2nd Annual RPM Fall Rally. Oct 5th - 7th, 2018

[CutterBill]

Geez... I gotta start paying more attention to the rally section. Could have made this one, that is... if you guys don't mind me riding my Super Tenere. I still don't have the Fj that I low/high-sided in Colorado fixed. Well, next year for sure.
Bill

[ZOA NOM]

Nice Video Zoa
Looks like you nearly over cooked one or two of the corners  , but looks like a lovely piece of road.
Meeting new people and catching up with old friends seems to be what the FJ is all about.  Sounds like a great weekend was had.

Mark

YOU try keepin up with Andy...

Yeah, a couple of "moments" for sure, but what a great run.

[Tuned forks]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

[FJmonkey]

I want to say excellent job to all the riders. No crashes and no injuries. Lost plenty of oil but no tow trucks or trailers, the FJs are a resilient lot.

Joe, here is the GIVI link http://www.giviusa.com/givi-products/soft-luggage/tanklock-system Randy is a GIVI dealer so he can get you sorted. And yes, the 89/90 turn signal lens will quickly become as rare as Rocking-horse shit if I keep losing them.

I had a good ride back with Pat and Ryan. Got home about 6 hours after leaving RPM. Pat has a little further and Ryan still has the longest ride back to Phoenix. Iron butt in the making if he keeps attending rallies on the west coast. I hope all make it back quickly and safely.

Really good to see the new faces and getting to know you guys.

Sorry you missed it Bill, it would have been good to see you again. And for future reference, you don't even need to show up with a bike as Shell demonstrated.

Now I am looking forward to the next ride/rally.

[ZOA NOM]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

[Millietant]

Nice Video Zoa
Looks like you nearly over cooked one or two of the corners  , but looks like a lovely piece of road.
Meeting new people and catching up with old friends seems to be what the FJ is all about.  Sounds like a great weekend was had.

Mark

YOU try keepin up with Andy...

Yeah, a couple of "moments" for sure, but what a great run.

Hey Rick/Zoa - I hope you don't mind a couple of observations from watching the video (what a great road and ride !!) which might help you keep with Andy, and give a little more margin for error - and I'll apologise now if any of this is "teaching granny to suck eggs", but it's based on what I observed and what I've been taught (and have been teaching).

Andy seems to be following the accepted/taught way of faster street riding - i.e., approaching left corners close to edge/line and turning into the corner late (thereby apparently "apexing" late), which means he can see further around the corner, and when he exits the corner, he comes out nearer the centre line, leaving himself room to drift a little off-line to the outside of the corner safely. If you don't know already it's known as the "wide in, tight out" method. Conversely on right corners, the approach that Andy favours is to be close to the centre line, again turning in late and coming out closer to the inside of the corner - again leaving room to drift a little off-line without heading across the road into oncoming traffic.

Your "moments" seem to come from taking the opposite approach - approaching lefts close to the centre line and hugging the centre line around the corner (looking like an "early" apex), but then running wide on the exit, closer to running off the road - and on rights, approaching too close to the inside and holding the inside line but then running out towards the centre line on exit (putting you at risk of running head-on into oncoming traffic).

I certainly think that if you practiced the wide in, tight out approach to corners, you'd have less "moments" and find it easier to stay with Andy whilst being even safer.

When I was "guiding" bikes at the Nordschleife, the most common cause of new-to-the-circuit riders falling off was exactly as I have described above - entering turns too tight and turning in too early, meaning they ran out of road/track (and sometimes visibility) on the exit. The training I was given helped me immensely on track, but even more so on the road - and I eventually found a great explanation of the process in the book "A Twist of the Wrist" by Keith Code - it's also as taught by the California Superbike School and all of the others.

For me, these days, it's all about safer speed, rather than outright speed - And I think from your comments that this is your viewpoint as well.

All the best.  

[ZOA NOM]

Nice Video Zoa
Looks like you nearly over cooked one or two of the corners   , but looks like a lovely piece of road.
Meeting new people and catching up with old friends seems to be what the FJ is all about.  Sounds like a great weekend was had.

Mark

YOU try keepin up with Andy...

Yeah, a couple of "moments" for sure, but what a great run.

Hey Rick/Zoa - I hope you don't mind a couple of observations from watching the video (what a great road and ride !!) which might help you keep with Andy, and give a little more margin for error - and I'll apologise now if any of this is "teaching granny to suck eggs", but it's based on what I observed and what I've been taught (and have been teaching).

Andy seems to be following the accepted/taught way of faster street riding - i.e., approaching left corners close to edge/line and turning into the corner late (thereby apparently "apexing" late), which means he can see further around the corner, and when he exits the corner, he comes out nearer the centre line, leaving himself room to drift a little off-line to the outside of the corner safely. If you don't know already it's known as the "wide in, tight out" method. Conversely on right corners, the approach that Andy favours is to be close to the centre line, again turning in late and coming out closer to the inside of the corner - again leaving room to drift a little off-line without heading across the road into oncoming traffic.

Your "moments" seem to come from taking the opposite approach - approaching lefts close to the centre line and hugging the centre line around the corner (looking like an "early" apex), but then running wide on the exit, closer to running off the road - and on rights, approaching too close to the inside and holding the inside line but then running out towards the centre line on exit (putting you at risk of running head-on into oncoming traffic).

