Quote:
Originally Posted by adouglas
Vision, methinks... spotting (and hitting) reference points for roll-off, braking and tip-in.
The way I perceive the issue is that there's a mismatch between what makes the bike happy and what I want to do. I'm having trouble getting the whole speed management/timing thing right.
At my pace the bike wants to be in second gear to power up through that steeply-climbing corner. In third I'm at maybe 4 or 5k rpm. Not lugging per se but definitely not up where the power is.
But there's a big jump from third gear down to second. I feel like I'm in that "no-man's land" where the right speed at corner entry isn't the right speed for the gear I need.
When I blow the corner it's because I'm going just a bit too fast as I let out the clutch. It upsets the rear, which is a Bad Thing. So bleed off more speed before making the shift, right? Right.
I can of course get the downshift done cleanly before tip-in by slowing earlier (while the bike is still straight up and down), but then I've killed my momentum. Note that the track is climbing steeply all through here. The result is that my entry is slow and those behind me get packed up (I have photos to prove it).
So I try to get the downshift done as quickly as possible, as late as possible to maintain that precious momentum.
That leads me to try to do several things more or less at once... modulate clutch, shift, modulate brake, make steering input, fall into corner.
And therein lies my dilemma. I'm just not sharp enough to make it all work consistently. It's gotten into my head to the point that I dread that corner.
The proper approach, I think, is to make my life simpler. Get more comfortable carrying speed up the hill into that corner, so I don't have to downshift to 2nd in the first place.
Which leads back to... vision. Look up, make everything slow down....
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Woah! Ok, you have a lot going on here. One main issue but many many aspects of how to get it all done right so let's clear out some of the clutter and figure out what to to work on first. One thing at a time (and you listed about 18 above)
So, first thing you mention is vision, spotting specific reference points for roll off, braking and tip in....Are you doing this? In the specific corner you are working on, do you have a reference point for where you want to brake? What about for where you want to downshift? IF you did, would things be a bit more predictable? Would it help give you some more consistency so that you could then focus on another aspect of sorting out this corner?
Another aspect might be HOW you downshift....When I was in Spain riding Aragon I was working on braking sooner, slower and longer....so instead of having a RP for where I smash on the front brake so hard the rear gets light, I moved my brake marker back so that I could get on the brakes earlier but no so hard. That helped me get the downshift done earlier and carry the brakes in later and longer.....
But when you want to tackle a problem corner it helps to break it down into chunks so you aren't suddenly going in and trying to change/do too many things at once.
So, based on what I mentioned here, what do you think would be the first/most important thing to work on?