[ST] [v.long - mostly ON topic!] Keith Code is a Scientologist Part 2

[kwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ken Haylock)]

Continued from Part 1

We started each day in fourth gear (depending on your bike) and using no
brakes. By the end of each day, we were using the entire gearbox and the
brakes, but as a starting point, one gear and no brakes removes from the
equation a lot of the things you would otherwise be worrying about out on
the track, and lets you focus on the stuff they are trying to get you to
learn. On track, the instructor ratio is one to three students per session.
With 5 sessions, there are 5 specific drills you are working on cumulatively
on each level, and during each session your instructor will peel out of the
pits and follow you round, unseen, to check you are doing whatever the drill
de moment is correctly, and he'll (they're all men at the moment, although
there were a fair few women among the students) pull you in and help you if
you are having trouble with the drill. For me, the first day was mostly
about practice and refinement, and I got left alone once the instructors had
taken a look at me, since I wasn't having any trouble with the drills,
except for a debrief when I came off track. On the last drill of the day,
something called the two-step, the instructor wafted past me on his R6 and
reminded me with a hand-signal to separate the two actions more distinctly
than I had been hitherto, and then - half a lap later - he wafted past again
to give the thumbs up that now I'd got it. And yes, what he was suggesting I
try to do did make a positive difference. On the second day, I had a
different instructor who was much more interactive in terms of pulling me
off track during sessions to chat about what I was doing, and who had much
more useful to say to me as a result, but I think that was a function of the
fact that much of what we were doing on the second day was either new ground
for me, or cerebral stuff where he couldn't tell whether I was getting it or
not without discussing it with me.

For me, the damascene bit of the two days was on the lean bike, learning
about body position. I've always ridden upright, without hanging off,
because every attempt I've ever made to hang off a motorcycle has always
affected the steering, with me hanging off the bars gibbon-like, knee jammed
up the side of the fairing ineffectually, as I wobble round the corner I
hung off for, bolt upright on a very unhappy motorcycle. So I don't do it. A
couple or three years ago, at a track day at this very Pembrey, I very
nearly launched myself and my old VFR off the circuit at the hairpin, while
turning in fast and late in the approved Keith Code stylee, when I decked
the exhaust collector and levered the back tyre off the deck. Apart from the
damage this caused to my underwear and my heart rate at the time, I knew I
had run out of dangle angle. By the end of day 1 of this course, I had also
run out of dangle angle on the much less bouncy, much more capable TT600 in
several faster corners & was subjecting those following me to plumes of
smoke from my boot welts. It was affecting my confidence and preventing me
going any quicker.

Then it was my turn to try the lean-bike. "Do you hang off?" asked the
instructor? Body position is still important if you don't, and considering
that this course attracts everything from 250GP class racebikes to super
scooters and BMW RT's, hanging off the bike isn't compulsory. "No", I said,
"but I think I need to". One session on the lean bike later, and I knew what
I'd been doing wrong all this time, and how to hang off a bike without
fucking with the steering or knackering the balance in a corner, and I
celebrated immediately with a couple of really rather fast
not-quite-but-nearly knee-down laps of the mankily surfaced paddock on the
R6 lean bike, which - the instructor later mentioned - was set up with an
80psi touring tyre on the back to make provoking slides easier (for the
level 4 people with the huge testicles). "OK, can you just do a couple round
the other way, but.. err... this time, I don't think you want to be going
much faster than that round here...". Stunning! Result! THAT'S how it is
done!

Awesome, doodz!! Oh, sorry, I'm starting to come over all Californian...

Next session on track, body positioned correctly, I was carrying much more
speed and getting less lean angle, and I found that on the fairly cramped
TT, while hanging off, due to the better leverage I could get from sitting
further back and lower, I could bang the inside bar harder and turn even
quicker, which meant I could go even faster for even less lean angle again.
And by the time I had built back up towards the angles of dangle that had
marked my limits from the day before I was flying like a guided missile.
Sadly, it very nearly went Pete Tong, as I flew into the fast, sweeping
Honda curve at Warp 8 on the last lap of the session, hanging off with my
knee a gnats chuff from the tarmac, I hadn't pulled my boot far enough back
on the peg, my toe went down again unexpectedly, my leg twitched, which must
have made it through my body to the bars or the throttle, and I had a
momentary rear-wheel slide at 90mph-odd while cranked over at 45 degrees.
The instructor - who had been following me - told me at the debrief that I
was really flying, and then asked me what had gone down (he'd tasted the
smoke), and then showed me where I needed to carry my foot on the peg to
avoid it happening again. Next session out, carrying even /more/ corner
speed, this time it was the slider that went down. Excellent stuff. And
because I still had plenty of track to spare, I know I could corner
significantly faster again, with confidence, now knowing that I won't run
out of grip, ground clearance or self belief again.

Basically, this is the biggest single step-change to my riding since I first
started experimenting with countersteering. And if I hadn't already read the
books, I think the Level 1 stuff would have already completely blown my
mind, so if you don't know what I'm waffling on about when I babble about
Quick Turns, either buy the book and a Californian-English phrase-book or
give level 1 a go. If you don't come away thinking that it was the best £250
or £300 (depending on how expensive the relevant circuit is to hire) you
ever spent, I'll be utterly amazed. The machine control stuff taught in
level one is entirely applicable to the road. IMHO, it's the chapter that is
missing from motorcycle roadcraft - how to make the motorcycle do what you
require of it. It's no substitute for roadcraft, and if you (ab)use your
newly learnt level 1 skills to go through your favourite blind bend 30mph
quicker than you did before then they're positively counterproductive, but
if cornering on the road gives you problems, CSS Level 1 will fix them. And
then some. Level 2 is a lot more to do with track craft, and as such is less
relevant to the road rider, but the skills are useful and fun to learn, and
even here a couple of them translate.

There are only a couple more schools this year, both at Lydden - the
cheapest track they use, which means the cheapest courses. If you were
wondering, don't wonder any more. Go do it. Level 1 is cheaper than any
number of go-faster additions to your bike, and better value than any of
them.

Ken Haylock - Sprint ST + TT600 - MAG Life Member #93160

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                      * http://www.cix.co.uk/~kwh *                     


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