Saturday, July 21, 2012

Flat track practice review


On Wednesday evening I headed out for the first practice on the 525 sx with the flat track setup. I wasn't feeling the greatest but the thought of some moto adrenaline kept me moving. I learned a great deal, improved more than i expected and had a decent good time...Hindsight I should have called Ryan with Albany MX to get a rundown on everything beforehand.

Bike ready, finally loaded up and on the road the nerves were mellow trying to work through what it will be like. With the misconception that Albany was a decent size track I was trying to work out in my head what I'll need to change up or adjust based on what I learned at the Salem indoor track on the heavy V-twin Ascot. This line of thought and process was eventually shelved for some light political ramblings and very lame jokes with my excellent driver for the evening. Lame jokes are far better for pre track prep, at least for me. Finally pulling off of the freeway nearing the track we were greeted with an ambulance needing us to yield, odd we thought being out in the middle of nowhere. Nope not odd the nerves hit a bit as we realized we were following the ambulance to that track, less than awesome mojo for a practice day.

Arriving at the gate behind the ambulance we see the sea of MX bikes and nerves calmed down. Albany runs MX practice Wednesday nights also and the track looks like a mess of fun, almost like Riverdale combined with a stretched out Woodland. Not much visual of any Flat track so before unloading the scene was taken in. Found Ryan(his attitude should be the model for anyone running anything moto, best I've interacted with) for some quick questions and also mentioned about one winter session at Salem. During the course of dialogue it hits him, "Oh you were the guy on the street bike...." yep. With the full rundown of how they do things I head to the truck to unload and gear up.

With the fatigue of a three day fever and no sleep setting in I was just about zonked kicking the bike to life, it fired up finally with a big sigh of relief. Get the bike to the track and ended up talking to another rider that was very helpful (big surprise from when Manny and I were at Salem wondering in the pits if we were going to make it out with out major trouble). He went over a bit of technique and what to expect as well as discussing the bike setup which was reassuring, he was very impressed with it.

We get the signal to head out to the track with the nerves going a bit. No matter how much you mentally prep for it the first practice session is a mind bender going into every corner wanting to use a front brake that isn't there while on the gas looking at a hay bail. Nothing is feeling right, is the bike too upright, pushing it down too much, should i be back further in the seat, should i be up on the tank and every possible combination. I'm trying to do something different in each corner to see what will work best. It turns out my pace was too slow for much of anything to make a difference handling wise. I would get some quick bar slap breaking loose coming out of the corners which a steering damper adjustment smoothed out quite a bit. As I get smoother I will be using how much I can turn the damper as a measure of improvement. Working on stepping the bike out with the rear brake at corner entry seemed to help a bit also. Kept working it with some success as the sweat is pouring out of me, fatigue is really setting in now that the adrenaline is wearing off about 15 laps into the first practice session.

Getting a decent slide out of the back corner I'm on the straight deciding on the technique to try this time when all of a sudden it happened. I'm sideways then sliding on my left hip and elbow watching the bike slide along in front of me with far more grace. All of a sudden my left heel dug in and i got catapulted in the air and on my face by the tension in the ligaments and tendons in my left leg. I was up and heading to the bike before I stopped sliding and tried to get it to life with some intense determination. The flaggers kept asking about my leg as I kicked and kicked at that lever, wouldn't start. Sure did miss the E-start I have on the 450. It was such a nice suggestion from the flagger lady that she could give my girth and the bike a push start that I let her try. Two failed attempts and the session was over, bump started it rolling off the track.

Getting off the bike I realize how exhausted I really am with each step of the Tech 6 boots feeling like they are a set of cinder blocks. I bit of a burn inside my shoulder from the tumble but I would have been more surprised if it didn't burn. Okay now to go over what I learned and do a massive process before the next session after some hydration of course. Talk to the other riders and get a few pointers trying not to assess any possible damage to myself from the whoopsie.

Second session is a go and I have a goal of trying to get the front end to push in the corners. That goal truly helped my lap times, corner speed was up a large amount over the previous session. I now have the speed up to a point were small changes to riding style make a big difference.  I was feeling really positive about it even though it was a lot more physical than I had available. I was no longer a moving obstacle but someone they had to plan an work around. I wasn't too far off from the practice pace of the regulars. With that I was satisfied. Then the chain came off and I was done for the session. Great sportsmanship out there with an offer of a master link off of a bike and everything, these are guys I want to race with and against. It reminded me of my times pitting with the drag race legend Don Vandehey back in the late 90's early 2000's.

All in all it was an exciting success and I'll be out there next Wednesday going around in circles.

Here is the the end of the second practice session enjoy or get dizzy, your choice.


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