TTSE On The Track

[Collybus]

This past Monday I participated in my first track day. This event is billed as a "Non-Sportbike Track Training" day, which took place at the Thompson Speedway in Connecticut. Ninety participants on tourers, sport-tourers, cruisers, and street bikes, very well organized and highly informative.

There was only one other Trophy.

Anyway, my TTSE performed beautifully. I took off the side bags and topcase, taped up all the glass and covered the speedometer so I wouldn't be distracted, slipped her into "sport" mode, and let her go. Scraped the pegs a few times until I got the body position right, but the bike was solid and stable throughout.

The nice part was that after a day of hard riding and high tach, I could raise up the windshield, shift to "comfort" mode, loaf along at 2700 RPM with cruise control on, and enjoy the ride home.

[karl]

Would have loved to get to know my bike better there as well.  Maybe the next one.

[ikkieman]

 :017:Awesome! Don't know if I have the discipline to behave on the way home. What, with all the adrenalin rushing me on.
And please enlighten me about not dragging your pegs anymore.

[Collybus]

That’s a big subject, but briefly: there is a finite amount of available traction at any given time. It’s use is shared between braking, accelerating, and leaning. If you are leaned over too far you’ve taken away some traction that might be better used for braking or accelerating, depending on what you are trying to do. So proper body positioning is hanging off the inside of the bike, shifting the center of gravity and allowing the bike to stand a little taller. Standing taller also means the pegs, pipe and cases won’t scrape along the ground. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? :)

[ikkieman]

Sounds reasonable! Sounds like something worth trying.

[trophied]

Just don't forget the consumable elbow pads if you intend to the whole Marc Marquez thing.  I didn't know you could get that far OFF a bike and still control it until I watched him a few times.  Granted he's a little dangerous to other riders sometimes, and it gets ignored by the officials, but he CAN RIDE!

[TTSE14]

Sounds like a good way to become a more confident and competent rider when back on the road, honing some useful survival  skills.  I believe that all of us that have many years of riding experience perceive that we are good riders; but in reality, we all can learn and improve upon whatever our skill level is.

[janfmiller]

A few years back when I owned a BMW i attended their rally in Johnson City Tennessee. I went to a go-fast class taught by a woman, don't recall her name, but I learned more in that hour than I had in my previous riding years.
You have to feel that bike rise underneath you, referring to being always in the powerband and controlling your speed with the throttle, using the brakes only to slow down before a corner
Keep your feet on the balls of your feet on the foot pegs
Always lead with your inside elbow, this gets your body in the proper position as referred to above.
And of course, always look down the road as far as you can see, not right in front of your front tire.
I love high speed cornering, to me it is what motorcycling is about. This simple class increased my speed in corners about 40% I would say, and I still use these techniques everyday.