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Mike, the way things are looking now, I may be trying to bump youth the bed of the truck.
You really only need one, maybe two, crashes for 'street cred' purposes. Anything more than that is a waste.
Still, I've fallen over a few more times, and taken away something from each. Learn what you can from every situation in life.
Cliff's Cycles KTM
NETRA enduro B-vet
Close your eyes, look deep in your soul, step outside yourself and let your mind go.
LRRS Am #331
Graphic Tailor / Woodcraft / Armour Bodies / Suomy / Cycle Performance Autobody / Shorai / ChickenHawk Racing
how did this thread go from "do you need to crash to become a better rider?" to "here's where Brett needs to crash to get street cred"?
-Pete LRRS/CCS #81 - ECK Racing, TonysTrackDays
GMD Computrack Boston | Pine Motorparts/PBE Specialists | Phoenix Graphics | Woodcraft | MTag-Pirelli | OnTrack Media
The Garage: '03 Tuono | '06 SV650
-Pete LRRS/CCS #81 - ECK Racing, TonysTrackDays
GMD Computrack Boston | Pine Motorparts/PBE Specialists | Phoenix Graphics | Woodcraft | MTag-Pirelli | OnTrack Media
The Garage: '03 Tuono | '06 SV650
LRRS Am #331
Graphic Tailor / Woodcraft / Armour Bodies / Suomy / Cycle Performance Autobody / Shorai / ChickenHawk Racing
When I was autocrossing in the 80's one of the required skills was to know how fast your car could go through a turn without losing traction. The best way to learn this was to keep going through turns each time going faster until you slid out.
You had to learn your car's limits.
How do you do this with a motorcycle?
Sam
This! Too many people view track days as trying to go as fast as they can NOW. If only they realized if they dialed it back a few notches, and concentrated on building skill rather than the speed, they'd go soooo much faster in the long run!
Ask yourself what's more important. Going as fast as you can NOW, or even faster later?
2012 Tiger 800 XC
growing up in Greece (always a few years behind) thats exactly what we were practicing. I guess its pretty similar with the bikes.. maybe not always in the track.. for example i dont think you can learn how to wheelie, and i mean really wheelie like go far change gears etc unless you fall..
everyone has different limits.. but finding where the limit is and crossing it successfully i think is the biggest satisfaction to any motor head..
Easing into it once you have a good base skill set. You can exceed traction limits and not crash. By first learning to be loose on the bars, weighting pegs, ratcheting the gas: you can then most likely ride thru a little slide without binning it. And rain riding helps find this at a lower speed.
Mike...i told you...remember "top gun" when Maverick was gunshy after the accident that killed Goose? he got out of it better....shot 4 migs......but he had to get the incident out of his mind first....tis all mental.
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
08 CBR 1000RR street bike
99 R6 track bike
02 F4i sold to a nesr member
I would say to be a better rider NO...to go faster YES
LRRS EX 66
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factoryeffex
I remember thinking about this a lot when I first started doing track days. I was pretty sure there was no need to crash to get better.
I still believe this. But that's a bit of a different question than "Will I ever crash?"
So, while there's no requirement to crash in order to improve, there is a certain probablity that, eventually, you will. It may not even be your fault, it's just the law of averages.
I've crashed several times now and except for one really weird tank slapper that threw me at Summit Point, I have learned something each time....
"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
Muhammad Ali.
-Pete LRRS/CCS #81 - ECK Racing, TonysTrackDays
GMD Computrack Boston | Pine Motorparts/PBE Specialists | Phoenix Graphics | Woodcraft | MTag-Pirelli | OnTrack Media
The Garage: '03 Tuono | '06 SV650
I think it's safe to say that every single expert racer, whether MotoGP or LRRS, has crashed...
...so, that suggests that while you may not need to crash to go faster, you certainly will crash going FASTER. See, there's faster. As in, faster than you went before. And there's FASTER as in FASTER than I went before and didn't crash.
Kind of like skiing. Most of us could get through a slalom without falling. And we could get though the same slalom faster with practice withoug falling. But, in the process of becoming competitive...and that may be the key factor...you will certainly push limits that will cause a crash.
"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
Muhammad Ali.
Which came first, the fast or the crash?
-Pete LRRS/CCS #81 - ECK Racing, TonysTrackDays
GMD Computrack Boston | Pine Motorparts/PBE Specialists | Phoenix Graphics | Woodcraft | MTag-Pirelli | OnTrack Media
The Garage: '03 Tuono | '06 SV650
Is it safe to say that you have not pushed your limits until you have crashed?
and with that, do you become a better rider having experienced that.
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
08 CBR 1000RR street bike
99 R6 track bike
02 F4i sold to a nesr member