Socal Supermoto School

[JonKerr]

I'm so excited about this. Socal supermoto is basically a track day group who puts on a school teaching people how to ride a supermoto bike on the track. They have track prepped bikes for you to use so you don't have to risk your own equipment. I'm signed up for the school on June 9th. Anyone in the SoCal area should check this out.

https://vimeo.com/12904656

Dirtyhucker Media Presents: SOCAL SUPERMOTO - YouTube

This is Melissa Perris

Max Biaggi came out to ride there recently. I guess he's been there a few times.

This is a friend of mine, Mateo.

I'll post up some pic from my day when I get there. I can't freaking wait!

 

[yellowfz]

Wish I was closer, I would come out and smoke you for a few laps.
Fast as fast can be, you'll never catch me.

 

[roadrat]

Looks like a complete rage! Have a great time Jon and can't wait for the pics!

 

[JonKerr]

OK a friend just posted this up on Facebook. This is insane.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeUK6aOEJKo&feature=related]Supermoto no limits - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Spunky99]

I'm getting the itch...I've always wanted to run supermotard in the M1-GP but never tried. I spent most of my youth doing flat track on 70's Bultacos so this shouldn't be much different.

I just need to make sure this isn't the same date I have reserved for camping at Lake Perris.

 

[Detrich]

I'm waiting n hoping to try Mike's m1gp track training next month. They need minimum 3 ppl to sign up to book the track time and so it's more affordable. $250 per day and they provide instruction and the bikes.

 

[Nastybutler]

OK a friend just posted this up on Facebook. This is insane.

Here I am hoping to get to where I can drag a knee and this dude is dragging elbow. Sheesh.

 

[Nillard]

OK a friend just posted this up on Facebook. This is insane.

Supermoto no limits - YouTube

Great Video! Thanks for posting!

 

[Fizzer6R]

Here I am hoping to get to where I can drag a knee and this dude is dragging elbow. Sheesh.

that's nothing, you're not really going too fast until you drag your helmet - have you seen that vid?

i remember when ABC's wide world of sports used to air supermoto on TV, ah the good ol days

 

[JonKerr]

Well I went to the school today. SO MUCH FUN. I know Brian got some pictures of me, just hasn't sent them yet. Since I packed up a little early because my neck was bugging me, I decided to pull out my camera and take a few shots. I'm exhausted so I'll do a full write up later and some more images. These are just a little teaser.

 

[MichaelInVenice]

Wow, that looks like a ton of fun. I see they also have a "Sportbike Fundamentals" class that they teach on the small bikes and track, leaving the dirt skills out. That might be just the right thing for me a couple of months out. For now, I'm still riding my little supermoto, so maybe learning to really use it would be fun. Maybe I won't even sell the thing...

 

[JonKerr]

So yesterday was the school. Basically the way it works is you pay Brian (the instructor) $200. You come to the track. He pays for your track day, you use his bikes, his fuel, etc… All you have to do is show up, learn, ride, and that’s it. The track is basically a full size GoKart track. I'm talking real shifter karts, not these snails at places like K1. But it's also home to a lot of SuperMoto riding. SM is more geared toward tight, technical riding, so a GoKart track is perfect for them. They built a small dirt section in the infield with a few jumps and run alternating sessions: Karts - Bikes running in the dirt - bikes on asphalt only (there were a few guys on small GP style 250's riding there, those things are pretty quick there too)

So we start out like any riding school, going over basics of getting on and off the track, house rules, etc... Then get into the techniques of riding a SM bike. All of us there were either sportbike street riders, a couple were WERA racers, and a couple were street guys with some dirt experience. I can tell you, these things go against everything you've ever learned in any discipline of riding. Especially sport bike riding. It's literally backwards from everything you know. The first thing you do when you approach a turn is jump on the front brakes (like normal) bang down all your gears (5th down to either 3rd or 2nd depending on what turn you’re entering) all at once, let the clutch out and use the engine braking as rear brake (no rev matching) shift your ass as far forward on the bike as you can and shift one cheek off to the outside of the bike, stick out your inside foot, and push the bike under you with your inside arm (counter steering) bending the outside arm a ton and the inside arm is slightly bent (only so you're not tight and locked on the bars) roll through the turn, roll onto the throttle and pick up the bike out of the corner. The rear of the bike tends to get very light and like to get a little out of line entering the turns. You have to learn to let it. As you tip it into the turn, things will line up.

