[Misti]

Originally Posted by Ducati999

@Misty,
Thank you for taking the time to read this and comment. Without people like you and so many others, I think I would have sold my bike by now and found another hobby! I will do my best to answer your question but I am still working everything out in my head.

Everytime I try to intentionally up my pace, I find that I start to make small mistakes which take time and effort to correct before the next turn. This seems to overwhelm my mental budget and force further errors at the next turn entry. I found that if I just focus on the "rules" of riding, stay on line, hit all markers, I am able to roll on just a little bit earlier and the lap times drop-if ever so slightly. The best lap times for me feel slow but the chrono does not lie. When the bike and I are working in a smooth rhythm, like a dance, the bike feels fluid and I go faster but all I feel is that I could have done the turn faster. Rushing into the turn trying to brake later and turn in faster has lead to small mistakes which are just amplified if I rush the next corner entry. With a relax and just ride attitude, the bike stays happy which makes me happy and when I am happy and the bike is happy, its much easier to start rolling on earlier in the turn and hold the throttle open longer on the straight which is the flour low lap times are made from.

I am no wordsmith so my description above may not make good sense to you, I will try to sum it up below.

When the bike misbehaves or I miss my marks, I realize that I am not relaxed and focused. I am over spending my mental budget and need to smooth out. The bike is way better at riding the track than I so it must be me that is the cause of these issue(at least at my level) and I need to "Flow" with the bike and track better. Once I realize I am trying to force the bike to go faster, I can focus on my mantra for the track. My mantra goes a little like this: Lift bike and run to right hand outside of track look for marker X, move butt over and begin braking, find turn in marker and begin to release brake, turn, begin roll on and look for exit reference marker........RINSE and Repeat. Something like that not like when I am "rushing things" where : count to 1 after brake marker to brake, brake harder to slow enough for turn entry, turn faster and rush to get back on the throttle. This all seems to come down to experience, the more I ride and the faster I unintentionally go, my markers seem to "automatically" change slightly and lap times improve. I cant see any other possible cause than overwhelmed mental budget. When I flow with the bike there is no worry of entering the turn too fast and running out of grip, I just slowly add more load to the tires which have time to give me the feed back that they are OK, which gives me confidence to roll on and again receive feedback that they are not losing traction, which helps keep the throttle pinned longer and longer.
I guess what I am saying is that relaxing gives me confidence to go faster and when I dont have the confidence, I recenter, and focus on my favorite Keith Code quote:" is the bike happy, are you happy when the bike is happy?" Just like marriage, keep your partner happy and everything else gets much smoother and works better!


PS: Next season I hope to be writing about exiting turns with the rear gently sliding but that is another journey!

Originally Posted by Ducati999

I thank you for your reply and I guess I should have been a little more clear. Since this is a thread about learning to ride fast, I was hoping your answer would include some of the techniques you or others use to overcome the problem described. I know I should not be afraid (SR) and slowly roll back the throttle. I try to force myself to keep it at 100% but looking up the track, especially on the long straight, I still find that I have been slowly backing off the throttle. Do I need more reference points to keep my mind working and not thinking about the situation or just focus on forcing my brain to keep the throttle pinned? Is this a lack of confidence or just me not being used to running the bike at full throttle in high gear and arriving at the brake marker at a higher speed than previous? There is no doubt that what you said is 100% true and correct, Im just looking for suggestions/experience in dealing with the problem.

Ant

You described everything great and you are not alone in this! These are common problems that riders face. Here are my thoughts. You are only as good as your visual skills and confidence will come from knowing that you have a solid grasp of where you are on track and where you are going. If any of those things are in qustion, then you tend to unsconsciously slow down or limit your ability to go fast. It's impossible to force yourself to go into a corner faster or brake later if you don't know where you are going.

You have great observations in your own riding when you say that when you try and go fast you end up. making small mistakes that result in an overall slower lap time and a more flustered ride. Smooth = fast so lets concentrate on what helps keep your riding smooth and how to systematically improve your overall speed.

My suggestion to you would be to draw the track and marke down your current reference points. From there you can look at the areas that will help improve your time the most. Usually corners that lead onto a straight or fast corners at the end of a straight is where you will gain the most time, so look at those first. Do you have a solid RP for where you want to initiate braking? Do you have an end of braking RP? Would it help if you did? What about an exit RP? Start filling in those blanks and then continue from there.

You said you have a hard time getting to WOT when you try and look all the way down the track. What if you added a reference point earlier? Maybe at the exit of the corner or half way down the track? Would that help you feel more confident of your location? Would that help you get to WOT? What if you moved your brake marker at the end of that straight a little earlier but didnt get on the brakes so hard? Would that give you more confidence to carry more corner entry speed which would result in an overall faster entrance?

I know that is a lot of questions but I really think that nailing down and adjusting some of your current RP's will really help. Thoughts?