#track days | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

serenityon2wheels · 1 month ago

Text

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.”

#encouragement #inspiration #meditation #motivation #positive mental attitude #recovery #self help #self improvement #motorcycle #motorsports #yamaha r1 #yamaha #yamaha r6 #track days #serenity

3 notes · View notes

serenityon2wheels · 1 month ago

Text

Track Days

My spiritual program requires that I work with a sponsor and even though I did not know the man that was to become one of my sponsors we found to both have a love of racing. I don’t race per se but once I started using a lap timer at the track every session was a race to be faster and my sponsor understood this for he did race. Once we had done the completion of our steps our conversations almost entirely dealt with the experience of riding at the track. Even though he raced Go Karts and I ride a motorcycle our experiences were similar. We frequently made parallels between humility, acceptance, ego, perception, and a myriad other things that we experienced both in life and at the race track.

Having been granted a second chance and experiencing a spiritual awakening I wanted to share this with others. I will attempt to share with you my experiences at a psychic level as a rider and how the skills that I practice at the track are similar to the skills I practice in my life today.

In the spring of 2003 I finally did something I had wanted to do for years, I took my motorcycle to the race track. I got my first motorcycle when I was 8. I wanted a mini bike as far back as I can remember and that day when my dad showed up with my Sear's mini bike was one of the happiest days of my life. We were living in Santa Ana, El Salvador at the time and my dad had come back to the states to pick up the rest of our stuff. Before leaving my dad had asked if there was anything I wanted him to bring and of course I had asked for a mini bike. I was sitting at the dining table with my mom and my aunt when a large grasshopper flew in and my mom said it was an "esperanza", which is hope in Spanish. It meant something good was in the future. Moments later we heard the sound of a small engine as it approached the house. It was my dad wheeling the mini bike from the truck. I was so excited I was jumping out of my skin.

These Sears mini bikes were a low budget alternative to a true mini bike. It basically consisted of a 5 HP engine, a box frame and a metal plate that served as a brake for the rear tire but I didn't care. To me it was a mini bike and when I twisted the throttle it raced forward.

At first, I rode it at my dad's coffee mill. There was a large brick yard where the coffee was laid out to dry and my dad would let me ride around. As I got comfortable I started going faster and faster and soon I went too fast. The combination of loose coffee beans and the medieval braking system sent me skidding towards a wall. There was a step just a few feet before the wall so when my front tire hit the step the front tire popped up. The mini bike went in one direction and I went the other.

My dad had been watching so he was walking over as I got up. I was crying but he told me I was fine and to keep riding. I muttered that I didn't want to ride anymore and he said, "Fine. I'll get rid of it then." To me that seemed a heartless statement. Didn't he see I was in pain? How could he say such a thing to me? He knew I loved that mini bike. My dad was not being heartless however. He was teaching me that when you fall of the horse, you get right back on it. And right back on it I did and I was just fine. That was a great lesson for their would be more crashes to come, many more.

Those that ride have probably heard the saying that "there are two kinds of riders; those that have crashed and those that are going to crash." Of course that is not true. I have known riders that have never crashed but if you ride and if you like riding fast there is great probability that you will at some point crash. In fact at the New Racer School the saying is "if you are going to race you are going to crash”. As for myself, I have crashed many times and every time I have gotten right back on. Granted, there has always been a level of fear to overcome and I no longer ride with the level of disregard for crashing that I once did but I am still riding and I still want to go faster.

I had not once thought about the fact that my dad was watching while I was riding. It wasn’t until this moment as I was writing this that I thought about the fact that he must have been having a great time. Today I know exactly how he felt because it's the same feeling I get when someone shares with me their first track day experience. I enjoy riding at the track so much that whenever I meet a fellow rider I always ask if they have been to the track. If they have never been I always tell them they have no idea what they are missing out on. I know because I had no idea what I had been missing out on until I did it for the first time.

The very first time I did a track day I asked myself why I hadn't done it before. It's the same experience for most people that start doing track days. Once you've done it you can’t get enough. I basically spent every dollar I could afford and then some on my new found love. Unfortunately the big obstacle for most people when it comes to track days is financial, between registration fees, tires and incidentals one can spend thousands of dollars a month.

