Skill vs Judgement

Originally Posted by CephasGT

To a certain extent, it takes balls to use more throttle, but mostly it's just pushing yourself out of your comfort zone a little. And to improve any aspect of your riding, that's what you have to do. For me, getting on the throttle harder is just a matter of doing it, and trusting the tires to let me know when they've had enough. Other aspects of my riding can make that easier, as well. If I get the corner entry right, and apex properly, it's far easier to turn on the throttle when the bike is nice and settled, on line, and pointed the way I want it to go. If I botch the entry or drift off line, it's far more difficult.

I didn't get to work on anything at Mid-Ohio on Saturday unfortunately, because it rained, and there wasn't any grip to be had with my DOT race tires on that surface, but I'm hoping to make it to Putnam this week to try it there instead.

I think that if you really look at specific aspects of your riding and break it down even further you will find that it is less about "just doing it, or having the balls to do it" and more about riding SKILLS that will help you get on the throttle earlier and harder.

You say that things like corner entry, and apexing the corner right help you get on the gas earlier and I totally agree with that. If you were able to ensure that you got the corner entry and apex right every time (by having specific reference points and looking at them with good timing) you wouldn't need bigger "balls" to roll on the gas, it would just happen.

Also, if you started working on defining your exit reference point a bit better or lifting your eyes up and looking further down the track earlier, you should find that it becomes easier and easier to roll on the gas harder.

What I'm saying is that we all tend to think that we just need to MAKE ourselves brake later and roll on the gas harder but unless you have the tools to know HOW to do that, you won't be as successful.

It's one thing to say, "I'll just brake later" and another thing to say, "I'm going to move my brake marker from the 4 board, to the patch of grass between the 3 and the 4 and then release the brakes at the 1 board just before I turn the bike in..."

Misti

^^ That's true, for sure. The accuracy of my reference points will certainly make measured improvements a lot easier. What I meant to say before is that my corner entry and mid-corner are doing fine, but I'm still a bit timid with the throttle on exit, and all that's left for that is to just do it. I'll give your advice a try as well, and work on looking for my exit points more deliberately and further down the track, also, and see if that helps.

Originally Posted by tstruyk

lets not forget that "feeling" how the bike is responding as you are changing your entry speed, brake points, throttle pick up etc is also a VERY usefull and necessary skill...

A firm understanding as to why you cant seem to make the apex once you start braking later. Or why when you pick up the throttle a few feet earlier in the corner you cant seem to keep the bike tracking the wawy you want it to is critical in one's development.

Its not just about good lines, more gas and less brakes. Its also about understanding how you can set up your machine to allow yourself the opportunity to implement your developing skill sets...

Set up is always evolving, even at the professional level. A set up running a particular pace at a specific track will certainly change once you begin to require more entry speed, corner speed, exit throttle etc.

True and very good point. Bike set up is an art in itself that takes a lot of time and effort and like you said, understanding of how the bike feels.

What I find a lot of riders do though, is spend too much time working on the set up of their bikes FIRST before they have tackled their own riding abilities. They end up going round and round in circles because they don't really understand what the bike is doing, why it is doing it, and how their own riding can effect the way the bike handles. They also tend to blame the way the bike is set up for the mistakes they are having on the track when a lot of them could be corrected by better riding skills.

I'm not trying to undermine the importance of bike set up as you mentioned, I just think it is important for people to have a good riding foundation with good skills and techniques before they start messing around with something as complicated as bike and suspension set up

I can see both sides to that point. Having a well-sorted motorcycle, with a good baseline setup, is very important when forming your riding skills. Having a bike that's not handling properly can cause you to form bad habits and incorrect assumptions about how to ride, which is very damaging especially for a beginning rider. However, if the bike is basically doing everything as advertised, the rider can concentrate on their riding, and will have a more level playing field to start from.

In the end, you can't have one at the complete disregard for the other.