FAST, FASTER
PERFORMANCE RIDING
PERFORMANCE RIDING
FAST, FASTER
PERFORMANCE
RIDING
.
T
S
FA
tops when
s
g
in
n
r
a
k le
If you thin e fast group on
th
you reach
hink again
t
,
s
y
a
d
k
c
tra
R
E
T
S
FA
FLOW
S PICS BY:
JAY WILKIN
WORDS BY:
Y
ou’re fast, on it. You’re so late on the brakes
that the back wheel is off the floor, you
crank it over until the fairing touches, and
you’re so damn hard on the gas out of corners
that a thick, black line follows you all around the
track as your rear tyre clings on.
So why do you still get overtaken sometimes?
It’s easy to blame your bike, even if it’s a megatrick GSX-R1000 K6 on slicks. You tell yourself
that obviously the other chap had softer
compound tyres, or hotter cams, or less for lunch.
Once the learning curve flattens off, and
especially once you don’t get overtaken as often,
it’s easy to lose focus on improving your riding.
We’ve noticed a trend of trackday riders
hitting the fast group, and then simply spending
money on their bike to go faster. Well, this is the
technique feature you guys need.
This is the key to the next level, techniques
that will make instant improvements to speed
and smoothness even if you’re a national racer.
Best of all, they’ll really help on the road too.
Few schools in the world claim to be able to
help you much once you’re a club racer. The
California Superbike School believe they can
66
Fast Bikes February ’07 www.fastbikesmag.com
keep improving your riding all the way to your
first world championship and beyond. In 2005
head coach Andy Ibbott – who you’ll know from
our Masterclass Riding section – tutored Thomas
Luthi in 125GP, and the Swiss kid promptly went
from crasher and occasional top ten guest, to
world champion. That’s why we teamed up with
CSS to help you, and us to be honest, get faster.
Polish and myself have dozens of trackdays
and not a few races behind us, but we know
we’ve got plenty to learn and we desperately
want to be faster. We’re also cynical about riding
techniques beyond ‘try harder’, especially ones
with gimmicky-sounding American monikers, so
if CSS could work for us it could work for anyone.
Our crusade to make fast faster began with
a two-day CSS course at Silverstone, to try the
tuition available to you and learn the skills. We
also wanted to see how Andy helps Luthi over a
Grand Prix weekend when he can’t ride with him,
and we spoke to Luthi about using a riding coach.
CSS is different to every other school because
they have a set syllabus to work through,
everyone starts at the bottom, and they have one
particular technique to teach everyone. A lot gets
IMAGES
PERFORMANCE
RIDING
www.fastbikesmag.com Fast Bikes February ’07
67
FAST. FASTER
PERFORMANCE RIDING
Clue, ‘you ride one’.
Frankly, I’m stumped.
Five across, four letters,
starts with ‘b’, ends
with ‘ke’.
PERFORMANCE RIDING
looking and planning ahead, gives
you more space to work in. That gives
you more time to plan your actions,
and lets you stay calmer and more
consistent. Have you ever played Tetris
on your PC or handheld? You know
the little screen in the corner that
shows you what shape block is coming
next? That’s your forward vision. Isn’t
the game a lot easier when you know
what’s coming? Each level of the CSS
programme contains exercises to help
you develop these skills.
Stability in this sense is about a lot
more than tankslapper-prevention,
“
weigh half of your bike (or vice versa in
Moby’s case) you can have a profound
effect on its behaviour. CSS teaches
you how to relax even when you’re flat
out, be tense at the right times, and
make your body position help the bike
through a corner. All of the skills are
practiced at a steady pace, usually with
one or two gears and no brakes. Go to
a trackday if you want to hoon around,
but if you want to learn then be ready
to apply yourself patiently.
Level One at the school establishes
basic vision skills. Classroom sessions
introduce the techniques, their goals,
ANDY IBBOTT INTERVIEW
A second later, Polish shot
right up the middle of ‘em
CALIFORNIA SUPERBIKE SCHOOL UK DIRECTOR
Tutor to the stars...
FB: Which racer, not CSS
trained, gets closest to the
school’s techniques?
