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Superbike School at Streets of Willow


jmseattle

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David -- was good to meet you at the 4/5 - 6 two-day camp. Had a great time, and no matter how long I ride, it's always amazing how much more there is to learn and experience. A breakthrough for me was the body position -- even doing it badly as I know I did, it still had an dramatic (positive) impact on lean angle and roll on especially noticeable in turns 2 and 8. Will definitely be back for Level 3 sometime later in year when schedule permits. It was a great two days -- thanks again to your entire team.

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Here's part of the pit crew.........

 

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Kathy Harvey, Phil and Jamie Chancellor and PJ Bearden (who stoked the fires on the barbque and made sure we got fed)....

 

 

A fun time......Kathy and I enjoyed meeting you folks...

 

Thanks.......

 

Phil........Redbrick

Kathy.......Kathy46

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We did have a "bit of wind" that gusted to maybe 45 mph or so and held on long enough to lift and flip over sun-shade of someone we know............

Didn't dampen the party.....Fun time had by all........

 

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Russell's sunshade......

 

Phil..........Redbrick

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russell_bynum

Thanks to everyone who showed up! We had a great time and will be posting pics and (hopefully) video shortly.

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Sorry I didn't get a chance to see everyone (Steve and Katy), and/or say goodbye to everyone (Phil & Jamie, Phil & Kathy)! It was a BUSY day! Level 4 was filled to the brim (9 of us!) so the class room parts ran a little long. In addition, they wanted me to do a steering drill, so I missed one of my breaks. Track schools are harder to visit at, as opposed to track days, where you have 30-40 minutes off between sessions. But, I do like to do the school every so often to figure out what needs working on at my track days! thumbsup.gif

 

Anyway, hope everyone that came out had fun (in spite of the wind)! crazy.gif

 

Jamie, you didn't get to spend much time on the Fizzer...sorry about that! I love that bike; it is so easy to move around on...it just fits me. It's not the fastest one out there, but I don't care - it's a great learning bike.

 

Can I just say I LOVE the track!? I am so sore I can hardly walk today (I was really working body position all day yesterday), but I want to go back. You have no choice but to clear you mind of all of life's stresses and just focus on the task at hand out there. And, oh yeah, you can go as fast as you possibly can - there's that, too! thumbsup.gif Love it, love it, love it!

 

Thanks all for being there! Steve, PJ, Tim - dinner was fun!

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First off let me just say crashing sucks. Let me quickly add that I’m sore but no broken bones or road rash other than a quarter sized friction burn on my knee. Not bad for a 40-50 mph low side. Three-quarters of the way through the last session I got into right hand turn #4 hotter than intended. Already hanging off I leaned further in and forward to gain some clearance but apparently lost the back end before my pick up drill took effect. It all happened so suddenly, how any times have I read that here? While I don’t remember hearing the can scrape there is a significant scrape on the bottom that indicates it touched down and levered the back tire off the ground. Now there is an even bigger scrape on the side of the can, small bar end dings on the tank and some road rash on the side of the faring. The frame slider was ground down ½” but did the job of protecting the engine. The frame slider mount on the FZ1 places the slider pretty low and limits ground clearance so I had actually thought about removing them but PJ’s premonition convinced me to leave them on. Really glad I did! I had touched down on the can earlier in the day coming through 12-13-14 right in front of my wife and the rest of the gang. Turn 4 has been modified and the pavement is rougher than the other corners and eliminated the zero margins I had left. Scraping hard parts is a recipe for disaster. The crash was right in front of a couple of the instructors and the corner workers but at least we don’t have video to dissect.

 

The gear consisting of two-piece Joe Rocket perforated leathers, Alpine Stars boots, Frank Thomas gloves and Shoei helmet held up really well with only minor scuffs. Really glad I had the Dainese back protector however I wish the original foam pad was also there to spread the impact. The only place I’m sore is back where the edge of the back protector dug into my back.

 

My first track day instructor told me that when you think everything is going great watch out and be extra careful. Those words have been haunting me because things were clicking in that last session. Russell had given me a suggestion on an intermediate reference point for turn 2 and picking a deeper apex reference had solved the problem I was having with that turn and the others were falling into place. CSS Level 3 deals with body position and the exercise drills I had been doing at home had solved my earlier body position problems. Just wish I had known about their knee to knee and hip flick drill to practice quick transitions beforehand.

 

Track days have an effect similar to gethomeitis where that last session is the last chance to put it all together and nail a good lap time. As it turns out I was running 1:50’s and the previous lap was a 1:47 which I would have been comfortable with for my first time on a new track with the FZ1. Chalk it up to getting too aggressive late in the day. I’m thankful that it didn’t turn out worse.

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Hey Steve,

 

Yes, crashing sucks, BUT, if you have to crash, you had the best possible one!

 

A) You are OK (other than being sore), and you didn't have to ride away in the ambulance!

B) Your bike is mostly OK, just cosmetic damage

C) Didn't crash into anyone else, so nobody else was affected (and they didn't even have to stop the session!)

D) It was the last half of the last session of the day, so you didn't ruin your whole day!

E) Your gear looks to be in pretty good shape too; are you going to have to even replace anything?

 

thumbsup.gif

 

But yeah, crashing does suck, but we're all glad you walked away from it.

 

Yay PJ for making you keep the frame sliders on! grin.gif

 

PS. Offer still stands if you want to come and soak your aching bod in our hot tub. I did last night, and I think I probably could have slept there it felt so good (my muscles are a wee bit sore today too!) wave.gif

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russell_bynum

Steve,

You were running a really good pace out there and looked good on the bike. My guess is you probably did drag the exhaust when you hit that bump, and that's all it took to send the bike down the road without you.

 

One thing's for sure: Frame sliders rule. cool.gif

 

I will be working on editing the video from the last two sessions when I'm on the plane heading to El Paseo on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll get something posted early next week when I get back.

 

Speaking of video: I don't know if they told you, but Paul was riding the camera bike, following Elena when the camera (mounted to the rear of the bike) broke free, smacked into Paul's back, then fell to the track where it smashed into a zillion pieces. The tape appeared to be intact, but wouldn't play in their player. So that's why you didn't get the video debrief that you should have at the end of your day.

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Speaking of video: I don't know if they told you, but Paul was riding the camera bike, following Elena when the camera (mounted to the rear of the bike) broke free, smacked into Paul's back, then fell to the track where it smashed into a zillion pieces. The tape appeared to be intact, but wouldn't play in their player. So that's why you didn't get the video debrief that you should have at the end of your day.

 

I guess out of morbid curiosity I would like to know how it happened but watching it Saturday afternoon certainly would have totally destroyed my already bruised ego! grin.gif

Speaking of bruise … I have none. I find it really hard to believe that none have shown up.

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russell_bynum

No need to have bruised ego. You were running a really good pace out there (your first time out), and just got bit by your bike's limitations. I've seen a whole bunch of people go down in T4...probably from the same thing.

 

Besides: You needed an excuse to buy a high-mount can anyway. grin.gif

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StretchMark

Russell had given me a suggestion...

 

Stop right there. That's when I would have skipped a session smirk.gif

 

Sorry to here about the low side. Glad the damage to you and the bike was minimal.

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russell_bynum
Russell had given me a suggestion...

 

Stop right there. That's when I would have skipped a session smirk.gif

 

lmao.gif

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