Finally got the footage from last year's Auto Train trip up to the Dragon, and edited it. My buddy following is on an FJR. He's a much better rider than me, smoother, more experienced ... and much more fearless As you can see I can only ever leave him briefly in straights.

Feel free to critique my riding - I need all the help I can get! Herky-jerky turns, braking too soon, too late and even in the turn, YIKES. Never taken a riding class - it's probably time.

Sorry you're having to stare at my top case (aka dingleberry) the whole time!

Here are the musical ABC's ... and D ... in the video:

April Wine - I Like to Rock
Boston - Party
Cars - Night Spots
Days of the New - LA Woman

* Last updated by: extrapolator on 11/7/2016 @ 9:29 AM *

Loks pretty good. My kind of road. There were a couple of times you seemed to multi apex the corner. Are you looking way around the corner, keeping a high visual horizon? That will help you identify problems with the road surface and corner trajectory earlier leading to a smoother line. Otherwise, great video. I gots to get me out there someday.

Mad

Mad - If by 'multi apex' you mean not holding a line and lean angle, then yeah that sounds right - sometimes I get a lil' panicky in the turns, not being able to see around a corner, or whether or not there's gravel on the road. The side of the mountain and vegetation block your view sometimes ... my 2 buds that went aren't bothered by that; they freakin' haul arse around blind corners. I just can't do that. I've gotta leave myself at least a chance of pulling off an evasive maneuver.

Tks ...

* Last updated by: extrapolator on 1/29/2016 @ 12:05 PM *

Feel free to critique my riding - I need all the help I can get! Herky-jerky turns, braking too soon, too late and even in the turn, YIKES. Never taken a riding class - it's probably time.

This now is thought of as; if I'm to the right (or left), I want to be as far right (or left) as possible, so I'm going to tuck the white and yellow lines under my arms, look way out, now transition over to the other side of the road, run my line under my arm; I've pretty much entered and exited the apex.

This does not have to be flat out, balls to the wall, rather, slow down to eventually speed up a lot faster. In other words, to speed up, you need first to become super smooth at your transitions. The slower I ride, the smoother I'll get. This way I won't be 'herky-jerking' the bike and upsetting the transition.

This too brings in the throttle app. So I want my engine volume undisturbed so I can listen to my herky-jerkyness. My videos should school me in line entry, throttle apply, and bar-jerk... if I were to narrow down the basics.

This is how I critique my own videos. So for your video to expose at least 2-basics, look how your buddy 'jerks' the bars back to an upright position. If that's the speeding up of the video, I get it. At my 6:00 mark, I am hanging-hanging-your balls out-late apexing. So from 6:09 to 6:12, the slight accel out of the corner, then back to an upright position, I felt that transition and wished every exit was exactly that smooth. The one time I felt not a jerk-KEY... so key too is that smooth upright with the bars> no jerk.

Too bad I'm critiquing your buddy, but you are doing pretty good with the lines under the arms. However, you stop your transition over to the other line is hang in the middle of the road on your exit or stop the transition using 3/4 off of the road. This then shortens the apex you are heading into. If you were 'line-arming' say: is the best as I can describe it. Say you stop at 0:35, and 0:42 second marks, then look at the lines of the riders ahead. Look way out ahead and you can see me lining up the road and try to ride as an arrow thru those transitional apexes.

2. Where Am I with:
my eyes looking out and plan my entry and my exit is to lineup for the next entry.
my lines under my arms, that tire is kissing the edge of that white line and yellow reflector groove(s).
my balls are about to suck up inside my body, heart pounding louder than the wind, late as can be careful!
my bars about as loose as sticking a feeler gauge between glove and grip I dejerkit.
my throttle herk'd to death so as not a peep of on & off, but think smooth, be smooth in mental concentration is not think about it... so do not think about it when riding... practice makes you forget it's now LOCKED for SPEED.
my practice-practice-practice of lines every time out is concentrate being smooth first.

I'm sure I'm leaving out more, but that's my every outing, that's how I ride this and any vehicle. I've sucked so many cars out of line; they follow the person in front of them-(me). Even those poor truckers with the big rigs. LOL, not my fault! So smooth you suck them in! And when they tailgate and you slowly speed up so they have no clue how fast you can enter a corner and now are a dot in the mirror... Blame SMOOTH!

Signed,
NOLTT

Hub - I gotta read what you wrote in context with watching your video ... just wanted to say my comment about speeding up the vid was for CYA reasons, but I guess I'll eliminate those now: It wasn't sped up at all. All I did to the video was remove some segments, apply clip smoothing transitions, add captions and music. I used Windows Movie Maker, and I'm not sure you can speed up a video without it being very obvious and jerky, when the video goes from regular speed to fast. I dunno, I didn't actually even try it. That first blast off actually looks fake to me, but I def did not speed it up.

Also, yeah, I try to look as far out as I can, but then I worry about gravel around the next tight turn. When I can see the entire road ahead it's balls to the wall, as you can probably see in the video.

Tks for the write-up ... lemme digest it.

