Editor
John Ulrich
Design and Illustration
Joe Spencer Design
E-Book Layout
Torrey Spencer
Assistance
Judy Code – E-Book Edit and Life Support
Donny Greene – Wile E. Coyote
Laura Orozco – Eagle Eye Proofreading
Inspiration
Marcel Duchamp – Words Into Motion
L. Ron Hubbard – Key to Life ™ Course
Doug Chandler – #1 His Way
Copyright 1993-2013 Keith Code
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Revised for Vol. 2)
Code, Keith
A Twist of the Wrist
Vol. 2 has imprint: Glendale, CA, Code Break
Contents: v.1. the motorcycle roadracers handbook — v.2. The basics of high-performance riding.
1. Motorcycle racing — Handbook, manuals, etc.
Doug Chandler. II, Title.
CV 1060.C53 — 796.7’502’02 — 82-73771
ISBN: 978-0-9852001-2-1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author.
Produced in the United States of America
Distributed by:
California Superbike School, Inc.
940 N. San Fernando Road
Los Angeles, CA 90065
800 530-3350
www.superbikeschool.com
Warning: Riding and racing motorcycles is both fascinating and exhilarating, partially due to the fact that you risk injury or death by your own or other’s errors and actions while doing it. This book is not intended to nor does it claim to remove any of the potential dangers of riding motorcycles. It is in fact possible that reading and applying this material could lead to increased exposure to any or all of the potential dangers of riding motorcycles. This book contains a written account of observations made by the author and others; based on their personal experience.
The author and others acknowledge the fact that they have ignored, or were possibly unaware of dangers to themselves, and may have been in the position to observe these things only because they knew it was dangerous, and even desired that danger; and accept no responsibility for your individual application of the contents of this book which might result in any harm, injury or property damage to yourself or others.
Always wear protective riding gear and observe local speed laws. Consult your state approved licensing program for proper riding procedures.
The information in this book got me where I am now in roadracing. From what I can see, the whole idea of this book is for you to apply it to your riding, as I do. A lot of the things might look too fancy for the street but mostly they apply to both street and track.
Some information that people tell you just gives you a headache, but Keith’s ideas teach you how to think for yourself. Over the seven years we worked together we didn’t have it all written down like this, so it should be easier for you.
No one likes to think that panic reactions can take them over, but you need to look at it as a barrier to be overcome. Once you see these mental blocks written here you’ll recognize them because they happen all the time and that’s where your mistakes will come from.
In lots of ways I’m just now getting comfortable with different parts of riding and I’ve been doing it for over twenty years. Don’t be in a hurry, I’ve seen guys in a hurry and they don’t make it. You’ve got to get these ideas firm in your mind and then get comfortable with them in your own style, no matter how long it takes; because if you don’t get these ideas, you won’t get any further.
Doug Chandler
Foreword
Author’s Note
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
The Enemy — “Survival Reactions”
The seven Survival Reactions (SRs) that don’t help you survive
SECTION ONE — THROTTLE CONTROL
CHAPTER TWO
Throttle Control — Rule Number One
Control and stability starts with your right wrist
CHAPTER THREE
Throttle Control — Suspension and Traction
Unraveling the mysteries of suspension by tuning the rider
CHAPTER FOUR
Throttle Control — Everyman’s Ideal Line
What’s my line? At last, an answer to the age-old question
CHAPTER FIVE
Throttle Control — Get It On
Reducing the risks by understanding (and taking a few)
CHAPTER SIX
Throttle Control — The Force
It’s all in the mind: Think slower go faster
SECTION TWO — RIDER INPUT
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rider Input — Riders Create More Problems than Motorcycles are Designed to Handle
Your bike may be trying to get rid of you
CHAPTER EIGHT
Rider Input — Holding On
Handlebars are a control, not a worry bar
CHAPTER NINE
Rider Input — The Problem of Stability
Wiggles and shakes: Work less — get less
CHAPTER TEN
Rider Input — Riding and Sliding
Let it slide: Overcontrol bites the hand that feeds it
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rider Input — Man Plus Machine
How would it feel with a 150 lb. sack of jelly on your back
SECTION THREE — STEERING
CHAPTER TWELVE
Steering — The Forces to Beat
Shaking hands with confusing forces puts you in control
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Steering — Steer for the Rear
Look behind to find out what’s happening in front
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Steering — The Rules
It’s done to a turn, when you flick it once
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Steering — Lazy Turns and the Turn Scale
The lean-angle credit department pays big dividends in spare degrees
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Steering — Strange Lines and Quick Turning
Do it now, and do it quick
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Steering — The Key to Speed
Visions of traction-eating monsters and decreasing radius turns?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Steering — The Three Tools of Turning
Pinpoint eleven major decisions by deciding to do it there
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Steering — Pivot Steering
Power steering, your new factory option on any bike
SECTION FOUR — VISION
CHAPTER TWENTY
Vision — Lost in Space or Too Fast for What?