I certainly think that if you practiced the wide in, tight out approach to corners, you'd have less "moments" and find it easier to stay with Andy whilst being even safer.

When I was "guiding" bikes at the Nordschleife, the most common cause of new-to-the-circuit riders falling off was exactly as I have described above - entering turns too tight and turning in too early, meaning they ran out of road/track (and sometimes visibility) on the exit. The training I was given helped me immensely on track, but even more so on the road - and I eventually found a great explanation of the process in the book "A Twist of the Wrist" by Keith Code - it's also as taught by the California Superbike School and all of the others.

For me, these days, it's all about safer speed, rather than outright speed - And I think from your comments that this is your viewpoint as well.

All the best.  

Great advice Dean, thanks.

My moments were the result of two things primarily; fixation on scenery and too high a gear. Randy had admonished us all to stay in a lower gear for the braking effect on decel, which I don't typically do. Once the day unfolded, I spent much more time in lower gears, which helped a lot. I am a late braker by nature in my race car, and it takes some concentration to do it differently on the bike. The later afternoon videos reveal a much better line, and no more "moments".

[Millietant]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

What a fabulous piece of road - with so little traffic !!!  I'll be eternally jealous of you guys  !!!

Lovely video, who cares about it being a jumpy, it all adds to the enjoyment in my opinion 

[Tuned forks]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

I can't watch another one Rick.  It'll make me blow off work, get back on the bike and ride to Oakdale again.  

Randy also admonished us about  not looking at the scenery and look where you want to steer.  It was HARD to do.  So much stuff to look at. 

Millietant, I too know about the late turn, late apex, theory but it's easy to know, tougher to do when "stuff" happens so fast out there.

Joe

[ZOA NOM]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

I can't watch another one Rick.  It'll make me blow off work, get back on the bike and ride to Oakdale again. 

I'm off tomorrow... 

[Tuned forks]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

I can't watch another one Rick.  It'll make me blow off work, get back on the bike and ride to Oakdale again. 

I'm off tomorrow... 

Uh oh, I'm staying off planes tomorrow then. 

[Urban_Legend]

Randy also admonished us about  not looking at the scenery and look where you want to steer.  It was HARD to do.  So much stuff to look at.


Good old Target fixation...."Oh look at that lovely tree.....Geeze its getting close" Takes practice, but looking where you want the bike to go is the only way.

Mark

[Millietant]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

I can't watch another one Rick.  It'll make me blow off work, get back on the bike and ride to Oakdale again.  

Randy also admonished us about  not looking at the scenery and look where you want to steer.  It was HARD to do.  So much stuff to look at. 

Millietant, I too know about the late turn, late apex, theory but it's easy to know, tougher to do when "stuff" happens so fast out there.

Joe

Yeah Joe - it takes a lot of practice and discipline for it to become second-nature. But then it's easily lost if you have riding break and fall back into bad habits (speaking from experience here).

My wife, who was a motorcycle instructor a few years back is also my personal "riding skills policewoman" - she always rides behind me when we go out and never fails to point out my "errors". 

[Mike Ramos]

Rick, I had no idea you were recording the ride.  I never saw a Go Pro so that must have been a Sena.  Just watching that video got my mind back in the mode.

Mark, Rick wasn't the only one that overcooked the turns.  I had three oh sh!t moments.  It was tough just staying with the middle  of the pack.  Most times I was in the back.  Some seriously fast riders in this forum.

No GoPro, Joe... I have a bullet-style dashcam affixed behind the windshield, hardwired to continuously record. A 32G microsd yields over 8 hours of video. It's a little jumpy due to the mounting, but it's a good view.

Here's another taste...

https://youtu.be/WgJRcTJByOY

Holy Toledo ZOA NOM,

At the beginning of the video it appears you are on the wrong side of the road (way over the double line) and then you cut inside and pass the dunb idiot in front of you ON THE RIGHT forcing him very wide - in fact forcing him clear into the opposing lane!!!

Good thing for the poor bastard you forced over the double line there was no oncoming traffic and good thing for you there were no police in the vicinity!

I hope for your own welfare Flynt doens't hear of this... I know for a fact he does not condone your point of view...?!

If this is the type of riding & passing that goes on, one wonders why Rallies are so well attended...!

I doubt if my folks wuold let me go.

Midget.  

[andyoutandabout]

Home safe and sound.
What an enjoyable weekend of bikes, banter and hauling balls round the twisties.
Success, as Monkey mentioned, by no accidents, tickets or day ending breakdowns ( note the order of these negatives parallels likely financial hits).
Peeps left egos in the paddock, got the idea of riding their own ride, so consequently it was a universal win.
Man and those roads, thank you Caltrans, thank you.
Not forgetting the weather and it's cooperation.
Great to meet the regulars again and the new additions of Travis, Ian and Ryan. I'm with Rick in the bestowing of extra kudos to Ryan for his distance work on an unfamiliar machine. It's an Fj, it'll get you there.
I find the best way to avoid target fixation is to close your eyes
Andy