother. That doesn't make it the right line either.

What this line does is ignore the fact that there are two corners here. It makes it easier, sure, because you don't have to work as hard if you only bother with half the corners. It makes no difference to the exit speed from Oak Tree, but wastes a lot of time in the first part by not taking it properly.

Think about what happens in the first part. While the lazy rider is just cruising around the first part, we've carried more speed into the corner, and are actually back on the gas again before braking for the second part. We have to turn in sharper for the second part, but motorcycles are maneuverable and quite capable of a quick flick into the corner.

Now if you were taking the corner in a minivan, you might want to take the Lazy Line just to scrub off less speed on the turn-in for the second part, but none of you are going to be riding a minivan today. Remember riding around a track isn't supposed to be a gentle cruise in the countryside, you're here to work, and you need to be working all the way around the track.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 31)

The Mythical Double Apex

A Type I/Type II Combo is not a double apex turn, no matter what Joe Racer tells you. One turn has one turn-in point; two turn-in points means it's two corners. Many riders -- the majority, in fact -- lock themselves into a slow line by thinking of this Type I/II Combo as a single turn, and end up taking bad lines as a result. Knowing it's two corners -- remember: ONE CORNER, ONE TURN-IN! -- lets you analyze each part properly and get a good line through both of them.

Calling a turn a double apex is also Joe Racer's way of rationalizing an excessively early apex. He's an incurable Sleazeball, and turns in so early that he can't take a corner this long in one line. So he hooks together two very bad lines by turning in twice and hugging the inside. Sometimes he'll even call it a triple apex, if his line is bad enough he has to turn in yet again. You'll probably hear someone describe VIR's first turn, Courage, this way.

In reality, Courage leads onto a straight and is a classic 180-degree Type I:


So anytime someone tells you such-and-such a corner is a double apex, take it with a large grain of salt. Nod sagely and accept their words, and promptly ignore them and work out your own line. Anyone who calls a corner a double apex just because it's long probably has too much ego and too closed a mind for it to be worth arguing the point.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 30)

Type II + Type I Combination

At many tracks, there'll be a corner or sequence of two corners that leads from one straight to another. Again, we have a textbook example on the VIR South Course, at Oak Tree. Although it has one name, you can see clearly that it's two corners, connected by a straight so short you can't even call it one. (Another example would be Turn One and Turn Two at Roebling Road, or 3A and 3B on the infield road course at Charlotte.)
Again, when we determine the line, the Type I takes priority. At Oak Tree, it's particularly important because it leads onto the very long front straight -- it's the most important corner on the track. So we first mark out the line we want to take through the Type I, and then draw a Type II line that ends where we want to start the Type I turn-in.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Review on Wild Hogs (2007)

I watched this movie at a cinema, near to my campus. This story is about a group of middle-aged friends decide to rev up their routine suburban lives with a freewheeling motorcycle trip. Taking a long dreamed-of breather from their stressful jobs and family responsibilities, they can't wait to feel the freedom of the open road. When this mis-matched foursome - who have grown far more used to the couch than the saddle - set out for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, they encounter a world that holds far more than they ever bargained for. The trip begins to challenge their wits and their luck, especially during a chance run-in with the Del Fuegos, a real-life biker gang who are less than amused with their novice approach. As they go looking for adventure, they soon find that they've embarked on a journey they will never forget.

Base on Yahoo! Movie statistic, The Critics gave it D+, but the Yahoo! Users gave it B. For me, I gave it C. The story lines were not quite interesting, but, what the hell, it is still funny.

Biking Techniques (Part 29)

Type III Corner

The Type III corner is -- taken in isolation -- the least important. Speed into or out of it is of very little significance.

That does not mean, however, that the line through a Type III is not important -- far from it. Any sequence of Type III corners must end with a Type I before the next straight, and so it's vital to take a line through the Type III that sets you up correctly for the all-important Type I. You might in fact put together a whole sequence of Type III's, all of which have the sole purpose of setting you up for the single Type I at the end.

A Type III (or sequence of Type III's) will always start with a Type II, which connects it to the previous straight. Again, the line through the Type III should be chosen to allow the goals of the Type II corner to be achieved as well.

Working out the line through a Type III corner can't be considered in isolation. It depends completely on the corners around it. So to find the line through the Type III, we do the following sequence:

Fill in the line through the Type I corner.

