I’m hearing it every day. First I see 99.9% of my students braking, and their performance is actually shockingly bad. Straight up… ‘BRAKING’ IS THE PRIOR SKILL TO STAY ALIVE. Then I ask them who taught them and what was the message, and their answers are even more shocking…
In fact, ANY curriculum of motorcycle drivers license giving institutions are telling new riders to “Stay away from the front brake when turning/leaning!” I believe that this is already a CRIME to say, because I would say that you gotta be be able to make a use of your brakes AT ALL FREAKING TIMES! But there is much more coming with this message- mental blockades which I as a Coach who is teaching the total opposite- have to remove manifested habits and overly produced fears!
Now how is that?!… well, if you tell a new rider stuff like that- you automatically manifest a certain hold back towards the front brake, which is actually our primary weapon against scary situations. The blockade is so deep in their heads, that most of the riders are not even using 50% of their front brake potential- which is another guarantee to get hurt or even to die. Besides this, it also leads them to an over-usage of rear brake which causes even more confusion and extends their learning curve… which is time they might don’t have.
You think a street rider don’t need this?… You’re dead wrong! Superbike-Coach teaches ‘Trail Braking’, a MotoGP riding technique since 10 years in Cornering School Day 3, and that is the key to lots of good things the top racers of this planet take advantage of. Priority for them… to lower lap times- and for the street rider to gain the chance to SURVIVE dramatically. Why and how?… find out in the class and learn it, because reading and learning won’t work here.
Is this a guarantee to get out of everything?… no it’s not, because there is always a ‘point of no return’, but it gains you chance to make it exponentially. Are there other schools teaching to trail brake?… probably- are they doing it right?… I don’t know. I do know that Superbike-Coach does it right- and that we have the environment and drills to do this even better. The curriculum and their message in this regard of license giving institutions has to change, because it is wrong and dangerous.
https://www.superbike-coach.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/newlogo.png00PageAdminhttps://www.superbike-coach.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/newlogo.pngPageAdmin2017-05-22 00:27:482024-01-14 00:32:22Being able to use the brake at all times!
I use to clear up things with my articles, so here is my take on some answers to questions we’re receiving in regard our track days:
Yes, we’re open all turns the west track has to offer.
Yes, we have track Marshall’s on all turns, an Ambulance with two EMT’s, and a Helicopter on call.
Yes, we have a starter, announcer, and group/gate control.
Yes, we run 3 level groups C, B, and B+, 7×20 minutes sessions each.
B+ is no A-group- more an extension of B group. A-riders are welcome of course, but riding under B+ where I expect that B-riders keep their ego in check (you can’t get them anyway and you don’t want to hurt someone just because you feel challenged).
Yes, you don’t need to have racing gear necessarily, and of course i can tell you our definition of street riding gear below in an article. let me know if you need gear, and I can get you a 40% off discount on Axo USA gear. We accept leather OR textile as long pants and jacket are zip-able. If not zip-able, we would ask you to have a back protector, but be aware that the Thunderhill staffs might take you out (this is not on us!). Nobody else but you is responsible for the road rash you’re getting.
Yes, we have experienced control riders on all groups checking for rule violations.
No, we’re not wasting spots to let ego-driven instructors racing each other.
No, you don’t need to have a class under your belt to attend our track days, but I highly recommend it.
No, this is not a ‘school’, but a ‘too fun to miss out’ event where you’ll be safer as if you would go for a ride on public roads instead. If you are looking for solid education, then you most likely won’t find it within track days anyway. Read my article in regard to this, and consider to also start out my Cornering School program.
No, we don’t have a tire service going on, because I truly believe that if you would have to change tires between sessions- that you are just hell of badly prepared. Don’t waste your time and get dirty on 8/27/ when you actually have time to do it with ease way before.
Yes, I strongly believe that your suspension is ok for what you do. Don’t spend time and hope up that this might fixes your riding problems, cuz’ it does not. You might consider my ‘Workshop & Track Time’ event on 9/17/ at that point.
No overnight camping in the paddock possible! There are hotels and also a designated camp area in front of the main gate though. If you sneak in… we’ll forward the invoice we’d get for it to YOU.
Yes, we have a towing vehicle to get your baby back to the paddock.
Yes, we run a C-group orientation at 9:05am and a ‘sightseeing track session’ at 9:40am.
