View Single Post
Old 07-13-05, 01:31 AM
  #15  
Brian
Senior Member
 
Brian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Between the mountains and the lake.
Posts: 16,681

Bikes: 8 bikes - one for each day of the week!

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 3 Times in 3 Posts
Originally Posted by KinetikBiker04
Now to the question...If i end up liking the race track and want to get involved and start racing...WHAT DO I KNEED TO DO?

My also how does the whole catogory thing work...Im 14 and have never raced before and the track is part of the NBL so like what am i expert, novice or what? the whole thing confuses me...

thanks

-taylor
For starting out, ride what you have. In the end, it will only make you a better rider. There's 3 main components of being a good racer, and the bike isn't one of them.

First, you need to have the anaerobic capacity. Look it up if you want the technical explanation, I'm only providing the simple one. You can ride your bike all day long and not get tired, because you've got a good store of Twinkies and Kool Aid, and plenty of oxygen. That's aerobic activity, where you take in oxygen and sugars to be burned as fuel. To be competitive, you've got to boost your anaerobic capacity, which means asking your body to run at max capacity for about 1 minute, during which time strange chemical reactions take place in your muscles, and you're not getting the oxygen you need. To find out what a good effort is, have a friend time you as you go around the track as fast as you can. With a bit of resting between laps, try to beat that time by a few seconds. When you get to the point where you start puking, you're truly putting in a good effort. Seriously.

Second, you need good technical abilities. There's some freak at our track that can jump the double and triples, but without getting a lot of air. We'll lower our expectations from you for a bit. If everyone else in your class jumps the big stuff, you need to be able to. If eveyone else flies through the rythym section pulling a smooth manual, you need to also. You'll also need to practice your gate starts. They're so important that Stumpy even sells a gate you can practice on at home. Piece of cake.

Finally, strategy. You won't always get a good gate position, so you'll start from that outside sometimes. This means you may not be in the best position going into the first turn. Not only will you have to work harder to get the sweet spot in the turn, you'll need to know which guys need a little elbow action to remind them they you own that turn. Know your opponents. See who does good gate starts, and who doesn't. Find out who gets aggressive in the turns, and who's passive. That should give you a good idea of what to expect.

As far as class, just show up and ask. They'll make sure you go in the appropriate class, hopefully with riders of similar ability.

Last edited by Brian; 07-13-05 at 03:43 AM.
Brian is offline