How to push yourself to get faster

[MXP1MP]

what the topic says, how can I push myself to ride faster. I ride mainly by myself so I have noone to base off of at the moment. So how can I push myself safely to get faster?
Any mental tips would help.

 

[SirThumper]

If you have noone to ride with, try timing you laps, and try to best them each time. Staying focused is a plus mentaly, when you are trying your hardest, thinking ahead of each obstacle, it is easier to stay smoothe, the smoother you are the faster you can go.

I personaly gained the most speed from riding with guys that were faster than me. It pushed me passed some limits I would not have passed had I not been riding with others.

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SirT

 

[RM_guy]

You should really find someone to ride with. It’s so much safer and you can push each other. Aside from that you can put a cheap digital watch (one that has a stopwatch in it) on your cross bar pad. It fits perfect and you can easily time yourself like SirThumper says. Also relax and have fun and you’ll see a difference too.

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[Zoomer]

A ittle trick I did, was to go and buy a cheap stop watch and velcro'd it to my cross bar, I could pick a easy part of the track, and reset at that point. (not real accurate, but better than nothing) :)

 

[MXP1MP]

Well I wish I had some better riders to ride with. I know it's not the keenest thing to do ,riding by yourself. I'm just looking to get faster overall, not hurt myself :) Everyone who I can get to go ridding with me I'm always better than they are by alot and I think i'm super spodely. It should be easier to find someone to ride with now that I don't work full weekends.

 

[krash133]

The best tip I can give to get faster is to practice something each time you go out. Just riding aroud helps, but when you are focused on something you progress faster.

Each time you go out to ride decide on one thing to improve on. Whether it be berm corners, rutted straits, tabletop jumps or whoops, try to improve on just that for about 30 minutes, after warming up. Then take a break and do laps or play around a while. Then come back, and do another session just focusing on that one thing. Finally try to incorporate that on thing into the whole track for a while.

One thing at a time will eventually add up to a complete package. Focusing on fixing your weak points will make you a faster rider.

Finally, it a very bad idea to go ride by yourself. If you get hurt badly no one is there to get help.
If you still choose to go solo, then carrying a cell phone with you while you ride is a definite must. If you do get hurt you might, -repeat-, might be able to get help.
A riding buddy is the best, and cheapest, solution.

[This message has been edited by krash133 (edited 03-01-2001).]

 

[Dirty Dirt Biker]

Yeah, well you probably have enough advice but the thing I learned is to never go riding alone. Theres been times that i've went riding alone and got hurt really badly, that I needed to wait for someone to come to the track so that they can help me out. So get a riding buddy or get someone to watch you. That can also help you out. If you get a friend to watch you along with the other riders. He can tell you where ur faster or slower.

Dirty Dirt Biker http://dirtydirtbikers.cjb.net/

 

[RABID ROB]

It always helps me to go fast enough until it scares me a little. Once that speed doesn't scare you anymore, go faster until it does. This works espcially in cornering. If forces you to keep up your momentum through turns. Good luck. This is what your face should look like going into turns. :eek:

 

[YoTRacer158]

Find someone to ride with that is a little faster than you, ride behind them and see where their braking and acceleration points are. If you dont have anyone that you can ride with, just try to stay on the gas a little longer and see how fast you can stop. The easiest way to do this is using a lot of front brake. In the gary semics book it recomends 70% front brake, 30% rear...i usually grab as much front brake as possible and pump the rear brake to keep it from locking up. One of the places where probably everyone needs improvement is through turns--getting into the turn faster, through through the turn faster, and out of it faster. Just experiment with how much power you can apply at certain points without spinning out or losing control. The earlier you can get on the power, the better.

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YZ125, Team YOLO Racing, 2001 Sponsors: Powerhouse of Paso Robles, Bell Helmets, N-Style Graphics, Boyesen, Twin Air

 

[bbbom]

To add to the above, it also helps if the person you are working with will ride behind you & critique (coach) you. Another option is to have someone videotape you. It can be quite enlightening to see some of your mistakes on tape.

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[AJ Waggoner]

Good point BBBom !!
video tape ..while discouraging to see how slow it makes you apprear..can be very enlightening!!

Victory lap timers--
are pretty cool too if your tryin to improve riding by yourself.
flashes red or green depending on your last lap time and keeps a record of the times for later review?

[This message has been edited by AJ Waggoner (edited 03-12-2001).]

 

[Sawblade]

Years ago I would take a coffee can with me to the track. Put some dirt in it to weight it down, and place it at the edge of the track where your braking point is. Now practice braking after you pass the can. Once you have started braking later, move the can a little close, and repeat. You can use a tire, rock, or anything else as a marker.