Yes, I’ll give a ‘Ideal Line West seminar’, Club house at 1:30pm
Ever heard the slogan: “Doing one track day replaces 1 year of riding on the street.”… or something like that?! What about statements like: “Riding on a race track makes you feel your bike on the limit.”, or similar?!
Sounds about right and super exciting huh?! Well… super exciting yes- but it’s not right at all to say- or even to think that this would make you a better rider, because where the hell should all of that coming from all of a sudden!? I am saying here, that nothing will change over night just because you have a track day ticket in your pocket. Straight up… the only thing which will move ‘on the limit’ are going to be your guts.
Here is what’s gonna happen in reality… you probably couldn’t even sleep the night before your track day. Not feeling that you are actually totally tired, because the adrenaline pumps through your vanes while you listen to the obligatory riders meeting, which actually freaks you out even more. Then you move out to your first session. You are stuffed with hope because you’ve been told that those four ‘beginners sightseeing laps’ are making a huge difference for you. In fact it does not, cuz’ you are riding in a massive 20 miles per hour convoy on darn pretty funny lines. This btw is the reason why Superbike-Coach track days are not even offering it, because the moment when you go for your second session… your head is as empty as much as your tires, and you still have no clue where you actually are. We have other ways. Anyway- after lunch break, you go an ask an instructor to follow you around, and after you could probably entertain the entire crew with your chicken stripes- he says yes. 20 minutes later he probably says something about your body positioning and a plain “…other than that- good enough”. But naturally, you are alone again in your very next session, and you are actually doing the same BS you’ve done before. You might finish the day early by deciding to skip on the last two sessions without a good reason actually. In fact though- your entire body feels like you got hit by a truck, and mentally hurt because you just realized how much you suck. You are tired and weak, caused of being tensed up and mentally overwhelmed for hours. And then you spend an hour on a monitor to find ‘the perfect shot’ that photographer hopefully took of you. All High-Res and awesomely tilted- but non of them showing you in much of a leaning ankle… not even in your last session when you really felt best. So you are attacking one track day after another for the next 3 years, and a 5 seconds drop- 15 sets of tires and 2 crashes is the outcome, but you still don’t know why those A riders are 20 seconds faster per lap- or why you are still not dragging the damn knee.
I might sound like I would think every rider is the same- but I don’t, and don’t get me all wrong- I know you are excited and I am totally on your page- but ‘excitement’ and the feeling of being scared to death is all what you’re going home with. At home, you’re looking back and you are probably loaded with wish-thinking that your riding performance felt so much better than usual. In reality though… you probably are more solid on line choice and more confident on your favorite canyon road. I even heard riders talking themselves into a ‘better world’ by noticing that there is a slight chance that the photographer f’d it up, because he did not get you at your deepest leaning in that particular turn.
How dare am I, and how do I know all of this?!…well, maybe by dealing with pro racing, ego, 40 years of riding on tracks world wide and 15 years of teaching riders should give me some kinda experience. It is also not just my opinion, based on this experience, because there are also people out there who admit it, which I think is where all what I am saying goes. It also seems that some riders are becoming ‘blind’ after they’ve been to a track day, because they see themselves ‘grown up’ in terms of riding bikes then. This can be literally deadly wrong, because again… nothing is better all of a sudden. If you are going to do a track day- then do it just for fun, and don’t fool yourself.
I know what you are going through and I can help you to really get something out of your track days, and it doesn’t matter if it is at my track days or someone elses. For example… I’ve coached riders who never got their knee down in 15 years of track riding. Riders who spend time and thousands of Dollars with other schools and track days… I’ve made them drag the living dead out of their pucks in one day for $149 bux, including track fees- free photography and snacks. Just sayin’ …
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This question hits racers, teams, managers and event organizers every year. Stuff like this is off topic for the public of course, so this article is not addressed to you- but maybe interesting enough to get an idea what’s going on in motorcycle racing for example.
When you start amateur racing, then there is a bunch of stuff going on in your head, also this… dreams, hope, wish-thinking. Yea, I know, I was there too so give me a break. So what’s happening from September till March is that thousands and thousands of athletes worldwide are looking naively for monetary support by RedBull with a 10 years contract… literally. So here is what I’ve learned as I walked from the slowest amateur racer to a professional racer who almost made it to MotoGP.
