Some track day prep questions

panibadboy said:

half of your women are active porn models anyway, so dont complain

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You would need to have only 4 functioning brain cells to think 50% of the women in the US are porn models.

bp_SFV4 said:

You would need to have only 4 functioning brain cells to think 50% of the women in the US are porn models.

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should have said half decent looking, which is likely 20-30% anyway, rest are just fat green haired lesbians, especially in the state where he is from.

panibadboy said:

@spooky

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I’ve seen his videos. Some are a bit odd in terms of the tips given. Braking using your arms to hold you back and your knees gripping the tank, then getting your bum off the seat for entry… Trail braking - don’t do it… No idea what counter-steering is. He seems to be a guy who knows how to ride fast without really understanding how he does it (which is fine - in sports you can be very clever or a bit dumb but anywhere in between can be a problem).

Getting my knee down is not happening primarily due to a lack of flexibility in my hips and tightness in the groin area - I cannot spread my legs much at all - and I need to improve that flexibility over the winter. I used to get my knee down on the road when I was previously riding almost 30 years ago, so it’s not like I’ve never done it. It isn’t something that bothers me and it’s not a goal as such but I’ve got to the point where I know that this reference point will be very useful.

spooky said:

Getting my knee down is not happening primarily due to a lack of flexibility in my hips

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when you're trying to get your knee down, are you keeping the front of your foot on tip of the peg ?

panibadboy said:

when you're trying to get your knee down, are you keeping the front of your foot on tip of the peg ?

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On top of the peg.

Knee flexibility is less in the right leg as well due to a serious accident when I was young (nearly lost the leg).

spooky said:

On top of the peg.

Knee flexibility is less in the right leg as well due to a serious accident when I was young (nearly lost the leg).

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needs to be on a tip

This is what I was taught (poor sound quality but it’s exactly what he taught when I attended).



I get the point made in the video about being able to turn your foot and point your knee out, although his foot is still mostly on top of the peg, but I just sat on the bike and tried it and it makes zero difference to me as I simply cannot spread my legs that far apart. Primarily a restriction in the groin area and something I’ll need to work on to improve flexibility.

Probably worth adding that I could carry far more corner speed considering how little lean angle I am now using and I expect my knee would be down at that point regardless. I saw some video taken from behind me during the summer and I was only a few cm from the ground while not making any effort to turn my knee out (although body position was worse and I was using more lean).

panibadboy said:

something your country pioneered and excelled in

half of your women are active porn models anyway, so dont complain

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Man you’re obsesses with paying for sex and porn. Sad. Also I wish half “our” women were active porn models. Alas, half our women are morbidly obese and the half of the remaining are just average…

Still not sure why Spooky is running slicks in novice especially when he can’t even get a knee down. Slicks are probably more of hindrance than helpful at this level. Might be worth taking a step back to Rossi Corsas or Supercorsas which would probably generate more grip at his pace.

As for the inflexible hips, maybe Pani is onto something and you need to venture out to the FKK club Yoga is probably the best way to gain flexibility and static strength and balance for trackday riding

Also I’m not posting this to troll or put a dig in. Sometimes if you’re not progressing as you’d expect you have to take a step back to re-evaluate things. Get back to basics and simplicity and re-establish a good baseline. It can’t hurt. Would also start reading books on moto suspension and geometry so that you can stop relying on suspension experts at the track.

I’d bet with the slicks your bike geometry is off. I thought I saw spooky not running Pirelli slicks so that rear is most likely going to be smaller circumference/diameter (55 vs 60) than stock which will cause rear ride height/rake/trail to be off. Reverting to the stock tires will at least allow you to test this. Even running Pirelli slicks will throw off geo since they’re 125 and 65 (CoG, wheelbase, anti-squat, trail) will all be a little different

His tire wear is fine, so nothing wrong with geometry, nothing wrong with grip, temperatures and etc.

Slicks vs non slicks right now, in his situation is just $$ question. If money not an issue, don't change yet another variable you got used to.

panibadboy said:

His tire wear is fine, so nothing wrong with geometry, nothing wrong with grip, temperatures and etc.

Slicks vs non slicks right now, in his situation is just $$ question. If money not an issue, don't change yet another variable you got used to.

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The bike is track only and pressures are good when I come in. If not using slicks has been suggested then I have no idea why. It turns great, stops great, goes great and always feels stable and confidence inspiring - there are no issues caused by the bike.

The primary reason for not getting my knee down is as I have stated - flexibility. As an example, the right leg I damaged - I am unable to put put my right ankle on my left knee when sitting due to restrictions in the knee joint. I don’t think I can do much about that. No problem putting my left ankle on my right knee. My ability to spread my legs is very limited but I believe that can be improved.

