#Yamaha R6

[cafunes-world]

Atmosferi delmeye gidiyorum 🏍️ vın vın

[lawya]

Be careful, I could be obsessed with you 🌒

Instagram: Law_ya

[crownmoto]

[strawberryjayne]

Saw this beauty today :)

[sevi-just]

I love saying i am broke and then pulling up with not so broke things.

[serenityon2wheels]

Smoothness

During the course of the track school they talked about the fact that we shouldn’t be trying to be fast but instead we should be trying to be smooth because smooth is fast. For me personally, it was all about dragging my knee. Even though it is not necessary to drag one’s knee to be fast for me it was definitely a milestone I wanted to reach. I also had the false impression that because I had been riding for years everything was going to came naturally to me and I would be faster than anybody else in no time. The reality was however that things did not come to me naturally and I was by no means the fastest guy out there, in fact I felt slow.

Being in this school made me realize that as a result of learning to ride on my own and never having gone to a school I had developed bad riding habits. So not only did I need to learn new skills I also had to resist my bad habits. And although I was trying to be a conscientious student I was trying to be fast not smooth. As soon as we got to the session where we discussed body position I was trying to drag my knee even though unbeknownst to me I was not sliding off the seat nearly enough. Every session I went out I was doing my best to stick my knee out in hopes of touching the asphalt but to no avail.

It was not until I stopped trying to drag my knee that I actually dragged my knee. I finally stopped trying to force it and started to put into practice the skills we were being taught. I started to focus on being smooth and on being consistent rather than being fast and then it happened. I shifted my body off the seat as I approached a turn and looked up ahead to the exit and all of a sudden I felt it. At first I didn’t recognize it. It took a while for it to register and then I realized what had just happened. I had dragged my knee. It was truly a joyous moment.

This is probably one of the most dramatic lessons I have learned on the track that has translated to life in general. I have found that if I stop trying so hard to obtain something and instead focus on the things at hand that eventually one day I will all of sudden wonder what was it that I just felt and then I will realize, oh yeah, that’s serenity. One of the things that I strive for these days is to be of service to others and I have found that if I focus on being of service to others what I get in return is an incredible amount of serenity.

I used to think that in order to have serenity I had to meditate and clear my mind which is the traditional conception of serenity but what I have found is that if instead I take the actions which focus on others instead of myself the end result is serenity. Speaking of meditation, some may think that riding a motorcycle at the race track is an inconsequential pastime but for me it is the most effective form of meditation and it produces an incredible level of serenity. Some may think that motorcycle riding is motorcycle riding is motorcycle riding but for me that is not the case.

As a matter of fact, today, and this is fairly common among track day riders, I ride less on the street than before I started riding at the track. Oh sure I still enjoy the weekend rides on the local roads. One of the great things about living in the bay area is that just minutes away are some fantastic back roads, hwy 9, hwy 35 (Skyline) and hwy 84 just to name a few but riding on the street is just not the same once you have ridden at the track. If you ride at the track often enough eventually you will reach a level of riding in which you are no longer thinking as you ride but more so repeating things that you have done so many times that now you do them without thought.

There is a concept in martial arts called mushin and simply put it is action without thought. Now we are not talking here about acting impulsively or blindly reacting to something. Mushin has to do with the fact that in martial arts you practice to a point that you no longer think about your movements. The same can be said about riding at the track. At some point I was riding without thinking. Now that is not to say I was asleep at the wheel on the contrary because riding at high speeds on a technical track requires a lot of focus but you have been practicing the necessary skills so many times that you are riding without thinking about the skills you are using.

When one is on a spiritual journey there is a point at which it is said one is rocketed into the fourth dimension. This means different things for different people, for me the awareness of another dimension comes about as a result of a change in perception. When I came to know a new attitude and a new outlook on life then I became aware of this other dimension. When one is on a two wheeled journey at the track at some point one is rocketed into another dimension as well and again it is a matter of perception. What at one point seemed scary fast is no longer scary and in fact one reaches a state of mind in which time seems to be passing at a different rate.

Originally I of course wanted to be fast and with practice I became faster. That first time I dragged my knee was magical but when I reached mushin my whole focused changed. It wasn’t that I wasn’t trying to be faster but I was riding because of that wonderful feeling I got when I was riding. It is such a liberating experience that I just can’t get enough of it. If I could afford to do track days every weekend I would but unfortunately my finances don’t allow it. It’s also the same reason I don’t race. I have toyed around with the idea of racing at times and even took the new racer school but I can’t afford it. It reminds me of a documentary I once saw on new motorcycle racers. In it a rookie racer asks his friend who had been racing for a while how much racing was going to cost and his friend replied, “Everything.”

[wat5055]

does it get any better than bikes by the beach on an old Nikon super CCD?

[boanerges20]

MotoCockpit/Instrumentation/Gauges. Yamaha R6.

[alphalosophy-official]

We call it, the "Twink Magnet". #justSayin

[motorlarisevenkiz]

[lawya]

Our definition of what to do on weekend 🙌🏼

Instagram: Law_ya

[crownmoto]

[serenityon2wheels]

Concentration, Relaxation, and Breathing

Now let's talk about some of the skills that one must practice in order to be a smooth rider. I will start with concentration. This may seem a bit contrary to the concept of mushin since the goal there is action without thought but in reality it is not contrary because we are not talking about the thinking component of concentration but rather the exclusive attention to our riding. We need to be keenly aware of the road ahead of us because we are moving so fast that reaction times are that much more important. We also must pay close attention to what we are doing as a rider in order to improve; we must identify our weaknesses and replace those with the appropriate skill.