Yea, I can hear voices saying again: ‘that was long time ago’, but believe me… nothing has been changed much. Well we have the internet and social media and blogs now too, and it seems that this should help to get to potential sponsors- whil I actually believe it makes it harder FOR the sponsor to pick the right horse since everyone tuned to a keyboard jockey and blows up Youtube with gazillions of gigabytes of more or less senseless 20 minutes track sessions. Am I sound mean? No, I just try to open your mind for whats wrong and whats right, so stick with me and let me show you first where all the wish-thinking like this brought us…
There is that couple who of course believe that their son is the next Marc Marquez. That’s totally fine of course, but blaming the entire industry for making all those mistakes in regard ‘our future talents’ is not quite correct. A promising lap on some go kart seems to deliver enough arguments for getting a Monster Energy contract, but this demanding attitude produces two psychological dead end roads…
amateur racers getting the idea that racing without sponsors is not going anywhere and give up
potential talents are not even start to race without having sponsors
I received a call from a Mom, asking me to support their kid by paying their racing fuel. After I told her that I competed against 120 racers to even qualify for an amateur race, and that I didn’t had money for racing fuel either… and that I also had to use slick tires in rain, and also that I kicked ass anyway, and that exactly that’s why I got my first check from a sponsor… she hung up on me. What’s that called… to much reality check?!
It takes many years of sweat and blood to make people believe in a racer. There is a relationship growing which builds something very important… a shield of loyalty, which kicks in when your results are not good sometimes.
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I am passionate about motorcycle riding skills, and devote my time to coaching. It makes me crazy when I identify a bad habit, and the student tells me that he or she learned this from some motorcycle school. There may be differences of opinion on certain techniques. But there is also objectively WRONG advice out there. It is making you slower and less safe.
The very worst technique taught by some schools is to go for a “late apex at all cost.” That is, to drive deeper into the turn, then make a more violent tip in, shooting for a very late apex. Sure, there are track situations when the true apex is more than halfway through the turn. But habitually following this line is not necessarily the best line on a track, and can be deadly on the highway.
I spend too much coaching time teaching that the “late apex at all cost” concept is wrong, and breaking the bad habits based on bad advice. In a right turn on a road with oncoming traffic (or a potential of oncoming traffic around a blind turn), it is unsafe to go to (or over) the center line just to make a late entry into the turn. It can be deadly. If you think you need to drop in so late to make a reduced radius turn, you are certainly over the speed limit, and probably over a safe speed.
On the track, focus on the fastest line through the entire course. The best line for a particular turn necessarily depends on what follows. A “late” apex may be OK if it sets up one or two turns down the track. Building total track awareness takes time and focus. Professional coaching will identify bad habits and techniques, and will greatly reduce the time a rider needs to build speed and safety.
…that’s a hard to answer question since there is always the principals of the chaos which can’t be foreseen. This is why I’ll put it on you, and to make your own opinion about it. Though, I want to share with you something which I am worried about since it came up in the 90’s… when asphalt surfaces replaced the gravel beds around the turns of race tracks.
I believe Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone came up with it since a simple runn-off the track causes the end of race for multi million dollar teams whom turning off their sponsors. You know- F1 cars are pretty fragile and get stuck in those traditional gravel-beds which were designed to slow a crashed rider or race car down before hitting the damn barrier. We- the motorcycle racer community back then, called these asphalt driveways “pussy stripes” btw.
In fact, the F1 required all international race tracks to modify their crashing zones in order to get the gig. They were not too unhappy about it because crashed vehicles are easier and quicker to remove. So yea… also race bikes took a ride out on those asphalt stripes and it reduced the ‘grass games’ a little… but i believe it can double the risk of the ‘real bad ones’- especially for the motorcycle racers!
You might think different about it, which is your God given right, but as I seen Luis Salom sliding behind his bike- almost with no reduction of speed… then it is obvious to me. While a bike keeps sliding on asphalt on its flat and hard materials- it also will stay on its path once its down. Luis’s bike bounced off the tire wall right back into him and the impact was real hard. I believe that a gravel bed would have slowed it down by at least 30%, and the bike would have go somewhere else. Yes- nobody knows if that would not end up with his dead, but it would have gained his chance to be still alive by about 30%, doesn’t it?!
Again… there is always a ‘point of no return’, and believe me- I hate those gravel-beds either because I’ve got hurt many times in there- digging limbs deep into the gravel until they break. But I do know that you’ll fall softer as you would drop on grass or even asphalt- just like this gentleman here: https://www.facebook.com/beINSportsUSA/videos/1226535764052910/
I think we’ve been forgotten once more in their $$$ games, but we also just took it. The fatal crash of Luis Salom is hopefully trigger for a critical view at it under the motto… what good for race car drivers- doesn’t automatically mean that it is also good for motorcycle racers.
