Originally Posted by
aaronmcd
. I'd been riding a few years, so I could handle my bike well. I'd done a few group rides and new the basics.
Just needed to focus on holding my line through the corners and the wheel in front at the same time (especially when the wheel in front is not holding their line)
No offense, but that's exactly what we're talking about. You assume you can handle your bike well.
Being able to
ride a bike and being able to handle your bike well are two very different things. FWIW I don't know anyone who thinks they
aren't good bike handlers. And I'm sure some of the experienced guys will have a good chuckle over that.
At basic I want to see someone who is smooth, who looks uptrack and NOT AT THE WHEEL IN FRONT OF THEM. That's the first thing to correct. But right now you're one of the many guys who will crash into the pile of people who crashed into the pile of people who were staring at the wheel in front of them when the guy who was a really horrible bike handler locked up the rear brake in a panic and started that chain reaction.
There's a myriad of things (some of which have been mentioned) that greatly improve your skill set. How's your bunny hopping? Can you rub your front tire on someone's rear wheel
for fun? Wheelie? Nose Wheelie? Slide the rear wheel? Brake through an apex?
Those are on the bike skills. How about a written test?
Describe an early, conventional, and late apex and diagram them. What's the maximum front/rear brake bias. What's trail braking? Countersteering? Target fixation? How do you improve a tire's contact patch in a corner? Where should your weight bias be during various maneuvers?
That's a small list of racing 101. 102 we start talking about drafting and group dynamics. 200 is individual tactics. 300 and we start talking about team tactics.