Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanikrazy
Yeahhhhhh......  I think so, but it's always a work in progress with my riding.
Went into T14 slightly hotter than I should have. It was also my first weekend running the bike as a 600 instead of a 450 (disabled cylinder) in over 1.5 years. I did not given myself enough margin to adjust to the differences in straight line speed. That coupled with probably a bit of residual tension on the inside bar from not relaxing enough yet in the morning led me to not feeling the warning sign from the front end before it tucked. In hindsight, I would have been better just stopping adding the lean angle and running wide while letting speed scrub off (that good ol' speed scrub awareness drill), even if it meant ultimately straightening up and running off. Also, I probably could have been better about preemptively getting my upper body more to the inside a la "hook turn" positioning to buy a bit more lean angle after realizing I was in hot.
On the upside, the crash was not because of any attempt to add lean and add throttle. Corner entry speed and speed scrub awareness was something I worked with Laura last time I was at the school, and it has been something I have really focused on. In the past, I was, without even thinking about it, masking my slow entries with too early of a throttle pick up before max angle. Working specifically on speed scrub awareness the past year significantly improved my corner entries (and I think is a part of the time I've improved on from last year). It showed me how I could enter significantly faster while letting both trail braking and scrub bring me to the correct speed to time the throttle pick up near the slowest point of the corner, and avoid the bad habit of getting to the throttle too early before max lean. I just need to not be a bonehead when applying my lessons.  |
Hahaha, amazing!!! Love it!! I especially love how you've analyzed the crash, you know what went wrong and why and you also know what you could have done differently. We all make mistakes but the important part is to learn from them so that they don't happen again.
I really love the explanation of what you were working with Laura in terms of speed scrub awareness and how that applies to your recent crash. That is such an important skill (and actually something I was doing wrong, getting on the gas too soon) in a few areas which meant I couldn't get to WOT soon enough on the exit. So even though I was fast mid corner, it caused my drive out to suffer and ultimately lost some drive on the exit.
Great points!
