smoothrideronli

I am in wonderful ATL about to head to my third Schwantz School. I am running late...more details after the school!!

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HondaGalToo

Awesome! Do keep us updated.

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“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

MotoVegas

Sweet!

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Enjoy my pics

Enjoy my crash

Enjoy riding with Whip and I at SMMR

smoothrideronli

I will write all about it tomorrow...too tired...must sleep...

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smoothrideronli

I will write all about it tomorrow...too tired...must sleep...

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Hammer

You said that twice

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SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES. NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS

ONEvcs

It's been happening to me too. The damned post just seats there, not going anywhere, so I hit the button again and it shows up twice.

HondaGalToo

The 6 million dollar question is did you run the old or new configuration?

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“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

smoothrideronli

Old configuration. The asphalt on the new section has not cured and I am not sure we would be running it if it did. Looking at it firsthand it seems a bit dangerous, but thats just MHO. If you get in too hot there is a concrete wall that you will run straight into. Even though the whole point is to slow the riders down and you should be braking in that area, if you have a brake failure...

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HondaGalToo

Thanks, I hope they continue to run the old config. I haven't seen it in person, but from the pictures I've seen, both changes (new turn 12, and the chicane over by turn 3 or 4) just look unsafe and ruin the flow. IMHO.

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“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

smoothrideronli

Someone asked about the change in configuration and you should have seen the look on...(I wont say the name) the persons face. Its obvious that the change is not liked at all.

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ccwilli3

you can say that again...

BTW: Eat poo and die.

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Cleaver, a film by christopher moltisanti and carmine lupertazzi

smoothrideronli

Love you too...btw I am going back during the summer...

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ccwilli3

what date?

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Cleaver, a film by christopher moltisanti and carmine lupertazzi

smoothrideronli

The same weekend of the AMA races there.

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ONEvcs

Keep going like that and that Little scratch on the beemer is not going to be noticeble...