AI: For bike stability it’s Rossi,
and for vision too. He has
great control of the space
in front of him. He is one of
few riders with a wide view
under braking. And don’t be
fooled by his head position
that suggests he looks down
at the kerb.
For bike and body interaction
it’s Pedrosa. He’s mastered
the pick-up drill and uses it as
often as possible.
CORNERS BECOME SIMPLER,
SMOOTHER, AND FASTER
forgiven in the name of ‘riding style’,
but with a few exceptions like Mick
Doohan that’s irrelevant. CSS is based
on one correct way of riding a bike and
unless you’re whipping everyone in the
world you could benefit from it. Out
of interest, Rossi’s riding is very close
to the CSS ideal, developed by school
founder Keith Code before The Doctor
had graduated from minimotos.
Code identified three key points
that form the foundation of good
riding, and thus the basis of his school.
These are vision, bike stability, and
bike/body interaction.
Vision is probably the most
important, and the one that is of
instant benefit to the most riders.
CSS explain that good vision,
68
Fast Bikes February ’07 www.fastbikesmag.com
it’s about helping the bike stay as
settled as possible and that means
controlling weight transfer, helping
the suspension deal with bumps,
and giving the tyres the best chance
of gripping. Responsibility for
bike stability is mostly down to the
smoothness with which you operate
the key controls, and also the way you
use your body.
Bike/body interaction is about how
you sit and move on the bike. As you
”
and their applications on the road
and track. Focusing on the vanishing
point on the way out of a turn isn’t only
applicable to helping you use all the
track for a fast exit, you’ll hear it from
cops on BikeSafe courses too.
Establishing braking and
turn-in points may sound
obvious, but you’d be amazed
how often you don’t have these
fixed. I was surprised, especially
that if asked I’d say that I
definitely use brake markers rather
than simply pulling the lever when it
feels right. Getting all of these points
fixed, so that a lap becomes a precise
joining of dots, is the long version
of what’s meant by track knowledge
and it’s why riders can still enjoy an
advantage at a ‘home’ circuit. There’s
a lot more to it than simply knowing
whether it goes right or left next.
Once you have the turn-in point
and the apex sussed, you can apply
the ‘Two Step’ technique. That means
that before you turn the bike, you’ve
already moved your focus from the
turn point to the apex. On later levels
of the school, we learned to do the
same before the apex with
the ‘Three Step’, shifting
our view to the exit and
the next corner before
skimming a slider over
FAST. FASTER
the kerb. You may do it a bit now, but
it’s applying discipline that makes the
difference. Corners become simpler.
On Level Two we were introduced
to some techniques more unique to
CSS. The ‘Throttle Roll’ teaches you
to wind on out of a corner in one
smooth, constant motion. If you have
to back off again before the exit then
you either started too early or too
fast. The right throttle application
helps take you from apex to exit faster,
more accurately, and with the bike
as settled (stable) as possible. Again,
it’s about polishing what you do, not
revolutionising it.
Next was the ‘Pick-Up’ drill, which
is about getting the bike upright out
of a corner as soon as possible. It suits
hairpins and square corners more than
long sweepers. You’ll see a lot of racers,
especially Rossi and Pedrosa, doing
this. With the bike on the fatter part of
its tyre it will have more grip, and the
suspension works better when upright
too. You pick the bike up by countersteering the opposite way than you did
to turn in, so pushing on the outside
bar instead of the inside, and keeping
your body right off to the inside. By
combining this with the throttle
roll, you can be very early with
full throttle and very fast out
of the corner. Polish found
this mind-blowing, and
couldn’t believe how much
faster and safer he felt.
Level Three is all about
how you move on the bike.
The ‘Hook Turn’ body position
means doing your best John
Hopkins impression and getting
your head and shoulders right down.
Think about moving your whole body
sideways with your spine parallel
to the bike, rather than dropping
your hips in to get your knee
down. With your bodyweight low,
and looking around the turn using
the vision techniques taught earlier,
FB: And who’s the worst
rider technically?A real
seat of the pants rider?
AI: ‘Worst’ would be unfair
at the top level. A racer who
has bad vision, inconsistent
reference points, poor
position, and no pick-up
would not get to the top level.
