When is time to bail out?

The picture of Dennis Cuevas’s Jeep climbing another Jeep’s front tire and a spectacular accident in the FUSA course in Pocono(red course on the map) have suggested me a few considerations. Yesterday our friend and CR Greg broke the return cable of the accelerator and when he went to blip the throttle to down shift while already braking he lost control of the “now accelerating” bike that fortunately “got rid” of him before hitting the guardrail: Greg was very lucky because did not suffer any injury.

When Valentino washed out his front end at the beginning of the race in Germany, everybody praised the seasoned champion for having kept the engine on by holding in the clutch while sliding with his M1. On the other end there are other situations that would require the rider to jump out of the bike like our friend Lenny Santangelo did a few years ago in VIR. He had lost his rear brake in a previous race crash and after two laps into a new race, at the end of the straight before T1, when he went to pull his front brake lever, there was nothing because he had lost the brake caliper pin! At 150+mph he literally jumped from his bike letting it to continue its ride like a torpedo that exploded once it hit the trees at the edge the T1 run-off. Fortunately Lenny suffered only a fractured leg, not too much for that type of crash. To be honest it was not the first time that Lenny bailed out from a bad situation, because he already did it in Pocono Raceway after loosing control of his bike in the grass knowing that soon he would have run into one of the famous ditches crossing the field to collect rainwater.

Some time nothing can be done because the centrifugal force would abruptly eject the unfortunate rider off his bike. A couple of days ago the 39-year-old Duhamel crashed in T12 of Road Atlanta, in the most dangerous corner of the AMA Superbike Championship calendar. A sudden high-side that threw off the veteran rider: the bike went up in the air after hitting and displacing the air-fence while Duhamel slid until hitting the hay bales. He has suffered some internal injuries but it could have been worse after hitting a wall at that speed.

Personally I have bailed out in the mist of a crash only once, but while riding a dirt bike, and I am not even sure if I would be able to pull a similar action on a road-racing bike given the high speed involved. At professional level riders crash quite often developing the necessary experience to manage properly the unfortunate situation.
At my level, and for anybody else attending club events, crashing is something that we try to avoid as much as we can. Even a stupid low side can be costly financially and physically, especially when on Monday you have to go back to work.
My rambling has not provided a clear answer to the original question, but it did suggested that in difficult circumstances we shouldn’t exclude the option of … bailing out.

Are you in the market for a new leather suit? Part II

Yesterday Frank and I headed North to Massachusetts to visit Vanson Leathers. They are located in Fall River, a small industrial city located on the Rhode Island border. Supposedly it was once the foremost cotton textile center in the United States and it was not surprise to discover that the Vanson’s factory is located in a former mill built almost two centuries ago. Sadly the gorgeous building, with gray thick walls made of stone, it seems totally abandoned from outside to the point that initially I was wondering if I had wrote down correctly the address of the factory. And even when we saw the sign and the main entrance we could not imagine we were in front of the famous Vanson’s factory, the largest manufacturer of leather motorcycle apparel in USA.
Well, once we open the small, aged yellow door, our original expectations were finally matched by the large amount of leather suits, jackets, pants, leather accessories displayed all around this big warehouse. Dozen of custom made leather suits were hanging from the ceiling: they belonged to famous road and drag racers. The most famous name was definitely Freddie Spencer: it seems that Vanson has created a blue-red-white Honda leather suit that the former World Champion uses when riding for his well known school.
Frank and I spent more than two hours in the store, with Mike, Jessica and her mother (I've forgot her name) offering a unique, warm and professional service to both of us. Frank ended up ordering a custom made suit similar to that one used by Colin Edward when he won the WSB with the Castro-Honda. Instead I had them to re-size my beloved blue-yellow-white leather suit: after loosing more than 35 pounds it became so big on me that when I fell in Summit main, my right sleeve flipped around my elbow exposing the Kevlar fabric to the ground, for which, after almost three months, I still carry the “pink memory” of the deep abrasion suffered by my forearm.
The trip was a bit long but definitely worth the effort. The surrounding area is beautiful, only an hour away from CapeCod with its remarkable coastal towns and villages. Vanson store is conveniently opened 7 days a week, so I would definitely suggest to buy or repair your leather motorbike suit in the contest of a memorable weekend in Massachuset

O s..., I did it again

Last weekend we were in Summit Point, VA, for a two-day event in the main course with NESBA. It was our last event for the year, before storing our bikes in the garage for the traditional long and cold winter in NYC. Friday was raining but the forecast for the weekend was calling for clear sky and temperatures in the 50s. We were all excited because for the occasion we were able to put together a nice group of people. We had from Queens Jack and Sam; Pete and Kathleen from NYC; from NJ Alex and Mario; from Brooklyn: Steven, Antonio, Naim, Mike, Almos, Frank and the rest of our friends that we normally meet at the NESBA events. Personally, this trip was particularly special for the first time presence of my wife and my two daughters at a track event.













