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Old August 23rd, 2017, 07:37 AM   #1
adouglas
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Name: Gort
Location: A secret lair which, being secret, has an undisclosed location
Join Date: May 2009

Motorcycle(s): Aprilia RS660

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Getting faster and the mental budget

So I'm certainly not the fastest guy out there, and tend to ride conservatively. I'm making steady, albeit slow, progress with my pace. Another successful weekend in the books, and I upped it another notch. Felt very comfortable.

https://www.facebook.com/tonystrackd...5555178333286/

As I've gotten faster, I've found that the character of my thought process on the track has changed.

More and more, it's about the track... bike placement, hitting marks with precision, planning ahead. "I know I can go faster through here...."

Less and less, it's about riding the bike... reacting to things that don't feel right, braking hard without running off, trying to make it through the corner faster, consciously relaxing. "Can I go faster through here? I don't know... it's on the verge of pushing the SR button."

I'm a big believer in the idea of riding at 75-80%, so that you have mental bandwidth to deal with anything unexpected. What I see happening is that less and less of the mental/skill budget has to go to the fundamentals, leaving more available for managing the bike's trajectory around the track.

In effect, that 75-80% represents a bigger budget. The limits are rising, so what you can accomplish within that budget increases.

Anyone else experienced this?
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