By AJ Jacobsen Any track rider and racer can tell you that having a properly tuned suspension can make a massive difference in the handling of a motorcycle. Yet, I’ve seen and heard arguments from top level coaches on down to casual racers saying two very different things. On the one hand, they tout
Getting There – Trackside Tips
By AJ Jacobsen Every track day rider runs into the conundrum at some point – “how am I getting me, my bike, and all my stuff to the track?” There are a lot of options available, and depending on your personal needs, likes, desires, and budget, you should be able to find something that works
Riding Coaches – Is It Worth It? (Part 2 of 2)
Below is the recap of my first full day with a one-on-one coach. We went ahead and scheduled the first day of coaching for Sunday on the opening weekend for Pacific Track Time. I took Saturday to just feel my bike out, made a lot of adjustments, spent time coaching customers, and just getting myself
Riding Coaches – Is It Worth It? (Part 1 of 2)
By AJ Jacobsen When it comes to your riding, what do you invest in? Obviously, there’s the motorcycle, but after that, where do you spend your money? Gear? Upgrades? Track days? What about coaching? Many riders shy away from paying for professional riding instruction. I can see why – it’s a lot of money,
Day in the Life of an Off Season Road Racer
By AJ Jacobsen So what does the off season look like for a road racing “enthusiast” who is determined to do a little better than they did the previous year? Follow along for a breakdown of what a typical winter/off-season day looks like for me. Let me begin by pointing out that I work three
Sometimes It’s the Little Things
By AJ Jacobsen 2018’s season preparation is already far underway, and the investments have already started. The biggest purchase (besides my street/B bike) was the Ohlin’s shock and cartridge kits that I bought for the race bike. Thankfully my sponsorships made these purchases a little easier, but it’s still far from cheap. I knew,
When Even the Experts Miss the Obvious
This season has been frustrating for me as a rider and racer. Between the injuries to my leg and dealing with that, adjusting to the new bike, and moving up to expert, I’ve often been very frustrated, and while I’ve been “accepting” of some progress, I’ve yet to leave a weekend at the track “happy.”
Laguna Seca Trackday August 2017
Pacific Track Time managed to land a full weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this summer, and it turned out to be a great weekend. If you’ve been a Moto GP or WSBK fan, you’ve probably watched races at Laguna. It is a phenomenal track. The only issue there are sound limits, which are strictly
WERA West Round 6, 2017
Round 6 of the Wera West road racing championship. It was a warm weekend in the Southern California sunshine at Auto Club Speedway. First race of the day. Christopher Carron is the points leader in A Superstock. A stalled bike on the grid made for a hairy start but the front row got away clean.
Why the 390 Cup?
A lot of people questioned my decision to compete in the 390 cup. And why wouldn’t they? I only had one year of road racing under my belt from a background of jet ski freestyle and canyon riding and here I was planning on traveling with a national series. Other people saw me putting unfair
Change of Perspective
It’s funny how your perspective changes while you grow as a racer. I remember when I first started doing track days and I thought the A Group riders were so fast. I was really intimidated when I signed up for A Group the first time but I was already throwing around the idea of racing
KTM 390 Versus Yamaha R6
Most people know me from racing in the MotoAmerica Ktm Cup. Now that I’ve made the move onto a 600 I get asked frequently what the difference is between the 390 and the R6. My 390 was a spec cup bike, so I didn’t have as much horsepower as a regular 390 and I was
Chasing a Dream
At this point I can’t think of anything more meaningful than racing. I guess that would be great if everyone else felt the same way. It’s hard for me to grasp how road racing isn’t the most popular sport in the world. My opinion is biased but it actually brings on negative emotions when people
Ride Report: Laguna Seca
For those who have been fans of motorcycle racing and Moto GP, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a familiar name. Drawing fans to a world class event, Moto GP and World Superbike have held races at the track for some time. This makes the track rather memorable for those of us who have the opportunity
Old Dog, New Tricks
After twenty-five years (25 years!) of street riding, I finally got onto the track. The truth is, I kind of got bullied onto the track, by one of our bloggers, AJ. I guess she was tired of hearing me talk about “one of these days.” Somehow, she got me to sign up for a track
Trackside Tips – Passing at a trackday
Trackdays are one place where you can find a vast skill and experience difference all in one place, often riding together. Being touted as a safer way to work on your riding skills while learning to go faster, it is a place that draws casual riders, enthusiasts, and racers throwing them all into the mix.
How a 250 cc motorcycle can be faster than a 1000 cc
“What’s the fastest way around a track?” “Wide open throttle.” Hearing this reminded me of the very Yoda-like coaching advice that was recently passed on to me of “More throttle. Less brakes.” As frustratingly simple as that is, it really is true. Why can motorcycles with less power than mine get around a track faster than
Thunderhill Raceway June 13-14 2015: Baptism by Fire
I picked a hell of a time to finally return to some track action this season. They actually wrote “sizzling”. Uh-oh. SATURDAY This really was my first ride on a track in 2015. Nevertheless, it wasn’t going to be my first trackday to ride or work in triple-digit heat. I’ve had at least a handful
The importance of good motorcycle brake pads
There are a plethora of motorcycle brake pads out there to choose from: different pads with different compounds all for different stated purposes. Until just recently, I used to think that different pads would make a noticeable difference, but that the opinion on them was just that – opinion. While I was all for buying the best pads you could afford (let’s
The value of formal motorcycle training
As riders, we experience a variety of situations, opportunities, and paths depending on our personal goals as a rider. Some are perfectly content to sit back and enjoy the scenery, while others of us chase the thrills of speed and competition. No matter what aspect of riding you enjoy, we can all benefit from gaining
Thinking about motorcycle brakes – Pt 2
Following my previous post on the 5% rule (which applies to all motorcycle brake situations regardless of circumstances, location, or pace) the next piece that I have been able to start working on deals more with a track situation. Historically, when braking was discussed, most instructors and coaches would be focused on where I started
Thunderhill West, November 2014: Back, and in Black!
