10-29-2006, 10:44 AM
What a freakin' blast!
Day One
As John said, day one we did all ovals. As John said the body position was a bit weird and basically that was what we were trying to get used to all day. The first time out I was really nervous and I was all over the place while getting used to the bike. Throughout the day I got markedly better, even though I crashed about 10 times.
At least 2 of my crashes were from getting into a corner and having someone slower close the door on my front wheel. I asked an instructor about it and he was telling me that once you can change your line better (and get better judgement) that won't be a problem. Sure enough I didn't have that problem for the rest of the weekend.
I felt bad but there was one older dude in our group who was really tentative and I think he ended up quitting after the first day because the group was too aggressive. I don't think it was too aggressive but the dude was going pretty slow. I actually torpedoed his rear wheel (Pedrosa!) pretty hard once because he had gotten into a slide and parked it.
They wetted down the course at the end of the day and it made things really interesting. Not only was it easy to slide on corner entry but the little XR100's were sliding all over the place on the power. After snapping the bike all the way around a few times I was able to modulate the throttle and slide on the exit but not lose control. On two occasions though...
One of the instructors was yelling something at me and I turned back to look at him and whooaaaaa-whoaaaaaaa a two snap tankslapper. All of the guys were laughing pretty hard on that one. Second time was even better. One of the instructors was riding behind me and again, said something to me and I turned to look back...whoaaaaaa-WHOAAAA-WHOAAAAAA-whoaaaaa-whoooaaaaa! A 5-snap tankslapper. I don't know how I managed to stay on the bike but in a way it was kinda fun. Had that been a bigger bike there's no way I could've saved that one.
By the end of day one I felt like I was sliding pretty well. But we weren't going that fast yet...
Dia Dos
Day two we moved to a bigger course in the shape of kind of a horseshoe so there were left and right turns. The day started off rough for me because dealing with the extra speed and crashing several times early in the day left me kind of tentative.
In the previous week I had a bruised tail bone from sitting on a train seat wrong (and falling asleep) in Japan. Going into the camp I was like, "Man I DO NOT wanna fall on my tailbone". Well, I'm putting around early on day two, still not up to speed because of the bigger course and Chris Carr comes flying by. I'm like, "Ok, I need to go a little faster because I'm not sliding much." So I follow him into the turn and...slide, slide, slide, sliii-BAMMM!!! Right on my ass. Note to self, don't follow Chris Carr.
One drill that I felt a lot better with on Day Two was the "One Hand on the Tank" drill. You had to ride around with your left hand on the gas tank which forced you to:
A. Use your legs to steer the bike
B. Be smoother and more in control
I had a hell of a time with that on Day One but on Day Two I was getting my slide on a bit with it. It definitely felt a lot more useful. I won't be doing that at VIR though...
The End
In all I crashed over 20 times but on only 3 of them I was slow getting up. 2 of them were because I felt right on my ass. I hit the ejector button (highsided) about 5 of those times but I landed on my feet for most of them. Amazing that a little bike can do that but had that been a big bike I would've gotten hurt.
My big issue was putting too much weight on the front. Riding a supersport it feels natural to have the weight on the front but putting your weight over the front with these bikes makes you tuck the front. I had a bunch of low side crashes that way, probably the majority of my crashes were from that one issue. I did a lot better with that in my last session and I was starting to feel a lot more in control. Unfortunately my legs and arms were really beat at that point so I couldn't push as much as I wanted to.
One thing I noticed is that I can slide a lot better going to the left than to the right. When going to the left I can put my foot out at any time but to the right I have to keep my foot on the brake until I'm done braking/turning. I eventually learned to slide with both feet on the pegs in both directions but I definitely wasn't sliding as much as when I could use my foot going to the left.
Still I came away with a lot. It really makes me want to practice with a little dirtbike and it also told me that starting out learning to slide with a 450 (which has about 12 times the horsepower) would really hurt. Now all we have to do is find some dirt to slide on.
Video
Here's a little clip I found on Youtube. The camera work is a bit shoddy so you don't really get to see how smooth and beautiful some of the instructors' slides were. This is the same place we were at (Supercamp goes to several venues all over the country).
