Final points and advanced techniques.

Alright guys, some final points and advanced techniques to look at, learn, and try.

1st. If your bike is drifting, if when you launch the bike pulls either direction. Check your real wheel alignment. Alot of time its just that simple. Remember it takes longer to ride 665 feet than it does 660 feet. If your bike is pulling and you're moving it back, you're taking time off your pass.

2nd. a properly lubed chain can pick up your bike by up to a tenth. (ask me how I know). However, dont lube the chain after time runs or during eliminations. Do it as soon as you get to the track. 

3rd. If your bike starts missing shifts start with the simplest thing, Chain tension.

4th. Once you start, do not change a thing with your bike unless its an emergency. Dont adjust chain, dont adjust tune, Dont change anything. Bracket racing is all about consistency. When you change the bike or adjust, you change that consistency variable.

5th ROUTINE (I will hound you if you dont have a routine after tonight)

6th Driving the stripe. This is one of the more advanced items. Looking over at the other rider requires you to have the ability to stay straight otherwise you will drive the bike where you are looking. If you want to start trying this wait until after the 330' cone to start looking. Advanced racers will start looking at the 60'. Why? Because you want to win by a wheel never by a alot (unless the other bike breaks.) looking over allows you to drive the stripe on the big end and manipulate the throttle to run under the dial in.

7th ALWAYS TAKE THE STRIPE. You always want to cross the line first. Statistically speaking you have greater odds winning if you cross the line first. Dont give it back on the big end. Like I said we want to be one wheel ahead at the finish line. Not 2 bike lengths.

8th If you need something ask around. I've been told that a racer packed up and left because they didnt have a clutch pack for their hayabusa. Guess what, I carry two complete clutch packs with me at all time. People are friendly. Just ask.

9th. HAVE FUN this whole ordeal is useless if you're not having fun.

See yall tonight!

 Burnouts and staging.

Remember us talking about routine? Well here it is again! plan your burnout, I don't care how you do it just have a plan. Some people have a count (This is what I do), Some people look back to see smoke, Some people do short burnouts, some do long burnouts. I don't care how you do it but do it the same way every time. As you pull to the line find the spot you've chosen and line up into it lineup and make sure to feel as straight as possible.

Now here is the biggest importance on the starting line: Routine. Believe it or not I've watched video on every single racer in the SDBA. The biggest fault I've seen is inconsistent staging. Stage the same way every time! I've seen some of yall shallow stage then go deep the next round. Some prestage, let the other guy stage and then roll in and never stop rolling and go red or get lucky. So there's two parts to this. (A) find the point in the beams where you can react. As we all know, it is widely accepted that it takes .500 seconds for the human brain to see light and react. Our goal on the tree is to find a spot on the tree where we can leave and by the time it takes for .500 seconds to pass our bike is leaving. If you stage a 1/2" deeper or shallower your reaction will change. (B). stop yourself once you stage where you want.

Finding your spot. If you slow down and you look at the tree and you really concentrate, you can see 4 part of each light as the tree falls. Lets use the third bulb as an example. This is where you find your reaction time. the part of the light are as the light starts to come on, as the light is at its brightest, as the light is dimming down, and the short moment between the light and the next. If you leave when the bulb is brightest and you cut a .620 (also known as a .120) leave when the light starts to come on. If you leave at the brightest point and you redlight try leaving as the bulb dims. Play with it find where works best for you.

Now for my biggest pet peeve, rolling. Lets talk about stance, Most of you stage with your legs behind you near the pegs. This is a horrible decision. Your legs are dragging to try and stop the bike from rolling. On wheelie bar bikes this can be okay as most bar bikes have the rear brake as a lever on the handle bars. Street bikes don't. Look at the pictures below and ill show you. The first pic is Ken Schwartz. Notice his leg position. like I said its okay for him to do this as he has a handle bar brake and can keep himself stopped this way. I see a ton of people on street bikes who stage with their legs back there. The best place to keep your footing is with your legs and feet in front of you and then transition to the pegs after the leave.

Now lets look at Dustin Lee staging notice his stage and then the next picture how quickly he transitions

Keeping your feet and legs forward allows you to keep your strongest muscles from rolling forward. I always prestage, I put my feet out as far as I can with my heels touching the track and then I slowly roll in from heel to flat footed until I turn on the stage bulb and then I stop.