Look at it this way: It could get a lot worse
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Vision — Reference Points (RPs) Revisited — The Missing Link
Blast a hole in your tunnel vision: Take a wide-screen view of things
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Vision — Wide Screen Control: Different Drills
Try not to see it all for one minute — I’ll bet you can’t
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Vision — The Two-Step
It’s a dance you do with curves
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Braking — Nothing New
There’s nothing easier to make more difficult
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Traction — Pros / Cons and Uses
Too much of a good thing can make you dull
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Racing — The Tools and Goals
Get the parts right, get your times down and beat some guys
APPENDIX:
Rider Checklist
Race Day Record
Glossary
Margin Notes and Comments by Doug Chandler — Three-time US Superbike Champion
Chapter-end Comments by Donny Greene — Five-time US 250 GP Champion
The 10 years between the publication of the first TWIST book and this one were exciting ones for motorcyclists. That volume was my first attempt to create a technology of riding. I knew there was one, it was simply a question of finding it. And TWIST had been well received worldwide, mainly because it provided riders with a format for discovery and thinking about their riding; it was a useful first step. But A TWIST OF THE WRIST VOLUME II contains more real riding technology than A TWIST OF THE WRIST VOLUME I and it addresses the source of our classic rider problems. Let me tell you what I mean by real riding technology.
I want to outline the different categories of information you might receive about riding your bike. There are four; remember them. Each piece of info that comes your way will fall into one of these categories.
“You don’t know how fast you can go until you crash.”
“Wait till the other guy brakes and count to two.”
“Keep the rubber side down.”
“Be smooth.”
“Go wide around that bump.”
“Try this section in the next taller gear.”
“You always use a later turn-entry point for a decreasing-radius turn.”
“Going off and on the throttle in turns affects suspension compliance, reduces traction and makes the bike run wide.”
True technology has broad application and regularly resolves riding problems. It contains a basic understanding of what the rider is trying to do and forms a constructive bond between the rider and the machine’s dynamic requirements. Countersteering is a perfect example. (See Chapter 12 for a description of countersteering.)
Practically everyone learns how to ride without any understanding of countersteering, but the moment it is fully comprehended and applied, it opens the door to vast amounts of improvement in every possible situation that requires steering the bike. Countersteering perfectly matches what the rider wants and needs with what the machine wants and needs. That’s what I call technology. Do you see the difference between that and useful tips or friendly advice?
I’m not saying there isn’t a place for tips and advice, because there is — when they demonstrate an understanding of honest technology in practical application. Then a tip or piece of advice becomes a useful tool. But I’ve listened to many sincere words of advice on riding, most of which were worthless.
To the enthusiast rider, motorcycles are all about discovery and challenge. That hasn’t changed in the over 100 years motorcycles have existed, and that won’t change as long as there are motorcycles. Riders still regard their time in the saddle as a quality experience. There is adventure in every curve of the road, every freeway ride, every twist of the wrist. And unlike so many things in life which become boring once they are understood, just the opposite occurs when a rider begins to grasp and apply the technology of riding. The technology of riding opens the doors of discovery instead of closing them.
A German philosopher named Schopenhauer once stated, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”Riding technology has undergone this same process.
