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Old May 30th, 2013, 09:59 AM   #1
csmith12
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Breaking Through Boundaries

After my high speed down, the next time I hit the track I was "teh sLoW". So I figured I needed to get back to the roots of cornering and just get out there and have "fun" first and pick a few skills to work on. You know, no sweating all the little things and generally stop being a perfectionist for a bit and "just ride".

Here is what I did;

Choose a track that I was super comfortable with (Mid-Ohio)
Choose to ride my R6 (a comfort thing)
Choose to ride a day with a bunch of friends on the track, pit time was so great with 30+ friends
No lap timers
Didn't use any cameras
Ignored everyone while on the track (unless it was safety issue)

Whoa... just me, the bike and the track. I was surprised by the end result and just how much had become just integrated into my riding without even thinking about it. If I can hold this kinda pace on a 250 my next races are going to be super fun.

The video is Phillip Shmoun (600 superbike racer) chasing me down near the front of the pack of the A group. When he showed me the video, I was floored at how long it took him to catch me. He needs to tape over his mic cause the sound on his raw video was crap so you got some Kid Rock instead.

Link to original page on YouTube.

Feels good to be getting back to my pace.

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Old May 30th, 2013, 11:09 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by csmith12 View Post
After my high speed down, the next time I hit the track I was "teh sLoW". So I figured I needed to get back to the roots of cornering and just get out there and have "fun" first and pick a few skills to work on. You know, no sweating all the little things and generally stop being a perfectionist for a bit and "just ride".

Here is what I did;

Choose a track that I was super comfortable with (Mid-Ohio)
Choose to ride my R6 (a comfort thing)
Choose to ride a day with a bunch of friends on the track, pit time was so great with 30+ friends
No lap timers
Didn't use any cameras
Ignored everyone while on the track (unless it was safety issue)

Whoa... just me, the bike and the track. I was surprised by the end result and just how much had become just integrated into my riding without even thinking about it. If I can hold this kinda pace on a 250 my next races are going to be super fun.



Feels good to be getting back to my pace.
Track days are great to just ride your own pace and not worry so I always try to make sure I have plenty of room in front of me that I don't see other riders, however; once I have another rider in site something transforms me and I go into attack mode. It is still a rush passing others and no I don't like being passed so it only happens on rare occasions.
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Old May 30th, 2013, 11:19 AM   #3
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I fought the urge to rush pass so hard. Being greedy on the pass is what sent me in the dirt in the first place.

When I caught up with slower traffic, I wanted to pass soooo much but it had to be clean. That rider went wide and swooped back over in front of me (his sketchy line @4:40), so I gave him some space and that is when Phil closed the gap. His bike is fast as hell too.
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Old May 30th, 2013, 01:02 PM   #4
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..........Feels good to be getting back to my pace.
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Old May 30th, 2013, 01:08 PM   #5
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I've always found that, by focusing on reference points and very specific things like foot position, where I am/should be looking, and smooth inputs, I usually don't have enough leftover attention for things like whatever paranoia is left over from past crashes.
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Old May 30th, 2013, 01:23 PM   #6
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Visual skills were at the top of my list to work on, second was braking. I feel pretty fast on this track but still have a lot to go here.

I simply relaxed and had a good time and left with a huge smile on my face. Crashing never entered my mind at any point.
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Old May 30th, 2013, 01:35 PM   #7
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Visual skills were at the top of my list to work on, second was braking. I feel pretty fast on this track but still have a lot to go here.

I simply relaxed and had a good time and left with a huge smile on my face. Crashing never entered my mind at any point.
Very cool. Whenever I'm at Barber, on my warmup lap, I take a second to say "f*** you" to the corner wherein I crashed, then I don't worry about about it again.

