Freddie is amazing! I'll never forget staying up all night to watch him race on TV, jumping from a 250cc bike right to a 500 and taking both world championships. Unthinkable today!
That was the first year I paid attention to racing. Either Freddie or Kenny Roberts won every single race that year. Can you imagine? An American winning every single round of the GP?!?
Been through a 3 level riding school. 1st level taught brake-body position - look through the turn-lean throttle. 2nd level taught how to approach the turn and find the apex. 3rd level started by telling you "forget everything we said about braking before the turn and carry the brakes in the turn". At first everyone felt uncomfortable with this approach but at the end of the day everyone was going much faster and much safer with insane levels of confidence. Trail braking is the most important skill in order to enjoy and stay safe. My level of riding has skyrocketed. I advice to go to a school and apply this technique in a track and then when you realize the benefits go to street and apply this tecnique. Great video. Congrats!!!
So pleased to have my "self discovered" trail braking technique approved by your channel and the legend Freddie Spencer himself. Unbelievable. You give me the confidence to work harder on it. I was 10 in 1985 and perfectly remember watching this incredible fast guy winning 250 &500 championships. A big thank you from France.
Dave you are setting an awfully high bar with these podcasts. Amazing guests and wisdom shared. Us civilian riders would normally have to spend thousands traveling to schools to hear Nick and Freddie drop this kind of knowledge on us. Took me a few mornings to get through the longer video but worth every moment. Thank you!
I had a close friend who raced Freddie back in Freddie's Flattracking days. My friend, Fast Fred Smith from Memphis TN, told me of racing Freddie in a flattrack race and on the 1st heat Freddie S and he swapped the lead several times but Freddie took him with a last corner pass. Then between the heats Fast Fred visited Freddie in the pits and talked for a bit and made a off-hand remark about set-up and then left. Freddie got to thinking about it and made an adjustment in his set-up and ended up taking a step backwards. Fast Fred ended up taking the 2nd heat because of this. I Believe that Freddie mentions this in a book about learning something about the mental aspect of racing that night. By dear departed friend was quite accomplished, he had a Harley factory ride for a couple years and did developmental riding for Yamaha MX bikes for several years. He and I ran a Motorcycle tour company in Ecuador decades later, his Harley factory leathers hung in his garage there
Your learning to ride for the unknowns, the knowns are exactly that and present you with the things you do all the time. It's the road colored sandbag the construction crew left you in the middle of the road you couldn't see and are at speed and lean angle that you are learning to ride for. Yea, you pull over hands shaking for about 15 minutes with both you and the bike intact. These type events come often on the road and you better be ready. I'm 64 and riding since 11 and never stop learning how these things work both by education and practice, my life depends on it!
Terrific interview. Multiple time YCRS student. Huge benefits from the education and coaching received. Use the training every time I ride. Empowering. Track riding, exploring the limits of front end grip is the mystical realm of superior riding. No electronics yet available can protect a rider from crossing that limit when you are out looking for every last percentage of grip. I hope coaching and technology can help make that process less painful in the future. If you try to get faster, even with the best technique in the world, at some point you will flirt a bit too close to that edge, and depart traction. Fear that all the time.
Freddy Spencer ...awesome! Back in my Marine Corps days, 87-93, I had a beautiful 1984 Honda VF 750 F Interceptor in red, white and blue. Just like Freddie's, minus the race gear. It was the bike to have at the time. Stupidly I sold it upon leaving active duty. Fast forward to 2019. I wondered if any of these old beauties were still around. Wife's eyes rolling....here we go again. Anyway, I found a 1984 VF 700 F in red, white and blue in decent condition in central PA and had to have it. Got it home, spent some coin in getting it back to it's glory and now almost 40 years later, still a screamer and a head turner. I also own a 2013 Honda VFR 1200 F in jet black and silver. Cool to have the first generation of Interceptor and one of the last ones. Tough to decide which one to take out. Old school, no frills and raw -or- new tech, with all the goodies. Ride safe my brethren!!
They did a special edition heritage VFR800 in that red white and blue - It was SPECTACULAR - I think you need that one to complete the collection. bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-honda-vfr-800-25th-anniversary-special/
Hi from Ontario Canada. What a thrill to hear these legends talk and share their many years of wisdom. I have been street riding for 45 years this year, I am 62. I started riding in 1980 , and been a fan of you both for about that long also. I was a motorcycle riding instructor for 30 years - we never sent anyone home unless they did not have proper gear or crashed , but then they could return. I still like to help new riders. I did one track day school here but want to do another before I get too old to enjoy it. You never stop learning at any age. I suscribed 5 minutes.into this.. Once again a huge thank you to you all. -
Learning the correct techniques improved my riding way quicker than time in the seat. Understanding motorcycle physics was a light bulb moment. Channels like this are great educators. I’m a much better rider at 60 after practicing the skills explained in your videos 👍👍
The first time I saw Freddie was at Sears Point. Years later, I went to his school in Vegas when Nick was an instructor. Loved watching Freddie during his career.
I rode for almost 15 years before understanding what trail braking is from watching CanyonChasers-thanks! I used to believe trail braking was dangerous, but am glad I had enough of an open mind to question that belief. It has taken my riding to a whole new level of control.
Doing the speed limit with a motorcycle on the street, there’s practically no need to have lean angle, but how many of us are actually doing the speed limit and that’s why this conversation is important. Great conversation One of these days I’m going to make it to a riding school.
Freddie Spencer is obviously a great motorcycle rider. I've been riding about 82.000 miles since 1978; but I don't understand what he's saying when giving advice at 30:30. I admire the teacher I had back in 1978. I understood everything he said. It takes more to being a good teacher than just being a good rider.
Hes basically talking about how he gets his lower body into position before the corner, which allows him to focus on upper body position and braking to help get the motorcycle to turn.
