Practice, practice and some more practice.

Good Friday friends! Today is the start of another weekend full of opportunity to get out and get some two-wheeled therapy time. As I write this post, I am actually not sure what I'll be doing. I have the choice of canyon carving, flat track practice at Milestone or I could even get out and enter a race if I wanted. It is a veritable buffet of motorbike choices available to me. By the time you read this I will have committed to a choice and can guarantee that the choice will be a good one. For this week's blog post, I will go over some modifications I did to my race trailer. I will also talk about a recent practice session I had and how I made a break-through with my speed and form. Take a gander at all that went on below!

Here is the situation with the trailer. I detailed the build in a series of posts HERE of my Harbor Freight 4'x8' folding trailer. When I was doing road track days, before I went head first into the flat track thing, the trailer was a constant companion hauling the little Ninja all over Southern California. Since I usually haul the CRF flat tracker in the bed of my Honda Ridgeline, I haven't used it as much. I did use it to move from Ventura to Oceanside and carry my FZ1 and Ninja. I also used it to go to Willow Springs for a track day with my buddy. Both times I had issues with the cheap chock on the right side of the left picture you see above. The chock doesn't hold very well and the bike mounted in it can lean too much, possibly hitting the bike on the left side of the trailer. I picked up another one of the more secure chocks and mounted it a few inches behind the first one in place of the cheap chock. Hopefully I won't have issues with the handle bars of the two bikes banging into each other or into the side of a gas tank while on the road.

I took care of the trailer mods on Saturday of last week. I was planning to go to Perris Raceway to take part in my first SCFTA practice session. Unfortunately it was canceled due to the summer heat we have been experiencing. Everyone thinks California is nice and cool if you believe the tourist pictures. Really though, the majority of California is desert. The track in Perris is in the shadow of the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County. All of the cool coastal air blowing in from the ocean gets blocked by the mountains and Perris roasts in the unrelenting clear desert skies. Truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to the heat of practice. The practice sessions are from 4:00pm to 9:00pm, right in the heat of the afternoon. At my race, the weather was pretty bad. I downed a couple of quarts of Gatorade and a gallon and a half of water to stay hydrated. Hopefully the next practice session is cooler and goes off without a hitch.

To make sure I got my laps in for the weekend, I went to Milestone in Riverside on Sunday instead. The weather was promising to be hot, but I was able to get to the track by 9:30 which helped. The track was pretty packed by Milestone standards. There were Speedway bikes, DTX flat trackers like my CRF, a Hooligan Harley or two and some nice 70's Yamaha Thumpers. When I pulled in the action on the track was already heating up. The track looked freshly watered and from the speed of the riders out there it appeared fast. It didn't take me long to get set up and gear out for the ride. I've really gotten the hang of going to the flat track. I have already doubled the numbers of times I've been flat tracking as compared to my road track days. Cost wise, I've saved myself some money as well. While I do miss getting out and carving the asphalt at a track day, I am glad for the ability to get as much flat tracking in as I have been.

The track staff were on the ball with the water truck. Like I previously mentioned, when I arrived the track looked good and worked in after the first water pass of the day. I was only able to get 3 or 4 laps in before the water truck was back for another pass. The water truck operator put a good dose of water on the track, so I settled in to let the water do its job. After 15 minutes or so, riders started to get out and work in the track. At first, it was a sloppy, muddy mess. After 10 minutes of constant passes by a half a dozen riders, a nice cushion groove formed up on the outside third of the track. The speeds of the riders grew as the groove did. I worked on using the rear brake to get better slide initiation into the corners. As I did this, I found that I could give the bike more gas down the straights. This was my goal for the day, smooth transition from gas to brake, better slide control using the throttle and quicker on the gas to punch out of the corner. I found my personal flow and made the most of the 4 or 5 sessions I put in before calling it a day after sweating out a few pounds of water weight.

Speaking of the rear brake, here is a shot of the rear brake pedal on the CRF. Here I have it in the absolute lowest adjustable position.To get it this way, I first adjusted the pedal down normally. This just got the pedal tip even with the peg. In order to get it a few degrees lower, I had to move the adjuster lock nut from the top of the clevis to the bottom of the clevis. Now I am limited to the length of the adjustable, threaded brake cylinder piston rod. Right now it is too long, limiting how high I can pull the rear of the brake pedal up. If I pull off the pedal assembly and use a hack saw to remove a few millimeters of thread, I could get a bit more downward angle, making it easier to get my foot on the brake without lifting my foot to hit it. I'll have finer control of my brake pressure and better speed control. All of these are good things.

I noticed that one of the other riders with a CRF flat tracker had a much more aggressive angle on his pedal and wandered over to talk with him. This question turned into a great learning session from a more experienced rider/racer giving me some great advice. He discussed his pedals and how he got more pedal angle and then went right into working on my riding technique. I have been sitting really far forward on the seat. This gets the rear end to come around easily when initiating my slide into the corners. He noticed this and said I need to move back a bit to get more traction. We talked about chassis dynamics for a bit and then he asked about my suspension set up. I have notes on my shock/fork settings. I also have notes on my rear spring rate. Since I am a lone mechanic, I haven't set my suspension sag. He offered to do this and we discovered that Jim Wood got me pretty much dialed in my rear sag with an almost perfect 66 to 72 mm of sag depending on my seating position.

I thanked him for his help and went out on my next session sitting further back on the seat. This did help and it enhanced the gas and braking practice I mentioned earlier. The day was getting long and I was getting to the end of my heat tolerance so I packed up for the day vowing to try these techniques as soon as I can. A big shout out to Paul Ott for the help.

Another great practice day in the books. What could be better than meeting good people at the track and getting better going roundy round to the left. I have some good things planned for this week as well. You'll get to read about them next week. While you wait, make sure to get out and ride safe!

Blue