A ‘real seat of the pants rider’
could, until they reached
their survival barrier. Then
they’d go no faster, only
crash. I’m sure there are
plenty of riders you have seen
that fit this model. (Xaus,
Haydon etc – JW)
FB: What techniques
become instinctive sooner,
and which ones do riders
have to work on more?
AI: Throttle control can be
learned quickly and made
instinctive, but like all
technique it needs to be kept
sharp with practice.
Most riders need to keep
working on their vision.
Pretty much any mistake or
inability to do something can
be related to a visual issue.
FB: MotoGP riding styles
tend to follow the CSS way
of thinking very closely,
whereas WSB styles are
far more disparate even
at the front. Do you think
that reflects the level of
each series?
AI: I think this clearly shows
the difference between
production and prototype
racing. You can get away
with more on a Superbike,
PERFORMANCE
RIDING
as they’re essentially a very
focused road bike, originally
designed to suit many
riders. Even in race trim, this
allows for many different
riding styles.
Any GP bike is designed
purely to corner fast, so your
interaction with the bike
has to be exactly right. Do
too much and it will rebel;
do too little and it will not
go fast. CSS techniques are
pure cornering skills and
because of this depth of
understanding we coach it
well for all levels of riders.
GP bikes require the riders
to have uncompromised
cornering technique.
FB: How much faster could
Pete or I be? Can you tell
what potential is left?
AI: There is always potential,
you never stop improving.
Will you be the next Rossi?
No, you’re too old. Could you
be faster? Yes.
It comes down to how much
commitment you want to
dedicate? As Keith Code
says “Riding quick is like any
other fine art. As you build
a broader foundation the
structure tends to stand firm.
The moment things become
a bit wobbly and the rider is
stressed to contain his lines
and his speed it won’t be the
next awesome, advanced
technique that solves it for
him. It will always go back to
broadening that foundation
of basic skills.”
This is where a lot of riders go
wrong. They want advanced
techniques, when they need
a more solid foundation.
This is why all CSS students,
including World Champions,
start at Level One. If you think
that Level One is below your
skill level then you already
have a problem.
Damn it, the
wind’s changed!
FAST. FASTER
PERFORMANCE RIDING
PERFORMANCE RIDING
THOMAS LUTHI
APRILIA 250GP
AND 2005 125GP CHAMP NO LESS,
USED TUITION FROM ANDY TO WIN
Star pupil...
FB: How did you first come into
contact with Andy and CSS?
TL: One of the team’s sponsors, Peter
Kern, has been to the school many
times and he said it would help me to
stop crashing as I did a lot in 2004. So,
at the beginning of 2005 in Calafat I did
Levels 1, 2, and 3.
Pushing the bike
upright, straightening
the exit, throttle
pinned. Shame Jay
wasted a foot of track
FB: What was your attitude at first?
Were you cynical?
TL: Easy, ok we do that, we try. I was
prepared to try anything to help me go
faster and stop crashing.
FB: What drill has helped you
the most?
TL: To lock into the bike with the knee
and relax my arms and hands on the
bike at all times.
FB: What do you find you still have
to work at the hardest?
TL: You need to improve all a little bit
every time you ride and when Andy
watches me ride he sees things to help.
It is not always one thing, it changes
from corner to corner.
Smooth braking has
kept the bike stable,
and Pete’s now looking
at the apex before
turning in
FB: Now you’ve moved up to 250s,
do you think these techniques will
become even more valuable?
TL: Yes, for sure. Some more than
others, but we’ll see.
70
Fast Bikes February ’07 www.fastbikesmag.com
you can really feel the bike pull around
the corner better. The difference you
can make to the centre of gravity is
equivalent to a few degrees more lean
angle in the bike. The lighter your
machine, the greater the effect. I’ve
always been more comfortable using
this position when I’m trying hard, and
this must be why.
Once you have that, you can build on
it with three more skills that use the
legs to lock you into the bike against
the tank, improving stability and
bump control. There’s also the ‘Hip
Flick’ that helps the bike stay stable yet
turn quicker by shifting your hips and
shoulders from side to side separately
in a sidewinder fashion. It’s reinforced
with a demo on a paddock stand.
