The Road to Racing As Travelled by Lone

lonesoldier84

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Hi!

For those of you who don't know me, my name's Lone and I crash motorcycles.

:D

Here I am getting low dragging some elbow...

281714_10150709296215134_5175694_n_zpsab9b250f.jpg


But, as I discovered much to my chagrin, it turns out you can get around a corner a bit quicker if you stay on your bike. And so, I've decided to make this post...finally.

My first bike was an FZ6. And, both in the realm of riding and otherwise, I really gained immense enrichment from being a member of these boards. And, about 5 years or so in, I’ve learned some things which I feel I can feed back into the mix for the enrichment and advancement of others.

I’ll start with some super-brief background.

1) I’m deliciously retarded.
2) I approached riding initially with a terrible mixture of over-confidence, excessive gusto, and lack of experience.
3) My saving grace was that I really did try my best to build humility and maintain a studious attitude at all times with respect to development.

And so, I spent a couple years living my dream. I had a sport(y) bike and had gotten past the initial hump of being terrified of it. I would read everything I could get my hands on, and soak in everything I could from videos and discussions with other riders. I also did a level 1 performance riding school which revolutionized my perspective on riding. I learned more in those 5 hours than I had in two years of trial-and-error. I then did a few trips into BC and this in turn inspired me to start doing longer trips after I discovered the gob-smackingly awesome phenomenon of being alone on a highway with a whole wide open world laid out for you to tear apart. I also spent countless hours ripping around town.

In these first few years, I would occasionally get it wrong and end up on the wrong side of a double yellow line, make a pass I probably should have waited a bit to make, or just out and out c0ck it up and hit the pavement. Picking out the worst two incidents I slid through oncoming lanes of traffic and was once knocked out in a potentially REALLY bad situation riding solo in the woods. But there’s tons of moments that would warrant honourable mention here though. I have been quite close more times than I can count to having had some spectacularly bad results riding.

But, throughout it all, I was enjoying myself thoroughly. I was, in my mind, invincible. All the indicators were there though that I was operating in very dangerous territory. I just hadn’t learned to see them yet. I wasn’t completely ridiculous, though. I would dial it down when I got a bit too excited, and in general did still operate in the realm of sanity. But I was doing it all wrong and just refused to believe otherwise.

And so, my over-confidence and excessive gusto would drown out the voice in my head telling me I needed to have a long hard look at myself and my riding when that voice became too troublesome.

Up until this point, I had learned a ton of very valuable lessons which made riding more enjoyable for me. The better and smoother I could get at it, the more thrilling it was to “get it right” through a series of bends. So, many of these lessons I won’t touch on, but I will share these handful that were the most valuable:

1) Seek to expand your skills at all times. Don’t settle for your comfort zone. Push yourself. While I may have gotten myself into some dicey situations, I also got myself OUT of way more of them precisely because I had elevated my comfort zone.
2) The public roads are a great place to practice, but the development you experience in a structured learning environment on a racetrack is ridiculous. Yeah you understand this concept in theory. Everyone does. But until you do it, you won’t understand the extent of how true it is. Trackdays are great, but performance riding schools are better. Cost is irrelevant. Make sacrifices elsewhere in your life to make it work. If you don’t have anything nearby, research other options and set a goal with a deadline to go out and do it. It will not only make you immensely safer as a rider, it will also enrich every single mile you ever do to have a better handle of the machine between your legs. No not that one. The motorcycle.
3) Learn to spot indicators of riding too near your limit. There are many. Most of them involve some form of over-stimulation of the senses. Back off a bit. Get back in a state of complete outer and inner peace. Lol ride easy and enjoy yourself and bikes all the more because of it.

At this point, I started doing more trackdays. I also started to crash with more frequency (but at least I was crashing at the track now). While this hurt my wallet considerably, it would only momentarily bruise my ego. Each time, I found truth in the statement that “the only cure is laps”. This would actually turn out to be a bit of a universal and extremely applicable truth in pretty much all things riding-related.

I took a suspension-tuning class, and took another higher level performance riding school. I also carried on turning laps, and yes, crashing. But I was crashing safely and being mindful of other riders. My understanding of riding a bike grew and developed. I started working as a volunteer at race weekends. I couldn’t get enough. It was here, watching the races, that my appreciation for speed, true speed, grew immensely. But, while humbled by observing the really quick riders turn laps, I was still in my own time chasing speed and skill with a dash of over-confidence.

