How can I be faster?

Ok guys following our recent trackday it's clear I have a lot to learn, the duke is only my third bike in 5 years of summer riding.

Have done about 4 trackdays and thats really it, I have ridden a moto x bike for the past couple of years in the off season.

It's clear my corner speed and lean angle are lacking, hopefully Sabre will sort me out with some footage from Cadwell but that still wont assist as I do not have the experience to look at myself and see my errors, all my riding has been self taught and from what I have read and put into practise.

Was hoping Harry would spare some of his time after lunch (when I got the hang of the track again) at Cadwell but due to the rain it never happened.

Would a California superbike school of Ron Haslam race day help me out? or should I just do a load more trackdays and gun it a bit faster? with Cadwell being so close it my preference but there is not a lot of room for error.

My rear tyre was scrubbed up and balling 5mm from the edge on the rear and 10mm at the front, the front tyre it seems was not being abused as hard, whch tells me im not using the front nearly enough, I ran 30/30psi Dunlops RR's front and rear. But to be fair thats where my tyres are worn to on the road, I felt no more lean or tyre use than what I get on the road, it was just a fast road ride for me, which is what it should be in a way but I want to push the limits a bit more.

Cheers guys.

SuperDan

The biggest difference between fast and not so fast riders are actually not lean angle and corner speed.

90% of the difference in lap times come from the difference in how much speed you carry into the corner before reaching apex. I.e. how late and hard you brake.

Offen slower drivers are earlier and harder on the gas mid-corner than real fast guys because they realise they went into the corner to slow.

I am not sure that you are really slow ? - it depend on who you compare to ?

But my best advice is that you to start to brake early but not so hard and try to maintain a higher speed until you get into the corner. By starting braking softly a little earlier you feel much more in control and chances are that you actually carry more speed into the corner. Corner speed will be slower if you brake to late and to hard !

Dont push you self too hard - it will end in a crash. But push you self a little. As long as you have unused rubber on the rear the bike can handle much more lean angle for sure

Good luck

Dan - don't be fixated on lean angle. It will come as a result of cornering faster.

If you want to get a move on around a race track you will end up trying to minimise your lean angle! Time spent on the edge of your tyre is time when you can't get on the gas hard.

The race school at Donny is fairly ££££, you don't get a lot of track time. That said, the instructors are first class and I know a lot of people who say it help them a lot.

CSS is good, it breaks things down to first principles. It works wonders for some, but others don't get on with the system. I think it would work well for you.

There's no substitute for quality track time.

You could consider doing a spanish event with FE. You can book onto the school for a day while you're there. It's not a great deal of money, and you get 1 instructor between 4 pupils for a whole day.

BTW - the instructors FE use are people like Steve plater Mac, and Simon Crafar.

They had Shakey last year but I got the impression he wasn't so good.

I posted at the same time ratemut did, I agree with him.

Another thing you can try is just letting off the brake a few meters earlier.

CSS didn't work for me. I can write line after line and page ater page about it, but CSS is for a certain type of person, and i'm not that type of person. It was broken down into a finite set of manouvers, do this, move that, look here, position there, brake there, turn there...

So much so that i was given CSS LEvel 1 and LEvel 2 Free of charge by Andy Ibbot and i didn't go back for level 2.

How do i go faster... it's the question many many riders ask themselves. For me, it was simple (sort of) GO RACING !

Get yourself an ACU Licence and get to Mallory on a Weds afternoon for cheap tracktime, then get up and do a race. PLenty of classes now for the SD and it's a great bike on circuits like Mallory park. Your male instincts will kick in and you WILL go harder and faster and faster. You will chase someone down and you will let go of the brake a fraction earilier.

Think of it this way... letting off the brakes 1/10th of a second earlier can actually make 3/10ths on that corner... 1 on entry speed, 1 on corner speed and 1 on exit speeds... do that 5 times in a lap and you're 3 seconds a lap quicker. It's only really 2mph in a corner more than you were going into it.

You have the desire to go quicker... you have the male pride.... Get racing... and you WILL find seconds upon seconds.

Firstly Dan it's all about Knowledge,confidence and self belief and for a rider with only 5 years experience of road riding you are going very well indeed. keep doing track day's and continue offroad riding and it will eventually all come together,as Big Ash suggest a read of "a twist of the rist" by Keith Code will help you understand the basic's of what is and should be happening.
Also bare in mind that on the track day you were in the fast group with people that have been riding many many years (first road bike 1976 for me)with loads of experience,some even ex club racer's,so dont be too hard on yourself if it were that easy we'd all be World Champions. Plenty of practice is whats needed with faster rider's IMO that's the only way to slowly improve,ingrease your speed gradually.
As promised i've put together 3 x small 4 minute video's of the trackday,i'm not for one minute saying my line's are the best/correct line's but they work for me and i enjoyed myself and got a buzz from it.
I got overtaken a few time's myself (couple of RC8's and an SDR),dont like it but it make's me try harder and it's always going to happen . Ref lean angle's/Knee down stylie, i can lap faster with my knees tucked in,to many people are hell bent on getting the knee down on every bloody corner and you just dont need to. Yes in some corners you need a knee out to help the bike turn tighter,and it looks good on a photo but is not always the quickest way (IMO)



I've pm'd you ref address for the vids mate, i've tried to download them but i'm a real spaz on the computer 3 x vid's on 3 x CD's and all 3 start with a christmas tree and a jingle that i cannot get rid of (what a W#nker )
PS. I believe Weeksy,Millar,Dock, MCN bloke and others are also on it as well as you Dan.

Dan, joe knows the frustration that one can feel, I have been on the street since 1970, and stuck with it for the most part since that time. A great street rider is not equal to a great track rider, it is 2 completely different worlds that really do not mix that well. I have been a regular spectator at the local racetracks since 1985, I noticed right away thare was a huge difference in the general abilities and talents of the 'new' people going through riders school, like night and day. I had deduced after many nights of complex meditations on the subject that the slower part of the beginners were from a street orientated group of gents, while the tyre blister's were from a dirt track racing background, I had both street and dirt racing.... in so, I seemed to be right in between the intermediates and fast beginners, I had slowly crept up to the back of the faster crowd, I believe it was my short stint in dirt track racing that gave me the knowledge and confidence to excel as i did. On the street not many riders will manage to stay up with me in the corners, but on the track I can feel somewhat lackluster, especially in the straights. In the corners I can hang with most all of the top 10 riders, minus the top 3 but i am old and reflexes will slow a little every year, thare are real fast old dudes but they have been conditioning thareselves for decades. Kenny Roberts trained his riders on the dirt with 125 cc bikes with no brakes, to get a dirt bike and learn to slide is something that is sure to help a tarmac tamer.

Track time can't be beaten but it is expensive. Repetition is the key.

At 64 I'm too old for racing and practice my corning skills on a select few corners on my pleasure rides. Find a few low traffic, see throught corners or curves and slowly try to increase your turn entry speed.

Another idea I've seen is to find a large open paved area (parking lot) and start circling slowly and gradually increase your speed and lean angle.

The largest block to lean angle (corning speed) is learning to trust your tyres!!!!!

HTH,
Frank