We left on Friday heading down in separate cars to Summit where we had booked several rooms at the Shoney’s Motel. We arrived at 11: 00 PM and after saying good night, every body went to sleep. After a couple of hours a huge bang on my room door made me jump on my feet and run to the window: two young men were running away but one of them was Jay, Mario’s friend, so I calmed down and went back to sleep. At 6:00 AM I left my family sleeping in the room to go for breakfast when my phone rings: it was Steve, or better Uncle Steve: “ Alex can you unlock my room door? The lady from the hotel must have locked it with some … some kind of tape. Am I the only one locked in? Please check it out. Raise your head: I am using my cellular as flashlight so you can see me!”. I looked at him and I noticed a web of duct tape crossing my friend’ doors and locking the handles with the handrails in front the rooms. At the beginning I did not understand but when I spotted Alex and Mario in a dark corner laughing their guts every thing became clear. Steven and Naim ended up forcing their way out to walk outside their rooms in underwear and duct tape crossing their bodies …
Saturday the day was gorgeous: blue sky with a nice refreshing breeze with the characteristic scent of the fields surrounding the track. My first session was frantic, at least to say. New helmet (tight), new boots (loose), new bike set up (I had raised the tail) and a new set of tires on asphalt that seemed sprayed with Pledge. The second session, with my old boots, and the Intermediate group to witch I was assigned as Control Rider, was much better and the beginning of a wonderful day. We playful raced in the track and entertain each other in the pit area. We had a lot of red flags due to crashes but nothing too serious. Saturday night, we went to a local restaurant were we had a long dinner entertained by Peter; we had tears on our eyes.
Sunday morning, I did not go out on the first session to let the temperature to warm up a bit. The sky was overcast, and only now I am recall that a few raindrops were falling but without making the ground wet. As matter of the fact, when I did went out I was surprised with the grip: no even the lightest sign of a slide, zero, zip, absolutely nothing. Twenty minutes after I went out again and on my second lap while still warming up the tires, my front tire lost suddenly grip right at the entrance of T3. O.S.:I am crashing again! I yelled in my helmet.
Initially I slid over the asphalt but then I went into gravel trap where I tumbled several times before stopping before the tire wall. I immediately stood up on my legs but with my right collarbone broken. I was pissed off: on top of the injury, I had ruined my new beloved 600 and most important I had crashed the first time that my wife Angela was at the track (even though she was still sleeping with the girls at the hotel). I went back to the pit area in a pick up transporting my bike on the back. The ambulance verified my conditions while my friend quickly took care of my stuff. An hour after, with 3 Advil pills in my body I went to pick up my wife and together we hang out the rest of the day at the track. My crash somehow had affected a bit the atmosphere among my friends but overall we still had good time. Curiously, after lunch another friend of mine instructing for NESBA had a similar crash but on T4 (even faster) and brought to 4 the number of NESBA Control Riders crashing in 2 days (a fifth one had crashed in T1 but with a broken-locked chain). All of us have unexpectedly washed the front end of our bikes so I this point I must blame our Dunlop 208 along with the famous slippery conditions of this track. This was my fourth time in Summit Main and mistakenly I never gave too much importance to the web of asphalt cracks that run trough the racetrack. At night they must funnel the steam from underneath the soil to condense afterward with the cooler temperatures of the air: the result is very slippery patches that eventually dry out later on in the morning with the sun and the motorbike tires forming a clean line.
Too bad I had to crash to learn it!


Photo album provided by Jack and Sam
For professional pictures covering the event visit Race Day Photo

Are you in the market for a new leather suit?

When it comes to custom leather suits, the majority of riders living in my area buy Vanson products. Why? To my knowledge this is only real option here in New York. Ten years ago, when I came from Italy I brought with me a Dainese one-piece leather suit: I think that the name was Tech 2. If my suit perfectly survived a crash in 2001, I can not claim the same about the modification added by a local shop to make it more confortable after gaining 35 pounds over the years. My beloved yellow and black Dainese became so out of wack, that 2 ½ years ago I was forced to go custom. I ended up with a Vanson blue-yellow-white suit that has served perfectly his purpose until my recent crash, last month. When I was taken out from behind, I fell on my shoulder and skidded for a while with my forearm taking the brunt of the abrasion from the asfalt. While skidding I felt a burning sensation on my arm to the point that I inserted my left hand under it to move it away from under my body. What happened is that with the impact my right sleeve flipped around the elbow and the inside part of the sleeve in fabric/kevlar fell apart causing a deep abrasion on my arm from which I am still recovering. Most of the blame goes to my superficiality: last year I lost the extra 35+ pound so my custom fitted suit became very loose and this is what caused the rotation of the sleeve. My idea was to wait the end of the new season to be sure that I was able to maintain my reigained shape in the long run. And yes, I have not gained weight but I have not finished the season without crashing either, so it comes my arm road rush abrasion. What I have learned is the following: a suit has to fit perfectly your body in order to provide the best protection; the perforated leather keeps you cool during hot summers but it does not resist prolonged abrasions (it rips apart); the fabric/kevlar inserts should be limited as much as possible because they do not provide real protection, but only confort.
Here it comes the reason why I am probably going to stick with the heavy, old-fashion Vanson versus the other appealing brands available in the market: next week I am going to the local shop that sells Vanson to send my teared and baggy suit to be fixed and customized to my “new” body. They are going to repair it, wash it, insert new lettering (at least the name of the last addition to my family) and send it back to me in a neat box. Perhaps it is going to be a bit expensive, but Vanson is the only company that is providing such a type of service: the alternative it would be to buy cheaper, standard size, brand-name leather suit with the risk to go back visiting my upholstery shop in the neighbor for unwanted repairs until the Dainese’s trailer stops by at my home race track.


