Superbike-Coach photographer Dean Lonskey Featured some pictures of the Cornering Day 2 class last Sunday on our Little 99 Raceway. Enjoy
#contimotousa
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
Archive for year: 2019
We have some requests in regard a Rider/Passenger class, and I actually like the idea. I am hoping you help us out with a poll and to see if there is interest for such class:
- Held on Little 99 Raceway in Stockton
- Only ones per year
- Full day
- All rider/passenger levels
- 3 level groups of 10 bikes each
- For all 2 seated bikes: Sportbikes, Adventure bikes, Touring bikes, Chopper/Cruiser bikes
- Classroom/track sessions
- Content: sitting pos., awareness, synchronized dynamic, weight management, emergency braking, etc
- As usual free sport photography by Dean Lonskey, snacks, drinks
I believe that a class like this can help both, rider and passenger, to make their hobby even more enjoyable and to gain safety massively. There is actually so much you can do on the passenger side. I just can imagine how much of a fun especial couples are going to have on our track.
Please help us and give us an idea by polling 4 quick questions: https://forms.gle/7pfsAiMF2PbgiQfR8
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
Superbike-Coach photographer Dean Lonskey featured some shots of the last wheelie class in October.
All pics are in here:
Superbike-Coach Corp
Superbike-CoachYea, that’s right… 14 of 18 students. Only with Superbike-Coach baby :-)
More featured pictures by Dean Lonskey: https://www.dlonskeyphoto.com/Superbikecoach-Gallery/Knee-Down-Classes/Knee-Down-Pics-10-26-19/Feature-Pics
As a kid you have idols you look up to. Bands, actors, or athletes. Needless to say that they have an influence on us, so I wanted to learn to play the guitar just like Angus Young of the rock band AC/DC. The big goal was, to have my own Marshall Amplifier and to rip it. The problem… those are hell of expensive and totally out of reach for me. That dream never left and today I have the damn Amp.
Can Akkaya on Honda RSR250, Hockenheimring 1987
So my first helmet was a German product, a UVEX for 60 bux. Goofing around the town on mopeds in that way to big helmet- which actually broke my nose on a crash one day. Somewhen then, I’ve stumbled over motorcycle racing while zapping through the four TV stations we had back then, and there was that American racer who looked so different then all the others. His name was Freddie Spencer and he was wearing a Arai helmet. Needless to say that I wanted to have one myself, but the price was totally out of my league. Years later, when I was racing myself… I finally had one, a Spencer Replica RX-V.
Man was I proud for it, but damn it killed my finances. Though, I had comparison to what’s wrong and what’s right, and in this case it’s not just the quality which comes to account. I’ve learned the hard way what difference a good lid can make, cuz’ you’ve got only one head- one life. I lost that Arai in a actually horrifying crash on public roads, when I hit against a static object outside a turn. I would have died in a other helmet. I know!
Making my way through amateur racing, semi-pro and finally professionally- also the sponsorship contracts are developing. Until finding the ‘right’ relationship, I had to wear top notch helmets from multiple manufactures but I ended up with Arai Germany as a coach until I left Europe in 2008. Again… I had comparison to what’s wrong and what’s right, and I was super happy that Arai Helmets USA took over and to continue this relationship till today!
Here are some insights:
#araihelmetsusa #arai
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
Talent… isn’t this just a fancy word to hide behind?!
You might think you don’t have such thing as ‘talent’, and so a blockade has been build already. You don’t go and try with that kind of conclusion- ‘cuz’ ya don’t have it’. No eager to try- no success. It’s failure already. As a matter of fact though- nobody is born with a riding or racing DNA. Nobody. Everything is learn-able. Everything. The only question is how long will it take to get you there and how far you’ll come. That begins with a will, which can be slowed down by thinking that ‘you don’t have it’.