The last thing I want to touch on is when to go on the two step. If its bracket racing and I'm the faster bike, I prestage, stage, and as soon as their lights start to come down I go on the two step. If its a bracket race and I'm the slower bike I prestage, let them prestage, get on the twostep then roll in. If its an index race I do the same as if I'm the slower bike in a bracket race.

 

Reading the track

 Now that we've covered the very first key which is routine. Lets talk about reading the track. If you look at the starting lane of each lane you will see two flat black lanes that divide a shiny black lane. Its important to understand what these two shades mean and important to understand how tracks prep. The flat black areas of the track are where rubber builds up from cars racing on the track. The middle of the track that is shiny is glue. Often times if you walk on the track you'll notice that the center of the track is the stickiest part. Most people would assume to automatically line up in the stickiest part right? Not quite. 

To get a good bite on the track a tire needs a combination of rubber and VHT glue. VHT is a glue that is dilluted with alcohol to reach certain consistency levels. If you were to line up in the middle of the shiny stuff where its nothing but VHT your hot tire will pull up the glue with it and 9 times out of 10 your bike will spin. Now, if you line up in the flat black part of the track where a lot of rubber is down with a light VHT mist, youll hook for sure on that right? Well, sometimes. Track conditions change throughout the day. The track you race on at 10AM is different than the track at 2PM and the track at 8PM is different than the track at 10AM and 2PM even if conditions are similar the track is not. 

A slick tire bike is always going to stick the best in middle of the flat black rubber. As temperature drops you may need to reduce air pressure to prevent from spinning. On a street tire bike the best place to line up is typically right on the edge of where the flat black meets the shiny black. I always try to put my rear tire right on the line where the two meet. This gives a street tire bike a decent amount of rubber and VHT to get down. Now with that being said a street tire bike lining up in the flat black can get down but tire pressure will have to be reduced. The benefit of lining up on what I call the fringe (where the flat and shiny meet) is you can run a higher air pressure. I run 12.5 pounds of air pressure in my rear tire with a Shinko hookup. Most guys use 9-10 lbs. Why does it matter that I run 12.5 pounds? Wheel speed. Wheel speed allows the bike to react faster and picks up speed from the starting line. 

What I suggest, is find a place on the track that you like, set your tire pressure, and then check that lane before each round because like I said, the track is constantly changing. find a spot as close to the fringe where your foot is getting a good stick on it. set a cone where it feels good and be ready to go. Adjusting yourself and your bike to the track is what makes us motorcycle riders not motorcycle sitters. More often than not I see racers go round after round without changing anything. If the track is changing, we need to change as well. You cant expect the track to come to you. 

Routine.

Routine.

    Listen, as silly as it sounds, having a routine in my opinion is the most important part of the race. You need to find what routine works best for you. Listed below is my routine:

• I find my pair
• Usually I wait until i am 5 pairs from the front of the line and I put on my jacket
• At 3 pairs back I put on my helmet
• After putting on my helmet I put on my right glove and zip my sleeve
• I then put on my left glove and zip my sleeve
• Once Im the pair on deck I put on my kill tether
• I fist bump the guy next to me
• I lean my bike to the right and start it
• I rev my bike and pump my clutch 5 times
• I pull around the waterbox and back in
• I spin it real quick then I pull forward to where I want to start my burnout
• I wait for the other racer then give a nod to start burnouts
• Once I start my burnout I lean it to the right for 3 seconds then back to the left for 3 seconds I bring it straight for 3 seconds then throttle out. (If the track is cold I will run a burnout through the starting line to put some fresh hot rubber down)
• I rev my bike twice to check my two step on/off depending on the class
• I always try to pre stage first
• Once I prestage I put my visor down
• As soon as the other guy prestages I go full stage

PRACTICE YOUR ROUTINE. I practiced my routine in my garage for a week straight with my gloves helmet and jacket finding what works best for me. I am so busy focused on hitting my marks for my routine that I dont even realize whos in the next lane. Having a routine gives you a job to focus on and gets you out of your head.