Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ming downhill int o the right tu rn in loose sand . Gary is going to square off the corner (note th e roc k o n his right for locat io n d uring this sequence). Gary puts his foot do wn r a pivot. weigh t up over the bars . stuffing th e front wheel into the t urn . Fo rks are about half-compressed. In th ird picture. bike is vertical and po inted o ut of th e t urn. rottle is wide open. weight forward to hold the front end down. e bike is goi n g to win d up over in a itch a nd if yo u are n't h ur t you a re zed , So mebody co mes ru n n ing up to au a nd say s, "W hat hap pe ned ?" , If yo u are h ones t abo ut it you will y , "I was abou t to ask th e sa me estion. " If you m ak e a mi st a ke at speed, there n o ti me to ob serve wh at ca used it so u d on 't lear n anythi ng fro m th e cperie n ce . Ne arly everything y ou do going slow the sa me as go in g fast . The big oblem with m a n y wo uld-be ra ce rs is at th ey are constantly co ncerned wi th w fast t he y can go . They say I h ave to fas t to win, so I go fast. An d, as soon I find ou t h ow fast I can go, t hen I ill slo w down a nd learn to control the otorcycle. It 11 never h appen . O nce you start ,ing fas t - if you survive - yo u keep ing fast. Fo r m os t th ings yo u have to lear n in g slowly. Sometimes at a sc hool I y out a little tr ials se ction and we play it a wh ile to show the im portance of rottle an d brake co ntrol and the ace me nt of bo dy weigh t, Once you learn th e proper way to do ese th in gs th en you jus t au toma tically art d o ing th em fas te r . O n yo u r h t-turn p ract ice , do n 't start o ut b y ming in at blazing sp eed . It's likely u will lose con trol of the rear wheel hile you are braking hard, get in there ossways, flip over the hi gh sid e and en say you ca n 't m a ke th e turn th at a y . You wast e yo u r w h ole portu nity to learn b y try in g to do it racing speeds. . itch ing t he bike into the turn When you are pretty good at b ra king fore you start to ma ke the turn , yo u ' II want to del ay braking even more d lo o k fo r some way to get sto p p ed d tu rned quicker . There is a way. You pitch th e bike cways into the turn. Come in a little ter than before, keep th e br akes on as u sta rt to turn and the rear e nd will 'gin to slide out . G o on into the tum "d ing sideways so you st o p b raking and ding just at the ap ex of the turn. ing it o n around the p ivot, straighten up and go away from th ere. This reduces yo u r stoppin g di stance two ways. Fir st you are usin g th e akes farther into th e tum wh ich can s yo u ca n del ay th at much longer hen you ar e 'a p p ro aching t he turn . -co n d , wh en yo ur t ires are p lowing de wa ys yo u ha ve a lot more kn obs gging in to the ground a nd you will op q uicker. The fac t that the t ire s do d ig in well hen you are pitching in to th e turn ca n use a prob lem. Sometimes the front heel will ca tch and start to tuck unde r. yo u fee l it d o in g that , use a little wer to straigh ten it up . Sometimes bo th ti res will d ig in and yo u fee l like you are abou t to get flu ng over th e high side . Do n't ever let the moto rcy cl e do tha t. Lay it over m ore and le t it scrub. If it tosses yo u over an d th e n de cides t o follow yo u - as it will abou t 80 percen t of th e time - you are in b ig tr ouble. When you a rc go ing too fast , lay it over a n d le t it p low. If it feel s like it 's pl o win g too m uch an d is abo ut to fli ng you over , turn on the power and pull it out with power. Don ' t ever do th a t panic bit and stra igh te n up an d then ride strai gh t o ff th e co urs e o n the outsi de of th e t urn. Ge tting through a tu rn an y way at all is better th an leavin g the co u rse and th e n having to co me ba ck on it. So lay it o ver to scrub off your speed and power it around if yo u ha ve to, b ut stay in there in the tu rn an d boss that moto rcycle a round it. When you p ractice this yo u ar e probably go ing to fall down o nce or twice. I wan t yo u to d o it as slowly as yo u ca n , but yo u have to be usin g so me st eam co m ing in or yo u wo n't be going fast enough to ge t it sid eways and pitch it. If you d o fall , where is it going to be? If yo u have been practicing a step at a time you have d o ne all except th e slid ing sideways part. You are no t goi ng to fall du rin g the straight-up bra k ing. The place where you m ay go down is when yo u are pl o w ing sideways . By th e n yo u ha ve scru b bed off most of you r speed and you are go ing maybe live m iles an ho ur. You may ge t hurt bu t it 's not too likely . It takes guts to do it and lots of riders never attem p t it be ca use they • How t o Win Motocross . co pyright 1974 by Gary Bailey. is being ser ialiZed in Cycle News . The best-seller. now in its second printing , is condensect for t his se rialization . T he comp lete boo k is availab le for $6 fro m Cycle New s Produc ts. See ad in this issue. th ink they are goi ng t o cras h going fast . If yo u d o , it was because yo u did so m ething else wrong , no t th e sideways pi tch . ' Remember ea rlier, wh e n you see a guy ridi ng around a tum sitting back o n th e seat and not st uffing the fron t wheel into th e tu rn a nd driving it through, y o