The foundation these gentlemen (and others like them) have built for the riding community is priceless. Like they said, everything you learn trying to optimize track riding directly translates to the ways riders wind up dead on the street. Updating and improving our knowledge and skills shouldn't be treated as breaking with tradition, it should BE the tradition.
@@CanyonChasers My pleasure. I've been watching you for a couple years and can't tell you how much it's helped. I appreciate that you focus on teaching, not scaring us with all the "look how bad it can go." stuff. Obviously we know it can go badly, that's why we went looking for instruction on how to do it right.
Thank you! I alwasy felt terrible leveraging someones worst day ever as a bad example and for video clicks. Like, when they study counterfeit bills, they don't look at the fakes, they study the real thing - sorta' the same thing here, right? Shouldn't we be looking at how the best riders in the world ride and not pay so much attention to how "MotoMesiah69" says we should ride?
@@CanyonChasers 100% agree. What amazes me is how many people resist the idea. But, as a youtuber I can see the temptation to go with what amounts to "if it bleeds it leads". It gets views, it's easier because someone else already created the core of your content and there's a never ending supply... Content like yours takes a lot more time and effort to produce. For me the biggest thing benefit has been the cornering help. Having real information and not just my own experience to work with has gone a long way. I'm not trying to go faster, but just be more controlled for when there's unexpected changes in a corner. Sand from construction, debris... That is knowledge I can use every day on every ride to keep the bike on its tires. LOL. my little CB300R has minimal straight line speed, so the real fun is getting your corners right.
I was a competitive sim racer for about 7 years before selling my hardware last spring and buying a Duke 390. I remember when I first started out sim racing, one of the fast guys Dupezz braking much later and faster than me at Spa and realized he was doing things I wasn't. I learned then what Nick talks about when he says load the tire before you work the tire, Freddy talking about loading the suspension, threshold braking and the trailing off the brakes into the corner. Once I started to get it right, I quickly became much more competitive, consistent and was also much more engaging chasing perfection. I'm now enjoying the hunt to perfect these same techniques on my Duke and am loving it. Can't wait for spring up here in Canada. Thanks Dave.
@@CanyonChasers I watched some of this again. Out of all the cars I raced in sim racing, the stock cars in assetto corsa (Lilski's mod) and project cars 1, were by far the best at learning almost identical techniques to the ones discussed due to the body roll and soft suspension. For those that don't have access to a racing simulator, Forza is also helpful. When you lock up or get loose which is easy to do, you know you're doing it wrong and your lap times will suffer. With 3000 hrs logged in both of those, winning was pretty common for me and I started spending more time trying to teach the others near the back what was discussed in this vid near the end. I think sim racing is a great tool for learning these techniques, especially for those people that have a hard time listening, learning and putting aside their egos. The best part is you can safely dance on the edge of grip with no driver aids, slowly refining the tolerance outside the ideal limit on every part of the track and crash as many times as you'd like until you learn the muscle memory required to control the car effortlessly under pressure.
I had the opportunity to attend Champ School in January this year. These guys and this school are world class both instructors and humans. I have lots of seat time but no track time. These two days of training has advanced my riding exponentially!! I HIGHLY recommend Champ School….which by the way was introduced to me by Canyon Chasers Dave. “SAFER/FASTER”
I love it! I mean, I'd been a coach for over 20 years before I did my first start-to-finish champ school and I had the same experience! Never stop learning. amiright?
I'm a big fan of both of those guys, Freddie was unequalled back in the 70's & 80's & is one of the legends of the sport. Nick is one of the greatest writers about riding technique, loved his book & magazine contributions. Thanks for posting. Regards from Perth, Aus.
I always enjoy watching video's of not only great racers giving great advice, but great personalities as well. I learned to ride street in the Northern Appalachians in 1987 around the Ramapo mountains and now ride the Southern Appalachians from Blowing Rock NC to the Asheville NC area. While I have never set foot on a track or taken a road course I do practice the techniques talked about in your video's. You provide great content and it has really helped me become a better and safer rider. Thank you.
Excellent...thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. Fast Freddie is a legend, yet seems very humble and approachable. I've done rides with Reg Pridmore and Lee Parks as a passenger...gave me just a tiny glimpse of what level these guys are on compared to us mortals. Mind blown.
2 class acts. Both have always been super helpful and friendly. Pitting next Nick during a Streets Of Willow was the first time I met him, and he gave some very helpful advice.
my wife on the back of the bike , trail braking is awesome... I taught my 6yr old to trail brake on the pavement riding his pw50... he actually hollered out woo hoo because he was confident
Amazing video!! Cornerspin changed my life, it’s what Freddy was talking about doing growing up. Sliding around on small bikes playing with traction, lean angle and sliding/rotation. You can definitely get proficient in quick time through good instruction and practice. Only comment on the time it takes… It’s not 10,000 hours to get proficient. It takes that many hours to develop elite level skills.
I'm really glad you brought up the instant torque of electric motorcycles. I recently saw an EV motorcycle with a claimed 800+ ft lb of torque! The limits of the bike (especially small displacement bikes) has allowed the teaching of bad technique, but that's going to change. Even a small "starter" EV motorcycle is going to be launching new riders in to low-orbit with that instant torque application.
no bs, ive ridden the LS218,livewire, and energica eva....i can't even explain how it feels....i jokingly say "zero to mach chicken in holy shit!" there is ZERO middle ground, throttle control is EVERYTHING! just everything all at once... now if they can only get ranges up to liveable levels
I’ve been riding since I was 6 but mostly off road, but as I started the new episodes of my life I got on my first Harley and boy that was a different animal. I decided to start looking for the right training to make things safer, then I found ChampU! WOW, what a difference I made in a few weeks.
Really enjoyed the discussion. Admittedly, I've been getting somewhat confused by the information I've been getting from different sources (mostly books and videos by very reputable people). The differing schools of thought on subjects like cornering and braking, and the physics behind those beliefs, is fascinating. I'm really itching to get out and put some time in at a track; put theory into practice and learn the best techniques. Videos like this are so helpful and only fan the flame, so thanks to the three of you for sharing your time and such valuable information!