Going through a set of esses on my 200cc Ducati in 1960, I discovered countersteering. It scared me. It didn’t make any sense and I never mentioned it to anyone until the 1970s for fear of being told I was nuts. Countersteering didn’t become a piece of understood technology until 1973, during an international conference on motorcycle safety held in San Francisco. There, Dr. Harry Hurt and a group of Honda researchers each presented technical papers documenting how countersteering worked and how its conscious use could benefit motorcycle riders by making it easier to avoid collisions.
The countersteering researchers had opened the door to riding improvement for everyone. But I also remember the upsets and arguments created when I tried to explain countersteering to a disbelieving veteran with 20 years of riding experience.
Similarly, it was a long-held belief that using the front brake was out-and-out dangerous. This “advice” was given freely, especially to new riders, usually by salesmen at motorcycle dealerships! In some circles you could almost get into a fistfight about it. Now, of course, “everyone knows”the front brake has the lion’s share of stopping power.
In 1976 I claimed that racers could improve by simply understanding more about riding. I wrote up several short bulletins, mainly useful tips, which seemed to work for myself and others. When it leaked out that I was having my students look up words in a dictionary and demonstrate these written ideas with drawings or small objects on a table, I was openly criticized by many of my fellow racers. But these students began making big improvements in their riding. In fact, they averaged 7 seconds a lap faster. But it wasn’t until a brave young journalist and racer named John Ulrich took the program in 1977 and publicized his findings that it got even a nod of recognition from the racing community. The rest, as they say, is history.
In this volume are a few more key pieces to the puzzle.
PS: You’ll note that key words are defined in the Glossary in the back of this book. Knowing the true meaning of each key word as it is used in the text is essential to understanding.
Since my first motorcycle (1957), machine evolution has been staggering. Bikes are lighter, faster and handle better; tires are stickier and suspension systems more compliant. But after 30 years and over 125,000 students as headmaster at the California Superbike School, I still see the same riding problems in the 2010s which existed in the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, even though our Superbike School equipment is over 70 mph faster than it was 30 years ago, student lap times before training have improved only by a few seconds on the average. This fact, when compared to the racer’s typical lap-time improvement of 12 to 15 seconds for comparable equipment, brings up a number of interesting questions and answers to the subject of high-speed riding.
Machine technology has moved ahead of most riders’ ability.
What stops riders from being able to use this clearly improved bike technology? Current tire grip alone is probably worth 5 seconds of improvement. What are the common barriers which hold them back? There must be something, if so many are uncomfortable at speed. Can more education in riding techniques alone overcome the barriers? The 2010s rider already knows more than did his early 1980s counterpart. Does more track time handle it? My experience says it is not guaranteed by more saddle time. Does the desire to go fast put one rider over another in his quest for speed? No. I’ve had potentially talented riders, who wanted nothing more in the world than to race, not make it. Seems pretty grim for the would-be racer, doesn’t it? (Just hold on a moment.)
What I have discovered is that 95 % of my students reach unexpected new levels of confidence after only half a day of classroom plus track training, and half of them can be coached to a high degree of technical skill in two days; provided they ride at about 75 % of their limit. What happens after 75 %? Everyone agrees, in some fashion, Survival Reactions (commonly known as fear) are the ever-present barrier to reaching their goals. Once the standard riding techniques are understood, this is the one button (also called panic) that nearly everyone pushes, at their own personal limit. This agreed-upon fact is what ruins riders’ attempts to reach the goals they have envisioned for themselves. It ruins self-respect, confidence and trust in oneself in the process.
“I call it the Mental Speed Block.” — D.C.
“The last thing to try is charging the turns.” — D.C.
Survival Reactions not only consume your $10 worth of attention, they are the cause of your riding errors.
