Last time, I had forgotten a lot of how to ride,
so this time I’ll thoroughly review everything I’ve learned so far.
Also, I’d like to be able to adapt the feeling of bringing your inside shoulder closer, which we were told about at the end of the last lesson,
to suit my own sense a little better.
Orientation
This time, we had the same instructor who always helps us, but today he was sub-instructor.
The main instructor was the one who taught us the first time we took STEC.
The timing never worked out, so this was probably the third time.
There were a few regulars among the members, and we were at full capacity with 22 people.
Since it was a large group, we couldn’t expect a lot of runs.
The content is more important than the number of runs.
Let’s take care with each run.
Warming up
Today, unlike last time, it’s a clear day. The temperature gauge on the bike is 11°C.
I’ve already removed my innerwear.
Warming up begins
As usual, I run around the outside to warm up my bike and my body.
As expected, the wind is cold.
S-curve
After a few laps and making sure there are no problems with the bike,
I run through an S-curve to get my body moving.
I was near the back of the pack,
so I could see a huge snake-like line.
I think I’m in good shape today.
I can feel the tires pushing back.
Braking
This time, we’re going to review what we’ve learned so far, so we’ll focus on steady braking rather than hard braking.
About 80% of full braking, I think?
After getting used to the brakes and your body by repeatedly braking in first gear,
we’ll practice coming to a complete stop from first gear,
and then from second gear.
As always, there are instructors at both ends of the course,
to give each person advice.
The first braking of the day
from first gear.
I’m feeling great today!
Maybe it’s because it’s warmer than before.
thank you!
Next up is the course where you can shift up to second gear.
You can even do a perfect no-clutch shift!
It stops nicely, but it would be better if you put your butt further back on the seat.
Yes! Thank you.
1st gear, 2nd round
Wow, perfect!
I’m looking forward to the next turn.
yeah?
2nd gear, 2nd round
Perfect!
thank you!
turn
This time, many people wrote in their charts that they wanted to improve their ability to make small turns (I didn’t), so here we will practice making small turns.
Turn in first gear!
Huh! Really?
Turning in 1st gear
First, I’ll try 1st gear on a course with left turns.
I’ve never done this before.
I can’t downshift from 2nd gear,
so I start at full throttle in 1st gear, brake, and turn.
The turning speed is slower,
but I can operate the throttle without any jerks.
But it requires a lot of care.
I’ll also try it on the right-hand course.
The right side is a little difficult, but I can manage it.
But if I do this much,
I’m afraid I’ll get out of tune,
so I’ll switch to practicing my line while turning in 2nd gear,
as usual.
The morning ended on a good note.
Pylon Slalom
Well, the pylon slalom is here again.
Straight Pylon Slalom
It’s been a while since I’ve tried riding in third gear, swinging left and right.
When I bring my shoulder close to the pylon,
it feels like the bike is going around from the outside.
I can get through where the gaps are wider this way,
but where the gaps are narrower, it breaks down about halfway through the course.
It gets stuck.
Maybe it’s the movement back and forth…
Offset Slalom
I’m pretty used to this now.
It felt better to bring my upper arms and shoulders together rather than bringing my shoulders together.
If I only focused on my shoulders, my head would tilt too, so I focused on the vertical line of my elbows, upper arms and shoulders, which felt good.
Trusting the grip of the road, I leaned the bike and squeezed the front brake.
As my speed decreased, my turning radius got smaller and smaller, so I anticipated this and started turning a little faster, but if I wasn’t careful, I couldn’t get close to the pylon. It was a big failure on a wide turn.
If the brakes were even a little weak, I couldn’t get close to the pylon.
It was difficult.
Figure eight
This time, there was a figure eight again.
In lieu of a break, I waited in line for my turn to do the figure eight.
More than offset slalom, in the figure eight,
you have to check the feeling of the front brake rolling in and the difference in the movement of your body on the left and right before you can leave.
It’s useful for checking whether you’re riding the bike.
He followed me for two laps
After a short break,
I was silently repeating straight and offset passes,
and before I knew it, the instructor who always helps me
was standing behind me.
He followed me for two weeks in a row and gave me advice.
The problem is the straight pipe,
the timing of the operation is good, but…
Even when you look at it from the outside, there doesn’t seem to be anything that you can point out as clearly being wrong.
A Super Four would be better with more speed.
The Super Four has a larger handlebar angle,
so it might be too sharp.
Maybe it’s a good idea to decide the angle of the handlebars?
The 1100RS might be easier to use in slaloms.
I see. I’ll try a few more things.
In the offset slalom,
the brakes were weak at times,
but that was corrected in the second half.
Only a little, though.
Braking the front while turning is difficult.
After this, I tried running the straight slalom at a slightly increased speed.
Course slalom
This time, I’m feeling good,
so I’m heading into the final course slalom.
Practice run
Start the practice run at the front.
Make sure you remember the line of the instructor in front of you.
After three laps, we switch places and drop back to the middle.
We pick up the pace and do another practice run.
It’s a comfortable pace.
The rider behind me was pushing forward, so
Go forward?
No, I’m at my limit.
It’s so slippery
Now, let’s finish off today.
1st lap
After exiting the right corner right after the start,
as I braked while going into the next left corner,
both the front and rear tires started to slide!
The vibration switch kicked in, and I was touring for the rest of the race.
2nd lap
I cleared the corner I had slipped on earlier by starting to brake a little easier.
Then, I slipped on the next right corner.
That’s it, it’s done.
From the 3rd lap onwards
This time, I decided to take it easy on the first S-curve course,
and then run hard after that.
That said, I didn’t run at full speed,
but at about 80% of my speed, and I took care to run each section carefully.
After the break
Maybe it was like last time, but
the S-shaped course of the course slalom is slippery.
I can’t hold the brakes like I can in offset slalom.
Anyway, since it’s a restart,
I’ll slow down my pace for about two laps,
and then pick up the pace!
At the right time,
the instructor got behind me.
My body is moving well today.
However, I’m leaning forward a bit overall,
so I’m not very maneuverable.
But you can fix that quickly.
With the Super Four,
you can maneuver more quickly and easily.
・・・
Summary
It was pointed out that I was leaning forward when making tight turns, but this may also be the case for slalom.
Next time when I do slalom and tight turns, I will try to be more conscious of the weight on the rear tires, which I didn’t pay much attention to.