Now, here is where riding for me took on another level of existence. This had happened once before when I tapped into the realm of long-range touring. And it was happening again…with racing. Suddenly, I came to realize that, you know what, it IS possible. You CAN race motorcycles. This isn’t something reserved for some upper echelon of rider-elite. It is just normal riders, committed to the act of self-improvement, engaged in the purest of acts...racing motorcycles. And it is glorious. Work hard at improving your riding and you can do it too.

And so I became determined to get a race license. It became my holy grail. I would be a racer like these guys I had truly boundless admiration for. I spent another year working on my riding from this point and then took a race licensing school in July of 2012.

I crashed a few more times in the lead-up to the race school, but was determined to run it well. A lot of guys run at 60% pace to get the license then go back to work during normal riding time to work on their pace. I wasn’t going to do this. I wanted to be assured that I could run at my pace and be safe. Otherwise I didn’t feel right racing. I didn’t want to be one of those guys that’s racing and not in the mix. I wanted to be able to run at what I felt was a “proper” pace.

The race school went great. I was extremely proud of myself. I made it through 8 hours of lessons and drills in good form. Even got some rain riding in… Then, during the final exam when one of the instructors follows you around for a few laps and passes you and lets you pass him a few times, I continued to ride well. After a few laps I was passed by the instructor and he gave me a thumbs up. I was cleared. That was it. I passed!

About two corners later, I caught up to the instructor and the guy he was working with now. In my elation I didn’t want to be riding slower than I wanted to run. It was the end of the day and I wanted to get a few good laps in to end off the day and call it. And so I lined myself up at the end of the back-straight and just hauled ass chasing them down and pulled up inside them a bit past my brake-marker. But I still felt fine and in control. Nice and loose. I went for the brakes diving up the inside and for a split, split second, I was a hero in my own mind. Undercutting the instructor and someone else on the brakes going into a super tight left hander at the end of a straight. I was a racer!

Aaaaaaand then I crashed. Haha, crashed hard too. I didn’t scrub off much speed at all as the front end washed out pretty soon after I went for the brakes. What felt like a bit of brake-fade was actually a locked front-end. And so…I face-planted in the vicinity of 180kph or so by my estimate. I slide for a while, barrel-rolled through the gravel trap, skipped over a small ridge, then slid through a decent stretch of grass and came to rest near my demolished motorcycle…which was on fire. Lol.

I jumped up, killed the engine, and stomped out the bit of the hay-bail that was burning.

I did not receive my race license that day. It was an automatic fail.

And so, with that, my entire world came grinding to a halt. I couldn’t afford to fix the bike. I missed out on riding completely. A massive, truly massive part of who I was, was taken from me…simply because I was operating with a bad mentality. Now, I’m extremely fortunate to have had this happen exactly as it did. It could have been much worse, and it could have happened at any other time or place with potentially much more disasterous consequences.

The lead instructor said it himself. He had been watching me develop for a few years now. “It’s not your riding. There’s something else I don’t know quite how to address going on here.”

And so, at this point, I had to decide whether to blame my tires (worn out touring tires), or take into account something much, much deeper.

Well, I had a good long-stretch to sit and think. And, having the short riding seasons we do and still working the races, I did just that. And I will say here that this was pretty much the worst stretch of time I have ever had the misfortune of going through as a human being. Just…a low point to end all low points.

And the conclusion I came to was that I had gotten it all wrong at a very fundamental level. I developed a new appreciation, much more subtle and deeper this time, of the guys I had those endless bounds of admiration for. I came to observe that I lacked their meticulous preparedness and attention to bike-prep. I lacked their methodical approach to self-improvement. I lacked a number of extremely basic but unspeakably important traits. It’s actually true that these traits apply elsewhere in life too. It actually never ceases to amaze me the parallels that exist between riding a bike well and living life well.

Also, one major, MAJOR lesson I came away with here was merely a solid reinforcement of something I had previously thought I understood. And that lesson is that you’re nothing if you’re not consistent.

Speed is a by-product of skill-development. And the process by which you acquire that skill-development is by being consistent. The reasons for this are quite simple. To be consistent, really consistent, you have to be:

A) riding within your limit

and

B) riding with a determined mind to operate at peak technical proficiency.