It is totally worth the money though. You just can't get the same experience on the street. Oh sure you can go out and push it to the limit on your favorite twisty but you are basically taking the risk of serious injury at every turn and you are putting others on the road at risk as well. Track days involve risk as well but you are doing it under controlled conditions and everyone out there has signed the same waiver you have.

Track days are organized events. There are corner workers at several turns on the track who warn riders of potential hazards. There are grid workers that control the number of riders that enter the track at any one time. There are ambulances on standby so that injured riders can receive medical attention as soon as possible. The track is only open while there is an available ambulance. Amazingly enough most crashes do not involve serious injury. The majority of times the rider can get right up and dust themselves off. Unfortunately the motorcycles suffer the brunt of the damage so after a wreck if your motorcycle doesn't pass tech inspection your day is done.

I have wrecked twice at the track. The first time was at Thunderhill in the rain. Track days are rain or shine and when I was new I would do as many track days as I could which meant riding in the winter. This particular track day was my first track day in the rain and I figured if I could get my tires warmed up enough before the track got too wet I would be okay. Unfortunately I was trying to do too much too soon. The bike was all over the place.

I had no traction at all and as soon as I entered turn six the rear tire washed out and that was the end of it. I was not going very fast and probably wouldn't have sustained much of an injury if it were not for the fact that my left leg got caught under the bike as we went sliding along. When I came off the asphalt I popped up but my leg was still under the bike so my knee twisted. I didn't break anything or do any serious joint damage but the knee swelled up like a volley ball and I was in bed for a week but at least I didn't need any surgery.

My second wreck was at Laguna Seca years later. That was a very foggy morning. I actually took a picture while I was waiting in line for tech inspection because it was so foggy. We had our first session after the riders meeting but the visibility was so bad that they shut down the track. We had to wait around for about an hour before they opened the track again. When the track opened again I did two slow laps like I usually do to warm up my tires. I remember how good it felt to be out there riding and how comfortable I felt on the bike that day. At that point I had been doing track days for a few years and I was fairly confident with my skills.

Everything was going great, the fog had cleared, I felt good, the bike felt good and I was done with my warm up laps. I remember thinking, "here we go" as I exited the Andretti Hairpin. I accelerated fairly hard as I came out of turn three and traction felt good. It was on! I leaned a little harder on the tank, dropped my knee and then it happened. I heard the rear tire spin out. I thought to myself, "that's not good" and the bike started to fall over. I thought it was going to be another low side. A low side is the safest, if there is such a thing, of the two types of crashes. In a low side you lose traction and the bike falls over and you and the bike go sliding along which is what happened to me at Thunderhill. Riders that low side usually get up, dust themselves off and are good to go.

A high-side on the other hand is a much more violent affair. When my rear tire spun out I lost traction and the bike started to fall over but then the tire regained traction and the centrifugal force of the tire acted as a spring. In an instant I was flying over the bike and then slammed onto the asphalt. As soon as I hit the ground I thought, "Oh that’s going to be bad". And it was. I had separated my shoulder.

People say that when they have a near death experience their life flashes before their eyes. Such has not been the case for me. I have been in five serious crashes, twice in a car and three times on a motorcycle and my life never flashed before my eyes. In my case things went into slow motion and I was totally aware of what was happening and of what I was thinking. I was not freaked out by what was happening it was all more matter of fact. It was almost like watching a movie and being in it at the same time, like a conscious dream.

As I was tumbling along the ground like a rag doll, arms and legs flailing every which way, I wasn't trying to stop myself or trying to hold in my arms. I'd heard that the reason why drunk drivers sometimes don't sustain serious injuries is because they don't tense up at the moment of impact. They don't react because of the sedative effects of the alcohol. In my case however I was keenly aware of what was happening and told myself to stay as lose as possible and I may not break anything. I completely let go. I am still amazed that as quickly as everything was happening that I was actually thinking about what was going on.