YES! Exactly. This is my great frustration with our community - there are a lot of channels, a lot bigger than mine, that share some really dubious information that gets taken as gospel truth because of the subscriber count or the Reddit upvotes. Good techniques are _not_ democratically decided upon. We need to follow and look at what the best riders in the world are doing - not what "MotoMesiah69" does, right?
@@CanyonChasers Definitely agree. I think, for me, my confusion comes more from the differing views on the best techniques. I've done ChampU, which was very helpful, and read books like Twist of the Wrist and Total Control. I've also tried to read different articles and watch videos by those writers and others, such as Nick and yourself. I've found that the topic of trail braking, alone, brings up such strong opinions so I'm anxious to get real world training to move from theory to application. I want to get to the point where my technique is solid and growing so that I'm safer on the street because I'm putting in the work to learn on the track. Anyway, and once again, I really appreciate all you're doing for the community and for trying to make our sport safer for all.
Hey Ty, it's awesome to hear about how someone, so experienced at a high level, can articulate something to help make us all a little safer, to make us think a little more, and be able to make it home to be able to do go out and do it again tomorrow. And, being able to pass GOOD advice on. Keep on riding well, 🏍🛵, whatever ur into, 👌👍
That was really fantastic! Great to hear the wise words of Fast Freddie and Nick. It was a very loaded and technical discussion. Loved it! Would love to have heard of Fast Freddie's stories and experiences of racing. Thank-you 👍
Bought a Wittler moped in 1973 to ride with my friends. I was allowed to ride off road in our garden. I really messed up that garden. I think my mother knew that what I learned there would reduce future accidents. She didn't like it when I bought a Suzuki GT550 but calmed down when she rode pillion on our local curvy roads. I didn't spare the throttle. I never had an accident apart from a front tyre puncture in 1978 on my Suzuki GT550 with my girlfriend as passenger on our way back from Monaco to Denmark. 66 years old I just bought a motorcycle again after a 36 year long break.
Great stuff from one of the greatest riders. You can always tell an ex racer by their hands-also I wonder what Freddie thinks of the carbon fiber wheel fad we’re having on sport bikes today.
You know, there were so many questions I wanted to ask him about what it was like riding the older bikes, and his thoughts about newer bikes - the man just loves to ride and wanted to talk about riding. He was a supremely wonderful guy and the experience getting to meet him was a little bit surreal.
Great instruction presentation. Agreed--you must practice that front brake corner control every ride--slow city or fast highway--otherwise mind-hand coordination won’t happen correctly. 👍
@CanyonChasers Yes, I'm looking at. We just had our sixth child, and she'll need heart surgery soon. All my focus is on her for now. I will buy the online school at some point.
The best advice I have had in 40 years of riding came from Dave (Canyon Chasers), when he said about Trail Braking, "Do not to cross-up braking and throttle. Have two fingers on the front brake and two on the throttle... as you roll off the throttle, roll onto the brake." That was a "Duh?" monment. Trail Braking was suddenly so obvious. Thank you, Dave, and... "neverr surprise a 6 year old!"
The Water Buffalo! Wow.. arguably "One of the" Best bikes that would NEVER Die. Quiet as well mechanically. Back in the day ~1984 a guy at work had a Suzy GT750, un cracked with 35,000 miles on it.. try that with another 3 cyl 2 cycle, the Kawasaki H2 (Mechanically, the noisiest bike ever). The GT750 was one of the first water cooled bikes w/o fins.. very unique looking. Gosh what's a GT750 worth today?
SWEET! Let me know what you think of it - Even with 25 years of coaching under my belt, I thought it was bonkers good. Not only did it change how I personally ride, it changed how I coach -- so much so I went through and just became a certified champ coach myself (which was probably the hardest certification I've ever had to get - those guys are serious!)
@CanyonChasers Hey Dave, I finally finished the UChamp online course. It took longer since I was waiting to get my bikes out of the winter sleep (I live in CT). The course was great. Surprisingly, I do a lot of things the right way but having the background and the larger picture together, really helps to build a greater understanding and piece a complete picture together. The 2 topics which helped the most, is to continue the trailbraking farther into the corner (apex) than I do and steering/controlling the gyro pressure on the footpeg and knee out. I always did it but not consciously. These are the 2 things I am working on right now. I also realized that I do very little countersteering since I like the bike to do its job and just give it inputs. The brake coverage topic is funny, I do not know any other way than to always cover the front brake. I was already asked few times why I always have two fingers on the brake. I am thinking of doing a track day class but it is quite distance away from here. Will see if I can make it happen. BTW, I also liked the podcast about breathing and your video recommending mountain biking (focus, reaction time reduction to changes) Thank you for the great content!
I’ve raced cars and karts for years and I have always told people everything except speed translates from the track to the street and will make you a better driver or rider
If the engineers made the electronics prevent us from ever high or low side (ing) the bikes would be boring to ride. They're rider aids not genies. Trail braking is gooderer. Great show - Thanks!
Trail braking is such a silly debate. It seems doubters are thinking of it as **maximum** braking while leaned over. It's micro braking with ultra smooth gradual release. Thanks to Nick's and others writings on the topic I've been applying it for decades. I think the problem is that the MSF has to teach for the least competent. Track riding schools are always at least the more motivated if not also more advanced rider. I think it's a tough place to be in for MSF. Millions of riders will never get to the level of competence to practice trail braking. I'm not saying they can't, I'm saying they either choose not to do it or aren't aware of it. Most who ride cruiser style don't want to do anything that adds thought to their riding. That is at least half of all motorcycles on the road in my estimation. MSF has to reach these riders to help them save themselves. Explaining that there is a whole other way to brake once a rider learns good brake feel adds a lot of complexity just in the understanding and minimizing of confusion for the student. Thanks to all of you for a GREAT discussion about riding technique.