Thanks , extrap. That reminds me of the kind of twisties I rode back near Milwaukee except the TOG is a lot longer of course. You can't see all the way through any corner because of the tall trees and foliage. It's risky even if you know the road well enough to hit every apex perfectly. Looks like you took many of those corners textbook perfect without making a lot of overly aggressive moves like crossing the center line or running off the edge. We have to keep in mind, this is sport riding on the street. You can't be leaning your head and shoulders out where the oncoming traffic will be should you happen to meet someone in a corner. Also, with all of those corners, I would not be too picky on the few tentative turn ins until you have been over the road 40-50 times. Fast is knowing the road as much as it is handling the bike. At the end of the day, we want to go home with our body and the bike in one piece. If it was on an track with good visibility through most corners and no oncoming traffic and a bike you can accept crashing, I'd say you might kick it up a notch if you want...but you seem to be moving plenty fast enough for me if I was following you.

Thanks, Rook ... good words & advice

I've never been on this road before. Real time speed. Short shifting. Smoothing stepped up a little. We had a group of 9; of mostly trackday/racer types. I like being the sweeper as I've slowed down considerably. The guy up ahead has zero trackday time, but I like his potential. Both bmw's had good torque, but as you can see, I'm in fear of a rod throw so low is the rpm and still reel in torque for torque. Don't you just love this bike.

That's awesome! Nobody gets away from the 14 on the open road.

This is the continuation of the ride

Here's were I'm not familiar with the road at all, but hug the line. Why? When the turn straightens out, I have more room to see which way the direction will change so my transition is a slow-drawn out process. I have the time to traverse to the other side, hug that corner, switch back and still have time for the entry, etc. If I knew the road better, my entry would not be this cautious and tight; thus entering too soon. But this is where the morning dirt squirt comes in, felt more confident on the ride home. Definitely a head game for sure is confident riding.

When [they all took off] I was alone in the morning, not too warmed up for the pace, I was practicing a dirt track kind of mentality. So as a rail of white and yellow lines commenced, I am hugging those, but the more I broke concentration thinking to pull the throttle open more trying a; 'break loose' kind of this side of making it drift or kick out. I'm sure I had plenty of wrinkle left, but that's a practice drill I'm applying to myself faster in the corners. As soon as I sustained and thought about it, I had to reapply, etc.

Back to the video, the lead guy is taking the better line. He's on a better handling bike, but I know I've had two GS's and those handle quite well. I don't know his background, but he's taking the apex I'd more or less follow. The young guy in the middle has zero track experience so his is your JoeA kind of taking a random line.

And at those speeds, I rather be farther back... just in case. The trick is not to deer-eye as you watch, but look away and take your line or you collect yourself following the person in front.

This be the group with bmw's, v4/v2 apes, suz1000 and me dirt squirting away, laughing at some of the chickcanshits hurrying off the dirt. Look at the change in weather. Now to find that fucked up line I blew and what not to do.

Sure makes me wish I could ride somewhere. I may venture out in another 2 months.

Appreciate the staggered formation. That's what we do. Was too dumb to do it back in the 90's when riding as a younger punk although I managed to survive unscathed. 9 riders is too many for me, though ... too long a snake. I like 1 to 3 other buds. Any more than that and it gets crowded.

I appreciate the vids, Hub.

the only thing better then riding is riding with freinds. the more the merrier. reminds me of 33 heading towards ojai.

rook and extra you guys should hook up with privateer and kolfa and ride out to cali this summer for wsbk at laguna seca

No prob, extra. I believe you are correct, sweeper. We were in the town of ojai and that's all I remember. What street we took out of town I can't recall. I'm more in the practice of learning the gopro editing and figuring how to save those 11 minute stints. I'm going to try and edit a 10min cut of drives out of corners, passing cars, and blowing a line or two.

BOSS is an instructor so he might have some insight to that 'on-off-throttle-hunt' I'm trying to break you from doing. Took me years to find the timing to sustain the throttle more fluidly. The smoothing might be first, the hunt sort of diminishes as you go. Just taking a wild guess.

I thought that was 33 also

This is the morning ride. I'm old and rusty. I checked the tires of the front runners and they were rippling up the sides of the carcass. I'm done with those days. I'm trying to be smooth, run My OWN Lines, keep off the rear brake or I'd step it up some, enter a lot deeper, but that's my governor. With hardly a tap on the pads they look brand new. Use both brakes or you'll favor one or the other using one only and may get you in trouble.

I can't tell you how brilliant this bike is. Effortless. The power. The laugh of, 'I sure like this high end bike but miss the power of the 14.' The Dragon looks tight. This 33 you'd call it what? Anyway, when I watch my shit, I'm watching my setup, entry in, then exit out. Where should I be in the left or right is back to setup.

When I shift, there is no rev changing gears. Be more blip-less. That clutch has to slip back to speed so it scrubs off material you keep pulling in lever. Upshifts are clutchless. Downshifts, you could run it like an oil thread. Lots of combos. I don't know which is best: I chose what works for me.

Ah, Southern California back roads! I love that highway.

its the maricopa hwy, and known as plain ole thirty three 33.

Here's a birds eye view tour of the Dragon I made using Google Earth ... kinda like a helicopter ride:

* Last updated by: extrapolator on 11/7/2016 @ 9:31 AM *

That's pretty damn cool, but you are one crazy helicopter pilot.
I would love to ride that road some day.