It’s been just over two months since I last had any kind of track action. In anticipation of the birth of my second child with my wife, I had taken a sort of paternity leave from trackdays as my wife headed into the final leg of her pregnancy. I knew that my return to the
Trackside Tips: Motorcycle Riding Workout Plan
If you’ve been a motorcyclist for any amount of time, you understand the simple fact that riding, in many varieties, is a workout. Sometimes, depending on the situation, it is an extreme one. For myself, track riding and now racing was becoming a proverbial ‘slap in the face’ that my on-again off-again, hit and miss
Trackside Tips: Visual Aids
I’m in the midst of a two-week paternity leave from work since my wife gave birth to our second child on October 7th, but I’ve been on leave from sport riding far longer than that, having last been at Thunderhill in late August. And even though I’m due to return to work before October’s over,
2014 AFM Season – Final Round and Reflections
The world pauses. Nothing exists other than you, your bike, and the riders around you. The sound of your engine as it hums beneath you, waiting that moment when the revs are brought up. A “1” board is flashed, and 7,000 RPMs of pure power roar to life. The board goes sideways, and a green
AFM Racing Super Di… NOOO!
I previously wrote about the AFM Racing’s Super Dino class of racing, wherein only motorcycles of a particular age are eligible to compete in, but otherwise the regulations for the types of bikes and modifications are pretty open. It’s my favorite class of racing in the AFM partly because of my historical love for older
Thunderhill Raceway, August 2014: Work Hard, Play Hard
The weekend of August 23rd and 24th at Thunderhill Raceway (East) was going to be my last hurrah before my second child is born in October. I had one just before my first child was born a couple of years ago, so it only felt right to do another for the second go-around. As usual,
Trackside Tips: Using your lap times
Ride on the track, and someone is sure to ask you about lap times. While many people worry about them from their early track riding career onwards, I was not one of those people. For some reason, I just didn’t care about the actual time, and more about going faster than I was. There were
Thunderhill West: Street Sensibilities
Pictured: My friend Eric, and Thunderhill West's many consecutive bends. I think Thunderhill West is fairly reminiscent of Reno-Fernley Raceway. Both circuit’s layouts have a relentless arrangement of its corners; the number of corners each circuit has relative to its available land space means that the corners come at you one after another, with nary
Trackside Tips: The Fundamentals of Cornering (Final) Part III
For the final installment in this series, I wanted to break down some of the intricacies of what you are physically doing during a corner. First, if our earlier steps are being executed, you are looking ahead and have a general idea of what the corner will entail. Soft eyes allow you to recognize hints
New Track Riding Playground: Thunderhill West
It's been awhile since I've had to learn a new race track. Since I started track riding back in October 2007, I spent the next year or two right after learning the handful of tracks offered by the various trackday providers I patronized – Reno-Fernley Raceway, Sonoma Raceway, Thunderhill Raceway, Buttonwillow Raceway, and Mazda Raceway
Trackside Tips: The Fundamentals of Cornering Part II
If you’ve mastered your vision and secured yourself properly to the bike, you are prepared to take on the next steps of understanding a corner. All corners, regardless of factors such as radius, camber, road surface, etc. have basic elements that you need to consider. For every single corner you negotiate, you will have a
Z2 Trackdays Season Report
This past weekend Z2 Trackdays’ held our annual Thanksgiving weekend event at Thunderhill Raceway, which typically doubles as our final event of the season. For a November/December event, you could’ve been fooled into thinking it was just the start of the season with the unseasonably present and warm California sun basking us in golden glory.
Trackside Tips – Lines, Lean Angle and the Apex
Have a look at the comparison photos below: Image courtesy of www.4theriders.com The rider in the top photo is me, while the rider in the bottom is a good friend of mine. At first glance, my friend’s photo looks more impressive, with him having his bike cranked over more than I have mine going through
Trackside Tips: The Best Way to Go Fast is by Starting Slow
The screen shot above was taken from a video I took back in October 2010, riding around Thunderhill Raceway. The blue and white curbing is at the inside of Turn 8 of the circuit, and the red arrow is pointing on the yellow marker painted over the curbing. This marker is a reference point for
Trackside Tips: Maintain Your Skill by Visualizing Your Ride
Six months prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson suffered a serious foot injury that kept her out of action for a couple of months. During this time, she used mental images to visualize her dives. Her foot was not fully recovered by the time she started diving again, but she was able to qualify
Trackside Tips: Is it Better to Upgrade Your Old Sportbike or Buy a New One?
Why would you need to upgrade your sportbike? Exhibit A: My decked-out 2002 R1 In my last entry, I wrote about how motorcycles today are capable of such technical prowess that if you're really looking for the most bang for your buck, you're better off buying the most badass sportbike you can find rather than