YES! Exactly. But there is some exciting data coming out of the state of Washington where they have two certified basic rider programs. One teaching the old way - the other teaching brand new riders trail braking from the get-go. I'll give you three guesses as to which one is having dramatically better outcomes, but you'll only need one. :)
@@CanyonChasers That is great news. I've always had to treat my MSF training as best suited for parking lots and practically useless above 50mph. That will be a dramatic re-think for instructors, and might be difficult for some of them knowing what I know of them. Progress is progress though and the fewer squished bikes and riders the better for all of us.
If you guys were around and teaching, or having this vid to listen and learn from, when l started riding a motorcycle, around 1979 ish, and if ur willing to listen and take this info on board, u can't not help and be a somewhat better rider. Nobody likes crashing. If u do, u haven't had a bad enuff crash, yet. Ride well, make it home, so u can do it again. 👍
What do you think about advice to a nephew that wants to learn to ride, I’m afraid to encourage him because I think it would be my fault if something happened
This is really rough! I've had five nephews come to me to learn to ride, I was able to convince two of them that it wasn't going to save them money commuting, so they gave up on the idea. The other three have all crashed at least once. One at a track day so that one is kinda' forgivable. One I largely blame the dealership for upselling him to a Ninja 600 RR Superbike. The last one, well. He did everything I warned him not to. But 3 out of 5. Thats some pretty terrible odds, right? Becasue I'm just ol' Uncle Dave - what does he know. So, this is how I look at it; I don't encourage it because I was going to get a motorcycle no matter what anybody else said. I imagine you were probably the same way. So it's better than I'm really honest about the risks and the challenges and if they get the bike I try to steer them towards good resources. ChampU, not MaxWrist, etc. Because looking back, I didn't need encouragment, I needed good information. So thats what I try to do. Not sure if this was much help.
Right? I mean when we look at crash data, we can see exactly where the problems are originating. It's basicaly a straight line back to what a lot of new rider programs are teaching.
@@CanyonChasers yup... really miss all the riders... Eddie Lawson, Kevin schwantz,, Garner, mamola, Kenny, tetsuya, aoki and many more ..they all are lagend... living lagend🥰🥰🥰
Agree, but here we are with corning ABS, WTF! To have a computer take that control away, 10m or so, from your apex, bloody stupid! Now your 15+kph faster than you wanted at apex and gaining speed. Like Freddy said you leave a margine when riding on the road, yet this cornering abs takes that margine away. If your answer is just turn it off, then why have it at all!
If only I could have a do over in life. Young and no mentor and not very bright. Opportunities lost, and if I was smarter I could have done so much more with the opportunities that I didn't recognize. Sometimes I don't like me lol...
This is also available wherever you get your podcasts: Spotify, Google, Apple, Etc. rss.com/podcasts/canyonchasers/
Ya things where different back in the 70s grow up next to Cycle Enterprise 🏍️
Freddie is amazing! I'll never forget staying up all night to watch him race on TV, jumping from a 250cc bike right to a 500 and taking both world championships. Unthinkable today!
That was the first year I paid attention to racing. Either Freddie or Kenny Roberts won every single race that year. Can you imagine? An American winning every single round of the GP?!?
Been through a 3 level riding school. 1st level taught brake-body position - look through the turn-lean throttle. 2nd level taught how to approach the turn and find the apex. 3rd level started by telling you "forget everything we said about braking before the turn and carry the brakes in the turn". At first everyone felt uncomfortable with this approach but at the end of the day everyone was going much faster and much safer with insane levels of confidence. Trail braking is the most important skill in order to enjoy and stay safe. My level of riding has skyrocketed. I advice to go to a school and apply this technique in a track and then when you realize the benefits go to street and apply this tecnique. Great video. Congrats!!!
Trail braking is a cheat code. I can't count the number of times I avoided trouble thanks to trail braking.
So pleased to have my "self discovered" trail braking technique approved by your channel and the legend Freddie Spencer himself. Unbelievable. You give me the confidence to work harder on it. I was 10 in 1985 and perfectly remember watching this incredible fast guy winning 250 &500 championships. A big thank you from France.
Dave you are setting an awfully high bar with these podcasts. Amazing guests and wisdom shared. Us civilian riders would normally have to spend thousands traveling to schools to hear Nick and Freddie drop this kind of knowledge on us. Took me a few mornings to get through the longer video but worth every moment. Thank you!
Great podcast, Dave. Practice makes permanent. I've commented this before - I've been riding for 50 + years. Still learning. Still improving. Love it!
Well said! If Freddy Spencer is still trying to learn… right!
I had a close friend who raced Freddie back in Freddie's Flattracking days. My friend, Fast Fred Smith from Memphis TN, told me of racing Freddie in a flattrack race and on the 1st heat Freddie S and he swapped the lead several times but Freddie took him with a last corner pass. Then between the heats Fast Fred visited Freddie in the pits and talked for a bit and made a off-hand remark about set-up and then left. Freddie got to thinking about it and made an adjustment in his set-up and ended up taking a step backwards. Fast Fred ended up taking the 2nd heat because of this. I Believe that Freddie mentions this in a book about learning something about the mental aspect of racing that night.
By dear departed friend was quite accomplished, he had a Harley factory ride for a couple years and did developmental riding for Yamaha MX bikes for several years. He and I ran a Motorcycle tour company in Ecuador decades later, his Harley factory leathers hung in his garage there
Your learning to ride for the unknowns, the knowns are exactly that and present you with the things you do all the time. It's the road colored sandbag the construction crew left you in the middle of the road you couldn't see and are at speed and lean angle that you are learning to ride for. Yea, you pull over hands shaking for about 15 minutes with both you and the bike intact. These type events come often on the road and you better be ready. I'm 64 and riding since 11 and never stop learning how these things work both by education and practice, my life depends on it!