Fill in the line through the Type II corner.

Connect them smoothly with a line through the Type III (or multiple Type III's).

The South Course at VIR is unusual in that there is a textbook Type III corner, part of the complex called the Spiral. We'll use that as our example.

Remember that the line through the Type I is much more important than anything else. So we start by filling in the line through the Type I, extending it back through the Type III to give us the best approach. Then we fill in the ideal line through the Type II. The chances are that those two lines won't join up:



At this point we go back to the rule that a Type I takes priority over everything else. That includes the Type II corner that starts this sequence. So we modify the line of the Type II to link it up to our best line for that Type I. We still want to go deep into that turn, but it's much more important that we come out of it on the left to set up for the Type I.



But don't fix this line in your head yet... the actual Spiral at VIR has an added complication of dropping about thirty feet down, and we have to take that into account too.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 28)

Type II Corner

OK, back to corner types. We spent a lot of time on Type I corners because they're the most important on the track. Not only that, but perhaps even more significantly: if you take every corner on the street as if it were a Type I, you will probably never crash in a corner or even get close to a dangerous situation. And you'll exit every corner quickly, and blow away every single average street rider in the twisties, no matter what bikes you all are riding.

The next most important corner on the track is the Type II, a corner that ends a straight. The object is to stay on the gas as long as possible and carry as much speed into the corner as you can.

This means we turn in gently and relatively early, braking right before the turn-in, and brake almost all the way through to the apex. The apex is slightly early.

From the apex, we then act as a normal corner exit, unwinding the radius, straightening the bike up, and rolling on the gas. The exit speed of a Type II corner line is lower than that of a Type I, but since we aren't entering a straight, that doesn't matter.



So what makes this different from a Sleazeball?

The difference is that the Sleazeball is still braking and tightening up the corner after the apex, and has the majority of the turning still to go.
A Type II line starts unwinding the corner at the apex, accelerating and straightening up as the bike approaches the track-out point. Since you're accelerating and unwinding the corner, all the avoidance and mistake correction capabilities are still there.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 27)

Type I Corner

Our object in a Type I corner is to maximize exit speed. To do that we must take a line which lets us roll on the throttle early and keep rolling on.
Remember the traction circle? To accelerate hard, you can't be turning hard. So we do most of the turning right away in the corner so we can concentrate on accelerating out. We turn in late, trail braking into the first part of the turn, and switching to acceleration well before we get to the apex.

This is a Late Apex line, as the apex is further around the corner than the classic line. We also brake later than the classic line, since we turn much later. And since we unwind our corner as we come out of it, we can accelerate much sooner than the classic line, and so come out of the corner much faster.



Other benefits of the late apex

The late apex line is also the safest to use on the street, in that most of the turning is already done well before you reach the apex. That means if there's a hazard around the corner, or the corner tightens up unexpectedly, or there's gravel on the exit, or any other of the things that can go wrong on the street, you can take avoiding action just by not rolling on the throttle so hard. That puts you back nearer the center of the traction circle, and from there you have traction reserve in every direction.
The late turn-in on the street also gives you a better view through the corner before you turn in, and so you have a better sight line and can adjust for unexpected hazards. This is another reason why the late apex line is in practice faster on the street -- you can see further around the corner, and so can ride harder while still remaining within your sight lines.

The Sleazeball line

But a late apex line is not what most riders do. In their eagerness to get into the corner, they turn in way too early and too little, also braking too little, taking a very early apex and carrying way too much speed into the middle of the corner.

Even in a predictable turn, this is a disaster. The rider ends up aimed for the edge of the road, heading into the woods. If the rider is going fast enough, this is where they'll panic, fixate on a tree or something, and slide into the woods, probably with the rear brake locked. Even if the rider looks in the right place, since they've left all the turning until the end, there are zero avoidance options left. There's no room to brake and no traction reserve for extra turning.

Most single-vehicle motorcycle accidents are the result of an early apex. The mistake that leads to this is so far back -- way back when the rider started the turn-in -- that the rider doesn't associate it with the wreck. They blame it on the bike -- it wouldn't handle, or it didn't have enough brakes, or it stood up under braking. They blame it on the road situation, and say there was nothing they could do.

