Why Racing Superbikes?

Why Racing Superbikes?

I've never really been much of a sports fan.  I've probably made that clear in a number of ways.  But mostly because I'm just "sports clueless". When I was first introduced to superbike racing - Wow! It just did it for me.  It wasn't really because of any one rider.  Back then it was because everything was so graceful.  The radius of the turns and the lean angles of the bikes and riders.  I could just watch them for hours.  I'd only ever heard classic drag cars up until then.  Occasionally, some funny cars but the superbikes where just something totally different.

Stick with me, remember - I'm not a sports person.

I really love math and I'm constantly playing little geometry games with everything I see.  I'll glance through the room and determine intersection angles, volumes, areas, tangents.  Shove them together and look for some interesting patterns.

It's probably a little bit autistic really. And jeeze, I'll notice if you move nearly anything in a room that I've been in a few times.  But I probably won't notice that you've shaved your beard. 

Unless we're really close, then I'll notice almost everything.  ++ 

Getting setup to flick the bike

 

Riding on the race track is just like that for me but beyond what I can process in real-time.  In fact, I'm just now learning to listen on a bunch of new inputs from the bike.  Unlike reasoning with people, the track offers more constants to interact with.  I have developed a wonderful desire for pushing my understanding of the track.  Doing a year and a half of track days really fanned the flames of those desires.

Racing introduced many new variables into the challenges.  One of them surprised me quite a bit: I'm super competitive.  I know how to lose with dignity but I don't like it.  I realized that slowly but steadily during LRRS Round #2.  The first time that 'I' passed someone during a race was energizing.

In my last race before I had the low slide (which I'm still on my ass more than not), I started lapping the racers in the wave after me.  That was really really exhilarating.  It most likely contributed to my slide.  I'll have to learn to turn those feelings up and down if I want to continue to competing successfully. 

Why do you follow racing?  Why do you race?

If you're gonna ride, remember to Twist It!

-diz