Riding Skills Series: Using Reference Points When Riding

Using Reference Points: You Need To Know Your Exact Location Before You Can Pick Up Speed

Andrew Trevitt uses all the track by scraping his knee over the inside curbing, effectively gaining another foot or more of pavement for the bike to widen the radius of the turn. Many riders unfamiliar with the track limit themselves by not using the final bit of pavement this way. Don't be intimidated by putting a knee on the curbing; just remember to lift it up lightly over the gator's-teeth profile some tracks use.

Elsewhere in this issue is my coverage from the Ducati 848 world press intro (page 40) in the south of Spain at the Circuito de Velocidad de Almeria. Because I was new to the circuit, with its many fast blind corners, some cresting hills and others sweeping off into the distance, I found myself frustrated with the task of learning the new track, something I'm usually pretty good at. The answer lay in the lack of easy reference points.

Reference points are typically referred to in racetrack terms, but there's nothing that says you can't use them on a few of the trickier sections of your favorite roads as well. They're valuable anytime a rider benefits from having advance information to signal where he needs to be at a certain point. For instance, a favorite road is often long enough that memorizing every portion of every corner is basically impossible without years of experience on that same section of pavement. Using a reference point-it could be a skid mark on the tarmac, a road sign, a tree, or some other immovable object on the side of the road-enables you to determine your precise location and thus your control actions. "OK, there's that big tree with a broken branch; that means I need to be on the left side of the lane for this approaching corner so I miss the big pothole on the entrance."

It's difficult to use reference points when you put yourself in a position where it's hard to see. For demonstration purposes, I show what not to do by running my GSX-R too close to Trevitt, thus blocking much of my field of awareness. I might argue that The Geek is so thin that he doesn't block much of the view, but you get the point.

Reference points are best located on the asphalt or directly adjacent to it whenever possible. A recent class I taught at Laguna Seca brought to light the danger of using distant objects on the horizon as the sole point of reference for judging where you need to be on the track. Riders who fixated only on a telephone pole visible as they approached the blind, high-speed crest of turn one ended up in differing areas on the exit depending upon their location as they neared the turn. You need to have multiple reference points so that you know where you should be in approaching a turn when using a distant object like the telephone pole as a reference. Using things like trees or telephone poles on the horizon as your only point of reference can easily be misleading because of parallax; if the object is too close in relation to you and the turn, your visual perspective of it can change depending on your location. The advantage of patches, paint or skid marks on the track itself is that they are consistent, one-dimensional and don't require a repeatable approach.

Here's GSX-R-mounted Trevitt powering off a corner using the dark line (probably laid down by Mikolas earlier in the day) as his corner-exit reference cue to begin picking up the bike off the edge of the tire and twisting the right handgrip smoooothly on. Note the direction The Geek's helmet is pointed, his ever-moving gaze focused well down the track toward the following corner.

However, if the pavement doesn't have any markings and the sides of the track are featureless, then using objects a good distance away from the pavement surface becomes a necessity. Also, if you're following someone at high speed, it's very easy for them to block your view of the upcoming pavement (even at a distance, not just in their slipstream), robbing you of your usual reference points on the track surface; by the time you notice them it's often already too late. You need to have multiple reference points that allow you to locate yourself without relying solely on any one item. Basically, it's similar to the way GPS uses multiple satellites or how sailors in the past used stars to ascertain a location.

Here's a shot of the first third of the slightly inappropriately named Sweeper on Buttonwillow Raceway Park's west loop with a plethora of visual reference points. Since it is decreasing radius in the clockwise configuration that Sport Rider tests with, I use a double-apex approach with an early turn-in point, then thread between the dark square patch (just right of center) and the long patch laid down by the outside wheel tracks of the cars.

Walking the track is an excellent way to pick up reference points if that option is available. The level of detail you can see at a walking pace or kneeling down on the track is far greater than most riders notice in a weekend's worth of laps. By freeing yourself of the constant motion and distractions of keeping the bike on course at speed, you'll see the track in far better detail and more effectively create a map of points to chart your course through challenging sections. Note that the most beneficial time for a track walk is after you have enough experience riding the track to know where you need the reference points to do the most good.

Another technique for defining where your most essential points of reference are is mental visualization. Find a quiet area free of distractions, shut your eyes and envision several laps. This should include as much detail from all your senses as you can imagine: visual cues, what the engine sounds like, the inputs you make on the bike (like steering and shifting), bumps on the track, the timing of your movements, everything. There will be portions that are full of detail you can recall clearly, while other sections will be missing detail to the point where you feel lost. It's these points where you lack reference and need to fill in the blanks. Without reference points, you're basically riding blind.

The square patch (left of center frame) is my cue for my final turn-in point about 15-20 feet beyond, depending on my confidence in the front-end traction and steering response of the bike I'm riding that session. My vision is already scanning ahead to the apex point on the curbing near the top center of the photo for a late final apex that allows me to pick up the bike off the edge of the tire and accelerate off Sweeper into the entrance of the esses section.

The long patch from the car's outside wheel tracks continues through the middle of Sweeper, shown here. My cornering line crosses over to the left side of the long patch just at the lower edge of the photo; then I'm looking for the square patch that looks like a dot on a lower-case "i." Always have the center portion of your vision scanning (not stopping and fixating) at least one reference point ahead of the bike to keep your line smooth and stay ahead of where you and the bike are on the track.

Whenever possible, use reference points on the track surface itself, or in this case the curbing. Here the rubber laid down over the curbing by cars at Buttonwillow makes an excellent visual cue for my final apex. Don't, however, allow your vision to fixate here; instead be scanning ahead to the exit point or, better yet, the entrance to the next turn.

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