Racing Line Down the Straight

+1 Makes sense...

 

Noone has figured out why they would do that going into a hard braking area?

I guess this is gonna be like the leg dangle thing...ahahahaha

 

I don't think any of you have thought about one things, PIT BOARDS!!! Maybe trying to read a pit board at 180+ mph from the other side of the track is a tad difficult. I noticed that they were coming in then notice that they pulled back into the race line once passed their pit board then moving back outwards. Watch it again.

 

http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=136193&page=5

 

In addition to what Karl Muggeridge said, it is also used as a defensive tactic in certain situations.

 

Well, my memory wasn't 100% screwed up. I got the right nationality for the racer and almost got the right id for Rich.

 

Your memory is pretty good! It took me two times of reading your earlier post to remember that I made that thread

 

Except the guy going for the pass!

 

I'm not fast but I'm gonna guess a combination of blocking the inside and being able to have the bike leaned over a bit to assist in "backing it in".

 

thanks man....I knew someone would get it. Riders do it to block, but .... I will arc the bike into certain braking areas cause it keeps the bike backing in to the outside and makes sure I don't do the "BenBostrom" side to side thing. Not sure why he likes that. Also, when the bike backs in....it can turn to the inside to much sometimes....kind of doing a pre-turn which I don't like in some situations (although I may do that on purpose sometimes to fix something else). So, if you arc it in like that, you can time it so it turns in when you want.

The other thing is, if you are close to the edge of the track, following the edge and it does back in to the outside, you can hang the rear end right off the track. Ive actually done that, and it still scares me whenever I think about it. Damn lucky save.

The way it loads the suspension can make the transition from braking to turning smooth to.

This pic is from a yr and a half ago....notice the darkies curving in the braking area. Barney in the backround on a similar line.

 

To brake later and use more distance to get the braking done.

 

They swerve over to get a closer look at the honkers on the umbrella girls. At least that's why I do it.

 

i thought it had to do with staying off the center of the tire during acceleration (i read that somewhere a long time ago). decreased radius of the tire getting more power to the ground. Sounds legit since they all do it.

 

Yup. Coming out of 12 at RA is a good example. If you look at the pro's they're hanging off to the left side of the bike to force the bike to go straight. I for one can never get my fat ass back up on the bike far enough and always make that weave while going past the start finish line.

I can see what D-wire is talking about but that's down the straight after you exit the corner, not during.

p.s. I think this only applies to "big" bikes. I don't think small bike have enough grunt to cause that effect.

 

I'm just a "racer dad" so beware, but it's not wrong to be on the center. However, when i did race at willow, i could hear my rpms change while varying lean in turn 2. It is slightly changing the gear ratio.

 

Leaning the bike over increases the rpm, which, if you are not already in the power band, does help put more power to the ground. When your on the straight, however, you should already be at an rpm range where your bike is putting down max power, so in this instance, it doesn't really help with that.

Like Karl Muggerige said, sometimes the bike wants to keep turning after the turn

There are also the defensive benefits that have already been mentioned.

 

Or… you could downshift.

 

True. I didn't mean to advocate leaning the bike over unnecessarily as a way of putting more power down.

 

On exit I think with the gp bikes they are focused on getting the bike accelerated out of the corner as fast as possible. Could be that the bikes have a quicker acceleration rate than they have rate of turn (front wheel is not exactly planted on the ground on exit), so they have weave to keep the power on. Or more likely trying to standing the bike up to get down the straight vertical makes the bike more likely to wheelie and kills acceleration.

On entry as others have said it gets the bike set up for the turn before the actual turn.