Tim's Impossible Throttle Challenge!

If you do a superbike school you have to ride the first session using throttle control only. No brakes at all and no gearchanges. It works great on the track but would be tricky on the road. Smoothness is definitely the way to go faster, and isolating your inputs so you work on one aspect at a time is a good way to get smoother. If you really want to go faster taking a school is well worth it.

While any school will normally deliver riding improvement, however I find some of the Cal SBK School "Doctrine" to be untrue. Like the one that says, if you have the bike balanced on the throttle (ie;no engine breaking and no power input to the rear wheel) that at full lean a bike cannot lose traction. Get fucked it can't! Ask any half decent racer.

There were a few other things in that course which irked me too.

As far as a learning experience goes, one of the best schools I have seen, is also one of the most unassuming and relaxed days I have been a part of. That is the Preston Motorcycle Club's Bi-annual road race school. It is a combination of classroom and track experiences, as is the SBK school, but, it is delivered by current national A graders who really do know there shit and can fucking ride!

Last Cal SBK School I did, one instructor on his FIM 750cc SBK (an Ex PTR Bike) couldn't keep up with me to give me any tips. The next instructor, who was a mate of mine, had an R1, so he came out to help. He crashed on lap three trying to catch up to me! I was only doing 1"46's, as I hadn't ridden on a track for 7 years?????

I want someone teaching me, who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk!!!

Opening and Closing throttle while maintaining the constant speed is something I have been used to from riding the Royal Enfield bullets. The older Bullets has a cast iron engine, which were prone to overheating on long trips if you keep the throttle open for a long time. So through out the journey you would have to maintain your highway speeds constantly while letting the engine 'breathe' by easing on the throttle at times.

If you see the corner from a distance, you can adjust your speed and do not need to brake for the long corners at all (unless it is a really sharp bend). That's also throttle control skills being utilized.

I was once advised by a veteran that you should not accelerate unless you really need to. Aka, short bursts of high acceleration through a twisty is gonna cost you more time because you have to brake around every corner to cut the speed off. The secret is to maintain and control your speed through controlling your throttle. This will result in needing to brake less.

I used to cut off speed around a corner using Engine Braking during some TDS rallies I took part in. Effectively slowing the vehicle down, (but blipping the throttle to ensure that my rear wheel isn't locking up) then use the lower gear to exit the corner faster. Again, this does not really help much during tight U-turns, although combining normal braking with engine braking is considered a good practice by many.

But always remember, your bikes' brakes have more stopping power than the engine does. aka, the engines were designed to get your bike moving, while the brakes were designed to make your bike stop. So if you are new with motorbikes, let them do their own job for now.

Last Cal SBK School I did, one instructor on his FIM 750cc SBK (an Ex PTR Bike) couldn't keep up with me to give me any tips. The next instructor, who was a mate of mine, had an R1, so he came out to help. He crashed on lap three trying to catch up to me! I was only doing 1"46's, as I hadn't ridden on a track for 7 years?????

LOL...WTF were you riding mate?

an 05 636

I like it. I will try it. I get the maintenance throttle idea, or balanced idea. I still find myself closing the throttle fully, and the new 6R loads up the forks and makes the bike heavy and lethargic. I'm looking forward to reading part 2.

I hear you Strika. Last time I was at the island Mick and Valentino were guest instructors. I was on my Gpx 250 which had a bung coil and was only running on one cylinder, it was snowing from memory too. Hence why I was only doing 1:31s that night. They both binned it trying to follow me and give me much needed tips. Hard to find good advice and riding tips these days .