ZEN.. and the art of motorcycle racing
Damn, I wish I had the words to describe how i m feeling right now... just back from my first track day of this season...and wowwwwwwwwwwww... WAT A FEEELING!!!! Hemingway was right.... rest all r just merely games....they will NEVER be sports!
Wat can match the thrill of diving 200+kmph into a turn... one knee touching the ground, eyes fixed 100 feet away at the corner exit... passing a slow moving sucker because he is doing only 190kmph.
Wat can match the thrill of going 250kmph on the straight...and then braking like there is no tomorrow.. grabbing 3 downshifts.. while blipping the throttle, to match RPMs...and simultaneously braking...while actually bending over to almost have your elbow touch the road!!!!!!!!
Wat can match the joy of loosing virginity...the TRACK VIRGINITY....the first magical touch when your knee finally touches the ground.. when your shoe rubs the road..the lil spark that flies...that tingle that goes down the spine..that pang of lightening that runs across the body:-)
Damn it man, this is life at its beautiful best, this is orgasm at its peak,this is zen baby, this is nirvana!!!!!!!!!! Buddha would not have had to waste all these years sitting under a tree.. just get up at 4.30 in the morning, put on your leathers, grab your helmet, head to the track and WHAM....NIRVANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He was born at the wrong time...they just dint have fast enough motorcycles then!
(lest anybody takes offence, I have as much respect for Buddha as anybody. I have just used a metaphor here)
........................................................................................................
ok, bcos some ppl said so, I am adding some background to this post above. Still, dont bother too much to make sense, u ll probably enjoy it if u enjoy racing.. cos its just one of the ramblings. actually, i just write motorcycle stuff on my blog once in a while ..whenever i m feeling like.. its usually philosophical, meta-physical kinds. and yeah, i reserve the right to not make sense in my blog :-) j/k!!
so yeah, a lil recap. like some of u kow, i m in Houston, ride an R6, do track days currently and m looking at club racing this year. i did my first track day of this season, and my CMRA license school (cmraracing.com) on feb at TWS (http://texasworldspeedway.com/) . an org called LSTD (http://www.lstd.com/) had organized it. that was what i wrote in my blog after i came back the title 'ZEN.. and the art of motorcycle racing ' was just a take on the book ' zen and the art of m/c maintenance' as in this post, i was trying to associate m/c racing with zen, not just m/c riding. hope that clears some confusion.
so a lil non philosophical details. it was my third track day ever. first 2 were in sept when i had the bike only for 3000km. learnt a lot of lessons then. practised out those things on the street ( lest u understand that i was trying wheelies, stoppies etc, let me clarify. i was practising the basic road-racing things. cornering, body positionning, braking, trailbraking, blipping throttle, simultaneous braking- blipping- downshifting etc etc.). so now that i have done 15000km in 6 months, i went out and tried out all that stuff on the track..and it came out pretty decent.
so here s the story of the day. i wake up at 4.30, put on my leathers, grab the helmet, and ride to the track 100km away (still dont hv a bike trailer). start at 5.15, takes me one hour, and i m in the pits at 6.30. get the bike ready for inspecting, sign up waiver and forms etc. hang around with some guyz i hv come to know. 8.30, A group (racers group) is out on track. BAD weather, cold track and tires, strong winds. couple of guyz crash, none bad. C group ( novice group) goes out, they go slow, no crashes, come out ok. B group (intermediate group) goes out, i m in there, bam.. 1 red flag (crashes when bike is not ridable any more), couple of yellow flags(crashes, off track trips where ppl r still good to ride). I do ok.
The day goes BAD! 8-10 red flags, 15-20 yellows, 2 BADDDDD accidents where riders were taken to hospital and admitted actually. however, for those that dint crash, it was not that bad. for me , it turned out to be awesome!! i kept enough margin, bcos i dont hv race tires or even tire warmers, but still managed decent pace to move to A group after lunch. Got my knee down for the first time. feels like loosing virginity as i said lol!i did go off track once, but just kept the pressure on front forks, did not touch brakes and managed to stop safely after gng arnd 100mtr into dirt.ended the day on a cautious note, as it was getting cold again and ppl were begining to crash again. came back home, and wrote that note u guyz just read above!( holy sh*t, typing is tough).