Terrific interview. Multiple time YCRS student. Huge benefits from the education and coaching received. Use the training every time I ride. Empowering. Track riding, exploring the limits of front end grip is the mystical realm of superior riding. No electronics yet available can protect a rider from crossing that limit when you are out looking for every last percentage of grip. I hope coaching and technology can help make that process less painful in the future. If you try to get faster, even with the best technique in the world, at some point you will flirt a bit too close to that edge, and depart traction. Fear that all the time.
YES! Exactly right and very well said! I love it!
Freddy Spencer ...awesome! Back in my Marine Corps days, 87-93, I had a beautiful 1984 Honda VF 750 F Interceptor in red, white and blue. Just like Freddie's, minus the race gear. It was the bike to have at the time. Stupidly I sold it upon leaving active duty. Fast forward to 2019. I wondered if any of these old beauties were still around. Wife's eyes rolling....here we go again. Anyway, I found a 1984 VF 700 F in red, white and blue in decent condition in central PA and had to have it. Got it home, spent some coin in getting it back to it's glory and now almost 40 years later, still a screamer and a head turner. I also own a 2013 Honda VFR 1200 F in jet black and silver. Cool to have the first generation of Interceptor and one of the last ones. Tough to decide which one to take out. Old school, no frills and raw -or- new tech, with all the goodies. Ride safe my brethren!!
They did a special edition heritage VFR800 in that red white and blue - It was SPECTACULAR - I think you need that one to complete the collection. bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-honda-vfr-800-25th-anniversary-special/
Yes I do. Now to convince the wife and acquire more garage space!
Sharp looking! Thank you!
Appreciate this, hopefully many riders realize how much of this can help them in their street riding.
Hi from Ontario Canada. What a thrill to hear these legends talk and share their many years of wisdom. I have been street riding for 45 years this year, I am 62. I started riding in 1980 , and been a fan of you both for about that long also. I was a motorcycle riding instructor for 30 years - we never sent anyone home unless they did not have proper gear or crashed , but then they could return. I still like to help new riders. I did one track day school here but want to do another before I get too old to enjoy it. You never stop learning at any age. I suscribed 5 minutes.into this.. Once again a huge thank you to you all. -
If this doesn’t get at least 1,000,000 views I’m gonna freak out
Every rider needs to listen to this. Knowing the limits allows us to have safe fun within them.
Learning how to trail brake has transformed my riding. I went from wrangling my bike into corners to dancing with in in corners.
Oh, I like that visual!
Learning the correct techniques improved my riding way quicker than time in the seat. Understanding motorcycle physics was a light bulb moment. Channels like this are great educators. I’m a much better rider at 60 after practicing the skills explained in your videos 👍👍
Every rider should watch this
I agree!
The first time I saw Freddie was at Sears Point. Years later, I went to his school in Vegas when Nick was an instructor. Loved watching Freddie during his career.
I rode for almost 15 years before understanding what trail braking is from watching CanyonChasers-thanks! I used to believe trail braking was dangerous, but am glad I had enough of an open mind to question that belief. It has taken my riding to a whole new level of control.
Thats awesome! I love it - and now you can't imagine riding without it, right?
From a Brit, love your channel and thoroughly enjoyed this - thanks for doing this, Freddie is a legend of course but Nick speaks perfect sense too.
Thank you so much - Also we love the UK!
I'm answering the call to help new riders! Thanks everyone in this video for the life changing info!!
Lets do it!!
I've known Nick Ienatsch for 42 years. This is the only time I've seen him not talking for more than a minute. Priceless.
OMG! Dexter Ford!?!?! I've been a fan of your work forEVER! Thank you for all you've given to the sport. And indeed, Nick is chatty!
Just watched it for the second time. Still as amazing as first time! Should be mandatory for for every motorcyclist!
Doing the speed limit with a motorcycle on the street, there’s practically no need to have lean angle, but how many of us are actually doing the speed limit and that’s why this conversation is important. Great conversation
One of these days I’m going to make it to a riding school.
Freddie Spencer is obviously a great motorcycle rider. I've been riding about 82.000 miles since 1978; but I don't understand what he's saying when giving advice at 30:30. I admire the teacher I had back in 1978. I understood everything he said. It takes more to being a good teacher than just being a good rider.
Hes basically talking about how he gets his lower body into position before the corner, which allows him to focus on upper body position and braking to help get the motorcycle to turn.
The foundation these gentlemen (and others like them) have built for the riding community is priceless. Like they said, everything you learn trying to optimize track riding directly translates to the ways riders wind up dead on the street. Updating and improving our knowledge and skills shouldn't be treated as breaking with tradition, it should BE the tradition.
Dude! I love that! That’s going into the bank of phrases!!
@@CanyonChasers My pleasure. I've been watching you for a couple years and can't tell you how much it's helped. I appreciate that you focus on teaching, not scaring us with all the "look how bad it can go." stuff. Obviously we know it can go badly, that's why we went looking for instruction on how to do it right.
Thank you! I alwasy felt terrible leveraging someones worst day ever as a bad example and for video clicks. Like, when they study counterfeit bills, they don't look at the fakes, they study the real thing - sorta' the same thing here, right? Shouldn't we be looking at how the best riders in the world ride and not pay so much attention to how "MotoMesiah69" says we should ride?
@@CanyonChasers 100% agree. What amazes me is how many people resist the idea. But, as a youtuber I can see the temptation to go with what amounts to "if it bleeds it leads". It gets views, it's easier because someone else already created the core of your content and there's a never ending supply... Content like yours takes a lot more time and effort to produce.
For me the biggest thing benefit has been the cornering help. Having real information and not just my own experience to work with has gone a long way. I'm not trying to go faster, but just be more controlled for when there's unexpected changes in a corner. Sand from construction, debris... That is knowledge I can use every day on every ride to keep the bike on its tires. LOL. my little CB300R has minimal straight line speed, so the real fun is getting your corners right.
