Unfortunately it needs a license plate to run this bike on some public roads, cuz’ I’ll use it to teach Road Skill 1on1 students. So, since the ugly and way to heavy holder is out… I’ve build my own fender eliminator with a few simple things: The license plate, a piece of Lowes aluminum sheet, and a plate light from BikeMaster Products. The cost… about 10 bux!!!
Headcoach Can Akkaya
I got a custom paint job on the way (the boring Ferrari image red dress gotta go!). Till it comes in, I’ve made some mods to the bike which 1) look better (for my taste), and 2) saving weight. I absolutely HATED that high/black windshield and replaced it with a shield from a friend until mine is coming. The mirrors got replaced by cheap SSR block off plates.
The shock cover is carbon now, and the heavy gas cap got replaced by a $19 (!!!) CNC machined gas cap which I believe looks bad ass. I am happy now that I couldn’t sell my brand new Hyperpro RCS steering damper I had left from the R1 project… because the Ohlins damper was not working at all. Now I have 24 position getting satisfied with.
Most riders are too afraid to turn some wrenches on their bikes themselves, but since we know that there is a potential to adjust levers etc to a riders advantage (see previous articles), we could more or less easily semi-project our bikes and make them ‘ours’ on a bigger scale. I have such a fun doing this as soon as I have a new bike, that I am willing to share the process with you. You might get a taste of one or another upgrade, and try it on your own motorcycle. All the things I am doing are going under the motto… finding performance (power and grip) resources, reducing weight (general and rotating masses), and last but not least- the look of it. All of this as affordable as possible! It all begins with the actual motorcycle and its raw numbers, so here is our ‘example’:
2014 Ducati Panigale 1199RThis is a pretty darn good bike already, so we don’t want to mess around much with geometries and electronics. The picture shows a absolute stock 1199 which comes up with these facts:
Let’s see where these numbers- and the appearance of “Cleopatra” is going…
To just sit down with pen and paper and to make notes in which direction you want to move forward makes sense already, but to also set upgrade limits per month and in logic installation phases even more. This makes you staying in control of costs and fall-out time. Plain said… if you just go by feel, then you probably start working on something which takes too much time- or to have parts ordered which you can not use at a certain time on the project. What happen is that you can’t use the bike at all in between. So spend your money wisely and order parts logically. Start only working on it when the parts arrived, and skip on the frustrations.
Each time I’ve done a upgrade phase, I will post about it here as soon as I can. So watch out here for new posts- or go on ‘Coach’s Motorcycle Bible‘ (scroll down to the story) where the story will be summarized. Watch out for the next step!
Headcoach Can Akkaya
Another bunch of motorcycle riders just graduated from our Cornering School Day 1 to 3, and finished the street rider part. Some of them will continue with the track/racing orientated part- Day 4 on 7/236/2017.
I am proud for each one of them. May the force always be with you! :-)
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
Not many people talking about this actually , so here am I again with ‘another’ controversy, because I can’t keep my mouth shut about things which should have been said a long time ago. I’m looking forward to see in comments if the subject deserves to be ‘controversy’ in your eyes at all, so here we go…
In Europe as a kid of the 70’s, you had to make a drivers license and to ride a 50cc moped for 2 years. It cost 50 Euros, 6 classes and 1 riding hour. Don’t think you just open that motor to get 70 km/h hour out of it, because it was restricted by law to 25 km/h, so about 15 miles per hour! The cops new our games well, and it was not just costly to get caught… they could also locked your next drivers license step away for another year.
By the age of 16, you ramp up to 80cc lightweight bikes. The drivers license is comparable with the one for riding a moped, but comes with more required class and riding hours before you can make the driving test. That education cost about 1500 Euros, 11 riding hours and 24 hours of classroom! Those bikes are top speed restricted to 80 km/h, and you are riding them for another 2 years.
Now you’re 18, and since you went through a riding odyssey of 4 years- you are looking at another 400 Euros to get a drivers license to ride all kinds of motorcycles as long they are restricted to a maximum of 48 horsepower. You think that’s tough?!… there is more to come, because if you have crashes or fool around with the traffic laws- you will extent the 2 years period before you finally make it to a non-restricted motorcycle.
Now let’s say you are ‘mom-in-laws-favorite’ and stick tightly to the rules for another 2 years… yes, then it is time to make the A-license for another 1700 Euros, 12 hours of classroom and 11 hours of riding including a drivers test. Then… yes, finally then you are qualified to ride any motorcycle with all of its horsepower’s. At that point I should mention that when I was 20, that the entire motorcycle industry agreed with the laws to restrict the horsepower to ALL models to 100 hp maximum- to protect the riders from aggressive horsepower-marketing by the manufacturers. Makes kinda sense to me today, I must say. But I come back later to this once more. However, I don’t know if that ‘self-restriction’ is still ongoing over there, because I live in the country of my heart, the United States of America, since 2008 now.
So I had to renew my license as I emigrated and I didn’t complain hearing that I can make a motorcycle drivers license for only 28 bux. I mean… compared with the 3500 Euros I’ve spend… that’s a smile on the face right there. So I answered those funny questions in a written exam to get a temporary drivers license for 12 months… WHAT?! I mean… at least back then, nobody knew that Can Akkaya- a ex-racing pro from Europe, actually really can ride or not… right?!