A frightening number of riders, including most of those who ride sportbikes, take corners like this. Many of them bought a sportbike just so they could take this line better and have more reserve at the panic spot.

We have a word for the early apexers. They are Early Apex Sleazeballs, and what they do is called sleazeballing the corners. As you'll see, it's a term I'm fond of, and one I'll all too happily apply to you if you take a corner like this.



From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 26)

Picking the Line

Classic Corner

Back before the development of racing as a science, a corner was a corner. The object was to take the smoothest line around the corner. Since the larger the radius, the faster you can go, you plan a circular line that turns in from the outside of the corner, comes close to the inside of the corner in the middle, and reaches the outside of the track again at the exit.
Those three points are the turn-in point, the apex, and the track-out point.

This line has a neutral apex and a constant radius.

Also, classically, all the braking is done before the turn, and then all the acceleration is done after the turn. As we've already seen, we can do better by trail-braking and accelerating out of the corner.

Early texts that treated racing as a science, such as Piero Taruffi's classic book, spend a lot of attention and detail in describing -- in words and with mathematical analysis -- how to take this line around as much of the racetrack as possible. We will in fact not take any corner in the classic manner.





From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 25)

Analyzing the Track

The key to finding the proper way around a track is to analyze it before you ever take a fast lap. The first step in that is to pick out the straights -- since they're where you get your lap speed -- and then identify the corners.
Identifying the corners is not quite as straightforward as it sounds. Remember our definition of what a straight really is, and you'll see that not everywhere the track makes a bend is actually a corner.

For example, at VIR, the kink in the dip between Courage and the Spiral is not a corner -- you just take it in almost a straight line at full throttle. Likewise the kink between the Fishhook and South Bend tends to become part of the former rather than a corner in its own right.

The next step is to classify the corners into one of the three types.

Since Type I corners are the most important, we pick those first. This is easy -- they're the ones at the beginning of every straight.

Next most important are the Type II corners. There's one at the end of every straight, unless it's already been picked out as a Type I. Type I over-rides Type II.

Finally, if we have any corners left over (some tracks don't), they must be Type III.

So, using the VIR South Course as an example:



This gives us a starting point to pick the best line around the track.

Don't Be Like This Biker!

I got this from a forum, posted by a disabled forumer. I'm felt so embarrass about it. Erm, better you guys read about it and think about it.

Mods please move this if its in the wrong section.
Please read before commenting on the title...

In IOI Mall, there is a designated parking spot for Disabled People in front of the Starbucks. Clear signs have been posted and the area is marked so that the public can understand its existance.

However, yesterday, a biker purposedly placed his bike in the middle of the parking spot, because he wants to fancy himself a cup of coffee!
Because of his ignorance, the parking spot was unable to be utilized fully. please refer to the image below:


I am unsure of the make or model, but the plate is crystal clear: JJG9237

To the owner (or whoever knows the owner, please convey this message to him): the reason i'm calling you stupid is because you don't understand and cannot respect other people's right! You think you're the only one with a big bike?!! Just because you have a big bike and drinks Starbucks coffee, you can do whatever on earth you want?!!!
And when i tried to confront him, he put on a 'gangster-like' face and ignored!

To my fellow bikers, i feel ashamed because i myself am a biker. And by owning a big bike, the mentality should not be the same as that of a mat rempit.

Maybe what i'm writing means nothing to most, Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah
but wait till you lose and arm or a leg, then you'll be saying stuff like "don't they know this were meant for disabled".

Hope that this guy out there learnt his lesson.

18 April!

It will be a memorable day for me. Guest what?

But sadly, that week, it will be filled with a lot of assignments, projects, quizes, tests and etc. I couldn't enjoy it so much.

Riding a Pocket Bike during Outdoor Carnival

Last weekend, on the 7th and 8th April 2007, my university held an event, that is Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Outdoor Carnival 2007. There's a lot of activities for the students, the staffs, the lecturers and the outsiders to enjoy with.

But, me and my friends rather have a try to ride a pocket bike on that event.

The funny thing is, this is my first time to ride it, and, I really enjoy it.

These are some pictures, taken by my friends, Damak and Ikmal during the event.





I would like to thanks to Faizal and Fadli for the pizzas, and, Damak and Ikmal for taking the pictures, lol.

