Hi All,
On my solo ride yesterday I was thinking about how much my recent track day had improved my confidence and general bike handling skills on the street. I also thought about how some of the attitudes and skills practiced could be detrimental to safe riding (at least without the proper attitude and mental framework). I want to know what you all think about this and whether you have developed track habits that were detrimental to safe street riding.
So for me, in the positive camp.
- I learned the limits of myself and the motorcycle - I no longer have to search for those on the street. Hey I got slower after my trackday! :ride
- In combo with proper suspension setup - I am much more planted in a corner
- Much more confident in my ability to make safe mid corner inputs and trail break if absolutely necessary (this rarely happens to me on the street)
In the negative camp:
Mostly it's a matter of reflex training and habits that are not good to carry over to the street (this is, as always, just my opinion not a statement of fact, so feel free to disagree)
- Knowing the track well enough to throw the bike into a blind decreasing radius corners at speed
-As opposed to reading the vanishing point
-As opposed to never out riding sight lines
- Trusting, hot sticky track rubber that does not usually get to that temp on the street
-I know; learning to read traction is critical and is learned best on the track
- Incrementally moving breaking markers closer and closer to the corner and trail braking
-This was the hardest thing for me to do at the track because of 15 years of always getting my breaking done way ahead of a turn with the old slow in/fast out philosophy