Hello, and apologies!

SafariMike

New Member
My first TD with N2 Sat/Sun at NCBike went great... mostly!

Thanks to a fellow Intermediate rider who had a spare helmet, I was able to ride the weekend after forgetting mine.

Then I ran out of skill in T1 in the first session:

Sorry, fellow i-group rider :whistle:
Luckily, we all stayed on two! Nothing like a good safari run to get your head right.

Thanks for the smooth weekend otherwise, N2, and thanks Josh (Apex Pro Photo) for working hard this weekend.
See you all at Pitt Race, where I'll be sure to brake harder (and maybe sooner).
 

bmart

Control Rider
And... (we should mention this in the rider's meeting at NC Bike) if you're going to make a hairball attempt (brake marker test?!?!?) at turn 1 CCW, please only do it to the far right to minimize the risk to others. :)
 
Serious question. Would it have helped more to rattle off a couple of downshifts rather than locking the rear? Maybe my ears deceived me, but it sounded like only one downshift happened before the rear started sliding. I'm not being critical, I promise.
 

tdelegram

Control Rider
Serious question. Would it have helped more to rattle off a couple of downshifts rather than locking the rear? Maybe my ears deceived me, but it sounded like only one downshift happened before the rear started sliding. I'm not being critical, I promise.
. Absolutely, even if your engine braking only accounted for 1% of total braking, as long as the rear was on the ground that's 1% more than without. Reality is it's most likely more and as you're getting off the front brake tipping in the engine is still slowing you and allowing you to use more points for turning than braking. Additionally, most riders are not comfortable with the wheels not aligned, locking the rear makes the rear step out and takes away the confidence to turn in
 

bmart

Control Rider
And consider the variation in how one can brake and downshift in any given situation, due to rider/bike/track/weather/etc components.

I like to grab downshifts one at a time, not at high RPM, and to brake a little early saving the end of my braking zone for an adjustment if necessary.

Others like to brake hard late (faster, certainly), and grab all downshifts at once before tip in.

There's a lot in between.
 

mpusch

Micah
I'd argue that for the skill level of most of us here, that if you're locking up the rear in an "oh crap" situation that you probably aren't paying enough attention to the front brake.
 

SafariMike

New Member
Not sure if it was intentional, but the username checks out :)

Definitely intentional :p
And... (we should mention this in the rider's meeting at NC Bike) if you're going to make a hairball attempt (brake marker test?!?!?) at turn 1 CCW, please only do it to the far right to minimize the risk to others. :)

I've attempted a lot of passes on the outside like you're saying. IMO it's more dangerous for the same reason that they hammered us that morning to not pass on the outside, exiting a turn: People swing wide before turn-in. I've had some really close calls there on the outside, and entering T5 on the outside, where people throw out the anchor.

It's easy to sit behind the video playback and critique what went wrong, but the fault is simple: I didn't brake hard enough. The rest of the day, and Sunday, I was braking way later, and harder, and trail braking later & harder, and didn't have any more mishaps. This was my first roll-off in about 18 track days (I'm surprised it took this long). I'm generally very careful when passing or attempting to out-brake someone, but I just goofed this one. It was the first session of the day, I hadn't ridden NCBike in about 8 months, and it was a cold morning where I was still waking up. If I wasn't prepared to brake hard enough (which I clearly wasn't), I shouldn't have made the attempt in the first place. Lessons learned.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course.
 
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