05/01/08 Quite a while since I've updated this particular page - mostly because it's been quite a while since I've done anything with this bike. I had intended to fix the damage from the last crash some time ago but other things have been taking priority and, well, I kind of feel ashamed riding around on a scratched up Duc. Now, however, the ragged state of this machine is exactly the reason for using it. M has just completed a Team Oregon riding course and is learning to ride. Normally I wouldn't recommend the 748 as a beginner bike, but since it's already scratched up the worry factor is relatively low and once we start doing trackdays this is going to be the primary track bike, so might as well. On the plus side, if she learns on this bike she'll be able to ride pretty much anything.

Motocorsa, the local Ducati (and Lotus) dealer, are very cool and besides being one of the very few dealers to put on trackdays they also offer discounts to people who have passed the riding course. M took full advantage of this and got a helmet, boots and gloves (the jacket we picked up when I took delivery of the Exige). So today we grabbed her new gear, bolted a SpeedyMoto clutch cover on the bike (can't install the frame sliders we picked up until we receive the smaller battery that is on order), and headed out to a nearby parking lot for practice. Impressively the bike fired up on the first push of the starter button, despite it being nearly two years since the engine last ran (I know, I should be ashamed).

I might be biased but M looks really good on the bike :) Still a bit tense, understandably, but getting less so literally by the minute. She made good progress with no incidents which is encouraging. My hope is that she can benefit from all the mistakes and hard-earned lessons I've accumulated over the years. Monday is a trackday but that would be TOO soon (nevertheless it was contemplated more than in jest), but we're shooting to have her out on the track in a month or so. We'll see how effective a teacher I manage to be. And it'll force me to go riding - something I've needed to do for a while but never seem to get around to.

05/19/08 Yesterday was a nice day and after both of us working through most of the weekend, M and I decided to finish it up with our first real bike ride. So I rolled the 900 out of the livingroom, installed a battery, woke its flatslide-carbed motor from the lengthy sleep (a non-trivial procedure), and off we went.

The hills around our house are probably the toughest riding one could do, all slow speed, broken pavement, tight sloping turns and lots of uphil starts (sometimes while turning as well). The 748 is probably the most difficult bike to do it on - high CG, heavy clutch, wide turning radius and auto-retracting sidestand that makes stopping to rest an additional challenge rather than a relief. So the start to the ride was not easy but M persevered, even with her foot still swollen and hurting from the earlier incident. Once out of the neighborhood and onto progressively more open curves of Skyline drive, things got better. I'm giving M a lot of information all at once - it's tough but necessary under the circumstances. Gratifyingly, she's making very good progress. The 748 is an unforgiving and intimidating machine to a beginner. In some ways that is a negative, but in others it's actually a plus because the bike does not hide mistakes, it points them out in no uncertain terms and sometimes rather painfully. So very often I end up saying "remember what I was talking about? - this is what I mean and this is why". As always with instruction, the teaching process is also making me really think through what I do and why. A learning experience for both of us. And it's fun :)

07/31/08 Finally another trackday for the poor beast. It is really in need of some TLC (a fact that became more apparent after I did 3 track sessions and M did 2 but more on that later). The day started out picture-perfect. We brought the Duck and the Rux hauled the canopy, seats, tools, bags, gas, change of clothes, water, Balance bars and pretty much anything else we could think of. The setup was pretty sweet and the canopy even protected us from the rather unexpected sprinkler spray from the adjacent shrubbery.

Aside from being the first bike day for M, it was also the first bike day for my friend Tito, as well as the first in about a year for David, Tristan, Ken and myself. So we were a mix of novices and very rusty kind-of-experienced riders. M, Tito and Tristan ran in the novice group and David, Ken and I ran in advanced.

I haven't tracked the 748 in two years and only had one trackday on the 900 last year. It shows. I was inconsistent and lap times started out some 4 seconds worse than the previous efforts. Nevertheless by the third session I was starting to get into the groove and while times remained pretty dismal with a best of 1:24 I was at least more comfortable.

Since M and I are sharing the bike, I would run a session and she would wait for me at the track entrance where we would switch and she'd go out for her run. I found I'm having to bleed the front brakes every 2 sessions. Guess the master cylinder is going bad, just like the clutch one did some time ago and the same way - it's letting the air into the system. Will have to get a new one but for now bleeding works. We did the switch twice, refilled with fuel (70 miles on the track goes through the whole tank) and then I went out again. This was the last set of sessions before lunch and the whole riding thing was starting to come back to me. I pull in at the end of the session and as I'm about to turn the bike over to M I notice coolant spraying inside the fairing. DAMN.