And, once you are doing this, the following is now made possible.

1) You can make genuinely useful observations of what you are doing
2) You can make assessments of how close what you are doing is to what you’re working towards or to the feedback and coaching you are receiving from superior riders offering guidance/assistance
3) You can make corrections, know what corrections you’ve made, and observe their effect

And this is pretty huge. You really take control of the machine when you do this. You gradually develop the ability to provide superior inputs, and you retain your level of consistency as you do so. And as you do this, your pace methodically gets quicker, and quicker. But you feel relaxed throughout, so it’s a healthy and sustainable increase in pace that will continue as long as you keep walking the path. At first you will make massive gains. Then these will start to become smaller. And so every rider will need to decide what they want out of riding and where they are content to stop. But through it all, this law of diminishing returns does not apply to enrichment and enjoyment, only the incremental increases to the pace you run and skill you have.

And so, in time, by having ridden more slowly, you’ve started to ride more smoothly. And by having learned to ride more smoothly, you’ve learned to ride more quickly.

Ergo, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

I got another chance the following year to make things right. And here is where I started to apply the lessons that are extremely important to get right when riding bikes fast-ish. I will list these now. These are the items I wish I could have learned sooner. I’d have gotten more out of my riding sooner, more effectively/efficiently and more safely.

1) Don’t be afraid of the racetrack. Get out there early, often, and as much as possible. They have slow rider groups and your comfort on a bike will improve by leaps and bounds when you can focus on just your riding. You will develop a better relationship with your machine and learn tons about yourself and all things motorcycling. More than you ever thought possible. I promise.
2) Respect all things, and all people, at all times. Never try to force your way through a situation and never let your enthusiasm trump the methodical and disciplined part of your brain.
3) Shutup and listen. Seriously. Haha if you are speaking then you are not listening. And if you are not listening then you are not learning. Every single bit of input you gain has a lesson in it for you, if you can find it. Your riding should do your talking for you. And often your riding will be saying “oh look I still have a lot to learn” haha. No matter where you rank it will always say that. So relax, listen, learn, and enjoy.
4) Aim for long-term development, but never stop pushing yourself. “Small improvements, made daily, will eclipse the efforts of Hercules.” Stay loose, build your confidence, work in your comfort zone. You won’t learn anything when you’re tense. And you will be tense pushing the last 10-15% of your skills. So don’t. You will be oodles of time slower than fast guys for a long time. So work on technique. Make it perfect. Riding is about WAY more than leaning effectively or just body position. Your hands, your feet, your inputs working together, braking deeper, throttling earlier, turning quicker….it’s about a lot of things being spot on. And you will develop all of those things MUCH more slowly if you try to ride too fast too quickly.
5) Get a race bike as soon as you can. You will get a lot more out of riding with a race bike. You’re already most of the way there if you have a sporty bike. You know you want one. Do it. They’re cheap. And first crash and it will have paid for itself. It’s a long-term investment that pays for itself. Get serious about your riding. It’s a big part of your life and it deserves the sacrifice. Spouses come and go. But racebikes are forever. Haha
6) Bike prep. This is huge. Don’t let over-eagerness let you gloss over details…ever. Be ruthlessly disciplined and completely unforgiving of yourself. I paid the price for my over-eagerness at times. Usually it resulted in missed sessions or under-performance. More often it resulted in slight uncertainty. Once I crashed. Don’t take shortcuts. Don’t be that guy. You will handicap your development as you learn less about your machine. And plan your prep. If you know you have a lot to prep don’t leave it to the day before. You’re setting yourself up for sloppiness.
7) Keep your eye on the prize. Always retain the spark that drives you. If you want to race, then keep working towards it and building whatever you need to in order to make it possible. Your story and your road may be longer than you think. If you want to ride a big epic ride, then retain that. Whatever it is, keep grinding. Do it to the maximum. It's the only way to be.
8) Get out there all the time. Go watch races, go volunteer, go do track days, go ride the back roads. Go, go, go.


There’s loads of more minor lessons and many of a technical variety I found quite helpful. I will start another thread at some point and list the technical items I have personally found most helpful.

But for now wrapping all this up, this story ends on a happy note.