Video source provided by Youtube and motorcyclenews.com

Casey Stoner: has he been crashing too much?

My intention was to calculate how many times Shinya Nakano has crashed during this season, but then I moved my attention to Casey Stoner. For whatever is the reason I thought that the Japanese had many more crashes, maybe because of the green bike or because he had a few of them in the recent Gps. In reality Stoner is ahead of the Kawasaki’s rider not only in the World Classification, but also in total crashes (I will provide the answer to the poll question in a couple of days).
It’s not official, but it seems that next year Stoner will race with Ducati on Gibernau’s bike, the same rider who, last Sunday, he took out and sent to the hospital with a broken hand and a never completely healed collar bone to fix again.
Ducati’s choice has stirred a lot of controversy among fans because some of them claim that Stoner’s predisposition to crash will affect the 800cc evolution and, at the same, the potential to win the World Championship. Regardless, with one race to go, Casey has so far accumulated 119 pts, which put him in 7th overall position in overall classification. Also he has still the chance to beat Pedrosa in the 2006 Rookie of the Year Classification.
No bad for someone that has crashed ( ? ) in 15 races.

Crashing! Do you really have to?

By Robert Lombardi for Pure Motorbike Passion

My motorized 2-wheel career started in the mid 80’s on a 1985 RM 125. Wow! I though this is crazy; all this power with the turn of your wrist. Six months later I felt it was time to go racing, so I graduated to a 250cc and had even a brief tour on a 500cc machine. During the many practices and races in motocross I learned that in order to go fast I had to push my limits, and that led to some crashing, a lot of crashing. It became part of the game. But as you may expect, the injuries became to many. As the years went on, racing motocross had been taking its toll on me, and I was looking for another 2-wheel experience to fill the void. I needed something less abusive on my body on a daily basis. In 1994, I bought a CBR 900RR: my first street motorcycle. This bike was the @#$% ultimate machine and this eventually led to track days. I did not want to repeat my experience that I had on the dirt bike so I adopted an “aviation” type attitude. No mistakes, as I were flying a plane. With an aircraft you have no second chances. I felt that, due to potential catastrophic results, riding a bike should be thought in this way. Explanation! Simple no risk; don’t do any thing unless you know that you are going to make it, even if it means to slow down a little bit. Yes, it will take longer to reach your potential but at least you will be around to achieve it, and having fun in the meantime. Now, you may ask: what has it happened to the “push the limits” theory? Well, if you are willing to give it a try, it does work for a while. According to my experience, most of the riders who adopt this method do not last long. They end up plagued with injuries and financial woes that eventually cause them to quit. In the other hand, since 2003 I have managed to accumulate 8 regional and 2 endurance national championships using the “aviation method”. Also, in the last 4 seasons, I finished every race I started, except one (Kansas, broken ribs) and I had only two other crashes, both of them in practice. Believe me, my system does work!
All said I am going to answer the title question. Do you have to crash to improve your riding? No! Will it happen? OH YEAH! You could be doing everything right and still go down: it is the nature of the beast and it is our job to cut down the preventable, adrenalin filled, mistakes and bad decisions that cause what I call “unnecessary crashes”.
For instance, the rider that took out Alessandro at the last NESBA day at Summit Point made an obvious adrenalin filled mistake. (watch the video)
In conclusion, it is important to learn something from every crash and understand the dynamic of why it happened: this will help to avoid future crashes.

Good luck,

ROB

It could have been worse

Two weeks ago in Summit Point, West Virginia I was taken out by another rider while acting as Control Rider for NESBA, in the Intermediate Group. The video is quite long and not really clear, anyhow the accident happened going into the last turn, T10: I am wearing the orange shirt. Luckily both of us were able to walk away from the accident with just a few bruises and abrasions but nothing to serious.

Video source

European "Banzai"

My friend Almos is suggesting a very funny video of an European (Austria, Vienna) amateur endurocross race. Somehow it reminds me those Japanese games where the participants are never able to go from one station to the other one without falling ruinously. In TV the Japanese contenders keep smiling and laughing, in this video we cannot tell because of the helmets but my guess is that they are, at least, “displeased” … (LOL).

Video and picture source