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Old May 30th, 2013, 01:38 PM   #8
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I will be at Putnam Park in a month to race again. Imma take your advice here and pay homage in the form of a BIG FU to turn 1 and then rail the crap outta it next lap. lol
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Old May 30th, 2013, 01:39 PM   #9
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I will be at Putnam Park in a month to race again. Imma take your advice here and pay homage in the form of a BIG FU to turn 1 and then rail the crap outta it next lap. lol
Haha, that's the way to do it!
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Old August 18th, 2013, 08:57 PM   #10
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I took your advice but..... only after a new set of tires. lol
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Old August 19th, 2013, 10:14 PM   #11
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I actually kinda enjoyed the Kid Rock to this video
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Old August 20th, 2013, 04:52 AM   #12
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The kid rock is much better than his mic sounds ugg.... He needs to fix dat sheet.

Sept. 23 & 24 is the last 2 day PTR this season and I am considering doing this again, simply for the fun factor. Hmmmm.....

Last futzed with by csmith12; August 20th, 2013 at 06:36 AM.
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Old August 20th, 2013, 10:58 AM   #13
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I wonder how long he woulda had to hammer it to catch you if you weren't slowing up??? Great vid
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Old August 20th, 2013, 02:17 PM   #14
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, this is my 75% pace for any given track day and I am 100% sure he wasn't going hard either. We are both front pack A group riders but his bike passes riders on the back straight like they are sitting still lol. He is faster than I am but not by too much as we ride track together a lot. In a nutshell, in a 10 lap sprint race he would win ever time but it depends on if you get hung up in a battle or have to wait for a clean pass in traffic. My goal was to just have fun and clear my head but if I had been "more serious", I would have let him pass and get a tow but I was in my own little world.
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Old August 20th, 2013, 05:37 PM   #15
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Looks like a super fun track
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Old August 20th, 2013, 09:03 PM   #16
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Visual skills were at the top of my list to work on, second was braking. I feel pretty fast on this track but still have a lot to go here.

I simply relaxed and had a good time and left with a huge smile on my face. Crashing never entered my mind at any point.
This is a really great post and a really good example of how RELAXING on the bike can have a huge effect! I remember my first AMA race at Infinneon (sears point) I was well off qualifying pace and was super stressed out. A fellow CSS coach told me to go out, have FUN and RELAX for 10 minutes before coming back in, refocussing and then heading back out. I came in after the ten minutes feeling refreshed and ready to head back out in qualifying to "get er done!" when they informed me that I had taken a few seconds off my time and made the cut!! I was floored because at that point I wasn't even trying to qualify but the simple act of relaxing and NOT TRYING TO BE FAST made all the difference in the world.

When you relax and take trying to go fast, out of the equation you can focus on technique, one thing at a time and you usually end up going faster and riding smoother as a result!
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Old August 21st, 2013, 04:27 PM   #17
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Originally Posted by csmith12 View Post


Visual skills were at the top of my list to work on, second was braking. I feel pretty fast on this track but still have a lot to go here.

I simply relaxed and had a good time and left with a huge smile on my face. Crashing never entered my mind at any point.
That thought has NEVER entered my mind, even when crashing, I always think I'm going to make it!

i.e. I have only crashed in practice, never during a race.
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Old December 22nd, 2016, 07:18 PM   #18
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@Ducati999 - Here is some evidence that I feel where you are coming from.

Enjoyed reading your progress in the pm, keep it up sir!. imho... you should do something similar here to get back in the game.

Friends, fun and good times in the paddock as always sir, you know to roll.

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Old December 27th, 2016, 01:11 PM   #19
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To me it looks like the author of the video is riding pretty casually, not trying very hard..
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Old December 29th, 2016, 11:29 AM   #20
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@Ducati999 - Here is some evidence that I feel where you are coming from.

Enjoyed reading your progress in the pm, keep it up sir!. imho... you should do something similar here to get back in the game.

Friends, fun and good times in the paddock as always sir, you know to roll.

@csmith12;
That is my plan! I am not worried about crashing again as I know that I caused the last crash and why and will not repeat that mistake. This next season will be focused on carrying the speed I have not accelerating out of turns
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