So all this to try and learn to do on the asphalt, right? Then after 2 sessions, he says, “OK, time to really ride supermoto and go into the dirt.” That I wasn’t really enjoying. I’ve ridden a dirt bike on a race track. You have limited grip in the dirt compared to a sportbike even when you have the right tires on the bike. But Dunlop Q2’s in super fluffy 2” deep dirt!!!! For the dirt you don’t even touch the front brake, use all rear brake, pull in the clutch to go around the turns, and just absolutely bably the throttle as you let out the clutch slowly to get turned. Then you’ve got 2 small jumps in front of you! Then you have to do it all again to the left, and now you have 2, 3 foot high table tops in front of you! Lol Then after you get out of the dirt, now you have dirty street tires on a hot asphalt track that you’re trying to get 45º+ lean angles. I was actually surprised how much grip the dirty tires actually had and how only 1 turn in each direction completely cleaned them up to full grip. I almost lost it 3 times in 2 sessions in the dirt section. Once tucking the front and twice the rear was coming around hard. After that, I stuck with the asphalt only sessions. Luckily out of 7 guys, some much more experienced riders, I was the only one who didn’t hit the deck. But then again, I’m also the only one who stopped riding in the dirt too. Lol.

After about 80 laps total, I was done. Neck was sore, I was beat, I started making little mistakes and decided to pack it in before I make a big mistake. So I changed clothes and pulled out my camera and started taking pictures along with Brian. Here’s some pics Brian got of me and some I took of the other riders.

 

[JonKerr]

Here's the Google Earth view of the track.

 

[JonKerr]

 

[Perdurable]

dude that looks like a blast i love vt but i really wish we had more around here to do like this!!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

[JonKerr]

So riding these bikes is incredible fun. They're Suzuki DRZ400s. So they're super slow, only about 38hp and about 300lbs compared to the fast guys on 70+hp 450's that weigh a bit over 200lbs. But even with the slower, heavier bikes, the "flickability" is insane compared to any sportbike. That's the main reason for the riding style. Hanging off like we do on sportbikes would produce more mid corner speed for sure. But these bikes are more of a point and shoot, which is why they're so good on those tight little tracks. Riding like this you can get into the turn, turn it, get out, and then flick it back the other way (which you have to do a lot on this layout) way faster than you could moving your ass side to side. In reality, your body pretty much stays in one place and the bike moves under you. Obviously this wouldn't work on a sportbike, they're not built to do it. But it works for a supermoto. I had a lot of doubts. But it works. One thing you do see out there is some guys using the knee out like the video I posted above, and they have a lot of fun doing that. But it's actually a lot slower. They're just having fun when they're doing things like that video earlier in the thread.

Everyone I know who's ever ridden one of these things has told me that I'll want to buy one. I will say I would like to buy one, but I won't. If I had $4000 burning a whole in my wallet, yeah, I might. But when I can drop $200 a few times a year and let someone else deal with the bike, the tires, the fuel, etc... I don't need to spend a bunch of money on another bike when I still love my FZ6R.

 

[MichaelInVenice]

OK a friend just posted this up on Facebook. This is insane.

Looks like the riding style in that video is more conventional sportbike style (though at lower speeds) than the style they taught you for combined dirt and pavement. I've been riding a little supermoto for a while and though I want to upgrade, the more I play with it the more I think I'm likely to keep it even when I get a bigger bike. It's a blast to ride.

[Oops, look like you already explained that. Missed your last post.]

 

[JT]

Man that looks like so much fun. I need to make time for this.