I see people with their knee down going slower than me through turns. I also have a huge amount of lean angle available now that body position has improved – down from a maximum of 54° to a normal now of 44 to 46 at faster lap times. I need to carry more corner speed and use that lean angle that I’ve gained.

spooky said:

I see people with their knee down going slower than me through turns.

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This should tell you something… Increasing corner speed isn’t going to help you. If anything it’ll hurt you. Minimizing lean angle and corner speed is the best thing you can do at a trackday

spooky said:

I am unable to put put my right ankle on my left knee when sitting due to restrictions in the knee joint. I don’t think I can do much about that. No problem putting my left ankle on my right knee. My ability to spread my legs is very limited but I believe that can be improved.

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Isn't that more of a hip thing? What panibadboy was writing about getting your foot on the end of the peg will make it easier to open your hip angle more. You want your foot to be at an angle similar to what your thigh would be when your hip angle is open at its widest position. If your foot is on the peg parallel with the centerline of the bike, it will be difficult to open your hip wide enough. Sit in a chair with your feet straight on the floor and see how far apart you can spread your knees. Now try with your feet at a 45 degree angle.

bp_SFV4 said:

Isn't that more of a hip thing? What panibadboy was writing about getting your foot on the end of the peg will make it easier to open your hip angle more. You want your foot to be at an angle similar to what your thigh would be when your hip angle is open at its widest position. If your foot is on the peg parallel with the centerline of the bike, it will be difficult to open your hip wide enough. Sit in a chair with your feet straight on the floor and see how far apart you can spread your knees. Now try with your feet at a 45 degree angle.

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I get that. As I said earlier, I tried it on the bike again and, no matter the angle of my foot, I cannot open my leg wider. Hip mobility is the primary issue. I’m sure that can be improved with some regular effort.

I’m not concerned about getting my knee down again for its own sake - I’ve seen very fast people that hardly do it and slower people that drag their knee everywhere. I’d like to have that reference point though as I think it will help. I suspect it will happen anyway with more corner speed / using more lean angle again, but there’s a significant physical limitation at the moment.

Current V4 tank doesn’t make it easy to get your butt off the seat. It’s too wide and doesn’t scallop enough as evidence by the tank change in 25

64cm apart (centre of each knee) with feet forward and 65cm with feet pointing out. I’ve noted this so I can refer back to it and see if I can improve it. I’ve no idea what’s normal or ideal in this regard.

Left foot naturally points out a bit but the right one that was broken points directly forward due to how the break was fixed - my knee hit the corner of a bus in a head-on collision on a motorbike when I was 16 and shattered the bone about one inch above the knee joint, bone sticking out the leg, etc. There was no way to bolt it together so they drilled a hole through my shin, put a metal pin through and hung a weight off the end of the bed to hold it in place while they waited to see if the bones would grow together, so the leg ended up shorter and with the foot straight.

I had a major operation every week for two months, which was fun. I was very lucky to keep the leg though - apparently they told my Mum that they were going to give it one more hour to see if there was some circulation and if not then they would amputate. My heart had to be restarted on the operating table as well. Lucky to live with the amount of blood lost and very lucky to keep my leg.

That’s nothing to do with hip mobility though, although the right hip mobility is much worse than the left (also had an operation on the right hip some years ago due to a bone spur on the ball joint).

Be safe just saw news of the flooding in my newsfeed

bp_SFV4 said:

If your foot is on the peg parallel with the centerline of the bike, it will be difficult to open your hip wide enough.

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I was watching the WSBK and, because of his white boots, it was easy to see what Bautista was doing with his inside foot. He puts it up on the peg and it looks like he does what Corser taught - wedged into the join of the holder and peg, so it’s not flat on the peg but it’s not on the end of the peg.

I looked a bit more online and Jack Miller and many others do the same thing. He’s getting the leg angled out but doing it with the inside of his foot up against the bike on most occasions. When he wants to reach out with the knee he rolls his foot rather than turning it. I guess with these guys they want the inside foot completely out of the way considering how much lean they use.





I’ve noticed lots doing this. And plenty doing it the way Pani mentioned. There’s more than one way to skin a cat…

Of course, these boys have flexibility and core strength. Without that I guess the end of the peg into the outer side of the sole allows you to turn the foot rather than rolling it.

Sitting on the bike and trying both methods, getting the inside foot wedged in actually feels good - very stable and connected to the bike and I can get the knee out as far as I am able. I’m working on hip mobility and that’s the limiting factor.

I suspect that I’m only getting my foot on top of the peg and not up and wedged in fully, again due to hip mobility (on the problem right side it’s actually quite difficult to get the foot up high enough to easily put it in position). I could lower the pegs but if I can improve flexibility then I shouldn’t need to do that.

Hopefully I can manage to get on track somewhere reasonably warm over the off season - it’s horrible to think of not getting out on the bike again until May…

You can still do Mugello Nov 1-3