I got my race license this past summer and got the big giant monkey off my back. It was a long road but I finally got to run a few races.

_MG_1680-2595308206-O_zps1d44a970.jpg


And seriously there is nothing else like it in the world. The focus you get chasing the bike in front you is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. I know I want to do it again, but I have to wait for the time being. I’ve got to build and prep some other things for the moment. But it’s in the pipeline. The lessons I learned from riding I have found apply to all things in life. It’s been pretty amazing actually. But through it all, I’ve gained immense value from my fellow riders. And so for that reason I hope someone out there has gained some value from this post.

Thanks for your time all.

Cheers
 

Erci

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Ah.. much wisdom with a healthy dose of *deliciously retarded* :rof:

Great post, Lone and huge congrats on getting your racing license!! :thumbup:

I've caught the bug too. No plans to ever race, but I did get a track bike and hope to do as many schools and track days as time and marriage permits!

Don't be a stranger!
 

Botch

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A fascinating read Lone, thanks for taking the time to write it. This in particular:

I lacked a number of extremely basic but unspeakably important traits. It’s actually true that these traits apply elsewhere in life too. It actually never ceases to amaze me the parallels that exist between riding a bike well and living life well.

… gives me something to think about. :thumbup:
 

motojoe122

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A wiseman has spoken!
Congrats on the race license:thumbup: I did learn a few of the lessons you wrote about on my first track day. Speed got the better of me, I just couldnt resist.
 

agf

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An inspiring and thought provoking read.
Thanks for your honesty, putting it out there!:thumbup:
and a big congrats on hitting your goal
 

FinalImpact

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Nice read Lone....

At this point I'm thinking summers end may have been just in time as I'm on the edge of crossing over into the point of no return. If not for the fear of bamby ruining my line/life I'd likely be even more tempted to twist it. It's so fun being smooth. I do recognize allot, but love the thrill entirely too much to resist a good turn.

This hit a homerun!
All the indicators were there though that I was operating in very dangerous territory. I just hadn’t learned to see them yet. I wasn’t completely ridiculous, though. I would dial it down when I got a bit too excited, and in general did still operate in the realm of sanity.

Be safe and Good Luck as you move forward!
 

darius

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Nice read Lone....

At this point I'm thinking summers end may have been just in time as I'm on the edge of crossing over into the point of no return. If not for the fear of bamby ruining my line/life I'd likely be even more tempted to twist it. It's so fun being smooth. I do recognize allot, but love the thrill entirely too much to resist a good turn.

This hit a homerun!


Be safe and Good Luck as you move forward!

You ever thought about going to PIR, Randy?
 

Nelly

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Hi!

For those of you who don't know me, my name's Lone and I crash motorcycles.

:D

Here I am getting low dragging some elbow...

281714_10150709296215134_5175694_n_zpsab9b250f.jpg


But, as I discovered much to my chagrin, it turns out you can get around a corner a bit quicker if you stay on your bike. And so, I've decided to make this post...finally.

My first bike was an FZ6. And, both in the realm of riding and otherwise, I really gained immense enrichment from being a member of these boards. And, about 5 years or so in, I’ve learned some things which I feel I can feed back into the mix for the enrichment and advancement of others.

I’ll start with some super-brief background.

1) I’m deliciously retarded.
2) I approached riding initially with a terrible mixture of over-confidence, excessive gusto, and lack of experience.
3) My saving grace was that I really did try my best to build humility and maintain a studious attitude at all times with respect to development.

And so, I spent a couple years living my dream. I had a sport(y) bike and had gotten past the initial hump of being terrified of it. I would read everything I could get my hands on, and soak in everything I could from videos and discussions with other riders. I also did a level 1 performance riding school which revolutionized my perspective on riding. I learned more in those 5 hours than I had in two years of trial-and-error. I then did a few trips into BC and this in turn inspired me to start doing longer trips after I discovered the gob-smackingly awesome phenomenon of being alone on a highway with a whole wide open world laid out for you to tear apart. I also spent countless hours ripping around town.

In these first few years, I would occasionally get it wrong and end up on the wrong side of a double yellow line, make a pass I probably should have waited a bit to make, or just out and out c0ck it up and hit the pavement. Picking out the worst two incidents I slid through oncoming lanes of traffic and was once knocked out in a potentially REALLY bad situation riding solo in the woods. But there’s tons of moments that would warrant honourable mention here though. I have been quite close more times than I can count to having had some spectacularly bad results riding.

