Robbie and I spent a few days at Calabogie Motorsports Park in Ontario, Canada. It’s a 3.2 mile playground for the rich and famous, but they let us in anyway. (I told them I was there to fix the toilets.) Anyway, we had a ball, and in keeping with the main theme of Fishtail Riding School, we ate like pigs thanks to Robbie’s wife, Lori.

Here’s my first unanswerable question of the universe: How does my 916 know to wait until it crosses the Canadian border before it rolls over and dies? For the last two years I’ve brought it north, the motor has gone to sleep with the fishes. Last year I cracked the cases. Hmmmm, apparently Ducati is serious about redlines. Just kidding. This year one of the main bearings let go. Fortunately she looks pretty sitting still in the paddock, so all is forgiven. Eric Colbath (Clubhouse Motorsports)is smart enough to know I have no business holding a wrench, so he’s taking the lead in helping me bring her back to life.

To make up for the dead steed (mare?), many people were kind enough to let me flog their machinery. Jay Frischman (European Cycle Services ) let me take his 848 out. That is an amazing motorcycle, especially the way Jay has it set up. It’s like a bicycle with a 135hp. Once I figured out the new riding position, it was extremely easy to run at a pretty good pace. I also got to ride Robbie’s 748 (now a 904cc) race bike appropriately named Orangeena. Knowing how Robbie feels about his bike, it was an amazing gesture on his part to even let me sit on it. Great fun, and I swear I didn’t rev it past 9000 rpm. I spent the rest of the time on the S1000RR that Robbie has been racing. It’s true what you’ve all heard: power corrupts.

In spite of the swath of destruction I created, I learned a lot over 3 days. Now in my own defense, before this road trip I’ve had a total of 5 track sessions this season. I’m also not used to 200hp, and certainly not on a track that will let you use it. That combination served to highlight some weaknesses in my riding. In no particular order, here they are.

Seating position. It seems I go through this every year. What feels like a really aggressive riding position on the track ends up looking like a trip to the grocery store in the pictures. It could be that I’ve lost flexibility over the winter. It could be that my muscle memory has gone on vacation. It could be I’m just lazy. Most likely it was a combination of all three. The bottom line is, without going over to the photographer’s station to look at the pictures, I wouldn’t have known. We’ll be doing that more in the classroom the rest of the season.

Early/Lazy apexes. The combination of trying to come to grips with that much power while reacquainting myself with the track led me to make the classic mistakes of apexing too early and/or not getting up against the apex mid turn. Because I was overwhelmed with the power, my brain instinctively would push the bike to the fat part of the track early in the turn because it seemed safer to be there. As the saying goes, “Turn early, run out of track early.” Predictably, I kept running wide on the exit which kept me off the throttle until I finished the turn and was pointed down the straight. What I should have done was slow the pace a little, be more precise on my corner entries and then gradually pick up the pace once I had the lines nailed (refer to the statement about power and corruption above). I fell into the trap of “I don’t need to be a good rider, I have 200 hp!”

Trail braking. I’m starting to rethink our philosophy about how and when to use the brakes. At the school we’ve been teaching you to get the majority of your braking done approaching the turn-in point and then easing the brakes off as you tip the bike in, followed by neutral to positive throttle while cornering. I’m still convinced that’s a good approach for a relaxed to moderately aggressive pace.

However, if your objective is to get around the track as quickly as possible, trail braking needs to be a bigger part of your game plan. For those not familiar with the technique, trail braking is where you carry the brakes deep into the turn, trailing off braking pressure as you approach maximum lean angle. Because you are pushing your braking zone closer to the apex of the turn, it allows you to hold the power on longer before you start to decelerate. While the amount of track you use to decelerate may not be shorter (in fact, as I think this through, it could actually be longer), you it allows you to increase the amount of track you use accelerating, so overall your lap time should be less.

Now I don’t want to start pursuing lap times at the school. For those of us that have trouble with self control, that could turn into a bottomless hole fast. However, for some of the riders in the A group, dropping lap times is a worthwhile goal.

Additionally, getting comfortable decelerating while leaned over, while an advanced skill, is certainly a useful skill. Robbie and I had a good discussion about the topic on the way back from Canada (in between discussing the finer points of The Big Lebowski), and you’ll see the fruits of that discussion in our next classes.

Speaking of which, John and I will be working on a number of other updates for the academics for the rest of the season. He doesn’t know that yet, so if you see him you may want to clue him in.

See you in the classroom.