That’s it folks… our track day is officially BOOKED OUT! I can’t be more proud for Superbike-Coach and its team!
I can’t be more proud for all my CSD-3 graduates!
They were going through day 1 and 2 with me, and the pictures showing clearly their confidence level today. It makes me believe even more that the stuff I am teaching has the efficiency I am aiming for. Dean Lonskey’s pictures are telling the story. Enjopy
1500 pictures coming free of charge for our Day 3 graduates soon. Only with Superbike-Coach!
Superbike-Coach photographer Dean Lonskey has picket some featured pictures of last Sunday’s Cornering School Day 2 class on Little 99 Raceway. Enjoy them till all 2300 pictures are ready for download free of charge.
Important announcement about our track day at Thunderhill West Raceway:
We’ve tried real hard to make the 4th of July weekend work, but we have to let it go now and we promise to you to give you the best track day experience ever on 7/30/. We are hoping that you are cool with it since there is time enough to move things around if necessary. Believe me… nobody is more worried about it as I am, so please stick with us and to experience something exceptional.
Headcoach Can Akkaya
I am passionate about motorcycle riding skills, and devote my time to coaching. It makes me crazy when I identify a bad habit, and the student tells me that he or she learned this from some motorcycle school. There may be differences of opinion on certain techniques. But there is also objectively WRONG advice out there. It is making you slower and less safe.
The very worst technique taught by some schools is to go for a “late apex at all cost.” That is, to drive deeper into the turn, then make a more violent tip in, shooting for a very late apex. Sure, there are track situations when the true apex is more than halfway through the turn. But habitually following this line is not necessarily the best line on a track, and can be deadly on the highway.
I spend too much coaching time teaching that the “late apex at all cost” concept is wrong, and breaking the bad habits based on bad advice. In a right turn on a road with oncoming traffic (or a potential of oncoming traffic around a blind turn), it is unsafe to go to (or over) the center line just to make a late entry into the turn. It can be deadly. If you think you need to drop in so late to make a reduced radius turn, you are certainly over the speed limit, and probably over a safe speed.
On the track, focus on the fastest line through the entire course. The best line for a particular turn necessarily depends on what follows. A “late” apex may be OK if it sets up one or two turns down the track. Building total track awareness takes time and focus. Professional coaching will identify bad habits and techniques, and will greatly reduce the time a rider needs to build speed and safety.
Please click back to your newsletter for more information: Track Day rescheduled to 7/30/16
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
I believe Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone came up with it since a simple runn-off the track causes the end of race for multi million dollar teams whom turning off their sponsors. You know- F1 cars are pretty fragile and get stuck in those traditional gravel-beds which were designed to slow a crashed rider or race car down before hitting the damn barrier. We- the motorcycle racer community back then, called these asphalt driveways “pussy stripes” btw.
In fact, the F1 required all international race tracks to modify their crashing zones in order to get the gig. They were not too unhappy about it because crashed vehicles are easier and quicker to remove. So yea… also race bikes took a ride out on those asphalt stripes and it reduced the ‘grass games’ a little… but i believe it can double the risk of the ‘real bad ones’- especially for the motorcycle racers!
You might think different about it, which is your God given right, but as I seen Luis Salom sliding behind his bike- almost with no reduction of speed… then it is obvious to me. While a bike keeps sliding on asphalt on its flat and hard materials- it also will stay on its path once its down. Luis’s bike bounced off the tire wall right back into him and the impact was real hard. I believe that a gravel bed would have slowed it down by at least 30%, and the bike would have go somewhere else. Yes- nobody knows if that would not end up with his dead, but it would have gained his chance to be still alive by about 30%, doesn’t it?!
Again… there is always a ‘point of no return’, and believe me- I hate those gravel-beds either because I’ve got hurt many times in there- digging limbs deep into the gravel until they break. But I do know that you’ll fall softer as you would drop on grass or even asphalt- just like this gentleman here: https://www.facebook.com/beINSportsUSA/videos/1226535764052910/
I think we’ve been forgotten once more in their $$$ games, but we also just took it. The fatal crash of Luis Salom is hopefully trigger for a critical view at it under the motto… what good for race car drivers- doesn’t automatically mean that it is also good for motorcycle racers.
Headcoach Can Akkaya, Superbike-Coach Corp
