The Secrets of Competition Riding
How to take on the country
A special report presented by US. Suzuki on the world, of motorcycling.
The secrets of competition riding
World Champion Joel Robert tells how, with a little practice, you can use his motocross riding techniques on your next desert ride.
Someone once described a motocross race as a series of controlled crashes mixed with a streak of phenomenally close-calls. That's an ironic observation. It's also right on. Running a motocross race is like going up the middle against the Minnesota Vikings, every yard you advance you pay for. In thuds and jolts.
Obviously, then, it takes a special type of athlete-rider to run a motocross race. Marked physical skills —tensile rather than brute strength being one requirement,instantaneous reactions the other—are vital. Equally important are the learned skills of taking corners, jumping ruts and straight out fast riding.
Two men who pass both tests are 4time world champion Joel Robert and Belgium champion Sylvain Geboers who rode 250cc Suzuki RH-70s to first and second places in the World Motocross Championship this past season. Their techniques, explained and demonstrated here by Robert, are remarkable; and worth studying — both S-2
for an education in first-rate riding, and as skills you can use (with a lot of practicej on your next desert ride.
Going fast through the rough
In any race the name of the game is speed —go faster than everyone else. But not so fast that you lose it. And that's the crucial difference between the controlled crashes and the near-misses: you must keep
just on the near side of disaster.
Going fast on motocross terrain requires a different kind of riding. The rear of the machine is continually bucking: which means it's hard to keep the front end pointed in the right direction.
The secret is to maintain a precise fore-and-aft balance. You must be ready to move instantly with the machine, because in very rough going the bike will whip violently,and often. Therefore, when you move, it’s got to be violent too. Your entire body from the knees up has to move—both sideways and front and back. The object is to keep your body weight over the center of the machine: that's most critical.
The key is to keep your feet on the pegs and maintain a relaxed, but firm, grip on the handlebars. A slightly crouched stance is how I ride it. Sensing the changes and reacting at once is an example of the finely tuned mental process you need to ride the motocross.
In the early stages of a race, when my strength is up, I can handle the machine on strength alone. Later, as the race wears on,
I wear out, and I’ve got to rely more on the handling characteristics of the machine.
That's when a good handling machine like the Suzuki proves the value of having a well-designed bike. It has a tendency to straighten itself out in rough going that helps me out. And in a motocross race every little bit helps. Because victory is sometimes a matter of the length of a motorcycle tire.
Jumping and lofting the front end
If speed is the goal of motocross racing, then jumping and lofting —like maintaining a precise fore-and-aft balance —are the crucial techniques. They are, however, fairly new techniques to motocross racing. It’s only been with the new lightweight two-stroke motorcycles that they've come into regular use.
Jumping in motocross is like any motorcycle jump. It requires a carefully timed spurt of power as you stand up on the pegs. You lift the front end with your arms and again keep that critical fore-aft balance by shifting your weight forward and backwards very subtly so the rear wheel lands first. If the front end drops while you're in the air, you're in trouble.
The best jumps are for distance rather than height. The key to doing this is to shut off the power the exact moment you're airborne. That gives the bike a more forward direction instead of upwards.
During downhill sections of a motocross race, riders will approach the lip of the hill, fling the front end high in the air and often land well beyond the base of the hill without even touching it. Needless to say,
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Secrets of Competition riding —(continued)
this requires much practice and strenuous physical conditioning.
On landing, the best method of applying power depends on the machine. When I first began riding my new Suzuki back in early 1970, I applied strong power the instant I landed, only to have the machine fly up and drop me off the back. If took several races for me to get used to the tremendous power, coupled with a lightweight machine. I have learned to ease the power back on when landing from a jump. I developed the habit by using a half-turn throttle until I was able to cope with the engine's sudden burst of speed. I now use a standard racing quarter-turn throttle.
Lofting is, as Americans call it, a wheelie. You keep the weight towards the rear of the machine to improve traction on the driving wheel; and make steering easier. Most modern motocross motorcycles, like the Suzuki TM-400, are buiit with the primary weight to the rear. Lofting the front end is an easy task to perform with the throttle alone, but this maneuver is difficult to learn and will often contribute to your bruise collection.
Deep holes and ruts
Deep holes and ruts can be navigated easier if the rider is able to cross them on one wheel. Often the entire area can be jumped.
Some riders have developed considerable skill at riding the rear wheel for great distances. In fact, where the great riders differ from the good ones is their ability to ride up hills, down and even turn —while riding on the rear wheel alone.
Fast cornering
Races are won in the corners. The straightaways are for thinking how you can take the next turn faster. But cornering in a motocross race isn't like any other form of racing. In a Grand Prix automobile race you set the car up on a line and, provided you've done it correctly, it goes through like it’s on a track.
No such procedure in motocross: you crash the bike through the corners. It's a bank shot. Come in straight, throw the bike sideways and bounce the rear wheel off the side of the turn. It's like a one cushion shot in billiards,only you're the cue ball.
To help you ricochette faster and not go so deep into the turn, all the riders help to build a “berm". A berm is a ridge of builtup dirt a the apex of the turn. It only takes a few practice laps to make one. It involves digging a rut and throwing dirt to the outside edge of the turn by sliding the bike sideways and using power to throw a rooster-tail of dirt to the outside. Since there's usually one
fast area to bounce a corner, all the riders help build the same berm.
Using the berm, I can literally fling my bike through the turn and cut my time in the corner to almost nothing.
Practicing and learning
In the time I’ve been coming to the United States for the Inter-AM, and now the Trans-AMA motocross series, I have conducted several motocross riding schools out at Saddleback Park in California. One of the most frequently asked questions is “How can I learn to ride as you do?" The answer I give them is, “Practice". But practice so that it's a test of yourself. I have even gone as far as adding extra weights to my machines so I had to work even harder and to think faster. That way when I rode a lightweight, good handling machine, I was even stronger and more prepared. I think you have to push yourself. Too many riders never really learn the potential of their machines or themselves.
Naturally, the Sunday pleasure rider doesn't have to extend himself as a motocross competition rider. But he can develop his skills better so he can enjoy a faster ride. And the techniques I've talked about here are ones he can adopt as his own ... if he practices.