I was a competitive sim racer for about 7 years before selling my hardware last spring and buying a Duke 390. I remember when I first started out sim racing, one of the fast guys Dupezz braking much later and faster than me at Spa and realized he was doing things I wasn't. I learned then what Nick talks about when he says load the tire before you work the tire, Freddy talking about loading the suspension, threshold braking and the trailing off the brakes into the corner. Once I started to get it right, I quickly became much more competitive, consistent and was also much more engaging chasing perfection. I'm now enjoying the hunt to perfect these same techniques on my Duke and am loving it. Can't wait for spring up here in Canada.
Thanks Dave.
Thats crazy!!
@@CanyonChasers I watched some of this again. Out of all the cars I raced in sim racing, the stock cars in assetto corsa (Lilski's mod) and project cars 1, were by far the best at learning almost identical techniques to the ones discussed due to the body roll and soft suspension. For those that don't have access to a racing simulator, Forza is also helpful. When you lock up or get loose which is easy to do, you know you're doing it wrong and your lap times will suffer. With 3000 hrs logged in both of those, winning was pretty common for me and I started spending more time trying to teach the others near the back what was discussed in this vid near the end. I think sim racing is a great tool for learning these techniques, especially for those people that have a hard time listening, learning and putting aside their egos. The best part is you can safely dance on the edge of grip with no driver aids, slowly refining the tolerance outside the ideal limit on every part of the track and crash as many times as you'd like until you learn the muscle memory required to control the car effortlessly under pressure.
At 45 minutes Freddie nailed it- when the bike manages a function, the human loses it... or doesn't even learn it.
YES! Should I make that part it's own short?
Definitely!
I had the opportunity to attend Champ School in January this year. These guys and this school are world class both instructors and humans. I have lots of seat time but no track time. These two days of training has advanced my riding exponentially!! I HIGHLY recommend Champ School….which by the way was introduced to me by Canyon Chasers Dave. “SAFER/FASTER”
I love it! I mean, I'd been a coach for over 20 years before I did my first start-to-finish champ school and I had the same experience! Never stop learning. amiright?
I'm a big fan of both of those guys, Freddie was unequalled back in the 70's & 80's & is one of the legends of the sport. Nick is one of the greatest writers about riding technique, loved his book & magazine contributions. Thanks for posting. Regards from Perth, Aus.
Hello Perth! And yeah, those guys know some things about riding motorcycles. Haha.
I always enjoy watching video's of not only great racers giving great advice, but great personalities as well.
I learned to ride street in the Northern Appalachians in 1987 around the Ramapo mountains and now ride the Southern Appalachians from Blowing Rock NC to the Asheville NC area. While I have never set foot on a track or taken a road course I do practice the techniques talked about in your video's. You provide great content and it has really helped me become a better and safer rider. Thank you.
Awesome! I'm glad I was able to help!
Excellent...thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. Fast Freddie is a legend, yet seems very humble and approachable. I've done rides with Reg Pridmore and Lee Parks as a passenger...gave me just a tiny glimpse of what level these guys are on compared to us mortals. Mind blown.
2 class acts. Both have always been super helpful and friendly. Pitting next Nick during a Streets Of Willow was the first time I met him, and he gave some very helpful advice.
Couldn't agree more! I've alwasy been amazed at how generous these guys are when it comes to sharing information!
my wife on the back of the bike , trail braking is awesome... I taught my 6yr old to trail brake on the pavement riding his pw50... he actually hollered out woo hoo because he was confident
Second time listening to this. Life changing, and life saving, stuff. Thanks guys. Such a shame more people haven’t seen it.
He is the greatest! Very humble and down to earth!!!
Amazing video!! Cornerspin changed my life, it’s what Freddy was talking about doing growing up. Sliding around on small bikes playing with traction, lean angle and sliding/rotation.
You can definitely get proficient in quick time through good instruction and practice.
Only comment on the time it takes… It’s not 10,000 hours to get proficient. It takes that many hours to develop elite level skills.
I thought it was fascinating how Freddie never really used the words "cornering" or "turning" instead saying "rotate"
I'm really glad you brought up the instant torque of electric motorcycles. I recently saw an EV motorcycle with a claimed 800+ ft lb of torque! The limits of the bike (especially small displacement bikes) has allowed the teaching of bad technique, but that's going to change. Even a small "starter" EV motorcycle is going to be launching new riders in to low-orbit with that instant torque application.
Yeah, even with traction control and all of that - it's going to be like going back to two-strokes with instant on power, right?
Infinite torque at 0 RPM.
no bs, ive ridden the LS218,livewire, and energica eva....i can't even explain how it feels....i jokingly say "zero to mach chicken in holy shit!"
there is ZERO middle ground, throttle control is EVERYTHING! just everything all at once...
now if they can only get ranges up to liveable levels
@@jace2wheel762 I'm stealing that description.
@@BlindIo42 lol go for broke dude
I could listen to this every week 😊👍🏻
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve been riding since I was 6 but mostly off road, but as I started the new episodes of my life I got on my first Harley and boy that was a different animal. I decided to start looking for the right training to make things safer, then I found ChampU! WOW, what a difference I made in a few weeks.
Really enjoyed the discussion. Admittedly, I've been getting somewhat confused by the information I've been getting from different sources (mostly books and videos by very reputable people). The differing schools of thought on subjects like cornering and braking, and the physics behind those beliefs, is fascinating.
I'm really itching to get out and put some time in at a track; put theory into practice and learn the best techniques. Videos like this are so helpful and only fan the flame, so thanks to the three of you for sharing your time and such valuable information!