 

[mechantloup]

Get a good practice manual and read it back to back...then use it as a guide when training...I use Donnie Bales/Gary Semics "Pro motocross and off road motorcycle riding techniques" It covers every aspect of riding from the very basic to the really advanced stuff,and as in everything the more you learn the better it gets... :D

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mechantloup
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[BL351]

I don't MX my son does but i have road raced. I have over 60,000 miles on the street and ride pretty hard. I went to a track day once and found that i was going so fast that i overloaded my senses. I could not remember what gear i was in and did not want to down shift in fear of hitting first gear.What i did was slow down and think the track thru.What gear and where to shift, turn, brake,and gas. Once i had this info down i was going much faster with less panic.If you are riding at the same tracks all the time then you should be thinking your way around the track not reacting.With my son we will go to our local practice area and ride for awhile. Then we pick a small section and work on it for quite a while. If you just keep doing laps by the time you get back to each section you can't remember what it was you were doing wrong.I have seen the speed increases that can be made by working the small sections over and over again.The old saying go slow to go fast.We have also tried just flying into corners with out any regard or hope of coming out of them cleanly.This may sound strange but try it. Get a certain type of corner that you may be having trouble with and just go faster than you know that you can make it thru. Yes you will crash but usually these are somewhat slow corners anyways. What this will tell you is that the speed in which you are comfortable with is much lower than the speed at which you will crash.The side benefit is that you slowly get use to the speed and your speed will increase by finding the true edge of safety not your preconseived idea of it.

 

[longtime]

try entering a race--that'll make you faster.

 

[HiG4s]

I have to agree with lawman, back in the old days I rode a 250 4-stroke quad with a couple guys with bikes. One had a Yamaha 490 and I could beat him around a track we had set up. They told me I should be racing. I entered a class B amature quad race for 250 4-strokes, slowest bracket they had, I was gonna kick behind, but found EVERYONE in it was as much better than me as I was better than the 490 rider. Very humbling experience. By the end of the season I was a much better rider.

 

[TexKDX]

I guess being a technical guy I might propose an alternative approach. How about breaking your riding down into the various elements - bermed corners, squared corners, jumps, whoops, etc. Then spend some time just perfectly executing bermed turns. Next, switch to the whoops. Just pushing harder while riding laps is one thing, but execution of each element of the lap may help too? It is also hard to concentrate on all the different obstacles on the track during the learning phase, at least for me.

Later you can put it all together to turn some hot laps.

This may be a wierd analogy, but when I bowled I would shoot all 10 pins for a game, making sure I covered the 6-10 area, then all 7 pins, making sure I covered the 4-7 area, so that during a game I was confident when I had to carry the common spares.

Last week while woods riding I was concentrating on making bermed turns where possible on the trails. I was following a really fast A rider, and it was amazing how many berms are out in the woods if you look for them. I was squaring to the inside line in many of the turns by default, but later concentrated on seeing and riding the natural berms.

FWIW, TexKDX.

 

[roostinbe]

I agree with Tex most definately. If you even just like 1/3 of an acre it still allows you to practice your basic skills. you can build a fairly small jump (25'-40ft), with a fairly steep lip to practice your takeoffs and landings. then make like 4, 0r 5 whoops. make a berm, a rutted corner, and a bank to just square up on. these simple obstacles will make your reflexes stronger, and sharper. also, with a small area, as you get better, you can make the jump larger, which makes the whole scene harder because of a shorter runway, and landing. also, if you can find a friend who is faster than you, get him to ride right on your tail, but not in the same line.(so they don't run over you) the sound of their bike and their presence right behind you will make you get sooo much faster, wether you think so or not. also make sure you don't get in a certain gear "rut". it is easy whne you are not pushing yourself, to get in the habit of not using your gears enough. this is a big mistake that can cost you a lot of easy speed.

 

[BillyWho]

Originally posted by MXP1MP:
what the topic says, how can I push myself to ride faster. I ride mainly by myself so I have noone to base off of at the moment. So how can I push myself safely to get faster?
Any mental tips would help.

the only thing to do is race as much as possible which is by far the best,and or always try to ride with someone faster and do 15-30 min.motos together and try to keep closing the gap each time until he's chasing YOU!!The best mental tip is to be in the best shape possible which gives you the confidece to go faster!

 

[YZFlyer]

The best thing I did to get faster was to get with a local pro (It helped that we are both firefighters) he followed me around the track and then we went back and worked on my cornering. First he would demo for me and then he watched me. Then we went to jumps and so on. Another thing he helped me do was to get on the gas in the straights. There is no way that I can stay up with him by chasing him but with him taking time and working with me on different obstacles my speed has increased dramaticly. Don't be afraid to ask some of your local pro's and experts to ride with you. Remember they love riding just as much as you do.

 

[kmccune]

First, try to find a riding partner. That said, visualize that you are riding with someone and they just went around the next corner. It sounds corny but it works for me (yes I do ride alone at times!), it keeps you looking ahead instead of just riding. Then do what is suggested above, break the riding into different skills and repeat them until you feel faster or more confident in that skill. Then string them all together and catch that guy around the corner. Remember to have fun and not to stress yourself out trying!


Kevin

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[MXRacer9]

My dad would pressure me into jumping big jumps. Hed be like "did you wear your sister's panties today? lemme on your bike im fixin to do it!!!!" and "if you do the tripple we'll get ya a stabilizer fin" "go for the stepdown and ill buy ya some white tech 8s" and always, "tripple the rythm section and we'll get your name put on your chest protector!" which i snapped my leg out of joint for!!!! lol.....try to reward yourself when you jump a really big jump, and just think about bragging rights when you are trying to get yourself pumped to jump a big jump.......and listen to track 3 from SlipKnoT......thats all i gots to say about that...

MXRacer9

 

[KawieKX125]

MXracer, your technique is a great way to get hurt. I am sure that your father was pushing you because he knew that you could do it, but if you are not ready for a jump, it is dangerous to do it!

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