But, throughout it all, I was enjoying myself thoroughly. I was, in my mind, invincible. All the indicators were there though that I was operating in very dangerous territory. I just hadn’t learned to see them yet. I wasn’t completely ridiculous, though. I would dial it down when I got a bit too excited, and in general did still operate in the realm of sanity. But I was doing it all wrong and just refused to believe otherwise.

And so, my over-confidence and excessive gusto would drown out the voice in my head telling me I needed to have a long hard look at myself and my riding when that voice became too troublesome.

Up until this point, I had learned a ton of very valuable lessons which made riding more enjoyable for me. The better and smoother I could get at it, the more thrilling it was to “get it right” through a series of bends. So, many of these lessons I won’t touch on, but I will share these handful that were the most valuable:

1) Seek to expand your skills at all times. Don’t settle for your comfort zone. Push yourself. While I may have gotten myself into some dicey situations, I also got myself OUT of way more of them precisely because I had elevated my comfort zone.
2) The public roads are a great place to practice, but the development you experience in a structured learning environment on a racetrack is ridiculous. Yeah you understand this concept in theory. Everyone does. But until you do it, you won’t understand the extent of how true it is. Trackdays are great, but performance riding schools are better. Cost is irrelevant. Make sacrifices elsewhere in your life to make it work. If you don’t have anything nearby, research other options and set a goal with a deadline to go out and do it. It will not only make you immensely safer as a rider, it will also enrich every single mile you ever do to have a better handle of the machine between your legs. No not that one. The motorcycle.
3) Learn to spot indicators of riding too near your limit. There are many. Most of them involve some form of over-stimulation of the senses. Back off a bit. Get back in a state of complete outer and inner peace. Lol ride easy and enjoy yourself and bikes all the more because of it.

At this point, I started doing more trackdays. I also started to crash with more frequency (but at least I was crashing at the track now). While this hurt my wallet considerably, it would only momentarily bruise my ego. Each time, I found truth in the statement that “the only cure is laps”. This would actually turn out to be a bit of a universal and extremely applicable truth in pretty much all things riding-related.

I took a suspension-tuning class, and took another higher level performance riding school. I also carried on turning laps, and yes, crashing. But I was crashing safely and being mindful of other riders. My understanding of riding a bike grew and developed. I started working as a volunteer at race weekends. I couldn’t get enough. It was here, watching the races, that my appreciation for speed, true speed, grew immensely. But, while humbled by observing the really quick riders turn laps, I was still in my own time chasing speed and skill with a dash of over-confidence.

Now, here is where riding for me took on another level of existence. This had happened once before when I tapped into the realm of long-range touring. And it was happening again…with racing. Suddenly, I came to realize that, you know what, it IS possible. You CAN race motorcycles. This isn’t something reserved for some upper echelon of rider-elite. It is just normal riders, committed to the act of self-improvement, engaged in the purest of acts...racing motorcycles. And it is glorious. Work hard at improving your riding and you can do it too.

And so I became determined to get a race license. It became my holy grail. I would be a racer like these guys I had truly boundless admiration for. I spent another year working on my riding from this point and then took a race licensing school in July of 2012.

I crashed a few more times in the lead-up to the race school, but was determined to run it well. A lot of guys run at 60% pace to get the license then go back to work during normal riding time to work on their pace. I wasn’t going to do this. I wanted to be assured that I could run at my pace and be safe. Otherwise I didn’t feel right racing. I didn’t want to be one of those guys that’s racing and not in the mix. I wanted to be able to run at what I felt was a “proper” pace.

The race school went great. I was extremely proud of myself. I made it through 8 hours of lessons and drills in good form. Even got some rain riding in… Then, during the final exam when one of the instructors follows you around for a few laps and passes you and lets you pass him a few times, I continued to ride well. After a few laps I was passed by the instructor and he gave me a thumbs up. I was cleared. That was it. I passed!

