Crashing on a track day - Penguin 7/15 at Canaan

[Philkinson]

While I have the attention of all you you amazingly experienced and helpful people, can anyone recommend a good way to analyze your own mistakes? what do you guys do? lap times, go pro, a coach, or just more seat time?

Don't stress any of the above yet, just get some more seat time

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[RyanNicholson]

Someone recently posted a good quote to the LRRS facebook group.... slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Tough to wrap your head around, but by riding at 80% you can analyze what works and what doesn't much easier. When you're riding at 100%... you spend half your time trying to stay in control in a panic-y state which isn't beneficial.

As far as learning... it all comes down to cause and affect. Earlier apex going around T12 = bike aimed down the straight more when you get on the gas = higher top speed before braking into T1 (for example). The trick is understanding what happened, then working back from there to find the cause. It works the other way too, figure out your desired improvement, then work your way back to see what you might be able to change to make it happen. If you can't figure it out on your own, someone with more experience probably can. Obviously the more self aware you become, the easier that process is. It takes a lot of laps to nail down all your reference points and what you're doing at each. The more familiar you become with them, the easier it is to know what and where you can make changes to improve.

[Woodcraft]

While I have the attention of all you you amazingly experienced and helpful people, can anyone recommend a good way to analyze your own mistakes? what do you guys do? lap times, go pro, a coach, or just more seat time?

A seemingly innocent post that could lead to about 10,000 words. Here's the super short version - it always comes bask to fundamentals. (1) Put yourself in a position on the bike so that you both are helping the chassis turn and you can feel feedback. An easy check is that your inputs come from your upper body when upright and your lower body at full lean. (2) Use your eyes and focus properly. Have reference points and be sure to constantly scan with your eyes (as opposed to staring) (3) Put your bike in the right place at the apex. This involves both position and direction (4) Ensure you are smooth at the controls. The initial 5% and final 5% of all your brake, throttle and bar inputs are everything. (5) Gas on, bike up. This eliminates 75% of the crashes you'll ever have. Never add throttle without releasing bar input and/or lean angle (6) Understand the WHY. This is where coaching comes into play. If you know WHY you approach a corner a certain way, WHY certain inputs or body positions help or hurt the bike, WHY different bikes do different things in different places, then you can make changes that make sense and are based on a strategy that will lead you to success.

Welcome to the journey, 28 years later I'm still learning (and as a result still doing laps around race tracks and loving it)

[OreoGaborio]

While I have the attention of all you you amazingly experienced and helpful people, can anyone recommend a good way to analyze your own mistakes? what do you guys do? lap times, go pro, a coach, or just more seat time?

As usual, Eric's response was on point.

Nearly all crashes come down to this: Motorcycles don't crash... we just fuck it up. The trick is figuring out HOW we fucked it up. One big key to that is learning from other people's fuck ups before we have to learn from our own.

[Jayspeed]

While I have the attention of all you you amazingly experienced and helpful people, can anyone recommend a good way to analyze your own mistakes? what do you guys do? lap times, go pro, a coach, or just more seat time?

Memory. Think and play it in your mind. When you do enough trackdays you can do them in your mind. I remember being able to get a small adrenaline rush from doing laps in my head at several tracks when ever I wanted. This was when I rode a lot.

[Lxpony]

What this dumbass said!!

Three track days & we're talking about buying slicks & warmers?

You probably already know this, but the crash had nothing (or at least very little) to do with your equipment. I've been racing over a decade & I don't even bother w/ slicks & warmers at a track day.

You're over thinking this. Don't think. Just ride. Relax. Breath. Have fun. Nothing more, nothing less. Namaste, muthafuckas!