smoothrideronli

This is the third time in the last year that I have attended Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School. This school is taught by former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz and is one of the first steps you can take to becoming a licensed racer.
We drove into Oakwood Ga on Sunday and got a good nights rest in prep for the morning class. On Monday morning we saw all the instructors that helped us from previous schools. Ted Cobb, Opie Taylor, Mike Martin, etc…all great current and former racers. Of course Kevin was there as well. The entire staff was friendly as always and we went through registration and orientation fairly easily. We split the class right down the middle and separated ourselves in two groups. There were 15 returning students out of 34 so we moved through the curriculum fairly quickly. There were a few former racers, and a lot of track day riders. We ran into 4 people from NY and one from Jersey. The class was a mix of men and women which included a very fast young lady that was a former racer.
Getting back on the track everything became immediately familiar. The track is basically 12 turns, some of them are extremely challenging. Turn 1 is a sweeping right hander that you can carry a great deal of lean angle and speed into. Perfect place to drag your knees. Turn 2 is a slight left that goes into turn 3 which is a bit deceiving because it appears to be sharper than it is. Coming into it at speed it looks like a 90 degree turn, but hit your entry point and apex just right and you will be surprised how much speed you can carry from the transition from 2 to 3. Three is a left hander that you typically drag a knee on. Then there is 4 which is a slight right that leads into esses. Typically you will be in third gear the entire time from turns 1 through 5. Entering five which is a bumpy left hander you drop down into second while transitioning from one side of the bike to the other which if you don’t have your coordination down can be very tricky. Then back into third gear and up to fourth if you carrying enough speed. Then you downshift again into third for turn 6 which is a right hander…oh and also I didn’t mention that if you are brave enough you don’t touch the brakes from turns 1 through 6. Only engine braking and a lot of nerve. Turn 7 and the brakes finally get some attention. Turn 7 is a tight right hander that you take in second gear and you have to turn in late to get the best drive for the long straight. Turns 8 and 9 and taken flat out and honestly I don’t even count them as turns. Turn 8 is a slight left (I think and 9 a slight right). Now turn 10a is critical to getting around the track at a good pace. You approach turn 10a in 6th gear revving about 14,000-15,000 rpm which means you are going pretty fast (the speedometers are covered), and you brake hard and downshift into 2nd into 10a, which is a left hander and then 10b which is a right hander. A quick short shift into 3rd at turn 11 and then you approach the downhill. Now the downhill is tricky. To get the proper line the way it looks at the top of the hill is you are driving off into the grass since you cannot see the bottom of the hill. It is intimidating. I have turned a bunch of laps at Road Atlanta and I still can’t bring myself to go full throttle out of 11. Turn 12 is a right hander that goes into the front straight…you are either in third or fourth depending on your preference and your speed…and then the whole thing starts all over again. There were a few track changes that were made in the name of safety due to a crashed suffered by AMA rider Miguel Duhamel last year. They added a chicane between turns three and four and also changed the direction of turn 12 in order to slow the bikes down. Thankfully the asphalt on these turns didn’t cure and we did not have to use new turns. For the most part everyone agrees that the track changes were a bad idea and may have even made the track more dangerous. The instructors didn’t discuss it but among the students no one seemed to understand the reasoning there was behind the changes.
The bikes we rode were brand new 2008 Suzuki GSXR600s. The bikes mechanically were little changed from last year but had revised styling and also a 3 mode power selection switch that changed fuel and ignition maps that altered power delivery which seems completely useless on a 600(we didn’t use it). My bike (#24) had about 400 miles on it when I started and were only used in one prior school. The handling was quick and the bike dropped into corners almost too quickly compared to my 1000 and it took a few sessions to stop myself from making my lines too tight. The motor was the same motor from last year have a strong pull from as low as 8000rpm all the way to the 16000rpm redline. Anywhere below that and the motor would bog slightly and you would lose ground on whoever you were following. The bikes were all safety wired and had a Yosh slip on exhaust but were otherwise stock, which doesn’t mean they weren’t capable. As much as we pushed we still hadn’t come close to scratching the surface of the capabilities of these bikes. The track will make you realize how much more potential your bike has.
Tires were Michelin Pilot Powers and they were impressive with the grip and feedback they offered. The tires on our bikes were used for one previous school and they still gripped like they were brand new. I also noticed that while last year the tires that we used had significant blistering, but these tires did not. I am not sure if they changed something with the tire or there was a geometry change with the bike, but I ran significantly faster at the track this year but the tires seemed to hold up a lot better.
I made a brake lever adjustment on the bike and that’s all I needed to get comfortable with the bike. With my height it I would have probably benefited from adjustable rearsets, but I made do with what I had. We tried to stick with the same bike every session...it may just be superstition, but I wanted to bond with my bike (#24).
The instructors were on GSXR750s from lat year but they have some 2008s on the way. These bikes were the only bikes with lights and mirrors. They were also equipped with two way radios that allowed the instructors to communicate with each other and also the track workers. Despite being a year old and flogged from all the schools, the 750s still pulled hard and you had to work to keep up with them.
In the classroom we had Michael Martin who has numerous national championships and also makes great sound effects when simulating bikes. Since passing this class would give you certification for a racing license we went through the different flags that would be used at the track which is a mandatory requirement.
