09-16-2015, 12:34 AM
(09-15-2015, 10:46 PM)The ferret_imp Wrote: Henrik... I totally agree with you about tension. If you feel tense you will not ride as well as you can and mistakes will follow. I got back from a week long tour Sunday on my big touring bike with tires that were near the end of their life and getting misshapen. It took a lot of bar pressure to initiate turns and transitions. Monday I rolled out the CB with good tires and went for a ride. I found myself putting a lot of pressure on the bars and this bike reacted how a bike should with that much bar pressure, which made for too sharp of turns, scary actually, which tensed me up. Ended up only riding 28 miles because I knew it was better not to ride that tense. Another ride on the CB yesterday and I felt much better. Todays ride I trust will be better yet.
See if you agree with this. My issue with track days is that they ingrain in you the fastest way thru a turn or series of turns rather than the SAFEST way thru a turn or series of turns (which would be more valuable to a rider on the street). Cornering apexes on a track do not translate well to the street IMO, where you only have 1/2 of the width of the track (road) to use, where vehicles may be coming toward you crowding or crossing the centerline, where there are slick painted lines (particularly after a rain), or gravel or other objects we need to be able to see, understand and avoid safely.
There are a lot of things you can take away from a track day which are invaluable for the street rider, in particular throttle, clutch and transmission control and most importantly braking and body positioning exercises, plus riding a motorcycle fast in a safe environment lets you ride without tension, which is a great lesson in itself.
Ferret, I agree that learning the fastest way and not the safest way through a corner is not something that necessarily helps you for riding on public roads. However, I believe that you need to apply what you learn on the track to road conditions. As you mention, everything related to throttle control, braking, body position etc. obviously benefit you on the road as well. The trajectory issue can as well because although you should not treat the road as a track, you learn to understand the dynamics of your placement in the corner. If you then start of by considering that on the road, your "track" ends at the centerline, you can start to look for braking point markers that will help you to remain on your side of the "track". Understanding the dynamics of the trajectory helps you avoid coming in to a corner all wrong that will then make you go wide on the exit.
So, as long as you keep in mind that you are on a public road and factor in the required safety margin, I think the track day trajectory courses help too.
When I would teach some beginners on track, the most common mistake to correct in the beginning would be that they all go in too fast and too soon, making them go wide on the exit.