Do you ever re-think routines that you do during your motocross riding? Like, I always lubricate my chain, check tension, check sprockets and get my air pressures set the night before I ride. I also religiously fill my tank up to the top before every ride because why not?
Well, I'll tell you why not!
So I've been struggling, really badly struggling. Few months ago I almost gave up riding I was so frustrated. Life was treating me badly, had no money to ride, no medical insurance either. When your on such a negative tone, its hard to think positive and really try to get better. When I got back on the bike again in November, I was blaming the bike for everything that was wrong because honestly, just a few short months earlier, I had ridden a lot better. My friends were over 10 seconds a lap quicker then I was, which in the past was never the case, so something was wrong. Yes they probably got better, but I should have as well.
My new years resolution this year was to figure out what was wrong no matter what and fix it.
The first thing I did was get a base-line. I rode a few weeks, got back up to speed and then set some base laps. I got a laptime number and started writing detailed logs. When reading the log's, I noticed most of my complaints were related to understeer, the front always wanted to wash out on me, the rear always wanted to slide out on me. Knowing my suspension is in tip-top shape, I started by putting on some new rubber. I changed brands so that would help get rid of the stigmatism associated with the Bridgestones. I went with Pirelli MX32's, which are a medium/soft compound. Nice tall knobs and a very linear feel to them. My first day on those tires, I dropped 4 seconds in my laptime. I felt substantially more comfortable/confident in the front end and of corse the rear, but I was still 6 seconds off the pace.
Still frustrated, I just pushed harder and harder, but that just led to more mistakes being made and slower laptimes, I still wasn't falling into the groove. Then, as if destiny set in, all of a sudden the bike became easier to ride. I mean literally, few sessions earlier it was hard, then it was easy all of a sudden. I didn't know what to make of it, it caught me off guard entirely and all of a sudden I was clearly turning way quicker laptimes without using the quickest line on the track! As the day went on, I got quicker and quicker until I thought to myself, holy $^!% I haven't put gas in the bike all day!
I pulled off the track, took my helmet off and nearly cried!!! All this time, I had been filling up the bike every session. Full tank putting weight on the front end, an extra 15lb or so. I had been doing this religiously since I first started riding because as a true beginner, it was nice to have the extra weight over the front end. But now that I know how to put my balls in the tank, I didn't need that extra weight anymore, it was simply bulk. With the lighter tank, the bike was much easier to ride, everything from the understeer problem to rut management was pretty much all remedied.
Of course, I figured this out at the end of the day, I was tired, put in a few more laps and went home. But holy $^!% what a discovery, I am flabbergasted it was that simple and I honestly can't wait until next thursday. I'm gonna start using those quicker inside lines more, now that the understeer issue is gone and see if I can drop even more time. Still got 3 seconds to kill... but by looking at the video's and analyzing, its clear those 3 seconds are clearly lost from simple line choice and NOT clearing the biggest jump on the track (because it was messed up that day).
Here is my latest episode of MX The Beginning where I go over the new Pirelli's and discuss some of the speed increase.
Thanks for reading, enjoy!
), but so far (knock on wood), I've always had a few drops sloshin' around after a moto.....
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