This is a very good read-please sticky mods if you think so too.
Sport Rider Magazine-Riding Skills
Sport Rider Magazine-Riding Skills
Quite often in our Riding Skills Series posts we talk about being smooth with your control inputs. We stress this a lot because it applies to every control input: throttle, brakes, shifting, steering… Smoothness in all these areas reaps benefits in speed and safety on both the street and track. At the same time that you need to be smooth, however, sometimes quick, aggressive inputs to the controls are needed. For example, to get through a chicane quickly can require all your strength to flip the bike from maximum lean in one direction to the other. Or at the end of a straight you need to be as quick as you can in closing the throttle and applying the brakes.
Riding well is a combination of both attributes; sometimes you need the speed and aggression of a hunting lion, and at other times you need the gentleness of a mother with a newborn. How you put that combination together is a big part of going fast on the racetrack and can also improve safety on a canyon road; it is also key to making the next step in your riding. Every incremental improvement in speed on the track requires that those quick inputs be even quicker and that the smooth inputs be even smoother. If you have trouble discerning between the two requirements at your current level of riding, it will only be more difficult when you try to up your pace.
What first comes to mind when we talk to riders about being both smooth and quick is throttle control, and we have covered this many times previously. At the end of a straight, the throttle-to-brake transition is as quick as you can make it. It’s still best to close the throttle as smoothly as you can, but here the emphasis is on speed. At the exit of the corner, however, the throttle must be applied smoothly and in one fluid motion from closed to open. Here speed is sacrificed for smoothness. The temptation for many riders trying to go faster is to open the throttle quicker, but more experienced riders actually open the throttle slower than less experienced riders; the more experienced riders open the throttle earlier and in one motion from closed to open, while less experienced riders tend to open it in fits and starts.
This data shows speed (black), throttle position (red), and rate of change of throttle position (green) for Canadian Superbike racer Jodi Christie. The rate of change channel shows how quickly Jodi closes the throttle at the end of each straight (the downward spikes) and how smoothly he opens it on corner exits, characterized by the small and mostly positive values in these areas.
Using data, we can actually put numbers on these actions and measure progress over time or compare riders. Using any input channel, a math channel can be derived to show the rate of change in the data. This shows both how quickly the data is changing as well as how smoothly. For example, we measure throttle position in percentage and the rate of change of throttle position in percent per second; a higher rate of change indicates a sudden, quick input, while a low rate of change indicates smoothness. Experienced riders close the throttle at the end of a straight at more than 400 percent per second (less than a quarter second to go from fully open to fully closed), and when they initially open the throttle at the exit of the turn, the rate will rarely be more than 100 percent per second.
Getting on the gas exiting a corner is the one area where many riders struggle to reach that balance of speed and smoothness. On the one hand, the throttle must be opened quickly for maximum acceleration, but on the other hand, it must be opened smoothly for best traction. Data shows that more experienced riders actually open the throttle slower than less experienced riders, getting on the throttle earlier and opening it in one smooth, fluid motion; less experienced riders tend to open the throttle later and then in fits and starts to fully open.
When you initially apply the brakes at the beginning of a braking zone, getting to maximum braking as quickly as you can is paramount. Note that it is possible to be too quick in applying the brakes, as we have mentioned before. If you grab too much front brake, the front suspension doesn’t have a chance to compress and load the tire for best traction. We have also talked about trail braking previously and how you must release the brakes smoothly as you arc into a corner. Just as it’s important not to close the throttle once you have opened it exiting a corner, the goal for good braking is not to constantly release and apply the brakes in the braking zone. Here we can look at actual deceleration and use a rate-of-change math channel in a similar way that we look at throttle position and rate of change. Experienced riders will get to maximum braking (typically just over one G) in about one second, for a rate of change greater than one G/s, and then release the brakes at a very low rate. Another option for braking is to look at the rate of change of brake pressure, and this allows the front and rear brakes to be separated for an even better look at the actual rider inputs.
This is data from Associate Editor Bradley Adams' Daytona SportBike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and shows speed (black), braking G (blue), in addition to the rate of change in braking G (green). The positive spikes in the rate of change data show how quickly Bradley gets to maximum braking, while in the remainder of each zone the traces reflect how smoothly he is releasing the brakes. Ideally, the trace would show small negative values in these areas.
Another action requiring both speed and smoothness is steering input. Entering most corners demands aggressive work with the clip-ons for a quick transition; in chicanes, it can take all your strength, and the top riders seem to literally throw themselves and their bikes around. In contrast, the constant lean angle in the middle of a long corner calls for as little steering input or body movement as possible, to upset the chassis a minimal amount. Mid-corner corrections should be made with the lightest touch on the bars and the smallest of body movements. Here a rate-of-change channel can be employed to see how quickly and smoothly lean angle is changing, or an actual gyroscope can be used; ideally, chicanes show a large spike in the data to indicate a speedy change in lean angle, while in mid-turn the values are as close to zero as possible, indicating very little change in lean angle.
We often see aggressive riders struggle to be smooth when needed, and smooth riders are sometimes not aggressive enough when that speed (and often strength) is required. But finding the right balance of the two in many aspects of your riding is the path to going quicker at the track and can help you be safer on the street.