YES! Exactly. This is my great frustration with our community - there are a lot of channels, a lot bigger than mine, that share some really dubious information that gets taken as gospel truth because of the subscriber count or the Reddit upvotes. Good techniques are _not_ democratically decided upon. We need to follow and look at what the best riders in the world are doing - not what "MotoMesiah69" does, right?
@@CanyonChasers Definitely agree. I think, for me, my confusion comes more from the differing views on the best techniques.
I've done ChampU, which was very helpful, and read books like Twist of the Wrist and Total Control. I've also tried to read different articles and watch videos by those writers and others, such as Nick and yourself. I've found that the topic of trail braking, alone, brings up such strong opinions so I'm anxious to get real world training to move from theory to application. I want to get to the point where my technique is solid and growing so that I'm safer on the street because I'm putting in the work to learn on the track.
Anyway, and once again, I really appreciate all you're doing for the community and for trying to make our sport safer for all.
Hey Ty,
it's awesome to hear about how someone, so experienced at a high level, can articulate something to help make us all a little safer, to make us think a little more, and be able to make it home to be able to do go out and do it again tomorrow.
And, being able to pass GOOD advice on.
Keep on riding well, 🏍🛵, whatever ur into, 👌👍
YCRS on my bucket list. Thank you for making this so consumable. ChampU brilliant. Hope to meet y’all in person soon, you already feel like friends.
Did you see their new deal where you can submit riding video to them and they'll review it? I think thats super awesome!
@@CanyonChasers that is very cool.
That was really fantastic! Great to hear the wise words of Fast Freddie and Nick. It was a very loaded and technical discussion. Loved it! Would love to have heard of Fast Freddie's stories and experiences of racing. Thank-you 👍
I know right! There were so many racing questions I tried asking but he really wanted to talk about riding skills - the man loves to ride!
I needed to hear this.
Bought a Wittler moped in 1973 to ride with my friends. I was allowed to ride off road in our garden. I really messed up that garden. I think my mother knew that what I learned there would reduce future accidents. She didn't like it when I bought a Suzuki GT550 but calmed down when she rode pillion on our local curvy roads. I didn't spare the throttle. I never had an accident apart from a front tyre puncture in 1978 on my Suzuki GT550 with my girlfriend as passenger on our way back from Monaco to Denmark. 66 years old I just bought a motorcycle again after a 36 year long break.
THIS is doing the Lord's work!! Sharing your knowledge, for free, saving lives👍, thank you, great watch
Thanks for watching
Great discussion guys. Thanks for sharing.
Worth every minute! Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great stuff from one of the greatest riders. You can always tell an ex racer by their hands-also I wonder what Freddie thinks of the carbon fiber wheel fad we’re having on sport bikes today.
You know, there were so many questions I wanted to ask him about what it was like riding the older bikes, and his thoughts about newer bikes - the man just loves to ride and wanted to talk about riding. He was a supremely wonderful guy and the experience getting to meet him was a little bit surreal.
Great instruction presentation. Agreed--you must practice that front brake corner control every ride--slow city or fast highway--otherwise mind-hand coordination won’t happen correctly. 👍
Well said!
Taking Champ school is outside my budget. Thank you for posting this conversation.
Have you looked at Champ U? It’s only $50 and we have a coupon code for you. “FOCUS”
@CanyonChasers Yes, I'm looking at. We just had our sixth child, and she'll need heart surgery soon. All my focus is on her for now. I will buy the online school at some point.
Oh wow! Thats far more important right now! Take care, brother!
I love this podcast. Please listen to what they are talking about. It is so true.❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
The best advice I have had in 40 years of riding came from Dave (Canyon Chasers), when he said about Trail Braking, "Do not to cross-up braking and throttle. Have two fingers on the front brake and two on the throttle... as you roll off the throttle, roll onto the brake." That was a "Duh?" monment. Trail Braking was suddenly so obvious. Thank you, Dave, and... "neverr surprise a 6 year old!"
Thats awesome! Thank you!!
The Water Buffalo! Wow.. arguably "One of the" Best bikes that would NEVER Die. Quiet as well mechanically. Back in the day ~1984 a guy at work had a Suzy GT750, un cracked with 35,000 miles on it.. try that with another 3 cyl 2 cycle, the Kawasaki H2 (Mechanically, the noisiest bike ever). The GT750 was one of the first water cooled bikes w/o fins.. very unique looking. Gosh what's a GT750 worth today?
So interesting, loved it 🏍️✊👍
Glad you enjoyed it
I loved Nick's article with Eddie Lawson where Eddie takes a police officer for a ride on his V-Max and the guy bites his lip and it bleeds!
Be smooth in accelerating, braking, and leaning to be fast and safe.
New sub... hope to see more content like this...best bit of riding tips I've seen on you tube
Welcome aboard! We have two guests lined up that I'm pretty excited about - not as famous as Fast Freddie - but should still be just as compelling!
Great points. Can't wait until I go to Champs School this summer.
YES!! You'll love it!! Where are you doing yours?
@@CanyonChasers I'm going to Shelton, WA the last week of June. Any chance you'll be there instructing?
Great facility! I don't think i'll be there - I never really know, but I'll bet Alex will be there!
@@CanyonChasers That will be good to meet Alex. Great if you're there too!
This is great. Thank you.
Awesome conversation! Thank you!
Our pleasure!
Hey Dave, just FYI, this podcast was the last trigger point to sign up for UChamp online (even with over 30 years riding experience)
SWEET! Let me know what you think of it - Even with 25 years of coaching under my belt, I thought it was bonkers good. Not only did it change how I personally ride, it changed how I coach -- so much so I went through and just became a certified champ coach myself (which was probably the hardest certification I've ever had to get - those guys are serious!)