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The ‘Cornering School Day’ program has been in the Superbike-Coach portfolio for almost 10 years now and it’s super popular- though, it seems that there are still some misunderstandings about what this program is actually. So this newsletter will clarify what my class is- what it delivers- and why this thing has been so popular, so that you need to ask yourself ‘What am I waiting for, and why should I look out for something else?!’.
This article will clarify all misunderstandings and aspects of this unique program, and will point you to the section of the newsletter where it’s going to be clarified. So go and switch back/forth to the newsletter blocks and come back here to read on the next point. Now let’s have a look at the “top ranked” misunderstanding first…
Superbike-Coach track: 13 challenging turns
About The Track
Some people saying without knowing that: “This track is too small- the track is too tight- the track is nothing for street riders- the track is nothing for track riders”. The ‘funny’ part of this is… most of them haven’t been there- ever! Those riders who was there know now, that there is no difference of the physics of riding you need to understand and to deliver. My track has everything what most street riders have to face every day… tight turns- switchbacks- left and rights- which is what most riders are having truly problems with… see the conflict?! I give all the keys to really take advantage of this track and to be in such control you probably never find somewhere else. Other than that I am able to stop you whenever I want and to point things out for you. Can I do that on a ‘big track’?… no I can’t. Also the short repeating frequency helps you to fix things. There are more advantages, but I don’t want to bore you, so keep going…
Superbike-Coach classes are entertaining
About The Coaching and Subjects
My coaching style is way different as you might know form other teachers. I’ve learned my stuff the tough way, all on my own. At this point I should mention that I was holding lap records, achieved Pole Positions, and won some races on International Pro level… oh, and I almost made it to the ‘Top Gun’… to MotoGP. I learned in 40 years of riding and being 11 years in professional European racing- that absolute honesty about a performance is key to get things done quickly and to stay healthy. My passion to show you how it’s done grows with your eager to learn. Yes I hate quitters- and I’m telling ya because I can see. I have a very specific way to make you listen for better understanding, and to make you doing things you’ve never done before with a “Yes Sir!”. So all I am teaching comes from 1st hand… no copied stuff like other schools use to do. You think I show off with my background… heck why not, because some other totally overrated “coaches” coming up with 2 years of racing experience… in other words… no more than on regional amateur levels, so no wonder they don’t teach Trail Braking and counter steering properly- but I do!
superbike-coach free sport photography
The Amenities
There is nothing you could compare to our Cornering School Day events. We’re state of the art- even if we don’t come up with a high gloss painted 30 ton truck, and 30 traction-controlled liter bikes for an expensive rental fee. Does that make sense anyway… no, because you need to learn on your own bike, so that you are in your comfort zone quick- and your focus is not locked into a bike you’ve never used before, and you’ll never gonna use again! Oh, and we are taking care of our people. Whatever it is… coffee, water, snacks, pizza order… we’ve got you covered. But you know what really cool… that you don’t need to make such a huge deal of it to bring your own bike to a track. So no track specific bike preparation, and no track orientated gear necessary. Superbike-Coach photographer Dean Lonskey makes about 1500 pictures of our students on the track… FOR FREE. How do you use to call a total package for under 150 bux again?… a no-brainer!?
Coach Can instructing his student
The Idea
The concept of the CSD program is designed to make better riders. CSD-1, 2 and 3 are well spread all over the year so that it fits into everyone’s schedule. You pick when to keep going. The program is too big to fill in one day, and it will overwhelm students easily. The advantage is clear. Each day build onto the other, and there is plenty of time in-between to settle freshly learned skills. Once you’re coming back- you and your coach will notice your development and what to go over again. This is a key for a better coach/student connection as well. The website makes date picking easy:
We also can setup an entire CSD event exclusively for your motorcycle club, company or dealership. We’ve done this for many already, even for Google riders for example. Right now we have CSD Specials scheduled like- Cornering Gals, and Cornering GoldWings. So if you have a group of at least 25 riders… contact us and see what we can do for you guys.
Hundreds Of Testimonials
Still not sure if this is the right thing for you? Well- why not checking hundreds of 5 star reviews all over the internet and read yourself what others have experienced and why all of our 2015 classes were booked out! This must have a reason, don’t ya think?! :)
Yes I can’t reach everyone… nobody else can either! Nothing is perfect… how can it?! So give it at least a shot and join in to see if I can reach you- cuz’ if so- good things are going to happen.