The idea (from the original A Twist of the Wrist) that everyone has just so much attention (like money) to spend on the actions of riding has not changed. If you start out with $10 in your pocket and spend it all, you are broke and having no money causes its own kind of panic. Having no attention left to perform the needed actions while riding; like target fixing on some object you don’t want to hit, and then hitting it because that is where all your attention was spent, always creates some panic. All riders, at one time or another, have overspent their “$10 worth of attention” and Survival Reactions, like fear and panic, are the direct results. In this book we figure out how to cheat (or raise the limit of) and defeat the major source of riding problems, your panic button. Spend your attention wisely and push the button lightly.
“Start with easy braking and get the line to prepare for faster entries. Try to get comfortable with corner speed then get the entry speed up.” — D.C.
“Something like the Carousel at Sears Point with all those bumps can get your attention and you want to use the brakes but, it will lock up too easily. You spend too much on them.”— D.C.
D.G.
“This book is a great tool for helping you to understand what can push the “panic button”. Learning and practice will allow you to “push back” these barriers and open up more room for having fun at any speed.”
Donny Greene at work. With 5 National 250 GP titles to his credit and six years as guest instructor at the California Superbike School, Donny’s comments are a welcome addition to the text.
Survival Reactions are truly automatic because they originate from a source we do not consciously monitor. For example, we do not have to monitor our eye blinks (to protect the eyes) when something unexpected happens. However, the reliability of these reactions is subject to question when one either freezes (another reaction) or reacts inappropriately. Survival Reactions are not totally healthy. I watched a rider crash in Turn Nine at Riverside Raceway (a four-lane,40-foot-wide, banked turn with a steel boilerplate wall on the outside) on the bottom or inside lane, 10 feet from the grass. The rider then ran completely across three lanes of track, to the outside of the turn, to a 5-foot wall, “to safety,” on a hot (open for practice or racing) track.
Survival Reactions (SRs) come from our instinct to avoid injury but often cause the opposite. There are seven classic SRs riders should know about.
Devices and mechanisms have been designed to reduce injuries related to these reactions. A workable example is the friction-reducing metal or plastic skids on glove palms which minimize sprains and breaks resulting from riders extending their hands to “cushion” the impact of crashing — one of the classic Survival Reactions. Anti-lock brakes provide a high-tech solution to excessive, Survival “Reactive” braking. To a degree, sticky tires provide a cushion for over-braking and sudden extreme lean angles.
Each of the common, garden-variety Survival Reactions most of us have can either cause or contribute to crashing. On the less dramatic but very important side, they are the source of 100 % of all rider errors. They do, in fact, ruin your riding. Let’s look. On a motorcycle, Survival Reactions have specific results. Each carries with it enough force and command value to change the rider’s mind and control actions. Take, for example, rolling on/off the throttle while cornering. My survey of over 8,000 riders concluded that not one of them ever intended to roll on/off; that 100 % of them intended to roll it on, throughout the turn, as their basic plan. Something changed their minds. Rolling off the throttle is Survival Reaction (SR) # 1. Survey shows it to be the front line of defense when any circumstance triggers an SR. The standard SR triggers are:
In too fast
Going too wide
Too steep a lean angle
Concerned about traction
Bumps, traffic and others are secondary sources of unneeded throttle roll-off. That riders most often realize the roll-off was not necessary, right after doing it, is also further proof it was an automatic SR. Ever happen to you?
Survival Reactions (SRs) usually effect the arms first. Your arms control: steering, braking and throttle and influence handling.
The enemy is tough but limited in number:
Everyone has had all of the above happen to them. Are they automatic? Take tightening on the bars as another example. Do you command your arms to tighten up, or do you find they have done it on their own? Do you choose to have your attention narrow and target-fix? Did you over-brake on purpose?
Whether for a real or an imagined reason, anything that triggers one of the above Survival Reactions (SRs) is an attempt to reduce or avoid injury. None of them work in harmony with machine technology or rider control. In the following chapters we will see how to defeat them.
D.G.
“It’s great that these things have finally been pinpointed, and instead of just being the adverse affect of them, everyone can now see what they are. Instead of just continuing from one SR to another, perhaps now riders can use this information to nip them in the bud, before they become too dramatic. After racing for 13 years I hate to admit that even I have them, but it’s like a little devil on my shoulder, they keep popping up. Now you can head them off at the pass.”