@CanyonChasers Hey Dave, I finally finished the UChamp online course. It took longer since I was waiting to get my bikes out of the winter sleep (I live in CT). The course was great. Surprisingly, I do a lot of things the right way but having the background and the larger picture together, really helps to build a greater understanding and piece a complete picture together. The 2 topics which helped the most, is to continue the trailbraking farther into the corner (apex) than I do and steering/controlling the gyro pressure on the footpeg and knee out. I always did it but not consciously. These are the 2 things I am working on right now. I also realized that I do very little countersteering since I like the bike to do its job and just give it inputs. The brake coverage topic is funny, I do not know any other way than to always cover the front brake. I was already asked few times why I always have two fingers on the brake. I am thinking of doing a track day class but it is quite distance away from here. Will see if I can make it happen.
BTW, I also liked the podcast about breathing and your video recommending mountain biking (focus, reaction time reduction to changes)
Thank you for the great content!
Would love to listen to all this but UA-cams not the best platform for me - any plans to put this on Spotify, Apple podcasts, etc?
Its available on all the podcast platforms! rss.com/podcasts/canyonchasers/
I think Canyonchasers is on Spotify.
I found the Spotify link open.spotify.com/show/5AXNfQoCf2eyMz71uslnKs
What a great show!
Trail Braking
16:50
29:00
Corners
37:35
More speed More Brakes
47:32
Direction Change
1:03:00
🤝
That was so informative thank you .👍🏻🇦🇺
Glad you enjoyed it
This is AMAZING
Thank you!! We missed having you on!
I’ve raced cars and karts for years and I have always told people everything except speed translates from the track to the street and will make you a better driver or rider
That is exactly right! I totally agree!
Such a cool video! Way to go Dave!
Thank you! I wasn't sure it was going to come together, but I'm sure glad it did!
If the engineers made the electronics prevent us from ever high or low side (ing) the bikes would be boring to ride. They're rider aids not genies. Trail braking is gooderer. Great show - Thanks!
Trail braking is such a silly debate. It seems doubters are thinking of it as **maximum** braking while leaned over. It's micro braking with ultra smooth gradual release. Thanks to Nick's and others writings on the topic I've been applying it for decades.
I think the problem is that the MSF has to teach for the least competent. Track riding schools are always at least the more motivated if not also more advanced rider.
I think it's a tough place to be in for MSF. Millions of riders will never get to the level of competence to practice trail braking. I'm not saying they can't, I'm saying they either choose not to do it or aren't aware of it. Most who ride cruiser style don't want to do anything that adds thought to their riding. That is at least half of all motorcycles on the road in my estimation.
MSF has to reach these riders to help them save themselves. Explaining that there is a whole other way to brake once a rider learns good brake feel adds a lot of complexity just in the understanding and minimizing of confusion for the student.
Thanks to all of you for a GREAT discussion about riding technique.
YES! Exactly. But there is some exciting data coming out of the state of Washington where they have two certified basic rider programs. One teaching the old way - the other teaching brand new riders trail braking from the get-go. I'll give you three guesses as to which one is having dramatically better outcomes, but you'll only need one. :)
@@CanyonChasers That is great news. I've always had to treat my MSF training as best suited for parking lots and practically useless above 50mph. That will be a dramatic re-think for instructors, and might be difficult for some of them knowing what I know of them. Progress is progress though and the fewer squished bikes and riders the better for all of us.
Solid gold.
Trail braking : very much like Mark Donohue and the "friction circle" ...
Great guests! Also first!!!
You rock!
never stop learning.
Complacency is the enemy!
If you guys were around and teaching, or having this vid to listen and learn from, when l started riding a motorcycle, around 1979 ish, and if ur willing to listen and take this info on board, u can't not help and be a somewhat better rider.
Nobody likes crashing. If u do, u haven't had a bad enuff crash, yet.
Ride well, make it home, so u can do it again.
👍
YES! Thats actually a big reason why I started the channel. So many years of my own riding were wasted trying to implement bad riding advice.
Loved it.
Awesome!
What do you think about advice to a nephew that wants to learn to ride, I’m afraid to encourage him because I think it would be my fault if something happened
This is really rough! I've had five nephews come to me to learn to ride, I was able to convince two of them that it wasn't going to save them money commuting, so they gave up on the idea. The other three have all crashed at least once. One at a track day so that one is kinda' forgivable. One I largely blame the dealership for upselling him to a Ninja 600 RR Superbike. The last one, well. He did everything I warned him not to. But 3 out of 5. Thats some pretty terrible odds, right? Becasue I'm just ol' Uncle Dave - what does he know.
So, this is how I look at it; I don't encourage it because I was going to get a motorcycle no matter what anybody else said. I imagine you were probably the same way. So it's better than I'm really honest about the risks and the challenges and if they get the bike I try to steer them towards good resources. ChampU, not MaxWrist, etc. Because looking back, I didn't need encouragment, I needed good information. So thats what I try to do. Not sure if this was much help.
Awesome
You would think the insurance companies would have forced the schools to update the courses.
Right? I mean when we look at crash data, we can see exactly where the problems are originating. It's basicaly a straight line back to what a lot of new rider programs are teaching.
Rider courses teach the techniques someone needs to go racing BUT cannot teach someone to be a racer.
All hail the lagend
He's such a nice guy too!
@@CanyonChasers yup... really miss all the riders... Eddie Lawson, Kevin schwantz,, Garner, mamola, Kenny, tetsuya, aoki and many more ..they all are lagend... living lagend🥰🥰🥰
Agree, but here we are with corning ABS, WTF!
To have a computer take that control away, 10m or so, from your apex, bloody stupid!
Now your 15+kph faster than you wanted at apex and gaining speed.
Like Freddy said you leave a margine when riding on the road, yet this cornering abs takes that margine away.
If your answer is just turn it off, then why have it at all!
What a privilege!
I thought so too!
If only I could have a do over in life. Young and no mentor and not very bright. Opportunities lost, and if I was smarter I could have done so much more with the opportunities that I didn't recognize. Sometimes I don't like me lol...
👽👽👽👽🌎👽👽👽👽
A very wrong title.