Attending the school with me were my friends R2 and Neil both of whom I ride with in NY. . The instructors split the class right down the middle into two groups of 17 so one group would be on track while the other would be in the classroom. The first session Neil and I lined up with the middle line (intermediate speed) at the request of an instructor who wanted me to show Neil around the track since I am a repeat student and he was new here. Now the track group is divided in three lanes, 1 being the fastest and 3 being the slowest. The instructors remembered us so no matter what lane we would line up in it seemed that we always were the fastest people on the track. Our first session started at a relatively slow pace to get the rust out and to show the proper lines around the track. I found myself a bit anxious and continually pushed the instructor to go faster which wasn’t the best thing to do but I seem to be able to work at two speeds. Fast and stop…I began to work on that throughout the school. But as mentioned earlier that was the last time I had to worry about pushing the instructor…they had their fun with us and made us work to keep up.
As the school got underway the instructors realized that splitting the class right down the middle wasn’t the best idea since there was a huge speed disparity on the track. We often found ourselves coming down to turn 6 or 10a and have to brake line a madmen to avoid the group crawling through the turn. After the reclassification myself and my friends wound up in the A group which is the faster riders. Once that was sorted the faster people gravitated towards one another. This being my third time at the school in a year it was fairly easy to pick up where I left off. I had plenty of speed but my limiting factor was my body position. When I hang off the instructors pointed out that I was twisting my hips and pivoting instead of moving sideways. Twisting my hips made it difficult to get my knee down and I had to work too hard to get the bike to turn. It wasn’t a factor until we stepped up the pace and either I had to carry more lean angle or hang off more…since more lean angle meant more time on the side of the tire and also the possibility of losing grip it would slow me down. Twisting my body made it awkward to hang off properly and I wound up thinking too much to be smooth. So I worked on moving my body to the side which actually felt a lot more comfortable. I also worked on weighting my outside peg to gain traction (another school technique) even though I was leaning to the opposite side.
I had a few mishaps as well but nothing too serious…in one particular track session I turned in too soon in turn 5 and wound up running up on the curb on the inside while the bike was leaned over which put me waaay off line and I had to pull over to change my underwear before the next turn. Also the blind downhill entrance to turn 12 caught me once running wide and heading to the aforementioned grass.
The instructors were amazing. I remember hard braking into turn 10a and seeing Lee Acree diving inside of me as I was braking hard and thinking, “he isn’t going to make it” and somehow he got that bike slowed and into the corner like he was taking a stroll in the park. Lee ran the camera bike and he would take some footage that was crystal clear and the sound is amazing. After most sessions the video would be brought back into the class and critiqued by the instructors and the students. The footage will also be used to create a DVD of you doing a lap of the track. I am looking forward to the DVDs that they will send us in a few weeks.
The last session I went out with my friend and one instructor. Since they knew us from previous schools and it being the last session the instructors were determined to have a bit of fun with us. Lee Acree on one of the camera bikes came past and the instructor that we were riding with waved us past him and then it was on. I ran with them through turns 1 through 5 at the fastest pace of the entire two days. Turn 6 approached and they were still on the gas hard. They went through the turn dragging knees and although I was pretty good through this turn I was approaching this turn in third gear almost at redline (16,000rpm) which is faster than any time before that. I kept telling myself…the bike can make it (recalling one of slides shown in the class session stating that when a bike enters a turn 90% of the time, the bike can make it). I lean the bike over…the front pushes a slight bit due to my unrefined throttle control and then the bike settles in, I hit the apex and the bike pushes out right at the exit cone…turn 7 comes up and of course I mess it up and I lose them. I finish up the rest of the session working on body position and go back with the original instructor. Overall out of 34 students I was in the top 4 in terms of speed. Truly a fun class.
My biggest problem I had was my body position in the turns. I tend to twist my body off the bike instead of moving laterally. After the instructor identified that problem I felt significantly more comfortable and I believe I broke through the barrier that was holding me back from going faster. I am looking forward to our next class in September and also getting my racing license. Schwantz School is an excellent start for someone that is looking to get into racing or someone that just wants to improve their ability to ride a motorcycle.

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bwhip

Great report. Thanks for sharing, and I'm happy to hear of your continued progress, particularly the breakthrough you seemed to have regarding body position.

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smoothrideronli

Thanks. Now I need to make it to Grattan to show off my mad skillz!!

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HondaGalToo

Better hurry, cut-off is May 5th! Glad you had a good time at the school again!

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“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

SheepOfBlue

I believe that is cutoff to meet the minimum (which still needs to happen).

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way

HondaGalToo

Yup, I know.

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“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

DEPO

I enjoyed your report....

Funny thing is some instructors swear by the "rotate around the tank, theory."

I will have to play with this some this season. Cause I belive I rotate around the tank.... for the very little that I move off of the bike.

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Welcome to the Dance!

SheepOfBlue

Just getting your head and shoulders out would still move your weight to the inside and down. It would seem that is still an improvement that will aid speed

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way

bwhip

These guys seem to agree...

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