WSMC Race 1: Willow Springs Raceway, 15-16 January 2011

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

At the end of each year we celebrate what we accomplished and what we did to get there. That is Christmas. Then we scrutinize what we did not accomplish and what we need to do for next year. That is New Years. For 2011, we have turned old assumptions upside-down and stepped beyond the cocoon of familiarity.

Training to Train With each new elevated peak lurks a greater risk of failure. Therefore, under each higher mountain must a stronger foundation be built.

We started our triathlon program for 2011 in 2010. Our cycling needed a facelift. December saw us on our indoor trainers up to 5 days per week. January saw us out on our road bikes with back-to-back long rides. February will have us focus on speed with our tri bikes. We not only needed to build more power, but learn how to apply it more efficiently.

An ironman triathlete may strive to produce 200W for 112mi on the bike, while a motorcycle road racer may strive to put 200hp to the ground. We trained in the dirt on mini-bikes in December in order to be able to ride the big bike on tarmac in January. We are not alone…even world champion MotoGP pilots ride mini-bikes:

“Racing, for riders, is at times a series of compartmentalized puzzles that they need to solve quickly. Solving mental puzzles requires good data and analysis. Suffering bad starts? Get a video camera and film every start, and also film the start of the rider who's usually first into turn one. Analyze, compare, frame by frame, what each rider and bike are doing.

Lorenzo needed help from a higher power. Enter King Kenny Roberts. Lorenzo flew to California and was driven to Modesto with a plan to stay for a few weeks with Team Roberts. Roberts has several different dirt short-tracks at his house. "Did you design a special program for him, to help him ride in the rain, then?" "No," Roberts says, his voice sounding flat. "We don't really make special programs for people when they come to the ranch. We just let him loose on a mini-bike and rode with him." This is where Roberts and his cronies, most of whom ride his tracks every day, use the new guy as a berm. The new guy leaves bruised and battered, and two weeks later, when he blows his nose after he returns home, he's still seeing dirt from Roberts' roost. Time is magnified on a small track and track conditions can change by the minute when the moisture level drops. Costly, subtle mistakes become glaring omissions. Short track laps teach a rider to hone his precision so that he is as sharp as a knife. Lorenzo left the ranch bruised and probably knowing right where the ibuprofen bottle was for a few weeks, but also with more ability than he had when he came to Modesto fourteen days prior. He went back to Spain and told Spanish TV and newspapers that his time spent in California was among the most productive times in his life, that he learned so much from the King.”

Team Jas Nikon pics and vid, 12-31-10 001.JPG

Got steel shoe?

Team Jas Nikon pics and vid, 12-31-10 099.JPG

Training with the master: Rich Oliver

(see video on bottom)

Small Adjustments Make Huge Impacts On the steerer tube of a bicycle fork, there are spacers - 10mm, 5mm, even 2mm in thickness. These are stacked above and below the stem which holds the handlebars. As the season progresses, these spacers are reshuffled one at a time like poker chips from below to above the stem, thereby lowering a cyclist’s position. Altering one’s position on a bicycle is a delicate affair, balancing aerodynamics against power output as flexibility and muscle recruitment adapts over a period of several weeks.

On a motorcycle, one adjusts the front ride height by moving the fork legs up or down in the triple clamps which also hold the clip-on bars. Each ring on the leg measures 5mm and a few mm’s have a large affect. If the forks are moved up in the triples, the front drops, the weight distribution becomes more front-biased, the center of gravity changes along with the trail and wheelbase resulting in a sharper steering action. The front tire may even hit the engine upon heavy braking! As you can see from this Wikipedia article, the dynamics of a bicycle or motorbike can get quite complex!

External Forces on a bike and rider leaning in a turn:

gravity

drag

vertical ground reaction

net propulsive + rolling resistance

friction in response to turn

net torques on front wheel

Add onto these dynamics the gyroscopic affects from huge 106mm diameter pistons pumping up & down and a crankshaft spinning at 10,000 rpm and you can imagine the strength needed to turn a big Ducati at triple digit speeds!

A few rings can make the difference between loving your ride or hating it…

or between winning it or binning it

Fluidity of Movement One difference between the pros and the rest of us is that they make movement look effortless. Whether it is Michael Jordan sinking a 3-pointer, Michael Phelps setting the 400m individual medley world record or Michael Schumaker racing his Formula 1 car through the winding streets of Monaco, all of them have something in common besides their first name: they make difficult things look easy.

Swimming is based on technique. Elite swimmers glide through the water. Novices churn. The best swimmers learn to balance their body in three planes for the most efficient hydrodynamics. They learn to relax the muscles at the extremities while building maximum power through their core. The result is pure aquatic poetry.

Riding a motorcycle is no different. Each movement graceful in fluidity and at the same time authoritative in execution. The core is the director in this symphony: the hands act as tentacles detecting subtle vibrations signaling a possible front-end wash and the feet act as stethoscopes sensing rear grip while counter-levering the tire into the ground for maximum traction.

Suspension is the modem between bike and rider

Perfecting the Blend Triathlon by definition is a sport composed itself of three sports. In order to excel in triathlon, one must find the right mix. Chris McCormack (aka Macca), current World Ironman Triathlon Champion, talks about solving this puzzle as a critical component to his success:

“Successful triathletes are masters of perfecting 3 disciplines in unison with the other. Perfecting three disciplines is difficult, especially when these disciplines work against each other in their development. The A frame of a swimmer, is not good for running. The short hamstrings of cycling and the inward knee action of the pedal stroke, kill running form and shorten hamstrings, the eccentric contractions of running and the muscle damage limit the efficiency in a pedal action. These three sports play against each other, so MIX is everything if you want to be as fast as you can be. Those athletes who come across to this sport and don’t respect this from the onset, always end up injured and humbled. It’s a puzzle of perfection and it takes time and commitment to master.”

Motorcycle road racing is also about perfecting the blend. Tuning the power delivery of the engine, selecting the right tire compounds, setting the rebound/compression damping for the suspension and tweaking the chassis geometry all must be developed to work with the rider. But first the rider must learn to interpret and speak the language that is called bike setup. But once Sunday arrives, the rider must forget EVERYTHING about the bike and just enjoy the ride – a tall order when one or more components are not working.

This weekend, we were thrown another curve ball. After 23 years, the distribution of Dunlop race tires was suddenly changed days before our race weekend. Changes at the last minute are seldom good. One does not try out new running shoes before an ironman triathlon (although we were forced to do so at Ironman New Zealand 2001) and tires are essentially the shoes of a motorcycle. This weekend, we would learn that Dunlop did not bring enough front tires and we were given a choice to race on an untested tire or race on our well-used tire that had seen better days. Luckily for us, the tire lasted almost to the final race. Unluckily for us, the tire did not last through the final race. We launched into second place by the first turn (just like in the first two races) and made a pass for the lead (just like in the first two races). But unlike the first two races, we would not see the checkered flag first. The front pushed and pushed short of sending us off the race track. We then adapted to ride as hard as we could and managed to drop our lap times down to the fastest of the weekend. But we could only salvage a second place. Not bad.