Here is a quick insight of a professional racing career.It might displays what really matters, instead of searching an answer for the ‘why you don’t have it’. Here we go…
You start riding motorcycles and you suck. That’s darn natural when it all begins, isn’t that right?! But you learn the right things and all of a sudden it clicks. Years later you find out you’re too fast for public roads, and despite all the crashes you had you literally smoke everyone else. Then you find passion in riding on race tracks- but you suck. You learn the right things and all of a sudden it clicks. It takes some time to go through C- then B group, and despite all the crashes you had you literally smoke everyone on A group. You start attending amateur racing and you suck. You learn the right things and all of a sudden it clicks. Nobody can lap you anymore and you are damn hard to beat on the brakes. It took years to win your first race, and another one to win the amateur championship. Sponsorships coming in and you start in a racing league on a semi-pro level and you suck. You learn the right things and all of a sudden it clicks. You’ve learned to deal with the pressure of success and the competition level is so tough that it toughens you. Despite the bleeding and sideways walking out of hospitals you’ve made it into a international operating professional racing team, but you suck. You learn the right things and all of a sudden it clicks. Physical and mental pain makes you fight even harder. Turns out the clock to be your worse enemy. Tears, sweat and blood you gave to find the missing 1oth of a second to make it to your first international pole position in qualifying. Years of competing on that level makes sponsors, fans and press so that your phone rings and so your next milestone is the European championship- but you suck. It’ll take time to beat all of these highly paid competitors, because all of them have been champions around this planet. You learn the right things and all of a sudden it clicks. The word ‘retreat’ doesn’t exist for you anymore. Your strength compensates weaknesses in regard equipment and you make your way up and up until you are making top 5 results. The years of competing on a high level leaves marks on your body. Open wounds turning to scars and staying forever, just like those titanium plates and bolts in some of your bones. Your phone rings. You are invited to join a MotoGP racing team because their number two rider is injured. They let you test their prototype race bike, but you suck…
Talent?! Does that mean you can skip all of this if you’d have talent? That you don’t have to fight to get there? That would be more of a luck than talent, wouldn’t it? No, a strong will is needed to get to the point where you want to be. A good eye-hand-coordination and a brain helps. If you have that- you are probably good with lots of other sports too and you’ll learn quicker. If you don’t have that but at least a brain- then you’ll get there as well, but it just will take longer- that’s all. Everything you really want, is learn-able. Don’t hide- don’t feel bad with yourself. Just enjoy the ride, because that’s the fun part.
There is no riding DNA- or “all you need is balls”. If you think that’s all it takes, then you might just take credit away from those guys who took that long route and you might just hurt yourself
You think this doesn’t apply to regular street riders? Wait a sec… you start riding motorcycles and you suck…
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
So, have you ever cleared the dung out of your garage?! I mean, that kind of stuff you horde throughout the years and glue on you from move to move. Not even stuff which doesn’t belong into a garage/shop. I’m talking about all the parts from previous and current projects which are catching dust. You know- those which are either way semi-broke or just not ‘enough’ to sell. Or all those tools you’re collecting, like dozens of same size IKEA allen keys. That weak cordless drill which delivered you for years just enough power to make that one hole- then another one- and another one, and each time you think why the hell are you not just go get a new one.
When you are just like me, then you also like to “MacGyver” things. Not just because you want to save the money- you also do this based on impatiens, because you need and want ‘it’ NOW. So also stuff like Velcro, aluminum profiles, steel materials, blade rollers, foam, and whatnot. That kind of stuff you find a place for on top of shelves, in drawers and boxes. You know you have it somewhere when you have a craft-impulse, but each time the search for it consumes time and motivation.
So yea, to un-dung the Superbike-Coach shop took a week, but I can assure you that it wasn’t even messy as you might think it was. We have lots of bikes to maintain and to clean, and that doesn’t go without order and discipline. That’s not the problem, but the overload was.
The dung is just one of many things. I also wanted to change some things for a better workflow. I mean, if you have to stand on a chair to find the right bolt on top shelf- or to have to use a flashlight in the dark corner- or to walk to the tool shelf a thousand times…
After filling 1 ½ recycling bins of dung, the cleaning was next. The dirt you bring in with those tires is phenomenal actually. Re-organizing was next. Two big shelves are helping to store oil, gas and all those boxes which we need for classes. Those were parked alongside the wall, so no more moving them out of the way anymore. Every bike has its own box now, and no more stationary tools- instead they are movable wherever they are needed. Additions were a self retracting power source- light fixtures- new carpets- a parts washer, and yea… a f’n new electric drill. I actually was considering to tile the floor, but I’ll postpone it. Instead I’ll put together a computer the MacGyver way, because there is a pile of e-dung in the office that I can use somehow :-)
There is one thing I found in a drawer though. Somewhere deep beneath the dung, there were my daughters working gloves. She wore them when she was 3 years old and when she helped mom in the garden back in Germany. She didn’t do anything with them because she didn’t want to make them dirty, she said. There were too many bugs in that bush anyway, she said :-)
These gloves will never ever leave me!
#contimotousa #bikemaster
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
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