When we try to move our whole body
in one go the bike falls off the stand;
use the hip flick and it barely moves.
In addition to this stability, by having
your hips to the inside before you
turn the bike it will steer a lot faster,
and you’ll be able to adopt the hook
position quicker.
There’s more to come in Level Four,
which I hope to tell you about soon
when I get a chance to complete it. And
I definitely intend to, because having
been rather cynical beforehand, Polish
and I are both completely converted to
the CSS way of thinking.
What the school does is pull apart
the cornering process into every little
thing that you do. It then teaches
the best way of doing those things,
established over many years, and lets
you practice them one by one at a
steady pace. At the end of the day you
put the corner back together again,
closer to your normal pace, and it all
becomes, smoother, easier, and faster.
What surprised me is that CSS isn’t
about radically different ways of doing
things. The instructors don’t look
goofy when they ride by the book. In
fact, they look stylish and smooth. And
fast. What it’s about is taking all the
things that you do anyway, whether
you know it or not, and teaching you
the best way of doing them. It makes
you think about how you ride, and
for anyone who still believes they
don’t counter-steer it blows that out
of the water too. The results are the
combination of many small changes.
With all of this learning under our
belts, Polish and I met up with Andy
at Donington Park to spend the day
being taught in the same way that
Thomas Luthi enjoys over a
GP weekend. Once we’d
got him to park his
hairdresser-in-arush Chrysler
FAST. FASTER
PERFORMANCE
RIDING
J’s pillion rides business was
about to take a sudden downturn
Crossfire a more tasteful distance
from our van, he gave us our first task
of grading each corner on the track
for how good we thought we were at
it. Now, I’ve done hundreds of laps of
this place, but there are still corners
for which I found I didn’t have fixed
brake and turn points and I struggle
with the slower sections. Riding our
longterm Triumph Daytona 675, I set a
benchmark time of 1m48s in the first
session, though I’m not as consistent
as I’d like.
The next exercise is to identify turnin points for Redgate, Coppice, and the
Melbourne Loop, all tricky corners. I’m
surprised that, as well as I know the
track, I can’t answer without going out
for another look. After establishing
SPEND CASH ON SKILLS, NOT TRICK
“
BITS, TO CUT SECONDS NOT TENTHS
”
them, the next session refines them
and keeps Andy fit as he pedals around
the outside of the track.
From there he says he can see the
‘Hip Flick’ working well through
Foggy’s Esses, which it is. A chicane
I’ve never liked is now a lot more fun.
He gives me a reminder about body
position, and then we set to work on
the Melbourne Loop. By turning in
later I get a better run out, where Andy
pushes me to employ the pick-up drill
ever more emphatically. Even though
he wants more, the 675’s throttle is to
the stop immediately after the apex
and it gains on litre bikes for the first
50 metres out of the corner. Without
using the later turn point or the pickup drill, you’d be lucky to reach full
throttle by the exit kerb.
By the last session I’m down to
1m46s laps on a tyre that’s ripped to
shreds. More importantly, I’m totally
consistent and enjoying the bike more.
Meanwhile, Andy has been
watching Polish on the brakes, always
an entertaining prospect. Pete has
been slamming on the brakes very
dramatically, upsetting the bike, and
making himself feel like he’s braking
at the last possible moment. A quick
chat in the garage introduces a
technique from Level Four
about progressive braking.
By initially braking gently
the bike can settle on the
forks, maintaining that
all-important stability
that then allows you to
brake really hard. You then
ease off the lever, which lets
the fork rebound smoothly as
you turn the bike.
For Pete, this was a revelation. With
the addition of some precise turn
points too, his times tumble from
1m55s to 1m49s in an afternoon.
By the time we were on our way
home, we knew we’d answered all the
questions. Yes, you can teach
from the sidelines. Yes, you can
teach world champions. Yes, you
can apply very specific techniques to
bike riding and make fast riders faster.
Next time you have a bit of spare cash
that you feel like throwing at your bike
in the hope of shaving a few tenths,
consider this. Wouldn’t you rather
learn some new skills, and slash a few
seconds instead?
Help! My legs are dead
and I can’t get up.
www.fastbikesmag.com Fast Bikes February ’07
71