Tricks of the trade

[csmith12]

I try to learn something new every day.

So here are a few nuggets that I have learned and please share yours.

1. You have to push + pull the bars more often than I thought to maintain AMA pro race pace.

2. A bit of baby powder on your hands/in gloves goes a long way on a hot day.
3. Double check the gate hours + price (bring cash).
4. A silver/gold crayon works as great zipper lube when it's kinda sticky

Feel free to add your tip, street or track is just as awesome.

[adouglas]

A skull cap that covers your ears (or a lightweight balaclava) is really useful

- It keeps your earbuds from getting dislodged when you pull your helmet on
- In hot weather you can wet it with cold water and it'll keep you cool for a good long time
- It keeps your helmet liner from getting gross
- It makes you look like a Knight of the Round Table when you take your helmet off

[alex.s]

when its above 110f... leave a bottle of water in outer pit with a marshal. half way through your session, hot pit and dump the bottle down the back of your neck.

[subxero]

Set up all your tie downs in your trailer or truck bed to a good length and anchored to the trailer/bed and have the loose end easily reachable from either side of the bike while holding it before you push the bike into said trailer or truck bed.

If lifting your bike and putting the pegs on jack stands, place the outside peg first

[adouglas]

If you're at the track, keep a wet towel and a hat in your cooler, under the water line. Pull in after your session, put the towel around your neck and the hat on your head. Instant frostiness.

[adouglas]

Secret hydration weapon. Far less sugar than sports drinks.

[HoneyBadgerRy]

I will give nutrition advice to the less easy stomached. I learned most of this through others and my own testing, and it applies a lot more to off road than street bikes, but if your having problems this will help, maybe.

Eat healthy for at least 24 hours before your event. No fastfood or caffeine, or anything you wouldn't eat in a diet. Drink a gallon of water a day for the last 48 hours (this will also do wonders for your skin, and ability to physically preform). On the day of your event only eat bananas, an don't eat anything within 2 hours of getting on the bike. Invest in a kidney belt.

If you have problems putting out physically, 1.5 gallons of water a day, and going for a hardcore flem spitting run the day before does wonders. Remember, the winner is the guy who wanted it the most.

[HoneyBadgerRy]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Secret hydration weapon. Far less sugar than sports drinks.

In my book, anything but water doesn't count. No juice or sports drink helps me at all.

[InvisiBill]

But it's got electrolytes! It's what fists crave!

[Sirref]

wear the right material under your suit. I switched to a custom wicking material in a compression undersuit (made by vnm sportgear if you want more info on it) this season and it helps deal with heat far more than I would have expected. Single best part is to take a water from your cooler and douse yourself with it, keeps you cool for so much longer under your suit.


secondly, check your damn tire pressures. When you go out and when you get back from your session

[HoneyBadgerRy]

I second the sweat wicking suit, it does wonders.

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadgerRy

I will give nutrition advice to the less easy stomached. .....

I don't go quite that far, but I do have a pre-ride morning routine... none of the traditional greasy/heavy breakfast foods for me.

I'm a Caffeine Achiever so morning consists of french-press coffee and oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit. No added sugar, no cream in the coffee.

During the day it's all about fluids. Munching is more nuts/fruit/raw veggies. Lunch is light, with some protein but not too heavy and not too much. Again, not greasy.

Having done both the plain water and Pedialyte, personally I find the electrolytes to be critical.

Ryan, Pedialyte is not the same as sports drinks or juices at all. The thing that juices and sports drinks have in vast quantities is sugar. A whole liter of Pedialyte contains only 16 grams of sugar, and does not have any artificial sweeteners. That's about the same as one banana.

Compare this to sports drinks, which have about 60-odd grams of sugar per liter, or apple juice... a liter of that has a whopping 116 grams of sugar. That makes a real difference.

[verboten1]

Originally Posted by csmith12

2. A bit of baby powder on your hands/in gloves goes a long way on a hot day.
)

Don't forget to powder your pants and feet too.


Gold bond is invigorating

[HoneyBadgerRy]

Originally Posted by adouglas

I'm a Caffeine Achiever so morning consists of french-press coffee and oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit. No added sugar, no cream in the coffee.

I'm very weird about caffeine. A little goes a long way, and a lot gets me ****ed up. A glass of black coffee gets me all jittery and energized. A monster makes me super hyper and focused. A mega monster gives me a super headache and I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack.

Pain medicine is the opposite. Taking 3-4 advil or tylenol does nothing. When I go into a surgery they give me 3-4 shots before I start to fell slightly numb. If I need to be knocked out it takes a lot more than normal to get me out, and I wake up much quicker than I should (I woke up twice during a dental surgery as a kid). (Asprin seems to work a little bit, but I still need to take 3 to get calm a headache, or 4 to numb a injury, and I don't like taking that much medicine, so j normally just tough out the pain of anything I need to)

I once took one pill of a preworkout I believe it was argenenine or something. Its reccomended to take 3-4 for a normal person and 4-5 for hardcore workers. I took one pill and the second I started jogging I felt out of it. A light jog and some burpies later and I puked for 15 minutes straight (there was a lot of dry heaving).