Wat can match the thrill of diving 200+kmph into a turn... one knee touching the ground, eyes fixed 100 feet away at the corner exit... passing a slow moving sucker because he is doing only 190kmph.
Wat can match the thrill of going 250kmph on the straight...and then braking like there is no tomorrow.. grabbing 3 downshifts.. while blipping the throttle, to match RPMs...and simultaneously braking...while actually bending over to almost have your elbow touch the road!!!!!!!!
Wat can match the joy of loosing virginity...the TRACK VIRGINITY....the first magical touch when your knee finally touches the ground.. when your shoe rubs the road..the lil spark that flies...that tingle that goes down the spine..that pang of lightening that runs across the body:-)
Damn it man, this is life at its beautiful best, this is orgasm at its peak,this is zen baby, this is nirvana!!!!!!!!!! Buddha would not have had to waste all these years sitting under a tree.. just get up at 4.30 in the morning, put on your leathers, grab your helmet, head to the track and WHAM....NIRVANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He was born at the wrong time...they just dint have fast enough motorcycles then!
(lest anybody takes offence, I have as much respect for Buddha as anybody. I have just used a metaphor here)
........................................................................................................
ok, bcos some ppl said so, I am adding some background to this post above. Still, dont bother too much to make sense, u ll probably enjoy it if u enjoy racing.. cos its just one of the ramblings. actually, i just write motorcycle stuff on my blog once in a while ..whenever i m feeling like.. its usually philosophical, meta-physical kinds. and yeah, i reserve the right to not make sense in my blog :-) j/k!!
so yeah, a lil recap. like some of u kow, i m in Houston, ride an R6, do track days currently and m looking at club racing this year. i did my first track day of this season, and my CMRA license school (cmraracing.com) on feb at TWS (http://texasworldspeedway.com/) . an org called LSTD (http://www.lstd.com/) had organized it. that was what i wrote in my blog after i came back the title 'ZEN.. and the art of motorcycle racing ' was just a take on the book ' zen and the art of m/c maintenance' as in this post, i was trying to associate m/c racing with zen, not just m/c riding. hope that clears some confusion.
so a lil non philosophical details. it was my third track day ever. first 2 were in sept when i had the bike only for 3000km. learnt a lot of lessons then. practised out those things on the street ( lest u understand that i was trying wheelies, stoppies etc, let me clarify. i was practising the basic road-racing things. cornering, body positionning, braking, trailbraking, blipping throttle, simultaneous braking- blipping- downshifting etc etc.). so now that i have done 15000km in 6 months, i went out and tried out all that stuff on the track..and it came out pretty decent.
so here s the story of the day. i wake up at 4.30, put on my leathers, grab the helmet, and ride to the track 100km away (still dont hv a bike trailer). start at 5.15, takes me one hour, and i m in the pits at 6.30. get the bike ready for inspecting, sign up waiver and forms etc. hang around with some guyz i hv come to know. 8.30, A group (racers group) is out on track. BAD weather, cold track and tires, strong winds. couple of guyz crash, none bad. C group ( novice group) goes out, they go slow, no crashes, come out ok. B group (intermediate group) goes out, i m in there, bam.. 1 red flag (crashes when bike is not ridable any more), couple of yellow flags(crashes, off track trips where ppl r still good to ride). I do ok.
The day goes BAD! 8-10 red flags, 15-20 yellows, 2 BADDDDD accidents where riders were taken to hospital and admitted actually. however, for those that dint crash, it was not that bad. for me , it turned out to be awesome!! i kept enough margin, bcos i dont hv race tires or even tire warmers, but still managed decent pace to move to A group after lunch. Got my knee down for the first time. feels like loosing virginity as i said lol!i did go off track once, but just kept the pressure on front forks, did not touch brakes and managed to stop safely after gng arnd 100mtr into dirt.ended the day on a cautious note, as it was getting cold again and ppl were begining to crash again. came back home, and wrote that note u guyz just read above!( holy sh*t, typing is tough).
posted by Kalkat at 4:53 PM
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