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Originally Posted by Misti
Great write up and great progression!! Well done! I'm glad to hear that you were able to take good information from a variety of people and put it all to use in a way that made sense to you. I love the way that you list the things that helped you in a systematic way and that you are open to the fact that you still have a lot to learn.
For your final comment, you talk about being relaxed and mention that when you tried to go fast, it didn't work out as well for you vs when you worked on being relaxed. This is super important.
Now, you can remind yourself to be relaxed until the cows come home, but there are usually specific things you need to do to help you stay relaxed while riding. What did you find were some specific techniques you used to help you be more relaxed? Was it looking further ahead? How you were sitting on the bike? Were you squeezing the tank with your knees? What was the biggest factor in helping you stay relaxed while riding?  |
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Misti,
Thank you for taking the time to read my journey. You have given me great direction in the past and I really appreciate your help. Your question about how I relax when riding is great and I had to take a little time to think about that. I am always relaxed when riding ---except when Im not relaxed! I will attempt to explain: When I ride, I try to "flow" with the bike. Muscle memory, as you know well, along with experience, good lines and throttle control all make the bike move from DOT to Dot on the track with little actual effort, this is what I mean by "Flow". When I am riding like this my mental budget is not overwhelmed and I work with the bike, the bike stays smooth and happy and so do I. Once the decision is made to "Up the Pace" more than just a little over last lap, things start to happen. Lets take an example turn entry: Normally I would roll off just before my brake marker, begin braking-release brake and turn in at my reference point. Add 10% or more speed and I now need to roll off earlier or brake harder. Both quantities unknown at my present level and no extra budget for calculations. I either over brake or miss my turn in marker running deeper into the turn than usual. These little errors begin to add up causing slower laps over all. Once I catch myself trying to push harder and making errors, I simply remind myself that I know how to follow all the riding rules and just have to slow a bit and start hitting my mark's correctly again. Once things get back under control and back within my mental budget, I can begin to add speed slowly and there is time and mental power to make more precise inputs and adjust my markers as needed.
My feeling is that the bike is smooth and stable(Happy) when I am running my 85% pace but once I start running 90-95% I start making small mistakes that upset the pace and/or the bike and that makes me unhappy. All I need to do is refocus on my markers and lines and I get back up to speed/ smooth and can add a small amount of speed next turn. Anytime I try to take a bigger step, the bike protests (due to my inputs) and lap times fall. I really cant remember any other technique I would use to relax and stay relaxed besides remembering I know how to ride a bike so I just relax and ride and the speed comes-step by step- even if its baby steps at this point.
On another subject, I hope to be able to ride with you on COTA in the next couple of years! 2020 is done and 2021 is still an unknown but I hope to have a chance to get to Texas and ride with you and the CALI Superbike school. Great school, great track and BMW S1000RR? Where do I sign up for that deal??? Could not think of a better reason to go to Texas.