Biking Techniques (Part 24)

Types of Corner

There are three types of corner, depending on how they relate to the straights they connect.

Type I

Type I corners are the ones that start a straight. They're the most important because the faster you come out of a Type I corner, the faster you'll be all the way down the straight.

Type II

Type II corners are the ones that end a straight. The goal here is to keep your speed up as long as possible, preferably deep into the corner. Because they end a straight, and don't lead on to one, the exit speed is not as important as maintaining speed into the corner.

Type III

Type III corners are everything else. That means they don't start or end a straight, but just connect other corners. They're the rarest type of corner -- some tracks don't have any of these at all.
Strictly speaking, since they don't start or end a straight, they're also the least important. While that is true, the line you take through a Type III is very important indeed, as we'll see later.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 23)

The Track

Corners and Straights

Everybody talks about corners, but they're only part of the track

In fact, despite what you hear, races are won on the straights, not the corners. You spend so much more time on a straight than in a corner that the straights are actually more important.
The catch is that your speed on the straight depends on how you come out of the corner before it. The faster you exit that corner, and the sooner you get on the gas, the faster you'll start the straight -- so the faster you'll be all the way down it.

What is a straight?

That's an important question, but actually it's asked backwards. So we'll address it from the other end.
What do you do on a straight? You stay wide open throttle, changing up when you need to do so. You accelerate all the way down it. (We consider the braking at the end to be part of the next corner, not the straight.)

So in effect, a straight in terms of a racetrack is anywhere you can stay at wide open throttle, without turning significantly. In other words, anywhere that acceleration is the only significant part of the traction circle that you're using.

What is a corner?

Corners connect straights. Sometimes it's not one corner that connects straights, but a sequence of corners. So a corner is anywhere you can't stay full on the gas, or where you have to turn significantly. That means that anywhere you come off the part of the traction circle that's full acceleration, you're doing a corner.

How to fit them together

Look at the track, pick out the straights, and connect them with the corners. Then see how to classify each corner, and the correct line follows naturally from that.


From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 22)

Gear Selection

No-one can tell you what gear to use

Just like braking, picking the right gear for a corner, and deciding where to shift up, depends on so many factors that only you can determine which gear to use. Also like braking, the right gear might change during a track session, so you have to be constantly re-evaluating which gear to use as well as re-evaluating your braking points.

So how do you know where to shift?

Shifting up

Deciding where to shift up is pretty straightforward. It takes very little thought, just following a routine that becomes automatic.
The basic principle is to shift up as you hit redline. If you have an engine that runs out of power before redline, shift just as the power starts to drop off.

The exception is if you'd have to shift up and then back down immediately. In that case it's often more efficient just to back off the throttle and hold it near redline rather than spend the time and effort shifting twice.

Shift up on the straights

Shifting up involves backing off the throttle for an instant while shifting. However slight that is, it's still a break in the acceleration. That means that shifting up causes the weight to transfer from the back while you're shifting. If you're in a corner, that messes up your weight transfer management. So you only want to shift when you're on a straight, where a slight bounce won't hurt your stability.

Shifting down = choosing a gear for a corner

Since you only downshift when you're braking, and you only brake for a corner, you only downshift when you're approaching a corner. Since you don't want to shift up while you're still in the corner, you want to pick a gear you can use all the way through your acceleration through the track-out point.
Bikes accelerate hardest in lower gears. Since you want to accelerate hard out of a corner, you want to use the lowest gear you can.

Ideally, therefore, the perfect gear has you shifting up exactly as you hit the track-out point. If you were racing, and the rules allowed, you'd want to customize your gearbox so you had the perfect gear for every corner.

In the real world, you rarely have the perfect gear available. That means you often have to choose between a gear that is too high and one that is too low. In that case, managing weight transfer takes priority, so you have to pick the higher gear so you don't have to shift in the corner.

If you're in a sequence of corners, that might mean you have to shift up before coming into a faster corner, so you don't have to shift before the exit. In this case, you'll probably be shifting before your ideal -- often substantially before the redline. That's called short-shifting, and it's a technique that's well worth mastering.

Shifting in the corner

Sometimes a corner is just so long that you have no choice but to shift while still leaned over. VIR does in fact have one turn where you may well have to shift while still cornering. The Fishhook is such a long uphill turn that without a very broad power band it's likely you'll have to change gear.