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=GIa_szhJic8">http://youtube.com/watch?v=GIa_szhJic8</a><!-- m -->
Day One
As John said, day one we did all ovals. As John said the body position was a bit weird and basically that was what we were trying to get used to all day. The first time out I was really nervous and I was all over the place while getting used to the bike. Throughout the day I got markedly better, even though I crashed about 10 times.
At least 2 of my crashes were from getting into a corner and having someone slower close the door on my front wheel. I asked an instructor about it and he was telling me that once you can change your line better (and get better judgement) that won't be a problem. Sure enough I didn't have that problem for the rest of the weekend.
I felt bad but there was one older dude in our group who was really tentative and I think he ended up quitting after the first day because the group was too aggressive. I don't think it was too aggressive but the dude was going pretty slow. I actually torpedoed his rear wheel (Pedrosa!) pretty hard once because he had gotten into a slide and parked it.
They wetted down the course at the end of the day and it made things really interesting. Not only was it easy to slide on corner entry but the little XR100's were sliding all over the place on the power. After snapping the bike all the way around a few times I was able to modulate the throttle and slide on the exit but not lose control. On two occasions though...
One of the instructors was yelling something at me and I turned back to look at him and whooaaaaa-whoaaaaaaa a two snap tankslapper. All of the guys were laughing pretty hard on that one. Second time was even better. One of the instructors was riding behind me and again, said something to me and I turned to look back...whoaaaaaa-WHOAAAA-WHOAAAAAA-whoaaaaa-whoooaaaaa! A 5-snap tankslapper. I don't know how I managed to stay on the bike but in a way it was kinda fun. Had that been a bigger bike there's no way I could've saved that one.
By the end of day one I felt like I was sliding pretty well. But we weren't going that fast yet...
Dia Dos
Day two we moved to a bigger course in the shape of kind of a horseshoe so there were left and right turns. The day started off rough for me because dealing with the extra speed and crashing several times early in the day left me kind of tentative.
In the previous week I had a bruised tail bone from sitting on a train seat wrong (and falling asleep) in Japan. Going into the camp I was like, "Man I DO NOT wanna fall on my tailbone". Well, I'm putting around early on day two, still not up to speed because of the bigger course and Chris Carr comes flying by. I'm like, "Ok, I need to go a little faster because I'm not sliding much." So I follow him into the turn and...slide, slide, slide, sliii-BAMMM!!! Right on my ass. Note to self, don't follow Chris Carr.
One drill that I felt a lot better with on Day Two was the "One Hand on the Tank" drill. You had to ride around with your left hand on the gas tank which forced you to:
A. Use your legs to steer the bike
B. Be smoother and more in control
I had a hell of a time with that on Day One but on Day Two I was getting my slide on a bit with it. It definitely felt a lot more useful. I won't be doing that at VIR though...
The End
In all I crashed over 20 times but on only 3 of them I was slow getting up. 2 of them were because I felt right on my ass. I hit the ejector button (highsided) about 5 of those times but I landed on my feet for most of them. Amazing that a little bike can do that but had that been a big bike I would've gotten hurt.
My big issue was putting too much weight on the front. Riding a supersport it feels natural to have the weight on the front but putting your weight over the front with these bikes makes you tuck the front. I had a bunch of low side crashes that way, probably the majority of my crashes were from that one issue. I did a lot better with that in my last session and I was starting to feel a lot more in control. Unfortunately my legs and arms were really beat at that point so I couldn't push as much as I wanted to.
One thing I noticed is that I can slide a lot better going to the left than to the right. When going to the left I can put my foot out at any time but to the right I have to keep my foot on the brake until I'm done braking/turning. I eventually learned to slide with both feet on the pegs in both directions but I definitely wasn't sliding as much as when I could use my foot going to the left.
Still I came away with a lot. It really makes me want to practice with a little dirtbike and it also told me that starting out learning to slide with a 450 (which has about 12 times the horsepower) would really hurt. Now all we have to do is find some dirt to slide on.
Video
Here's a little clip I found on Youtube. The camera work is a bit shoddy so you don't really get to see how smooth and beautiful some of the instructors' slides were. This is the same place we were at (Supercamp goes to several venues all over the country).
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=GIa_szhJic8">http://youtube.com/watch?v=GIa_szhJic8</a><!-- m -->
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com