We congratulate to our Cornering School graduates of the last Day 3 class from 11/13/2022.
Each one of them grew on the physical skill and on the mental side. Loaded with a new passion and love for the sport they go enjoy their journey hopefully even more. Gonna miss all those personalities and certainly hope to see them again.
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
Coach Can Akkaya tries the Rabaconda street tire changer to swap the rear tire on his Ducati 1199 which has a single sided swing arm. Rabaconda has an adapter for such wheels which should make it easy, so we’re swapping a rear tire of a single sided swing arm.
We at Superbike-Coach have lots of motorcycle tires to swap. We have all kinds of school bikes- Supermoto, Superbikes, Touring and Adventure bikes, mini and race bikes. Rabaconda provided a prototype of their street bike tire changer so we could try out ourselves. Coach Can Akkaya and Dean Lonskey unboxed, installed and changed a tire pretty much in real time in this video. The Rabaconda tire changer will save a lot of money and waiting time getting tires swapped. It will pay off quick, so check it out.
Enjoy the video and see how easy it can be.
Superbike-Coach Corp
Every garage needs tools to function, and if you have one or want to start out getting into wrenching yourself, then i might have the right supplier for you.
Tools and shop supplies are expensive. What you need is a plan to overlook what you want to maintain or repair. Sky is the limit. Yes you spend on tools, but you’ll figure soon how quick it all paid off, as long as you look into BikeMaster Products.
So, do you want to maintain things around your bike? Like servicing your chain- swapping oil or tires and brake pads? That will only take a few standard tools and saves you loads of money already.
Over time you’ll get more confident and start replacing things, like broken fairings, levers, and service brake fluid and such. That will take also some more specific tools, especially when you go into repairing engines yourself. I can tell ya… that saves you fortunes, being able to do stuff like that.
Ones you are through this, you are also not far away from crafting things, like building brackets etc. Fixing things the ‘MacGyver’ way. Also here, BikeMaster can help you with in the most possible affordable way.
Especially when you are into track riding or racing, you’ll have to do things on your own. Measuring tools, bearing replacement kits, and tools which make work easier and quicker.
Go check BikeMaster out and start doing some stuff on your own. It’s fun and makes you positively more busy with your hobby.
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
If I would get a dollar, each time someone asks me on how to become a professional racer…
I am a strong believer in dreams, because all good things BEGIN WITH A DREAM, but becoming a professional racer is something only a few can turn into reality. I was one, and now I’m a professional coach- which is why I know. An easy way to look at it is: You gotta be THAT GOOD at it, that you get paid for it.
Just this explains a lot and makes dreams pop like soap bubbles already, right?! Especially when you just started racing and look out to those stars already by asking that question too early. Cuz’ how do you know that you’ll ever be THAT GOOD at it?! If you look for it too early, you just make yourselves a four years old who says ‘I wanna be an astronaut when I’m grown up’. Not saying it’s impossible- but it kinda skips quite some significant steps there. Btw… nova days you kinda have to be on the race bike at an age of 4 years already to eventually make pro level. If you are not, then I suggest to make sure to graduate school so that you have a plan B. Sorry for brutal honesty.
Let’s clean something up before we go deeper into this. I noticed that some claiming the title ‘professional’ because their fast- or someone calls an instructor at a track day a ‘professional’ while they are not actually. It seems this term has become a indicator for skill level, like: Amateur> Advanced> Professional. So like a replacement for Expert kinda thing. In fact- they are not professionals, unless they can make a living of it so that they don’t have to follow any other regular full or part time jobs anymore. That’s a professional.
To become one of those few comes with broken bones, blood, dedication, discipline, soul, live changing decisions, sweat, fitness, age, management skills, organization, relationships, and a drop dead killer instinct. There is way more going into this. Things which are off bike and track. You are doing things according to create or to maintain your ‘market value’. At this point… OMG, just overthinking all the facets is almost impossible to bring this together here. But let me try…
Being a professional racer is a 24/7, 365 days a year job. You have ‘vacation’ during the time your bones are healing and skin slowing closes wounds. I did 30 kilometers per day on a mountain-bike. Your daily nutrition is carefully picked (in other words, also your family etc has to play along with your racer life cycle!). Between scheduled testing new parts, you travel a lot from track to track or to the team quarters. You have an appointment for a TV show or a radio podcast interview to do. Magazines or newspapers calling for interviews. You’re sending pictures and autograph cards to fans. You organize team travel and dates for an entire calendar year. Just think of the time and money that point consumes. One of your local sponsors has an event and wants you to pick up your new mountain-bike, which he gives you for that. Ya shake lots of hands and smile into cameras even if you don’t feel like it. ave lots of dinners with team owners who want you to race for them. You have to evaluate a lot and make the right career decisions. In-between you do Moto Cross and whatnot, just to kick and haulin ass. You have dinners with sponsors or those who hopefully become one.