You can shift up in a corner without really hurting much, provided it's when you've already unwound your line most of the way. At that stage you're not loading the suspension much with cornering, so it doesn't really hurt to bounce it slightly. Ideally, though, you wouldn't be shifting until at least the track-out point, once you're heading in a straight line.

You need to remember that shifting in the corner upsets the suspension. It's vital to shift quickly, and if the bike is not upright, then straighten it slightly before shifting to reduce the cornering forces; once you've shifted, you can pull it back down some to finish the corner.

For the Fishhook, it might well be worth choosing a higher gear than is ideal for the tightest part of the corner in order to avoid a shift further up the hill. That's something you can experiment with over the course of the day.

Knowing you have the right gear

Like every other track skill, you need to be able to tell when you've picked the right gear, and when you've picked the wrong one. That's pretty easy -- if you have to shift up before the track-out point, the gear's too low. If you don't shift until after your track-out point, the gear's too high.
Like everything else, the technique of finding the right one is to play it safe and work from that direction. Start with a higher gear than you think you need, and work downwards until you reach the right one.

Being familiar with your bike helps in that you probably will know when you can't use a lower gear without running out of revs in a corner, so it's rare that you'll find yourself in too low a gear. If you do, though, remember that safety comes from not bouncing the bike in the corner, and just roll on more gently until you're going straight enough to shift without upsetting the bike.


From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 21)

Braking Point

No-one Can Tell You Where to Brake

You are the only person who knows where you need to brake. Other people can suggest decent starting points to brake, but even someone else riding your own bike can't tell you where your braking point will be.
Your ideal braking point depends on many factors. It depends not only on the bike, but the tires, the track conditions, your own braking technique, and even such transient conditions as the temperature and humidity.

In fact, your perfect braking point will probably not even be the same from one lap to the next -- as the session goes on, you'll need to be constantly re-evaluating your braking point for each corner.

So showing you "braking points" is totally useless. So is asking someone else where they brake. Only you can determine where to brake.

So How Do You Know Where to Brake?

Your initial braking point is a guess. Based on what you know of your bike, and your technique, you can make a pretty good guess. Always guess further back than you think you need to brake -- it's much safer to start further away and move your braking closer to the turn than it is to run off the track the first time you go into the corner at speed.
Once you have that initial guess, you use two basic principles to find your rough braking point.

Basic Principles

If you come off the brakes before you turn, you braked too soon.
If you are going too fast to turn in where you want, or you turn and run wide of the apex, you braked too late.

Refining Your Braking Point

The more you practice the more the basic principles become second nature. You'll then have attention left over for more subtle cues. You will start to pick up on how the bike feels under braking, you'll integrate that with your site picture, and you'll know very quickly whether you've braked too early or late. That'll let you adjust by either applying the brakes less hard, or preparing to adjust your line for a deeper turn-in.


From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 20)

Geometry Dynamics

There's another effect to trail-braking that helps you get a non-sportbike to turn almost as quickly as a sportbike (again, a sportbike will do it better, but you can make a non-sportbike be pretty good). That's the geometry effect of the forks compressing (swingarm front ends don't do this).

The basic principle at work is that the steeper the front end, the quicker the bike turns in. Sportbikes come that way, cruisers and standards don't. Conversely, the more raked, the more stable it is.

You hear Joe Racer moaning a lot about "My front end dives."

"WELL DUH, JOE!" Of course it dives. Weight transfers to the front end, and the front end goes down. It's physics, it's vehicle dynamics. All fork front ends dive. What Joe Racer doesn't understand is that front end dive can be an advantage, not a problem.

By trail-braking into the corner, the weight transfer on the front causes the forks to compress. When they compress, they shorten. This not only reduces the length of the bike some, so it can turn quicker, but as the front end goes down, it steepens the angle of the forks. So what was a lazy cruiser turns into a much more agile machine when it's under braking.


Now as you accelerate, you get more desirable effects. The front extends as you roll on the throttle, and it goes back to a lazy front end again, so you gain stability and it's less twitchy on exit.

(One thing to be aware of here is that if your bike already has a steep geometry at the front, it can get steeper under braking, which can cause it to get twitchy. Fortunately most steep front ends are on sportbikes, which have suspensions calibrated not to dive as much, and you can also be sure that the designers has this in mind too.)