About two corners later, I caught up to the instructor and the guy he was working with now. In my elation I didn’t want to be riding slower than I wanted to run. It was the end of the day and I wanted to get a few good laps in to end off the day and call it. And so I lined myself up at the end of the back-straight and just hauled ass chasing them down and pulled up inside them a bit past my brake-marker. But I still felt fine and in control. Nice and loose. I went for the brakes diving up the inside and for a split, split second, I was a hero in my own mind. Undercutting the instructor and someone else on the brakes going into a super tight left hander at the end of a straight. I was a racer!

Aaaaaaand then I crashed. Haha, crashed hard too. I didn’t scrub off much speed at all as the front end washed out pretty soon after I went for the brakes. What felt like a bit of brake-fade was actually a locked front-end. And so…I face-planted in the vicinity of 180kph or so by my estimate. I slide for a while, barrel-rolled through the gravel trap, skipped over a small ridge, then slid through a decent stretch of grass and came to rest near my demolished motorcycle…which was on fire. Lol.

I jumped up, killed the engine, and stomped out the bit of the hay-bail that was burning.

I did not receive my race license that day. It was an automatic fail.

And so, with that, my entire world came grinding to a halt. I couldn’t afford to fix the bike. I missed out on riding completely. A massive, truly massive part of who I was, was taken from me…simply because I was operating with a bad mentality. Now, I’m extremely fortunate to have had this happen exactly as it did. It could have been much worse, and it could have happened at any other time or place with potentially much more disasterous consequences.

The lead instructor said it himself. He had been watching me develop for a few years now. “It’s not your riding. There’s something else I don’t know quite how to address going on here.”

And so, at this point, I had to decide whether to blame my tires (worn out touring tires), or take into account something much, much deeper.

Well, I had a good long-stretch to sit and think. And, having the short riding seasons we do and still working the races, I did just that. And I will say here that this was pretty much the worst stretch of time I have ever had the misfortune of going through as a human being. Just…a low point to end all low points.

And the conclusion I came to was that I had gotten it all wrong at a very fundamental level. I developed a new appreciation, much more subtle and deeper this time, of the guys I had those endless bounds of admiration for. I came to observe that I lacked their meticulous preparedness and attention to bike-prep. I lacked their methodical approach to self-improvement. I lacked a number of extremely basic but unspeakably important traits. It’s actually true that these traits apply elsewhere in life too. It actually never ceases to amaze me the parallels that exist between riding a bike well and living life well.

Also, one major, MAJOR lesson I came away with here was merely a solid reinforcement of something I had previously thought I understood. And that lesson is that you’re nothing if you’re not consistent.

Speed is a by-product of skill-development. And the process by which you acquire that skill-development is by being consistent. The reasons for this are quite simple. To be consistent, really consistent, you have to be:

A) riding within your limit

and

B) riding with a determined mind to operate at peak technical proficiency.

And, once you are doing this, the following is now made possible.

1) You can make genuinely useful observations of what you are doing
2) You can make assessments of how close what you are doing is to what you’re working towards or to the feedback and coaching you are receiving from superior riders offering guidance/assistance
3) You can make corrections, know what corrections you’ve made, and observe their effect

And this is pretty huge. You really take control of the machine when you do this. You gradually develop the ability to provide superior inputs, and you retain your level of consistency as you do so. And as you do this, your pace methodically gets quicker, and quicker. But you feel relaxed throughout, so it’s a healthy and sustainable increase in pace that will continue as long as you keep walking the path. At first you will make massive gains. Then these will start to become smaller. And so every rider will need to decide what they want out of riding and where they are content to stop. But through it all, this law of diminishing returns does not apply to enrichment and enjoyment, only the incremental increases to the pace you run and skill you have.

And so, in time, by having ridden more slowly, you’ve started to ride more smoothly. And by having learned to ride more smoothly, you’ve learned to ride more quickly.

Ergo, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

I got another chance the following year to make things right. And here is where I started to apply the lessons that are extremely important to get right when riding bikes fast-ish. I will list these now. These are the items I wish I could have learned sooner. I’d have gotten more out of my riding sooner, more effectively/efficiently and more safely.

