In my ongoing thirst for knowledge from different sources, I encountered a section in a book that discussed Lee Parks’ book Total Control and the concept he uses in the effort to help people understand counter steering. As I talked about countersteering in my last blog, it was guiding in an opposing manner or direction according to Keith Code’s explanation. However, Lee Parks uses the concept of instructing riders to use only one arm at a time for steering inputs, when turning right, only use the right arm to push the bar and when going left, use the left arm and focus on using nothing from the right arm except throttle control. To take this even further, I chose to do it by taking my other hand completely off when going right and just lightly having my right hand controlling the throttle when going left to challenge myself and the truth was it took very little input to get my bike to make those turns. What required more effort was reading entry speed at the turn and actually looking through the turn. If you are struggling with your bars or even man handling them at every turn, you are working way too hard, ease up on the bars and take it slowly, this is a strange concept for people when they are learning it. It is counterintuitive, it seems as if you want to go left you turn left, you want to go right you turn right, right??? Well, when on two wheels we are dealing with forces, remember the gyros? If you are holding the bars down in a corner you are working way to hard and we want to work smarter not harder right Vixens?

Being smooth is key overall though, being smooth in your acceleration, braking, cornering and transitions will make you a better, faster and confident rider, but most importantly you will enjoy your ride more. Relax (seriously), you have to be in control of your mind, emotions, body and machine, remember the saying of “when the helmet drops, the bullshit stops?” The moment the helmet is on you can’t have lingering thoughts or worries, you have to focus (don’t get on angry or distracted). Also, know your limits, don’t push yourself beyond your comfort zone and keep your fatigue and attention levels in check. Add more skills gradually and keep riding and experimenting with different techniques. If you really want to learn, test and push your limits in a controlled environment try out a track school in your area. For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Washington, we have one scheduled on June 10th, check out our events schedule for details. Looking forward to seeing you Vixens out there and on the streets!