Minibike madness!

What do you do in the off-season? Well, make something an on-season. For motorcyclists, dirt bike riding starts in the Fall because the cooler temperatures make riding in the dirt fun- and on the street... cold!

I've got a dirtbike, but I rarely ride it- it is a lot more bike that I can handle, and I don't have a regular group I ride with because I'm often climbing- or lately scuba-ing on the weekend.

Cornerspeed is starting up a new training tool- Cornerspin. It is flat-track technique that all the biggest names in roadracing learned. Basically, you take an underpowered motorcycle (XR100), throw some street tires on it (Bridgestone Trailwings) and then ride it on a groomed track.

Aaron of Cornerspeed built a track North of Charlotte and had a curriculum- but wanted someone to test it on. So, the instructors of Cornerspeed were invited to a weekend of riding on his track.

The girls had an XR100 from last year (and never rode it), so I went ahead and prepped it for the event. The track is only two hours from the house, so the plan was to get up at 6 and drive straight there. Wrong. The fracking truck wouldn't start. Something is wrong with the batteries- because it has a new alternator on it. HOURS later, it finally charges and I get to Cornerspin at 2pm.

I was not in my element- the guys had lessons all day and were 'backing it in' to the fast corners, and spinning out of the slow ones. Wow. I rode around and got passed a lot. I also got lots of dirt in my mouth. The guys were beat, and we quit early. I got a few tips about body position and such and tried it for a little more, then we went into Charlotte and ate dinner at a fantastic Malaysian/Indian/Japanese restaurant (I'm not kidding).

The next day was more like it- we did drills in the morning which were to work on a technique, such as riding with the bike as LOW as possible. Then we worked on sliding around the corners. It was an absolute blast, now that I had some idea of what I was doing!

I fell down a half-dozen times, but was well-armored. I wore my old racing leathers, and my racing back protector, and my off-road kidney protector. Originally I wore my motocross boots, but they were so heavy- I wore beater roadrace boots the next time out and it was much bettter.

I'm still trying to put together if there's going to be a direct influence on racing, and I think.. not. Towards the end of the day, I tried to corner by hanging off- it was bizarre- and unsettling. Roadrace techniques don't work on the flattrack- and most flattrack won't carry over to roadracing. However, I believe it is the subconscious of feeling the bike slide that is going to help in the long run. Hopefully, I won't put my foot on the ground when I'm bent over at VIR!