[CaliGrrl]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadgerRy

Pain medicine is the opposite. Taking 3-4 advil or tylenol does nothing. When I go into a surgery they give me 3-4 shots before I start to fell slightly numb. If I need to be knocked out it takes a lot more than normal to get me out, and I wake up much quicker than I should (I woke up twice during a dental surgery as a kid). (Asprin seems to work a little bit, but I still need to take 3 to get calm a headache, or 4 to numb a injury, and I don't like taking that much medicine, so j normally just tough out the pain of anything I need to)

I'm kind of the same way. And yes, tend to just tough it out until the pain goes away. Easier.

[Ghostt]

My take on hydration,

I take apple juice, and cut it 59/50 with water. The problem oath sports drinks is the sugars, chemicals, and the electrolytes. While the electrolytes are good, but too much of them and they throw off your own personal electrolytes, as it were, causing in certain cases an electrolyte imbalance.

I worked in many hot conditions, and the apple juice/H2O did the trick. Also keep a close eye on the color of your urine, it will tell your hydration story.

Here's a few charts,

[adouglas]

Thing is, when you sweat and pee you're losing electrolytes (salt) that the fruit juice and water do not replenish.

On the other hand, the American diet is so overloaded with sodium it probably doesn't throw things out of whack to badly....

[Ghostt]

Apple and orange juice does contain sugars, salts, and electrolytes, and cutting down it with water adds the minerals.

Also cutting with water helps dilute it enough so you don't get too much too soon.

Pedialyte comes in second in my book, I've also played around with cutting that as well, but cost keeps me with the apple juice.

The trick is to find what works best for you, and use that, just like me with my apple juice and water, it works best for me.

Use the urine color charts to determine your own personal levels.

[adouglas]

Ya learn something new every day. Didn't know about apple juice containing salt.

[Ghostt]

[Yakaru]

It's at the 'premium' end of the range but I have found Skratch to be quite effective when I've had access to it.
https://www.skratchlabs.com/products...iant=466781085

Basically it's "real" gatorade with some fruit.

[Ghostt]

I'm also with Sarge on this,

[HoneyBadgerRy]

If my urine wasn't clear I'd be scared. One the rare chance I don't drink a gallon of water a day running is so much more difficult.

[adouglas]

Back to tricks of the trade...

If your butt hurts, don't blame the seat right off. Try moving around on the bike to change how you carry your weight. Scooting back and leaning forward puts your weight on your thighs.

[adouglas]

If you're on a long ride, stop every hour and get off the bike for a minute even if you don't think you need to. #enduranceboost

[adouglas]

Waze is the killer app for avoiding the cops. Don't leave home without it. #crowdsourcedata

[Ghostt]

I'm a fellow WAZE user, and it's a great free app.

[Ghostt]

Making carburetor diaphragm slides easier to install, put the slides in the freezer, this makes the rubber less pliable, but also contracts it a little to make fitting them back in a lot easier, especially the edge, which needs to fit perfectly into the groove.

[adouglas]

For maintenance....

Make a list of torques you use all the time (wheel nuts, pinch bolts, oil plug, etc.) on a small piece of paper. Using clear packing tape that covers the paper entirely, tape this to your paddock stand.

This can go for anything you're constantly looking up in the maintenance manual or need to know on the fly, like track tire pressures.

[CC Cowboy]

When going to the track not only bring food, drink, tools, chairs (besides your bike and leathers) but bring a rug to park your stuff (includung yourself) on.

[Alex]

Why a rug?

[Sirref]

Comfort and convenience, you can set up in the grassy areas with more comfort under your canopy. Even on pavement it makes you more comfortable since it provides a barrier from the hot pavement as you're sitting/lying on the ground to work on the bike

[RacinNinja]

Originally Posted by Sirref

Comfort and convenience, you can set up in the grassy areas with more comfort under your canopy. Even on pavement it makes you more comfortable since it provides a barrier from the hot pavement as you're sitting/lying on the ground to work on the bike

This! We have two.

[CC Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Alex

Why a rug?

More comfortable on your feet. Makes for a cooler area to sit. If you work on your bike and drop a bolt or nut it doesn't bounce or roll away. Cleaner than most pits stalls, cement slabs, and/or dirt. Most of all you look so much cooler than everyone else.

[allanoue]

Because the Grateful Dead did it.

[adouglas]

Not for riding, but good for track days when facilities aren't available:

Get a gallon jug of water, use the water, then, take the cap and drill a bunch of small holes in it. Keep that cap in your toiletries bag.

When you go to the track, bring a few jugs of water for cooking/drinking/cleaning, and leave one of them out in the sun.

At the end of the day, screw the cap with holes onto the now-hot jug.

Instant shower to wash the stank off.

Keep the cap. Recycle the jug.

PS: I tried the solar camp shower thing, and it didn't work very well. The bag is really hard to properly dry, and it's floppy and unwieldy when full. This alternative costs basically nothing and works a treat.

[adouglas]

Instead of a rug, I bring some of those jigsaw-puzzle gray foam mats. Serves the same purpose, is 100% waterproof, is lightweight, and at the end of the day it adds a bit of extra padding under the sleeping bag.

[csmith12]

Going to the track with young ladies has taught me a new thing or two.

[Ducati999]

After a crash if you have little or no brake pressure and the master/caliper/lines are not damaged, before you open the system or attempt bleeding it out, take the master off of the bar and hold it straight up above the bar. The little bits of air that may have entered the system can move out of the cyl into the res. This has saved me lots of work in the past!

[Dave Wolfe]

Yesterday I figured out its much easier to reinstall a kickstand by first putting the spring in place on kickstand/frame, then putting kickstand in place and attaching bolt, rather than trying to put spring on afterwards.