Yes ‘I can’, but this is maybe like a ‘suicide permission’ or a ‘license to kill’ for someone else, because nobody (!) even asked me if I can ride… they just gave me a motorcycle drivers license. Just like that. I’ve passed my DMV circle riding test one week after my written exam. Maybe I was an exception getting so easy to a drivers license?… unfortunately not, but there are at least some more rider orientated looking options out there… but are they really?! Let’s see…
My wife Marion wanted to make her M1 drivers license here as well, so I started teaching her from the scratch. She made it for about $270 bux and a weekend of time after the written exam. Would she be ready to go after this without having me continuing her training?… no she wouldn’t! Then I meet students almost every day who are coming out of ‘Certified Riding Schools’. They ‘past’ the test or got kicked out to go and learn to ride on their own, to finally come back to be some kind of ‘good enough’ to make it then. So that’s what this is about, isn’t it?! To be good enough for the big ‘test’. However, new riders like this find a place to learn from the scratch in my ‘Basic Rider 1on1‘ program. That’s how Anne-Marie-Pham got in contact with me, and it took a while until my confusion faded. Her journey is the trigger for this article btw.
Anne signed up for my Basic Rider 1on1, which is designed to teach riders who don’t know how to ride AND who are not having a motorcycle drivers license yet. So I ask questions where she’s at and find out that she actually just achieved a drivers license, so I am referring her to my Road Skill 1on1 program which would be the logical next step. She had a hard time to make me understand that she need to learn from the scratch, and rejected my suggestions. My confusion… I am in a conflict thinking that a rider needs to learn from the scratch, even though the drivers license has been successfully mastered already. Feel me here?!
Since I don’t want to charge or offer a not suitable program, I offered to just transfer her Basic Rider to Road Skill after seeing her on a motorcycle and she would have to live with my decision… I was glad I didn’t! Anne-Marie was totally terrified and told me her story with that ‘certified school’ she took at some dealership parking lot:
I signed up for CMSP and I came into this class excited, I came out of this two day class as scared as I can ever be! I can’t even tell you how many times I dropped the bike, I lost count. And get this…. I passed!!!
Read Anne-Marie Pham’s full review here
What I’ve seen was a totally lost soul, but not ready to give up on a new hobby, and I had to win her trust first. I don’t even start talking about the curriculum what those schools have to go with, and which produces fears and hold backs towards braking. It was all showing- and shocked me a lot. Anne’s confidence grew by the hour, and she hired me for another Basic Rider session before I will give her my OK for the Cornering class, where she will learn all survival skills my way!
Comparing the European system with the regulations in the U.S., it seem to be bad for the economy over there and also it makes it hard to recruit new riders, because more and more kids are skipping the pain and just wait till they can drive their stupid VW Golf GTI once they are 18 years old. This is what this is all about friends… the economy. A ‘quick’ drivers license makes a quick sale. For me, this is almost like giving a new rider a unlocked gun and to say… “Just point it where ever you want- and this here is the trigger!”
Sure- if you would have asked me when I was 16, to make a drivers license for only 28 bux by pretty much answering 36 questions correctly and for doing some circles on a parking lot… I probably would have declared that day a Holiday, especially if you also would have told me that I could just go and pick a 210 hp liter bike right away! Would it been healthy for me?!… no it wouldn’t. Don’t you tell me you’ve done wise decisions from 14 till 25 years of age… so I didn’t, and so it would be not too bad if someone helps keeping things in check a little. The system has to change… now!
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
I’m hearing it every day. First I see 99.9% of my students braking, and their performance is actually shockingly bad. Straight up… ‘BRAKING’ IS THE PRIOR SKILL TO STAY ALIVE. Then I ask them who taught them and what was the message, and their answers are even more shocking…
In fact, ANY curriculum of motorcycle drivers license giving institutions are telling new riders to “Stay away from the front brake when turning/leaning!” I believe that this is already a CRIME to say, because I would say that you gotta be be able to make a use of your brakes AT ALL FREAKING TIMES! But there is much more coming with this message- mental blockades which I as a Coach who is teaching the total opposite- have to remove manifested habits and overly produced fears!
Now how is that?!… well, if you tell a new rider stuff like that- you automatically manifest a certain hold back towards the front brake, which is actually our primary weapon against scary situations. The blockade is so deep in their heads, that most of the riders are not even using 50% of their front brake potential- which is another guarantee to get hurt or even to die. Besides this, it also leads them to an over-usage of rear brake which causes even more confusion and extends their learning curve… which is time they might don’t have.
You think a street rider don’t need this?… You’re dead wrong! Superbike-Coach teaches ‘Trail Braking’, a MotoGP riding technique since 10 years in Cornering School Day 3, and that is the key to lots of good things the top racers of this planet take advantage of. Priority for them… to lower lap times- and for the street rider to gain the chance to SURVIVE dramatically. Why and how?… find out in the class and learn it, because reading and learning won’t work here.
Is this a guarantee to get out of everything?… no it’s not, because there is always a ‘point of no return’, but it gains you chance to make it exponentially. Are there other schools teaching to trail brake?… probably- are they doing it right?… I don’t know. I do know that Superbike-Coach does it right- and that we have the environment and drills to do this even better. The curriculum and their message in this regard of license giving institutions has to change, because it is wrong and dangerous.
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