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 19)

Weight Transfer Dynamics

Remember what I said about giving the tire a chance? Exactly the same thing applies to the suspension. Like sport tires don't need much chance to catch up, it's the same with sport suspension. That's why sportbikes tolerate bad riding, and why lazy riders say "I need a sportbike."

Today, though, we're going to concentrate on getting it right. And quite possibly the single most important factor in being able to ride any bike fast -- as in, just get on any bike and ride it fast -- is managing weight transfer.

Managing Weight Transfer

When you brake, the weight transfers to the front. The front of the bike goes down as the suspension compresses, and the rear comes up as the weight transfers off it.
When you're cornering, you're feeding the g-forces into both ends equally, and both ends of the bike compress from the cornering force.

When you roll on the throttle, you transfer weight to the back of the bike and away from the front. The front suspension extends as the weight comes off it, and the rear compresses as it starts to carry most of the weight of the bike.

Conventional Cornering

Let's first of all look at the conventional way of cornering. Not only does it waste half the traction circle, but it has even worse drawbacks:


So what's wrong with this?

Look at the front end -- it bounces up -- down -- up -- down -- up. At that back it's doing the same thing in reverse. All that bouncing up and down plays havoc with your traction and stability, as you're forever trying to keep the bike under control rather than going through the corner.

So when Mr. Hotshot-Squid says "I need more damping" or "I need better springs," what he usually means is "I bounce my bike." To make it worse, he's probably jabbing the brakes and whacking the throttle.

If you ride like this, no bike will handle to its potential. Sure, a sportbike will cope better because it has more damping, and that helps absorb the pogo-like motion the rider's putting into it, and that takes us back to "I need a sportbike." But even sportbikes handle better when ridden properly...

Doing It Right

Doing it right is really very simple. All we have to do is leave out the "let off", and smooth the transition from one state to the next. We go from full throttle, squeeze the brakes to braking, ease off the brake to cornering, roll on the throttle to accelerating, and unwind the corner at the same time.



Looking at what the bike does now, you can see a smooth flow: the front comes down smoothly and rises smoothly, with no big movements to absorb. Not only is the bike under control, but the suspension is free to soak up real bumps in the road, and so the bike doesn't skitter or bounce across the road.

This way, you can make any bike handle. I've passed a CBR600F2 in the depths of Deals Gap on a stock Suzuki Intruder, and there just isn't any bigger handling difference than that.

Does a sportbike handle better? Sure it does. A sport suspension "absorbs" changes quicker, so you can transition from braking to cornering to acceleration more quickly. You can be smooth much more rapidly -- the bike doesn't need as long to catch up -- so you don't waste any time making transitions.

Bounce-back

There's an added difficulty when you're sport-riding a bike with a non-sport suspension and long fork travel, like a cruiser, DP bike, or relaxed standard. The damping and suspension design of a sportbike eliminates this effect almost completely. It complicates things a bit, but to manage your weight transfer fully, you have to take it into consideration.
As you brake, the front "rushes" down -- it gets momentum, so after you let off the brakes it still keeps going for a bit. So ease off the brakes slowly to give it a chance to slow down at the end. This is where "I need more damping" is true, but doesn't have to be because the rider can allow for it.

As a point of interest, it's usually on the "rush" that bikes with soft suspension bottom the front end. A rider who regularly bottoms the front end probably hasn't taken this into account.

Again -- always give the bike a chance to catch up, and some bikes need more chance than others.


From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Motorcycle Club, Kabuki Riderz, Trip to Sungkai Hot Spring, Perak

Last weekend, motorcycle club, Kabuki Riderz and some outsiders (eventually from MBC) went to Sungkai Hot Spring in Perak. They really had a good time but unfortunately, I couldn't joined them last weekend since I went home to visit my parents in Kuala Lumpur. These are the pictures that were taken during the trip.

They stop by to enjoy the sceneries at a paddy field.


As they reached there, they took a dip in 'Octopus Pool', warm water at the hotspring.


Seems they really enjoying themselves.


As for the next morning breakfast, they cooked some boiled eggs. lol.


And then, on the afternoon, they packed back their tents to go home.


Hope that they will make this trip again in the future for me to join to, lol. Really sad to miss it. lol.