And just like that my track day was over. Funny thing about that was that during the track shut-down I was talking to a friend on the phone and I was commenting that you really shouldn't be crashing at the track. I was telling him how if you ride within your limits you should be fine. What I was being was judgmental. I was saying this because pitted next to me were a couple of bikes that were totally thrashed and I was thinking that was totally unnecessary. That day I learned a lesson in overconfidence and humility.

This was coming from a guy who years earlier had wrecked at the track because he was riding beyond his abilities. :-) I really had no idea how these guys had crashed. Maybe they were just a couple of yahoos or maybe the guy in front of them blew his oil plug or maybe someone went wide and took them out or maybe hthey got stuffed. Or maybe they didn't account for the fact that all that morning fog had made the track just moist enough to be slippery but not moist enough to look wet. :-)

Now I no longer think of track day crashes as unnecessary but more as a matter of fact. The fact is that even if you ride within your abilities circumstances can conspire against you or the other guy which can take you out as well. As your confidence builds you will push harder and eventually you will be riding at the very limits of tires and machine. When riding at those levels a few miles per hour too fast or a few additional pounds of pressure on the brakes can mean a crash.

And yet we do it again and again because we love it. There is just no other feeling like it. Track day riding, just as racing, offers one of those rare experiences where you are totally exhilarated and totally serene at the same time. When I am speeding through a turn, dragging my knee I am thinking about absolutely nothing else except what is happening at that very moment and it seems as if time stops. At the end of a track day I am completely exhausted and yet I am as happy as can be. My body is completely spent but my mind is totally relaxed. It is such a freeing experience.

My friends and I are very fond of allegories, similes and parallels and mine usually involve motorcycle riding skills and life. Like I started off writing, I did my first track day in 2003, which was a two day riding school. I was so excited the night before I could hardly sleep. Before I had been to the track I used to think that because of my years of riding experience I would go out there and be riding as fast if not faster than everyone else. I quickly found out that was not the case.

Riding on a race track is much different than riding on the street. Tracks are meant to be technical. They are meant to challenge you. They are designed for those who want to ride on the very edge of their abilities and on the very edge of the performance of their motorcycles. Track riding is also very physically demanding. It's no wonder that most world class riders have personal trainers just like any other professional athlete and that they train in the off season.

Before going to my first track day I did research online and after reading through the forums decided to do Jason Pridmore’s Skills and Techniques for Advanced Riding (STAR) School. You don’t have to do a two day class to ride on the track. You don’t have to do a one day school to ride on the track. You can simply sign up for a track day with one of various organizations and ride in the novice group. All of these organizations have instructors out on the track all day long and all you have to do is ask for help. An instructor will tow you around the track for a few laps, that’s when you follow the instructor around with the intent of become familiar with the best line around the track. He will then follow you for a couple of laps and then give you feedback.

I have always been a firm believer in taking a class when first learning to do something. I did it when I first started snowboarding and found it to be of great benefit. So if I was going to go to the track I was certainly going to take a class and from what I had read online the best thing to do was to do two days back to back. I came to see the huge benefit of that on the second day of the school. On the first day I was so stiff and a bit overwhelmed. The school consisted of a 30 minute session in the classroom and a 30 minute session on the track every hour. Every classroom session we would discuss a skill and then practice on the track. Before we knew it we were trying to do several different skills at once.

By the end of the day I was physically and mentally drained and yet I had one of the best days of my life. The previous night I barely slept because I was so anxious about the next day and I was sleeping in a motel (I rarely sleep well when not in my own bed). After the first day I was out cold at 8:30. I got a solid 10 hours sleep and felt great in the morning. Because I had slept well, I was now familiar with the track and had a few skills under my belt the second day was a huge difference from the previous day. I was riding much more relaxed and as a result was riding with a little less effort. I then saw the huge value of doing a two day school.

#inspiration #meditation #motivation #positive mental attitude #recovery #self improvement #motorcycle #motorsports #yamaha #r6s #yamaha r1 #track days #soberlife #sobriety #sober

2 notes · View notes