This is just a fraction of the ‘pro package’, and if you call someone a professional while they are not… then you literally slap those few in the face and take their credit away from being a real professional, because they are THAT GOOD at it- on and off the race bike.
Though…
Remember Michael ‘Eddie the Eagle’ Edwards? He never was that good at Ski Jumping actually, but his ‘Never Surrender’ attitude, the shortest jumps in Olympics ever, and his cricket way to jump got him into the hearts of the crowd. ‘Eddie’ had more publicity than the actual competition winner and got TV, radio and the press. That is marketing value, and so he got into lots of lucrative sponsorships. Proof that anyone can make it. Go get creative if you aren’t THAT GOOD at it :-)
Getting hired?
Most likely you won’t, unless you are already THAT GOOD at it. If so, than this is either the so called ‘Works team‘ (for example: Yamaha Factory Racing, HRC Honda Racing Corporation, etc)- a ‘Satellite Racing Team‘ (like: LCR, Tech3, etc). By then though, you are professional for a while already.
You’ll most likely run this just like a business. You won’t EVER get a million dollar RedBull contract of the batch. It takes time to find the right relationships. They start to trust you and discounts turn into free of charge products. If you really getting that much better, you’ll be able to have no more costs in regard bike and gear.
As your calendar fills up and you got tons better, you could turn product sponsorship contracts to monetary support a little, From here it might be enough to have a regular part time job now, and boom- you’d be a Semi-Pro. At this point you’ll pay taxes for this and your life has been immensely changed by then.
All of a sudden there is this championship winning team who just lost their number one racer due to injuries. They call you because they know that you are about to be THAT GOOD at it, and you go contact the relationships you’ve built and tell them about this opportunity. An opportunity which attracts press, fans, other teams… and the circle is closing! You are about to be a professional racer, who gets paid because he’s THAT GOOD at it.
How much can you make?
A pro racer is a promoting machine which has a market value. That value depends on many things: Character, personality, skill, fan base, intelligence, press attractive and much more- all that grows into your racing skill/appearance. Look, if you don’t have the personality to close a sponsor contract with a bunch of zero’s, then you walk away with 2 sets of tires, right?! Your race personality plays into that. Some have more fans crashing all the time just because their ‘bad ass’. Make sense?
There was a German world champion in the 90’s ones. While he barley collected $300k for his next MotoGP season, some upcoming Italian got $7 million for finishing the season 5th. Honda Racing saw more in this guy, and to be able to promote the brand. If you look like you’d ‘race for free’ and the umbrella girl next to you steals the show, then you know. You’re not walking through the paddock, low on confidence and in healthy flip flops- but expect to be seen by fans, press and sponsors. There has to be an aura, attitude, personality, race intelligence.
So there is no exact amount. It’s pretty much what you can make of it. Sky can be the limit, and that could be product sponsorships, monetary sponsorships, licensing, TV rights/share, Merchandising. season bonuses, cash for wins/results, or/and top league… a permanent pay check from a team.
What now?
I know. It sounds like that you’d have to be born with all this to become a professional. Trust me, all this is learnable and you grow into it. Let’s not destroy dreams… let’s have many. Now here is what I want you to do as an amateur racer…
You go race the living dead out of it. You develop a racing intelligence. Have an attitude and show personality. Be the one to beat and make others feel this. Create little relationships with sponsors. Ask for discounts, then for this or that product for free- and when time comes and competition level grows, you ask for money. Run your own team and learn things around it. Look good- just like you could promote something. Then you might become THAT GOOD at it that some team calls you up and ask you to race for them- OR you find sponsors so you can buy yourself into a team (they hand-pick!) which has man and equipment power to win international championships.
Then… you might don’t need to do a regular job anymore. BUT make sure you play and race real well, because pro athletes have an expiration date. Pro racers are like comets… they are glowing bright for a short moment in time only.
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
We’ve been all 18 years old ones. Lacking on reasonable decision making big time, and the only thing slowing us down was the size of balls. Back then, when I started riding on the street, I was not thinking in terms of protection, and it actually didn’t seem anyone would care, really. Also I didn’t freeze money to be able to buy riding gear along with that motorcycle. A ridiculously cheap helmet and a not even real leather jacket should do the job. Guess what… I’ve learned it the hard way.