Biking Techniques (Part 18)

Tire Dynamics

Basics
Modern sport tires are sticky enough to stoppie, wheelie, and drag parts while hanging off. That's all the traction you can use, and usually they have some reserve beyond that too. On a dry surface, you have to work to exceed the limits of a modern sport tire.
Touring tires may not have the traction to do all that. They may slide if you put too much force into them without having enough weight on that end. It's even possible that you could exceed the tire compound's ability to hold the track, and the tire itself would start to slide because the rubber just can't grip any harder. This is roughly what happens to any tire that overheats.

So your choice of tire may limit you in how hard you can brake, turn, and accelerate. Just be aware of that, and approach the limits from the safe side.

The Tire Itself
Even touring tires can almost always handle the demands of steady-state forces. What really breaks a tire loose is not the amount of force, but sudden loads -- like suddenly getting on the brakes harder, or the engine suddenly coming into a peaky power band, or countersteering too quickly.
So be aware of not only how hard you're doing things to the tire, but how suddenly. Remember the tire is flexible, and when you steer it takes a moment for those forces to transmit down to the contact patch with the road.

Give the tire a chance to catch up.

Differences -- the rate of building forces
The biggest practical difference -- in terms of technique -- between sport tires and touring tires is the time they need to catch up. You can slam a sport tire around any old way, and it'll keep up pretty well. With a touring tire you need to build the forces progressively, and not overload it with peak transitions. Either way, though, the tire benefits from smoothness, from a smooth progression from one state to another.
Give the tire a chance to catch up.

Sport tires don't need much of a chance. In fact, with modern sport tires on dry pavement you won't break the front end free just by countersteering -- not if you trail-brake properly, anyway. But that does all change if it's raining, or you're running on cold race tires.

Rain
Riding in the rain is a different matter. On a wet track you can exceed the limits of the tires much more easily. Although the principles of riding in the rain are the same as riding in the dry, there are enough other considerations that we'll cover this later.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 17)

Traction Dynamics

The Traction Circle

The Basics
They talked about this in MSF. The more the weight is on one end of the bike, the more traction it has. There's only so much traction to go around -- you can use it for acceleration, braking, turning, or a combination of those. What is amazing is that many track riders -- and almost all street riders -- only use half the circle.
Today I want you to maintain a traction reserve -- leave a border around that circle so you can concentrate on technique rather than managing slides. So when I talk about the traction circle here, I'm really talking about one that's actually inside it, leaving a safety margin:

Using the traction circle
In the classic corner, you brake, then turn, and roll on the throttle as you come out of the turn -- slow, look, lean, roll. When you plot this on the traction circle, you'll see that uses only the bottom half of the circle:

Trail braking
We're going to use the whole circle. By trailing off the brakes as we turn in -- trail braking -- we fill in the top half of the circle. That means we can save some of our braking for when we're in the corner, and so can brake later. (We also get other benefits we'll talk about later.)
Trail Braking is an often misused term by those who don't understand it. Note that it has nothing to do with what brake you're using. It just means that you keep braking as you go into the corner, trailing off the brake as you go deeper into the corner.

Using the weight transfer
Remember that traction on a given end of the bike depends on the weight on that end. By trail braking, we put weight on the front when it needs it most, when it's turning into the corner. Then as we ease off the brake we distribute it more evenly between front and rear. As we accelerate out of the corner we put the weight on the rear -- at that point the rear of the bike is doing almost everything, and the front is just along for the ride.
This is managing weight transfer. It's using the weight transfer to help out the tires and get the most out of the bike.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 16)

Dynamics

Traction, Tire, Weight Transfer, and Geometry

Introduction

You've heard it all before:
"My suspension is too soft."
"I need a sportbike."
"This bike doesn't handle."
"It doesn't turn in quick enough."
"It's like a pogo stick in the corners."
All of these mean one thing: "I'm a lazy rider," which in turn means "I can't manage weight transfer."
Riding a bike properly is all about managing dynamics. We've talked about aerodynamics, now we'll cover the physical behavior of the bike.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Formula 1 Championship at here this weekend in Sepang

The second round of Formula 1 Championship will be held in Sepang, Malaysia this weekend at 6, 7 and 8 of April 2007.

For more information, please click here!

For the tickets, click here!