u kno w y o u can be at him. How abou t th e guy who wo n 't ge t it side ways an d pit ch it in t o th e tu rn . You can beat hi m, too . Slowing down If yo u are interested in becom ing a serious racer , a co m pression rel ease is defini tel y a n o -n o. T hey m ay be O K for tr ail ri d ing or someth in g like tha t b ut th ey d o not belong on a race bike. What. they d o is slo w you down. They actually slow you do wn p re tty well . But in raci ng there is no such thing as slow in g down. If yo u are racing either yo u are go ing fo rward wi de open or you stop. There are t wo po sit io ns o n th e thro ttle, o n o r o ff. When yo u want t o go forward , you go wide open. Whe n you want to stop yo u close the throttle, u sing both brakes a nd stop the m o t o rcycle . Put your foot down I thi n k m o to cro ss racers have been stro ng ly influe nced b y seeing flat -track racing o r pic tu res o f it. The typica l riding position fo r fla t -tracking a tu rn is to have yo u r foot forward or possibly out to th e sid e of the moto rcycle with the sole of your boot o r iron shoe skating along the su rfac e o f the ground . Mo st rid ers d o the sa me thing on a motocross t rack and eve ntually get some surprises . As you kn ow , MX tracks arc rough an d th ey have bumps a nd ruts an d ro c ks parti cularly in th e turns where you are te m p ted to put yo u r foo t down. If yo u put it d own the wa y a flat tracker does yo u will have a hard time keeping in co n tact wit h the ro ug h ground. So metimes yo ur foot will hang up in a rut o r o n a parrialty -buried ro ck . This can ca use yo u to lo se co n tra) m om e n tarily and if you wa tch in a rough tum yo u will see rid ers bobbling regular ly becau se so m ething ca ugh t a foo t o n the ground. Also yo u can ge t knees a nd an kles twisted that way . I put m y fo o t d o wn in two di fferent ways d epending on h ow long I expect to leave it o n th e gro u nd . In a t ight turn , for e xa m p le. I d on 't plan to slide m y foot alo ng the ground at all . . . o r at least not very far. I p lan to use " my fo ot j ust to serve as a piv ot o r prop up the bike m o me n ta rily in the tum. If t he su rfac e is lo o se a nd I thi nk the re ar e nd may slip o u t in a sharp co rn er 1 will either put m y fo ot o n the surface o r ho ld it near the su rface just in case. T he point is, in these examples I only ex pe ct to have m y foo t on th e ground brie fly a nd I do no t expect to slid e it along the su rface . Therefore I reach forward with m y foo t, pl an t it sol idly on the gro und and let it move to ward th e rear of the m oto rcy cle as the b ik e rolls forward . When t he fo o t peg passes my leg I should be all finished usin g that fo o t o n th e ground . I p ic k it up a nd put it back o n the peg, o r put it fo rward agai n. The other m etho d is used whe n you exp ect to h ave your foot on the ground fo r a lo ng time and you know you are goi ng to slide it along the grou nd. Basicall y this is to co n tro l the rear e nd of the m o to rcycl e to kee p it from drifting o ut, as you learned to d o o n the starting lin e. Yo u will have more uses fo r this te chnique a little la ter bu t wh a t yo u need to d o first is just get the feel of it. If yo u put your foot d o wn, either fo rward or straigh t ou t fro m th e m otorcy cle , and try to keep it in contact with a- mo t o cross track fo r a long dis tance, it is p ro ba b ly going to ge t ca ug ht on so mething a nd p u shed back toward th e rear of the b ike anyway. So , when you first p ut your fo o t down let it m o ve to the rear so it is ba ck near the rear tire. Let your toe po in t to the rear ra ther than forward. That wa y , if y ou h it a ro ck or a bu ri ed ro ot in the gro u n d nothi ng ca n ca tc h your to e an d twist your an kle . Yo ur foot will just slide up and over the object and you m aintain co n tact with the surface all the way. Even m o re important, if y o u a re in a po wer slide o r yo u r rea r w heel is driftin g o u twards in a be nd , the reaso n yo u have yo ur foo t down is to co n trol the re ar end. If y o ur fo o t is sliding along up b y the front wh eel, o r even straight out from the en gin e, yo u d on't have an y leverage to use to co n tr ol the rear wheel. If your foot is on the gro u nd back t he re by th e rear ax le and yo ur toe is d iggin g in to t he ground , yo u can really exert so me fo rce and co n tro l the ba ck end of the bike. It 's an o d d fee ling to ride th at way if yo u haven't do ne it before and th at's why I suggest practicing to ge t the feel of it . Pick a smooth surface to begin with , drop one foo t and le t it go back as it ma kes co n t ac t with the ground. Ride that way with yo u r to e o r the side of yo u r bo ot in co n tact with the surface and experiment a little with pushing your to e down hard aga inst the ground. Be sure to do it al tern ately with both feet so yo u are not left-footed o r rig ht-footed only when us ing this method of control. If you put your foot dow n far en ough ou t so the foo t peg d o esn 't get yo u in the leg a n d th en bring it ba ck to the rear, it will al way s be o ut o f the pa th of the rear tire. Next week: Turns and techn ique . continued 23

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