The coolant spray happened on a recent ride and I thought I had fixed it by changing a hose clamp. Guess not. It now appears that either my last crash or one of M's mishaps (or a combination of the above) had cracked the outlet tube on the coolant reservoir. One more thing to fix now. Fortunately I was able to improvise a solution with a zip tie that would keep the coolant from coming out enough to get the bike back home and grab the 900 instead. Conveniently it's lunch break anyway so that's what we end up doing. Due to both of us riding, the 748 still got over 100 track miles today. Now it needs to be fixed and the story continues on today's 900 page.

08/03/08 Now that M's first trackday is behind us and we've had a chance to look at the data, I thought it would be useful to post a brief discussion. It is a good opportunity to track the progress of a novice from the first ride to first trackday to eventual advanced rider status. Back when I went through the steps myself I didn't have datalogging available nor did I have a mentor. I did take a few schools but found them too impersonal and based too much in opinion for me as an engineer. Now that I have much more of the theory and practice figured out it is interesting to see it applied from a clean slate. M looked more confident at her first bike trackday than I did at mine 8 years ago but basically she is a good representation of a typical enthusiast novice. While I understand more about how bikes work than most (and yes that includes some professional schools), that doesn't mean I have the skill to translate that understanding into a fast lap time. In fact there are lots of people who are much faster than me by simple virtue of being better natural athletes (almost anyone is actually, all sports are difficult for me). The knowledge does enable me to teach quite effectively and M's progress will be a good test of that. She's doing quite well in cars already :)

Anyway, on to the discussion. Below are a few pictures from the trackday couple days ago.

The two pictures on the left show the posture and lean angle typical of novices and early intermediate riders. M is partly but not completely off the seat, looking through the turn, inside shoulder forward. The inside knee is still pretty close to the fairing and far from the ground. On the right is what you would typically see in an advanced group - more lean angle, body all the way off the seat, knee on the ground. However if you take a look at the lower right of the four pictures there is an example of the difference between an advanced intermediate like myself and a really fast rider (in white, behind me). While we both have knees on the ground, the level of commitment (and corresponding speed) is quite different. Yes, he passed me on corner exit like I was standing still.

Riding fast requires a great degree of athleticism, focus and a willingness to take risks and push the envelope. There is only so far one can get by being conservative. And then there is my fundamental belief that while competence can be taught, brilliance requires talent. So once a rider comes to terms with the limitations inherent in available talent and chosen commitment level, it is possible to go about achieving some level of competence. Practice is key and I definitely need more of that. But one must practice the right things.

Over the last 8 years of trial, error and contemplation I've come up with a few techniques that make riding easier (to some they come naturally, others have to specifically work on it). Now let's be clear - this is not something I invented, the better riders do all this and more every day. It's just that often it is done subconsciously without even realizing or sometimes the rider thinks he's doing something else but gets the job done despite not knowing exactly what's happening. Pre-positioning is one of those. Take a look at the rider behind me in the picture on the right. He has already moved his body off the bike but has not yet initiated the turn. This is a very important thing. The turn-in has to be very quick and precise and the difference in body position between going straight and turning is dramatic. If one tries to move the body and the bike at the same time it's very hard or impossible to do with the required speed and precision. The solution is to position the body while still going straight well in advance of the corner and flick the bike towards you with counter-steering at the precise instant to initiate the turn. This helps put the rider in full control of the bike at any speed yet I personally have never heard it talked about. I did hear people say they're steering the bike by moving the body which isn't the case - somewhere in their description you'll hear that they 'push on the inside bar' which means they're really pre-positioning the body and then countersteering without being aware of it. And yes some of those people are way faster than me.

I have stressed pre-positioning to M from the very first ride and though at street velocities it is difficult to see the necessity for it she has grasped this concept very well. Her progress so far is due at least in part to this. As rider confidence grows and speeds increase, so do the lean angles and the movement of the body becomes more dramatic. Again the picture above on the right is a good illustration of that.

Besides pictures, datalogging is a very helpful tool in learning. One might think that it's only useful once you're trying to shave the last fraction of a second off the lap time but even in the very beginning it affords some interesting and useful insight into what's going on. Below are plots of my 1:24 lap on the 748 and M's 1:48 lap on the 900 (a really fast lap on the 748 by a pro-level rider would be in the 1:16-1:17 range).

Contrary to the popular belief that it's easy to just twist the throttle on the straight, the opposite is true. Even on a mild bike like the two Ducs here (75-ish hp for the 900 and around 90 for the 748) it takes a while before one can fully twist the right grip. The acceleration is intense and it tends to pull your body back on the bike, which in turn makes the front wheel want to levitate. All the while speed is rising quickly and from what I recall of it, the initial feeling is that of being out of control. This is why M only gets to 102 mph where I hit 134. This costs her about 8 seconds just on the back straight alone (well, the back straight isn't really straight which is something that becomes very apparent on a bike as one has to lean a lot at 100+ to stay on pavement).

