Croft today (7th Aug)

dseered

dseered

New member
Another hot one, left at 5.30 to ensure I could get in a garage and out of the either Rain or Sun, lets face it I would have one or the other, but in true Northern style the sun shone all day and track conditions were good.

Obviously some would be fooled thinking that their tyres would be warm from the off and a few red flags went out on the sighting laps, one guy just in front of me, BIG highside, looked pretty bad and was ambulanced off, hope he is OK.

As I was unloading I saw a DSC t/shirt and it was Felix, with his ER6 special, wow one seriously nice piece of kit, designed by himself and built by the obviously very talented Barry who was with him. Made me ashamed to have my Minger parked in the same garage !

I did all the seesions and we seemed to get lots of track time, ran off a couple of times, nothing serious, just didn't fancy cranking it over on the rubber marbles !

I'm now thing that I need some peg risers or rearsets as I ground the right hand footpeg again, scary stuff !

Guido (Guy Cope) turned up after lunch to take some pics of Felix on his project bike so it would have been rude not to ask him to get some of me if he could, some of you may have seen Guido's work, it is fantastic, he shoots the BSB, and any of the International championships if they are on our shores.

I did buy a print from the trackside potographer aswell as I really liked it, so will scan that in due course.

Loverobot off here and the DSC board was there on his gixer and seemed to be having fun and we all got humilliated by a bloody KTM supermoto, man that guy could ride, bit disconcerting when you are cranked right over behind him and he has a dirty great boot skimming the deck, I ended up following for quite a bit as it was amazing to watch, late on the brakes, really early on the power, fantastic !

Good day ;)

Sorry Ed :D
 
nice to meet you again dseered - was a good day indeed - knocked 6 seconds off my best lap so well happy!
i was having probs grounding out as well
we spoke to dave the instructor and he looked at some photos of me from today
he concluded i was using far too much lean angle and not enough upper body off the side of the bike
he said if i carry on being that far over " it will have you off " :eek:
my mission is therefore to sort out my body position properly and he reckoned the clearance issue would be sorted!
 
Yep I know what you mean, although I did feel to be getting right off, it was just when I was going in too hot I think, not really sure, I think this pic was taken at Tower and position looks OK to me, although someone with more knowledge could perhaps comment ?

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This is the only good one I got of Felix's special, it really was something special, everytime you looked you saw some more detail, truly an amazing bit of design/engineering !

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interestingly you appear to be exactly as me

only difference was that on the shot of me at the same place my knee and peg are touching down.........with the consequence that the bike itself is really decked out

he said to draw a line through the plane of the forks and front wheel
the head and upper body should be on the bikes inside so that less lean is needed

if yuou draw a line on your pic you will see you are sat on the line

so was i

he reckoned lean off with upper body far more and you will gain 10 miles per hour per corner with the same bike lean angle
to put it another way we would not need to lean the bike as far when doing the same speed
 
Not getting you fella, I think you mean if I draw a line up the fork legs my shoulders should be to the inside of the corner ?

It will be interesting to see if Guy got any of me, won't say 'good shots' because that goes without saying if he is shooting !
 
i meant in line with the fork leg - should have said if looking straight on draw a line through the tyre vertically and that will be the centre of the bike
the head and shoulders should be on the inside of that apparently
btw when i pointed out my lean angle and slider / peg i did mean it as a bad thing - i have fallen into the trap of further is better but apparently the body is more important and further means 'accidnet waiting to happen'!: :(
 
it would be interesting aslo to see if guy got me - we could have aproper look see
i didnt have the heart to buy the shot of me after it was pointed out how dangerous it was
 
Ian, put the heel of your outside foot on the peg, point toes more up - it will push you further over anyway by allowing the knee to bend more naturally and "hook" the seat. Relax the inside arm, bend it more acutely and get the lower part of the arm parallel with the road surface. Point the elbow at the tarmac. Knee is not that important. Yet.
 
loverobot said:
it would be interesting aslo to see if guy got me - we could have aproper look see
i didnt have the heart to buy the shot of me after it was pointed out how dangerous it was
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He was there to get promo shots of Felix and the project bike and also scope out positions for this weekends BSB, part of the deal that he could go trackside at the event was that he couldn't sell any shots as that is handled by the official photographer. So unless you asked him I doubt he will of done !
 
on track you need to aim to get your head and shoulders as far into the inside of corner as you can, look at Colin Edwards style for a rather exaggerated example. dropping inside shoulder in, pointing your head where you wanna go usually works. problem i have is that its the total opposite on the road where you need better vision so move your head to the outside to see through the corner, any photo of me on a track has me like this, very embarrassing :D :D

To practice hanging off without leaning the bike too much ride in the wet, you'll soon get the hang of it :)
 
loverobot said:
i meant in line with the fork leg - should have said if looking straight on draw a line through the tyre vertically and that will be the centre of the bike
the head and shoulders should be on the inside of that apparently
btw when i pointed out my lean angle and slider / peg i did mean it as a bad thing - i have fallen into the trap of further is better but apparently the body is more important and further means 'accidnet waiting to happen'!: :(
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Got told pretty much the same thing at Croft last time. I won't go any faster unless I change my riding position in the corners. (faster as in fairly slow to just slow!). The bike is already at max lean, any more and I'll be on my backside, practice "hanging off". Must admit it's not a comfortable feeling to start with so just need to get used to it. Lead with the head and shoulders ( al la Zidane?) the backside will follow

Kept looking out the window yesterday with the sun taunting me "should have gone to croft, should have gone to croft, should have gone to croft"

RJ that article was a good un, it showed the different styles employed by various riders who had a pretty good grasp of how to go fast,

Ray.
 
As they say you're in the office...

You don't look like your hanging off much for one, thus the bike being cranked over more, and potentially getting your pegs down but worse still you could roll off the edge of the tyre.

You need to adjust this and drop your inside shoulder and get your head outside of the screen (out of the office), have a look at the two photos from Brands of Steve Martin and Troy Bayliss (thanks Guido) you'll see how they hang off and how they're body/head/shoulder is positioned inside the corner, Hmmm can't seem to add photos...... damn this work proxy!

I'll get Lily to add them from home ;)
 
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Lily said:
troy and steve
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Thank-you ;)

As you can see with Steve Martin how far his head is over, his shoulder is dropped etc, and with Troy (rear shot) gives a great example of how far off the seat he sits.

You look practically bolt upright in comparison with a lot of lean angle, they hang off more to get a larger contact patch on the fatter part of the tyre = more grip = more speed
 
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