FEATURE
ISDE TRAINING CAMP
P84
Kallonen. "They know where
they stand against each other
heading to Six Days, so every-
one can work on their weak-
nesses. It's a healthy competi-
tion between the riders and
within the team, and that's the
only way to raise the bar to the
next level."
Another big part of ISDE is
that the riders have to do most
of the maintenance on their own
bike.
"In all the racing in the States
a mechanic can work on a
rider's bike," says Kallonen. "If
something breaks they can pull
in and the mechanic fixes it all,
where at Six Days a rider has to
do all the work, except for put-
ting gas in the bike and chang-
ing oil, which a mechanic can
do for him. Anything to do with
fluids a mechanic can do. That's
the biggest thing and that's what
we're going to practice here,
how to maintain your bike the
right way to last six days. What
to do, when to do it. How to do
a tire change, saving energy.
Everyone can change tires but
at ISDE, it comes down to how
much energy you use and how
long it takes."
Kallonen pointed out that
changing tires was one of the
most critical parts of the mainte-
nance routine.
"It's not like who's the fast-
est," says Kallonen. "I want them
to be able to change a tire in a
good time but also save energy,
because you need all the energy
for the next day and the next
day. So I don't want them to try
to be a hero and change the tire
in one minute and you burn up
all your energy doing that. So
then you have that much more to
recover for the next day. You've
got to find a nice technique to
change the tires within three or
four minutes and you have plenty
of time, you have 15 minutes.
Many think that's a short time but
once you get used to the rhythm
of everything 15 minutes is plenty
of time to change tires, do the
maintenance, what needs to be
done to the motorcycle."
Kallonen even brought in all
the mechanics that will be work-
ing the Six Days event so he
could familiarize the new me-
chanics with the drill.
"We have some new mechan-
ics with the riders and they're
here to learn also what they can
Riders learn
what to look
for when
walking a
special test.