The next challenge is braking. It is much harder on a bike than in a car for several reasons. The main one again has to do with the shift in weight - now the rider is thrown forward and has to fight deceleration. The back wheel is the one that wants to come off the ground now so the rear brake is useless and all the braking has to be done with the right hand. Too much and you fly over the handlebars at ridiculous speed, too little and you fly off the track at the end of the straight. On top of that there's downshifting which requires throttle manipulation with that same right hand to avoid locking the rear tire. One really helpful thing here is to grip the tank with your knees and keep the weight off the hands so they can do the rest of the work. Alternatively one can pre-position for the turn and brace the outside leg against the tank for the same purpose (this is the preferred method since on the track all braking is done immediately prior to a turn).

Finally, there's turn entry where bike and rider have to go from upright to fully leaned in an instant, followed by throttle roll-on and acceleration on corner exit. M is already working on all of the above but as the traces show she's just doing a lot less of all of it than I (and I in turn am below the intensity of a faster rider). But she's doing the right things in the right places which is very good. Now it's just a matter of degree. We'll see how we both progress over time.

08/12/08 Did some much-needed maintenance on the Duc. First, I took apart the brake master cylinder (seeing how a new one is $259). It had a bunch of rust in it so I cleaned all that out. The seals seemed OK and so did the bore so I decided to put it back together and see if it's any better. Seems fine just testing it in the garage but it'll have to wait for a ride or two to see if it's actually working. Worst case I'll have to replace it later. There are no rebuild kits for the 16MM masters that I know of (only found them for 12mm and 13mm, if anyone knows better let me know).

M did her part by pulling out the coolant tank. It is not an easy task and requires much disassembly, including completely removing the fuel tank, ignition switch and a bunch of bodywork. I didn't see anything obviously wrong with the tank but we already know that it only sprays under pressure, when temps are around 180F, and even then only when hose is in a certain position. So I decided to replace the thing. A check on ebay turned up a 'new' one for $59 plus $10 shipping. Calling Motocorsa just in case revealed that the brand-new part is $49 at the dealer, no waiting and no shipping fees. Done. Picking it up I'm told someone else just got one earlier today and that several other people had to replace theirs this year. I guess they just go at this age (the bike is now 9 years old and though it only has 5,500 miles on it the majority are track miles).

After I picked up the new tank I set to work on the Atom (see its page) and M put the 748 back together. Did a good job of it, too, with minimum advice and virtually no assistance from me. She also got an appreciation of how frustrating it can be sometimes to work in the close confines of a tightly packaged vehicle :)

Too late today for a test ride but we'll definitely do one this week. Shooting for the next trackday on the 28th for both of us.

09/09/08 This stuff just never ends. For today's trackday we decided to take two bikes so we simply rode down to the track with only some basic items in our backpacks. No luxurious tent and full toolset like the last time. The weather was beautiful and the day held much promise. We were happy and eager to start.

I went out for my first session on the 900, then M and Tito went out in the C (novice) group. For the second set of sessions, when novices went out I walked over to the bleachers to watch and do some informal timing with the stopwatch. M comes around a couple of times following an instructor, then a few minutes go by without her showing up again. I'm not too worried, this is slow speed stuff and even if she did go off it's unlikely to be anything major. But still, I check with the corner workers. Turns out the yellow Ducati is parked at the end of the straight - the oil light came on.

M shows up shortly afterwards having gotten a ride from one of the corner workers. The oil was changed very recently and there was no drippage in the catch pan (she checked) but maybe it's low anyway? We buy a quart of oil (having neglected to bring our own) and she goes back out to the bike to top it up. We get the bike back to the paddock but the oil light still flickers despite the oil level being on the high side. After some discussions about what it could be (maybe just a sensor failure, I'm told it's not uncommon for them to go and it IS a 9-year-old bike), I run out to Motocorsa and buy a new pressure switch, a new oil filter and some more oil. With the switch installed the oil light goes out! Seems we're all set.

The next session we set up video and GPS on the 748 and M goes out... Not to be seen again. Damn! Yes, corner workers tell me, the yellow Ducati is once again parked at the end of the straight. When M gets back it turns out the bike just lost power and started rattling horribly halfway down the straight so she pulled off and parked it. Video, with full view of the gauges, shows exactly that - no missed shifts or any mishandling on her part, the bike just quit. Oil light did not come on. Well the good thing is that she was able to handle the emergency and deal with it properly. The bad thing is that she rode the bike to the track and now we had no way of getting it home.

Fortunately we had pitted right next to the guys from SDS Performance who, not having room in their van for one more motorcycle, were kind enough to lend us a ramp and tiedowns. I called Satya and he came with his pickup to retrieve the 748 from turn 1 (this is the second time!). Not having the time or energy to mess with it myself, we took it to SDS for diagnosis. We'll see what they say. Probably won't be cheap.

This is on top of everything else that's been happening lately. Sigh.... I'm ready for things to get easier. Just a little, even. But, gotta keep on keeping on. All in all it could have been much worse so once again I can't really complain. Too much.