Quote:
Originally Posted by dave...
My first time was in the twisties (I know... I was planning on doing more TDs later in the year but I still love the twisties). I had been doing a lot of runs that day, then finally touched down. I thought "cool", got carried away and gunned it too early during the same corner to get it down again, forgot about the dip and decreasing radius, and crashed into the mountain side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5j9SD0odJs
It took a while to get my confidence back but I'm at the point I could feel that I'm really close again. First time I did it, crash aside, it didn't feel epic or anything but it was nice to finally get that monkey off my back. Now though, especially after looking at my crash video, I'm hesitant that my foot will want to come off if I do it again even though I didn't have that feeling the first time I did it.  Should I be worried? |
You should be much more worried about your horrible body position than anything. I've never see helmet cam footage of a crossed up rider like this before. It's a neat perspective. It's distracting looking at the knee dragging, but when it yanked back like that, it was probably your SUIT leather hitting the ground vs your knee puck. When the leather touches, it will almost pull you off the bike!!!!
But, watch the video again, and you're on the opposite side of the bike during the turn. You really squeezed a TON of lean angle out of that Suzuki!!!
Don't be worried about the knee getting pulled back. What happens in real normal life, is you goto a race track, and that's where your knee touches the ground. When it does, you run a bit wide, get a shock, then come your next lap you bury that knee in the same turn triumphantly!!!
When you come in from the track, you high five your boys, possibly embrace in a few bro-hugs as well, then you stare at the knee puck for the next 40 minutes till you get another session to try at it again!!
But while you are looking at this knee puck, you'll see that it's not pressing the ground flat or perfectly. Very few people's do. This is why you have a huge area on your knees to put the pucks. So if just the top half touches (like it does for my short ass), then you move the knee puck up towards where it needs to be. This will insure that your suit doesn't touch the ground and yank your leg back again!!!!!!
Whether you can afford 1 or 20 track days a year, you can get there and make it happen. I'm sure the guys on here will help you get to and from the track. EVERYONE is looking for gas money these days!!
And more importantly, everyone is looking to help each other out. Shit, I became an online parts retailer and started my own race team with a pal so we could bring the help to new levels for all our friends and forum members!!!
I bet if you just stayed off the twisties for a few weeks, you'd have saved the gas money to goto the track. It's worth holding out on yourself for.
Good luck to you, and focus on keeping your body position good. Prior to the crash and that turn, you were kissing the mirror like a pro in most turns. That's what you wanna keep doing so it becomes second nature.
Also, use your hands and countersteering to bring the bike back up. Bringing your body over into the crossed up position obviously didnt work well for you!!
And Sorry, but holy shit bro. That was a fcuking serious crash and I'm glad to see you posting about it vs. being another statistic.
You sir are a rugged and durable motherfcuker for SURE!!!
Took me what seemed like forever to get my knees down!
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