A thought about what to race: I was brousing the net today and came across a Honda RS125 for sale. I had an opportunity to race one of these little rockets. I have to tell you I learned more about riding when I was on that bike. It was a lot of fun. If you are thinking about getting into racing and want to learn a lot without serious injury to you or your bank account I highly recommend looking into purchasing a 125. In a lot of cases you can buy the bike with a large amount of spare parts, spare tires and wheels, jets, and manuals for 4 to 5 grand. They are easy to work on, cheap to repair and super easy on tires. Well worth every dime spent.
The Elements of Performance Riding
1. Vision/Focus Your focus, what you are looking at, has a profound affect on your riding. It seems like an overly simplified statement, but you would be surprised on how easy it is to loose your focus. This also applies to mental focus.
2. Weight Distibution Having proper body position is crucial. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time when your tires/bike can not compensate for the excess weight you will loose traction at best and worse you will have a catastophic loose of traction... You will crash. You have to know when, where and how much weight to move for your bike to be in perfect balance for braking, turning, exiting and accelerating. Moving the center of gravity helps you turn faster or slower. The more you hang off the less you have to lean the bike which in turn lets you keep more rubber on the pavement.
3. Countersteering
4. Smooth The smoother you are the less you will upset your bike when pushing the limits. Smooth transitions in everything you do. Remember 150 plus horsepower is being transmitted to the pavement through a dime sized contact patch of rubber. The smoother you are the fewer surprises you will have. Smooth is fast. Braking, accelerating, body transitions and control inputs. All of these are very sensitive to your inputs. Be smooth.
Riding Gear
I am very opinionated about a handful of issues. Motorcycling is one. Within that riding gear is a hot topic for me. I will summerise, WEAR IT! Nuff said.
Now here are some critics of some gear I have worn over the years.
Helmets: Currently I am wearing a Shoei RF1000. Looks: I think Shoei has some of the coolest paint schemes going. The finish is top notch. Sizing: I wear a small in Shoei. It fits very well. I have very little wind noise under the ears and no pinch spots. I wear my helmets snug (everyone should) and yet after multi hour trips I have never had a headache. Venting: Its a helmet. It sucks. That said it isn't as good at my old ICON but it is better than the HJCs Cost: Got it on sale, but in general you will pay mid 4's
I have to say that I liked my ICON for the price. 300 for the IFrame (currently the AirFrame). Looks: Was awesome when it came out! Now every squid is wearing it. Sizing: I wore a medium, small was too small. It was a little loose for my taste. Noise was minimal but noticably louder than the Shoei. Venting: Best venting I have had in any helmet. That said, it still sucked. Cost: Best bang for the buck. 300ish
I started out in HJCs. Mostly because it was the best Snell approved helmet for the price. They have come along way since I wore one, but general speaking it was a good helmet. Get the AC12 or better. The CLs were very loose and very noisy. Looks: If you like the power ranger look HJC has it down. Finish is good. Sizing: I wore a medium and was quite comfortable. It was loud under the ears. I always wore ear plugs with it. Never had any pinching mostly because I could get one to fit tight enough. Venting: What venting... It has venting. wow. Never noticed. Cost: CLs are 100 - 200 and the AC12 is 200 - 350ish.
Leathers
I have used Joe Rocket and Alpinestars.
My original suit was the Joe Rocket Speed Master two piece. For the price at the time it was very good. It lasted 5 years. I have been very fortunate and not tested the tearing part of "wear and tear". It was time to get a one piece and I had put a lot of street and track use in it. The sizing was fairly true. My purchasing mistake was not allowing for proper racing tuck and a back protector. Thus, it was snug to start with and got snugger after a back protector. So make sure with any suit you purchase to get a size or two bigger.