MotoVixens

Ride Confident, Hard and in Control

You are here: Home / Archives for Yamaha R6

Motorcycle Racing

By

Racing isn’t for everyone, it requires a certain level of skill, tenacity and hard work to achieve a level that most people will not have the time and funds to accomplish.  I’ve heard people be blunt in saying that racing isn’t for the faint of heart, if you are willing to stack $100 bills and light them on fire then you may be crazy enough to race.  I chuckled at this comment, but had I been smarter, I may have actually turned and ran.  However, I am who I am, I love a challenge and instead of heeding that comment and taking it to heart, I decided that it was something I wanted…needed to do to prove to myself I could accomplish that unlikely goal.   If you are interested our local club racing chapter is WMRRA.

It has been a journey to get my expert license, to race those ten races and finish.  Just because you sign up for ten races doesn’t mean you get credit for them, you must finish, which means you cannot crash and you must cross start/ finish.  I’ve done more than ten races and crashed out on a few, it is heartbreaking, you question your abilities, the pain of the injuries makes you second guess your skills or your bike, you get the picture.  As a racer, you are constantly trying to improve yourself or your bike to give yourself the upper hand.  Let’s be clear, I don’t have the latest bike, I have a 2004 Yamaha R6, bone stock and with Ohlins cartridges and a GP suspension revalved and resprung rear shock (cuz I’m a girl), Vortex brake and clutch levers, rearsets, clip ons, case covers, sprockets, sliders and chain.  There is no slipper clutch, no electronics or gp shift.  It’s old school and it has made me a smoother rider not being able to rely on electronics to save my ass.  What I have developed is skill and smoothness, no dumping clutches, trail clutching and trail braking, learning it takes patience to initiate a turn with precision at times and that multitasking all these things as you are entering a corner in triple digits is an accomplishment like nothing else.  Not everything goes right all the time, timing can be off, your mind not clear, so many things can happen to mess up that could be perfect turn, but it is the trying over and over again to do it that says volumes.  We are not anything if not tenacious and seeking that feeling of the perfect lap (i.e. the drive onto the straightaway, patience to your brake marker, braking, gear selection, trail clutching and trail braking to the apex, letting the bike finish the turn, rolling the bike up on the fat part of the tire to get the perfect drive out of the exit, repeating this process 16 times a lap at the Ridge Motorsports Park)  is what brings us back over and over.

June 27, 2015 I finished my last novice race and when all was said and done I came in 7th.  It was a personal goal that I achieved on that day, I had promised myself one day I would get my expert number and at least place in the top 10 and that day I did both.  I went from #809 to my chosen number #72.   My love of riding, whether it is on the track or on the street, is about passion for a sport unlike anything else.  Anyone who rides understands, those who don’t, think we are bonkers risking our lives.  It just appears that our sport raises more fear in people than many other sports, yet I find motorcyclists to be some of the most interesting intelligent individuals out there.  Even if you never race, come to the track, take lessons from a trusted individual, read, absorb as much information on how to be a better rider.  In doing so you will be a rider for life and reap the benefits of that information when a situation arises that requires you to use your skills appropriately.  Ken Hill was the person that said to me, “Practice makes permanent” meaning practicing without a plan means the development of bad habits that will be hard to break, so go into every practice with a plan and make “Perfect practice permanent.”

Round 6 at the Ridge

By

Nothing beats the excitement of the racetrack, the hoards of ez-ups, the smell of gasoline, the racers all lined up for tech inspections and the riders meeting to get the day started. Nothing can top visiting with friends, who are family at this point, as we all get ready for the upcoming weekend. There is a camaraderie that I’ve never experienced anywhere else, but we are all there to race fully knowing that your friend could be your stiffest competition. It is a strange dynamic, yet at the end of the day we all come together and recount the days events, the records broken and the personal accomplishments we conquered. The fact that you get the opportunity to be around talented racers who are more than willing to help you, loan you what you may have forgotten or even give you advice and encouragement is a plus coming into this as a novice this year. This was my last race of the season, I had made plans to get my bike fully equipped for next year so it was bittersweet. My goal was focused on coming in with a time I could be ultimately proud of and build upon that next year.

I started this year with a bike, minimal knowledge and a passion to do what very few women would attempt. My hopes were to show women just beginning or even those who had been riding for a while, that if you had passion, you could accomplish great things. I’ve had my share of spills, very lucky ones at that, but with those mistakes came a knowledge an understanding and respect for the machine that you man. Truth be told, your machine doesn’t make the mistake that causes you to crash, you do, whether it is a poor decision to pass, too much throttle, whatever it may be you are the reason…it makes you accountable each and every time. It is interesting to say that it translates to things in your life, I relive each and every crash in my mind for days to recount the decisions I made and what I could have done to avoid them. We are all in search of the perfect feeling…the lap around the track where everything seems to fall into place, where your body and the bike feel as if they are one and working in perfect harmony…it keeps us coming back for more.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to ride my bike has said it is a solid and happy bike and I tend to agree. I also understand that there are changes I must make on my bike in the off season to even be competitive, things that I honestly had no idea about until I took the leap to racing. Equipment, feel, knowledge, hard work and determination are key to being competitive and just the desire to race doesn’t make everything else work in your favor. However, having a trust and bond with your bike, as odd as that may sound, is very important. I’ve ridden bikes before that make me nervous (break out in a sweat), that you just get this strange feeling that something isn’t right and you can’t wait to get off of it. My little R6 has given me some very happy memories even before it came to the track and to have those to take into racing is an awesome experience, with that being said, my season ended with my best lap time to date at 2.01 with no upgrades made to it whatsoever. I have plenty to work on for next year as I came hoping to break under 2.0, but with the improvements I hope that I can do that within the first two races. Keep checking in this fall and winter as I will continue to post the improvements on the bike, the new design and sponsorships for the upcoming year. Come join me sometime next season at the races to cheer us gals on or a track day…I am looking forward to seeing you out there!