I was knocked out and woke up on the lap of a Dutch lady who gave me water. Even though I hit that guardrail pretty hard, it seemed I got away without fractures. To give you a measure… the chassis of my bike broke in three pieces. My helmet flew off my head even though the strap was closed. My ‘alibi leather’ jacket ripped apart on the left side, as well as my jeans and sneakers. Positive aspect… that EMT didn’t had to cut much to get me out of the rest of my clothes. The pain of 3rd degree burns is something you’ll never forget, and the treatment is is a journey. Nurses pulling asphalt pieces with pin setts and literally washing your wounds with iodine. I’m sure today you’ll get a partially anesthetization and a trophy just for attending… I got a wood stick to bite on back then. Then they patch your open wounds up, which gets renewed every day. Done that ones?! Well, at least there the hair ain’t grow anymore.
Akkaya Replica by MJK Leathers
Needless to mention that my interest for proper riding gear was triggered immensity. Since then, the quality and efficiency of my riding gear has priority and is top notch. I actually can look back through decades of development of riding gear and to be somewhat part of it when I got into racing. One of my early sponsors developed my racing suits in an impressive speed, and upon lots of fan requests they made a street rider version, the ‘Akkaya Replica’, which turned to be a bestseller for MJK Leathers in Europe. It was quite a pleasure to autograph fan suits in the paddocks :-)
But enough of me, so let’s see what’s suppose to be “real” motorcycle riding protection here. Let’s see what I can give you on the way here from what I’ve learned with all this, and with the things I still get to see with about 1500 students per year. First off… when do you need the best riding gear possible? How about during the time when your riding level is not that good- or if your balls are bigger than your ability to judge ‘distance and speed’?! That’s when you’ll need it the most. Don’t ya?! Now where are you at? How do you see yourself leveled objectively when you take ego out of equation? That seems to be impossible for the most, so how about we don’t put the gear question based on level and prioritize this.
MotoGear makes affordable custom suits
I’m guessing you are not a professional rider, so you do a regular job. You have Mondays to do- a family to feed. Someone is waiting for you at home and you want to be safe as possible. Now what is the safest motorcycle riding gear… real leather! Tight sitting and sweat tearing leather- from the neck down to your feet. At this point it doesn’t matter if it’s a one-piece or two-piece leather suit as long as you can zip them together. Why leather over textile? If you watch MotoGP, then you see them getting up 90% at a time, and sometimes running back to the garage to keep going with the session… in the suit they just crashed with. I’ve seen riders crashing in textile on a parking lot which made that stuff useless. Just this comparison should ring the alert bell.
Even if your textile gear sits some kind of snug- the flex in there and the fact that it burns through (so things come lose then) doesn’t keep all your protectors in place. They turn away at first contact with the asphalt and so your knee, elbow or shoulder is receiving full impact. Non of the textile like materials can deliver the strength, flex and heat resistance leather can give you. I’ve seen riders actually getting injured by the protection. He was in kevlar jeans. The ‘alibi’ knee protector slid away- he broke his knee cap, and the protector cut so deep into his flesh so that his leg bone was exposed.
Snug leather is more sexy anyway, isn’t it? Yup, I know it’s hot- I know it’s more expensive, but you guys need to finally understand to add another 1500 onto this subject… your health over horsepower.
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
So finally time has come that I can also ramp up the game on our Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro Pro. When it’s time for a new chain- that’s also a good time to make these upgrades, and so I took advantage of it.
“Indy” is going to get 2 more teeth on the rear. Does this bike really need more torque?… oh hell no, but pure acceleration and even better ride-ability can’t hurt. The gears were a touch too far apart in my opinion, so that bigger rear sprocket gets them closer together and that gives me more options in regard gear choice on corners. BikeMaster had all the stuff I needed to get the job done, and quick as usual and their pricing is right!
First you want to loose up all sprocket bolts, before you get the rear wheel out. That makes things easier. Now the wheel comes out and the new BikeMaster sprocket replaces that extremely cheep looking Ducati OEM part. I mean… look at it!
Next step is the chain. For that reason you put the wheel back in and cut the old chain. Don’t pull it out though, because you want to connect the new chain to it and to pull it through the swing arm and over and out of the front sprocket housing. That way you can save all the work with it. Now put the wheel/axle in the mid range of your chain spanners, which gives you wiggle room for your chain adjustments later. Ones done, you lay the chain up the sprocket to determine the length and so where to take links out. I recommend to look twice which and where you take it out. Now you close the chain with a lock (comes with the chain) and adjust its slack. Don’t forget to tighten up your rear axle… and you are all done.
You can’t add power and torque in a cheaper way. Do yourself a favor and do it. Thank me later :)
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