1) Don’t be afraid of the racetrack. Get out there early, often, and as much as possible. They have slow rider groups and your comfort on a bike will improve by leaps and bounds when you can focus on just your riding. You will develop a better relationship with your machine and learn tons about yourself and all things motorcycling. More than you ever thought possible. I promise.
2) Respect all things, and all people, at all times. Never try to force your way through a situation and never let your enthusiasm trump the methodical and disciplined part of your brain.
3) Shutup and listen. Seriously. Haha if you are speaking then you are not listening. And if you are not listening then you are not learning. Every single bit of input you gain has a lesson in it for you, if you can find it. Your riding should do your talking for you. And often your riding will be saying “oh look I still have a lot to learn” haha. No matter where you rank it will always say that. So relax, listen, learn, and enjoy.
4) Aim for long-term development, but never stop pushing yourself. “Small improvements, made daily, will eclipse the efforts of Hercules.” Stay loose, build your confidence, work in your comfort zone. You won’t learn anything when you’re tense. And you will be tense pushing the last 10-15% of your skills. So don’t. You will be oodles of time slower than fast guys for a long time. So work on technique. Make it perfect. Riding is about WAY more than leaning effectively or just body position. Your hands, your feet, your inputs working together, braking deeper, throttling earlier, turning quicker….it’s about a lot of things being spot on. And you will develop all of those things MUCH more slowly if you try to ride too fast too quickly.
5) Get a race bike as soon as you can. You will get a lot more out of riding with a race bike. You’re already most of the way there if you have a sporty bike. You know you want one. Do it. They’re cheap. And first crash and it will have paid for itself. It’s a long-term investment that pays for itself. Get serious about your riding. It’s a big part of your life and it deserves the sacrifice. Spouses come and go. But racebikes are forever. Haha
6) Bike prep. This is huge. Don’t let over-eagerness let you gloss over details…ever. Be ruthlessly disciplined and completely unforgiving of yourself. I paid the price for my over-eagerness at times. Usually it resulted in missed sessions or under-performance. More often it resulted in slight uncertainty. Once I crashed. Don’t take shortcuts. Don’t be that guy. You will handicap your development as you learn less about your machine. And plan your prep. If you know you have a lot to prep don’t leave it to the day before. You’re setting yourself up for sloppiness.
7) Keep your eye on the prize. Always retain the spark that drives you. If you want to race, then keep working towards it and building whatever you need to in order to make it possible. Your story and your road may be longer than you think. If you want to ride a big epic ride, then retain that. Whatever it is, keep grinding. Do it to the maximum. It's the only way to be.
8) Get out there all the time. Go watch races, go volunteer, go do track days, go ride the back roads. Go, go, go.


There’s loads of more minor lessons and many of a technical variety I found quite helpful. I will start another thread at some point and list the technical items I have personally found most helpful.

But for now wrapping all this up, this story ends on a happy note.

I got my race license this past summer and got the big giant monkey off my back. It was a long road but I finally got to run a few races.

_MG_1680-2595308206-O_zps1d44a970.jpg


And seriously there is nothing else like it in the world. The focus you get chasing the bike in front you is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. I know I want to do it again, but I have to wait for the time being. I’ve got to build and prep some other things for the moment. But it’s in the pipeline. The lessons I learned from riding I have found apply to all things in life. It’s been pretty amazing actually. But through it all, I’ve gained immense value from my fellow riders. And so for that reason I hope someone out there has gained some value from this post.

Thanks for your time all.

Cheers
Congratulations on getting the licence and more importantly well done on finishing therapy lol. I look forward to some more of your posts in the next season.
Did the UK move pan out after?

Nelly
 

lonesoldier84

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Thanks all. Really am touched by the kind words. You guys are the best!

This is and has always been one of the best forums and gathering of souls I have ever found on the interwebs.

Congratulations on getting the licence and more importantly well done on finishing therapy lol. I look forward to some more of your posts in the next season.
Did the UK move pan out after?

Nelly

Haha made me laugh. Thanks. And yeah it's looking like it's settled in a bit. Had to go with a four-wheeled option as the first vehicle. But she'll take a hitch and her 1.2L engine will be able to pull a single tracked mini-trailer with ease!

One step at a time though.

The Isle of Man, Scotland, and Southern France await.

And in the distance looms....

....The Nurburgring.

*single bugle blares*
 

PhotoAl

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Congrats on your license!!! Fantastic write up, great words of wisdom.

Over years of watching and photographing lots of great racers, one common talent is the ability to consistently ride the same line often coming thru a corner an within an inch of the last lap.

Always enjoy your posts.
 
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