hitting a plateau in riding an pushing through

Looking for some advice from those experienced riders. I've only been at this game for a few years. Started as a novice track day guy, started racing, became an expert. I dont have 20 years of riding on a track or dirt. Over the past few years, I've made noticeable improvements in my lap times, gained a lot of confidence on the brakes, made some good strides in my race craft.

My question is what does it take to push past a plateau? I wouldnt say I've struggled this year, but I've noticed my lap times are not being lowered at the rate I would expect. I'm not a front running expert, I have a lot of room to improve (roughly 5 second off front guys). I've been told the difference between me and the fast guys is overall speed, how do you go about gaining that? I feel I ride in control at all times, I dont really have those oh shit moments. Looking for tips to improve, from those guys that have been there, or are maybe currently in a similar situation.

 

I've been told that it takes crashing every now and again. If you never scare yourself then you're riding reserved because you're afraid to crash.

 

I wouldnt say I'm afraid to crash, I did this year in the rain, but crashing hurts and its expensive. I've also heard that, one of the local fast guys posted something about his 10th crash this season.

 

i was experiencing something similar. i was having to push a lot to make any improvements and ended up crashing too much because i was riding too close to my limit. my solution was to spend a day with Ken Hill. 4 race rounds after and i feel like im a novice again still finding easy time. im fast and safer while riding much further below my limit. there are quite a few things about riding that u might not learn all by yourself. i won novice races without instruction. but getting to closer to the front of the expert pack is a different story. awesome professional instruction will fix that.

 

gotta push your limits all the time, and yeah it can lead to crashing at times, but while your pushing limits, it becomes the new normal and soon enough that becomes your regular pace, push the limits again, brings a new pace level, wash, rinse repeat.

Just do it right the first time tho and ensure what your doing on the bike is correct, take a few ride schools and learn correct bike control/technique before you cement bad habbits that will always hinder your development.

cheers.joe.

 

Another thing I noticed and it may be discounted by some (especially those that fear futzing with their bikes) is that in addition to complacency with pushing yourself on track, is being aware of and making necessary setup adjustments to your bike as well. The better setup your bike is to ride, the more comfortable you'll be on it and the easier to make up time here and there around the track. I was kind of stuck in my lap times at NJMP for good amount of time, I made a gearing change the last time I was there and I was able to drop 1.6 seconds off my previous best ever lap time out of almost thin air. I didn't really feel like I was pushing THAT much harder, the bike just felt easier to ride and I found bits of time here and there because the bike was working better.

 

I hear ya, and I was that guy in the beginning. Now I'm turning things, changing gearing between practice rounds, changing geometry, etc. Its defiantly not an issue with the bike, or setup, I have a pretty solid idea of where the bike needs to be from track to track, and make the necessary adjustments.

 

I've taken several of the STAR schools with J Pridmore, they have helped tremendously to get to this level.

 

What do you feel is holding you back?

If you have a perspective on that, and engage a excellent coach such as Ken, the two of you can work on specific issues. When you are focusing on specific issues, the coaching becomes very effective.

Although I'm no where near your level, Ken has helped me tremendously to improve in group classes I've taken with him, making it a easy thing to pick up the pace.

 

Get quality instruction from somebody faster (and who KNOWS why they are faster...there are lots of fast guys, but not all of them are good coaches).

I was in the same boat a few years ago and basically took a year off of racing to work with JD40. He revamped my riding style completely. I had to take several steps backwards to be able to move forward. But after that year, I gained 2-3 seconds per lap at every track and most importantly, i stopped crashing because even though i was going faster, i was spending less time at max lean angle and had better control of the motorcycle.

I like to say "i dont know what i dont know". You won't get alot faster on your own doing the same things over and over. 5 seconds is alot, you won't gain that simply by braking a little deeper or getting on the gas a little sooner. It is going to take some outside influence from somebody who can pick apart your riding and make lots of small improvements.

But you are right, it is amazing how much difference even just 4mph makes. 4mph doesn't seem like much. It is easy to think "hell, anybody can go 4mph faster". But at some tracks, an average speed of just 4mph faster over the course of a whole lap is the difference between being 15th in a Novice race and winning the Expert race.

It only takes 2mph additional speed on corner entry to set off a "survival instinct". A 4mph difference is huge and it is going to take lots of small improvements to make up that kind of difference.

 

Corner speed. I used to brake at the 5 board, now I brake at the 3 board, but I think the net effect is the same corner speed. As eluded to in the post by Chaotic, it's simply pushing to go faster in the corners, which leads to overall speed going up.

 

As others have stated get some coaching. You mentioned having taken the good Star Schools, so try another good school and see if some other things click. My kid learned good things at Star, CSS and YCRS.

Yamaha Champions Racing School which was taught by Ken Hill, Nick Ienatch, Shane Turpin among others.
JD40 as Chaotic mentioned, and from what I understand he was taught by Freddie Spencer/YCRS school
Rickdiculous Racing which is taught by Ken Hill, Shane Turpin, who came from YCRS

 

+1 on school. Get to one.

Also, if you ride trackdays, stop. Travel a bit more, check out a new club, take up flat track or motocross, but keep racing.

Trackdays stoke the ego, but they also lull you into bad (lazy, slow) habits. Just my opinion...

 

Fully intend on getting a MX bike and putting that to use as soon as the race season is over and paid for.

 

Incrementally push yourself. Don't try to make huge gains, but you've got to push past your comfort zone. Spies said it best, a few years back.

If you're club racing and crashing 10x a season, something's wrong.

 

Any tips on how to do that. I feel like I can go faster, then I get to a corner, brake as normal, then drive hard out of the corner. I really feel like my weakness is corner entry

 

Not sure how you'd do it without being a rolling hazard in practice or at a track day, but Code's third gear/no brakes drill is eye opening, especially if you struggle with corner entry.

Run the whole track in 3rd as fast as you can, without touching the brakes. It will reset the "brake late, gas early" timer in your brain and show you how much corner speed you can carry. You'll also learn how much speed you scrub off from turn-in to apex without even trail braking.

 

Reference points. Brake marker, turn-in point, apex, exit marker. Find those in each turn - and begin to incrementally push your brake marker while maintaining your turn in point. At turn-in point/apex, carry more speed/feed the throttle sooner and see how that affects your exit point. Without reference points, you're relying solely on feel.

Body position plays a part as well, as Chris said. It's something I'm continually trying to improve.

Or as my dad once said, get pissed off enough at guys passing you that you f*ckin' just twist the throttle and make it happen. Sometimes that lands you in the weeds though.

 

Reference points I got. I like option 3. Lol

 

Push your limits and have fun...... Just not in Crutchlow fashion....