Ed Bargy School!

[Jim Moore]

Folks,

 

Four members of the local BMW club andI took the Bargy school at Jennings yesterday. It freaking rocked! It was by far the best school I have ever attended. If you have never gone to a typical school, it works like this. A guy comes in, sits you down, and says, "OK, I'm really fast. You're not. First, let me tell you some tales of my fabulous career as a racer. Then, we'll go ride. Kinda try to do what I do. Of course, you won't be able to, because I'm fast, and you're not."

 

Bargy was totally different. He spent most of the day talking about the physics behind riding, cornering, and braking. He covered these areas in extremely fine detail. He also talked a lot about how to tell when you are approaching the "edge." It was very illuminating, and a lot of fun. His instructors were friendly and extremely helpful. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

 

Here are the three coolest things I learned in the school:

 

1. Adjust your line mid-corner with the throttle instead of steering. Steering inputs cause the front contact patch to wiggle, which uses up traction.

 

2. At the end of a long straightaway your front tire has cooled off significantly, so you have brake progressively, both to shift weight and to reheat the front tire.

 

3. The bike will try to stand up out of the turn when you are trail-braking. This is actually good, because when the bike stops trying to stand up, it means the front tire is starting to slip, so you need to ease off the brakes. (Note: This is entirely theoretical in my case. I'm too chicken to play around with this too much. Maybe next time.)

 

4. I brake like a girl. (Note: The instructors didn't actually say, "go bake me some cookies, Nancy," but I could tell they were thinking it.)

 

OK, that was four things. It was cool. You oughta do it.

[Ben Peeples]

Jim,

 

Good review. Thanks. You may have made me a customer. I have always been concerned about the proximity to the edge.

 

You did not mention that Jennings is a fun and technical track. I did not like it that much on my first visit, but like it more each time I ride it.

 

Thanks again.

Ben.

[Bill_Walker]

If you have never gone to a typical school, it works like this. A guy comes in, sits you down, and says, "OK, I'm really fast. You're not. First, let me tell you some tales of my fabulous career as a racer. Then, we'll go ride. Kinda try to do what I do. Of course, you won't be able to, because I'm fast, and you're not."

 

Wow. I'm not sure what constitutes a "typical" school (track day coaching, perhaps?), but California Superbike School and the now-defunct Freddie Spencer school were nothing like that, being rather more like you describe Bargy's class.

[lawnchairboy]

+1

[Paul Mihalka]

"If you have never gone to a typical school, it works like this. A guy comes in, sits you down, and says, "OK, I'm really fast. You're not. First, let me tell you some tales of my fabulous career as a racer. Then, we'll go ride. Kinda try to do what I do. Of course, you won't be able to, because I'm fast, and you're not."

 

Reg Pridmore's CLASS isn't like this at all.

[Agent_Orange]

" a typical school, it works like this.": To what school, or schools, are you refering?

 

 

I did not find the California Superbike School to be typical.

[lvnvbiker]

Yeah, what schools treated you like that? I have a few pro level guys that would love to take a school from someone they ARE faster than, just to shut that kind of prick up! But then if you are talking about the "feeling" that the instructors felt that way I have been to a track day that I got that feeling at. The "fast" guys seemed bothered that a fat slow bastard like me was even near the track, but did a fair job of hiding it until I heard a coulple of them talking trash during a break.

[dhanson]

My experience with RideSmart in Texas was similiar to yours. MUCH fun and great class room experience after each session on the track.

 

The braking part was hard to judge at first when to start, but got better with more experience. I also found myself still on the front brakes slightly nearly to the apex.

 

I liked the part about altering your line in a turn with throttle while holding the same lean angle. Our track (Eagles Canyon Raceway) had several blind corners and off camber double apex turns, very hard to judge when to begin braking even with the yard markers.

 

I usually turned in too slow, but we were instructed to go in slow and come out fast, I never over ran a turn and stayed on the track. GREAT FUN and learning!

 

This link is local racer from Dallas on his 1098s at Eagles Canyon Raceway.

 

[Whip]

Dave

 

Is that JC????

 

 

[Jim Moore]

Something else cool I remembered today. He said you should be upshifting out of a turn approximately when you reach the outside edge of the track on the far side of the turn. He said if you are doing it later than that, you are giving yourself a false sense of security because you are able to roll on lots of throttle coming out of the turn since your bike is not in the power band. Someday you will break the rear end loose coming out of a turn and your rear tire will immediately try to match your throttle setting. If you are the correct gear, the wheel will spin a little bit. If you are in too high of a gear, the tire will immediately go to your artificially high throttle setting. Ouch.