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Originally Posted by bittersweetryan
I just spent a little time thinking about Malik, Todd, and James said and a little my progression last year and what I hope to achieve this year. I'll actually be doing the same amount of track days this year as last year, but they will be a little less spread out.
So last year my first time ever on a track was at Blackhawk with PTT where it rained most of the day. When it finally dried off I spent the last few sessions riding like I did on the street, just a little bit faster. I thought I was doing a great job hanging off the bike and whatnot. When the pictures came back I was mortified at how little I was off the bike and how slow I actually was.
My second track day was at Road America with STT's novice group. I remember telling my CR at the beginning of the day I was mostly concerned with corner entry speed that day. However due to their structure I never felt like I was riding my own ride and focused too much on playing follow the leader so I didn't feel like I came out of there having learned a whole lot.
Next up was Blackhawk with PTT. This day I remember my focus was on body position and form. This was also my first track day NOT on OEM tires. Anyways, I felt like I was definately starting to make some progress. I felt that things weren't happening so quickly out there. I could actually focus more on entry points and apexes. Going around the track I was able to spot the pink dots one of the schools uses for reference points something that I never would've seen on my first 2 track days. Some of the pictures came back and I actually looked OK on form, my head was now on the inside of the center of the bike and my butt actually looked like it was off the seat. I know lap times don't mean shit but at the end of the day my last 2 sessions I was around 1:38 - 1:40. I was pretty discouraged that I was still slow as poop after I felt like things were coming together.
Lastly I went to Autobahn South. Once again I wanted to focus on form and form the pictures I saw my form was pretty OK early in the day and a little worse later in the day. I was again able to run somewhat consistant lap times, untill the session before lunch when my front tire pushed while i was coming out of hot pit for some reason. I wasn't able to shake the uneasy feeling till the last 2 sessions of the day. However those sessions were the best feeling I ever had.
Thinking back on those days one thing I was terriable at were the straights. I'm pretty sure most of the laps I didn't even reach WOT for a second on them. I'd always, always break at the highest breaking marker and always go into the next turn feeling like I could've carried more corner speed. Then next time around I'd do the exact same thing.
So my goals for this year...well as Malik said continue working on being smooth and consistant. Be more focused on my riding on the track, last year I think I spent a good portion of track time just geting used to the speed. I started a track journal so I hope to utilize that and write a few things to work on before a track day and focus on working on that skill while I'm out there.
OK, now that I've wasted 30 minutes of ALC's time I better get back to being productive.
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different people have different goals on the track and what ever is a valid goal to them is a valid goal to me. personally, i never cared about what i looked on the track past a fleeting moment of vanity. (i'm fat...regardless of how i look on a bike i'm still fat.)
you can dig yourself into a hole trying to go fast but not focusing on the things that aren't going to make you faster. everything on the track should have a purpose. use the brakes because you need to. turn the bike becuase you have to. turn the throttle because you have to. change gears because you have to. if you don't need to do it and its not going to produce results (faster lap times) then there is no point in doing it. i'm all for making things as easy as possible and keeping it simple. turn gas, squeeze brake, turn bike repeat.
body application is going to pay bigger dividends at this point in your learning curve than position. its going to help you stay smooth and feel more in control. at your stage (based on lap times) learning to relax and not feeding unneccessary inputs into the bike are worth more than hanging off. as you get faster you may feel the need to hang off more. you may not. relax under acceleration. keep your arms bent and grip the tank with your knees under braking.
as far as the fear of speed is concerned its usually not the speed that overwhelms its the acceleration. use a gear higher. you cut down on the amount of work (shifting) you'll have to do, you'll become smoother because there well be less chassis pitch and you can get over your fear of wringing the neck off the throttle.