Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => The Bike - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: stewart on June 22, 2012, 08:33:54 PM
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Had a blast at my 3rd Trackday ever. This time I had 1:1 personal instruction including video assessment. Between the morning and the afternoon my riding really improved dramatically.
http://contour.com/stories/trackday-june-18th-2012 (http://contour.com/stories/trackday-june-18th-2012)
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like the track pipe eh? Welcome to the addiction ;D
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that was awesome! :goodpost:
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Nice vid. If ya don't mind, what was their biggest coaching points for you? If your'e willing I'd like to offer a critique coupled with the whys. I must say, kudos for taking her out on the track with all them sportier bikes, next time try out the bags, empty of course, tips in differant and not in a bad way, more neutral.
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that was awesome! :goodpost:
+1
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Son of Pappy.
I walked in asking for input to help me ride smoother and to make less corrections mid corner, going faster wasn't my goal, but like other things in life if you slow down eventually you go fast. (Same rule applies to my ski racing)
The advice was mostly around body position. While I had good movement on the bike, he wanted me to lead the bike more and be ahead of the bike versus the other way around. So leading more with my chin, dropping my sholder more and initiating the transition with my outside knee sooner before the corner.
The other input on some of the corners was tip in sooner. Infact most of the feed came back to the apex. The line I was taking didnn't allow me to get on the gas quick enough by standing the bike up, I have a bad habit of hanging on to the corner for too long. I also didn't set myself up for the next corner very well. So we focused on line and I had to break a few bad habits. I had to turn in quicker and make the turn before or at the apex, and then bringing the bike upright aiming for the next.
We also spent time with trail braking with the front brake. The objective was to trail into the corner to keep the front end set and the geometry shorter, so help with quicker more stable turn in. I always thought trail braking was rear only for speed control, but this also helped a lot.
Other feedback was generally positive, he had a lot of good things to say about hauling the big arse connie around the track. One area we also worked on was passing. His advice was I had better riding skills than some of the other riders on smaller bikes. But I'd catch up in the corners and then have to adjust my speed mid corner and this would mess me up coming out. So his advice was to hang back leave more of a buffer, let my speed mid corner to catch up and set myself up for the exit so I can get the 1400 power on and pass them on corner exit. You may not see examples of this in the vid, but the last few sessions on my own this made a huge difference.
Its pretty cool when a couple of riders walked up, one on a GSX, and they say they struggled to stay on my tail and were impressed how well the Connie handled herself. I'm certianly not the best rider, but hey it made me smile.
I'm welcome to all input and critique.
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You/they pretty much nailed it. What I find as an easy way to remember body position is shoulders stay above, and forward of the hips. Early body positioning, especially during training just to check things out before your attention is being used up in the corner. Try out our acronym, SMART Scan entry/apex/exit (as much as possible), Mark entry, Adjust speed and body, RELAX, and Throttle off apex.
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The other input on some of the corners was tip in sooner. Infact most of the feed came back to the apex. The line I was taking didnn't allow me to get on the gas quick enough by standing the bike up, I have a bad habit of hanging on to the corner for too long. I also didn't set myself up for the next corner very well. So we focused on line and I had to break a few bad habits. I had to turn in quicker and make the turn before or at the apex, and then bringing the bike upright aiming for the next.
Dave Moss described it the same way in one of his vids.
the smaller bikes spend a lot of time running on lean angles, higher corner speed.
the big liter bikes are all "point and shoot" LOL slam it into the corner and point it out and shoot.