On a leisurely Sunday ride on one of your favorite back roads you can take in the scenery, the smells and enjoy the sensation of the wind rushing past you. On the track however, your focus has to be on what is ahead of you and not just ahead of you but you must learn to look farther ahead than you are used to. You don’t want to be looking around or thinking of what’s behind you. In fact, when you prep your bike for the track you will either tape your side view mirrors or remove them entirely. That way you can concentrate on what is up ahead. That split second that it takes to look in your side view mirror may be the split second you need to avoid an accident.

At first this level of concentration will be exhausting. When you are new to the track you are learning several skills in a short amount of time. Every time you go out on the track you are trying to practice the skills you’ve learned so far as well as a new skill you just learned in your classroom session. It’s a lot to take in. Eventually however due to practice you will no longer be thinking about it but doing it so it will require less effort. In fact, once you reach a certain level of proficiency what used to be incredibly scary will now be incredibly exhilarating and you will find yourself trying to go even faster than you have ever gone before.

You will also find that in order to reach greater speeds you must become more relaxed, hence the saying “smooth is fast.” There are two ways to get around a track, relaxed or white knuckling it. By white knuckling I mean that you are muscling your way around and your knuckles turn white because you are holding on so tight. You are exerting more energy than necessary in an effort to force your bike to do what you want it to do and you are more than likely breathing heavily or holding your breath during those particularly tense moments.

In recovery circles white knuckling refers to abstinence without a working program of recovery. You are using every bit of will power that you have to not drink; you are hanging on for dear life. You may not be drinking or using drugs but there is no serenity or if you do experience moments of serenity they are fleeting. Some would call such a person a dry drunk. I went through such a spell once and I found myself to be restless, irritable and discontent. At the time I did not realize that I was a dry drunk but looking back in retrospect I can clearly see it.

Unfortunately while you are in this state the ones that you hurt are the ones closest to you. You are going about your business thinking everything is alright not realizing how you are affecting those around you. If you are muscling your way around the track and being inconsistent then you are putting other riders at risk. If you are muscling your way through life and being inconsiderate then you are hurting your family and friends. It is not until you stop doing it on your own; you get an instructor and follow instructions that you will go from white knuckling it to riding relaxed. Just as you will not come to know serenity until you get a sponsor and work the steps.

I really had a hard time with this in the beginning because as much as I was trying to do what I was told I was letting the urge to go faster take over. I was doing exactly the opposite of what I should be doing. That which I needed to do most, relax, was the hardest thing to do of all. It was a great hurdle to overcome. During my first track weekend there was an experienced rider out on the track and he knew it was my first time. Whenever he passed me he would flap his arms to remind me to relax because I was going into a turns with locked elbows. Instead of leaning forward on the tank I was bracing myself as I applied the brakes because I was afraid and at that point I really didn’t know any better.

I also have to constantly work on my breathing. Breathing is a strong indicator of my level of relaxation. If I am relaxed I will inhale and exhale at regular intervals. If on the other hand I am tense and muscling my way around the track I will most often than not be holding my breath around turns and will subsequently tire faster. It’s funny because breathing is something we are constantly doing and not thinking about it but when it comes to relaxing when doing something strenuous we have to focus on our breathing, at first. Then once we have done something so many times that we can do it in a relaxed fashion we no longer have to think about our breathing because we are now doing it naturally.

In the rooms of recovery there is something that are known as “the promises”. One of those promises is that if we are painstaking about our development we will come to a point where we will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. How exactly does that come about? Remember mushin? It is action without thought. And how do we respond appropriately without thought? We do it by having practiced the right response so many times that eventually the appropriate response comes intuitively, without thought. And this again can be one of those magical moments where at first we do not recognize what it is we have just done. Then on looking back at the situation we realize that “hey I did the right thing without thinking about it.” How cool is that? How cool is it to suddenly realize that you just dragged your knee and you weren’t even trying to do it? It’s as cool as it gets!

Concentration, relaxation and breathing are all very simple concepts. It’s easy enough to focus our attention on something but to breathe and relax while going 100 + mph is not so easy. In fact we become so focused on hanging on that we hold our breath and tighten up, which is the exact opposite of what we want to do if we want to be smooth. Same as in life, sometimes we becomes so focused on something it consumes us, we neither take the time to breath nor are we relaxed. In our efforts to maintain the illusion of control we do things that are contrary to what we want to accomplish and unless we have the guidance of a sponsor to point these things out we do not even realize what we are doing.

Sometimes even when we are totally aware of what we are doing we do it anyway. Take for example the concept of spiritual progress in its simplest form which is the idea of doing the right thing. When I was in early sobriety there was a time when I did something not so right and immediately after doing it I thought to myself, “oh man. I am going to have to talk to my sponsor about this”, which I did. Eventually I didn’t do that anymore because I knew it wasn't the right thing to do. So it is at the track. An instructor will point something out. I then know the right way to hang off the bike and the not so right way to hang off the bike. Even though I know this I would repeatedly go out and fail to not hang off the bike properly. At times I even thought what I was doing was right but it wasn’t. As hard as I tried it wasn’t working. Eventually I did it right. And what had been holding me back? Fear. That is what it all comes down to. In order for me to relax I have to get over my fear and I get over my fear with practice. I also have to stop doing things my way and do it the way I am shown.

In terms of spiritual progress, it was fear that was influencing my actions. I didn’t want to lose what I had and so I let that fear dictate my actions. Eventually I didn’t engage in that behavior because that was not the man I wanted to be just as how eventually I overcame my fear of hanging off the bike because I wanted to be a better rider. As I put the skills I was taught into practice came the familiarity of doing things the right way. With familiarity came confidence and with confidence came a lack of fear.

[nightmarewhooves]

Yamaha yzf r1

[sacredchaoss]