Hindsight is always 20/20 my friend and be careful about looking at your experience negatively. If you were feelin' it, why didn't you say something at the time? Perhaps I could have helped you somewhat.
Here is the deal yo...
Remember that post about rider types... we all have them. Well your question falls under the rider type of "traction rider". When riding an unknown bike, your only baseline to go by is what you know traction feels like on the bikes you have experience riding and since the bike is a foreign entity, so you got nothing but YOU sir.
To even come close to answering this question, I have to use myself as an example or it wouldn't be realistic or applicable. And.... I also did ride those said same bikes And.... felt as you did, to "find the limits" on those machines to relay information to their respective owners to answer questions. I know they asked you similar questions too and that is 100% fair.
It took me about 15 or so minutes (5 laps or so) for me to trust Ant's bike enough to lean it far enough to put a knee down, and even then, it was only a slight touch. That might sound quick, but it's
FOREVER on the track. This is not 100% the bikes fault, I own quite a bit of that time. It's the time I take to address coming to terms with man vs machine vs traction and the risk level I am comfortable with while riding. It's perfectly normal, different for every rider/bike combo and don't you hold yourself accountable for riding "my" bike and riding a bit conservatively. Consider yourself applauded for what you did.
Trust me, I do it myself. I was behind you for a number of laps Ben. You did great, plain and simple. Ask the people that had a total of 5 cams going to pm you a video with you in it, you looked smooth as silk, you looked like you wasn't even trying hard (a key element to coaching riders). And I need to say no more to than offer up Kevin's phone number so you can ask a friend (he was behind you more than me and I can only see so much with a bent neck looking backward). The stuff he told me on the way home may surprise you. When you was directly behind me, I upped the pace each lap and you was right there on my rear wheel aside of turn 1 (which we talked about specifically) and we wasn't slow on some of those laps ijs... At this point, I trust you enough to know that you don't have to be draggin' knee to be going fast.
Sometimes we are hard on ourselves to a fault. You came, you rode, you left shiny side up, you learned something new, we laughed, we had a great time and we we
ALL learned to adjust to the day's events on the fly. Pocket that in the success column my good friend, I know I did.
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Celebrate EVERY victory, even if it's a small one. - csmith12
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