Porthos1
Guest
Yesterday (Mon) I had a one on one trg day on the new 450X with ‘NGage’ up near Doncaster on a privately owned practice track called ‘The Prison!’. The track was extremely boggy due to an unusually high amount of recent rainfall, so as a result we spent the morning practicing braking and powershifting on an ‘oval’ track we carved into the grass.
I was then hammered on a Figure of 8 until my hands were bleeding and my forearms felt like popeye! After lunch we went onto the track for an hour of rut riding…………….bugger me was it hard with the average rut depth being 1 and a half feet deep and one rut ran for about 200m. Great for the technique and really felt like I learnt a lot. Would thoroughly recommend NGage for anybody who wishes to have decent 1 on 1 training.
Gaz (the instructor) was very impressed with the 450 (first he had seen) and a couple of times he jumped on it to carry out realistic demos as opposed to using his Yam 125cc 2 stroke which skipped through the ruts with ease. He said the setup was completely wrong for the conditions and the bike was virtually unrideable through the ruts (he still made it look easy!).
I know it is impossible to describe on a chat forum, but he explained that the bike was too light on the front and skipping away at the rear as soon as the power was applied. I am no setup Ninja by any stretch of the imagination and the bike is set up as stock (less a couple of very minor tweaks that Possu made prior to collection).
Where do I start? What do people recommend……..keep adjusting eitherway until it feels right? Adjust one way and then ride for a few hours? Get somebody to observe the bike being ridden hard etc etc?
Would love some positive advice if possible?
Many Thanks.
PS – Possu…….any sign of my NOG sticker?
I was then hammered on a Figure of 8 until my hands were bleeding and my forearms felt like popeye! After lunch we went onto the track for an hour of rut riding…………….bugger me was it hard with the average rut depth being 1 and a half feet deep and one rut ran for about 200m. Great for the technique and really felt like I learnt a lot. Would thoroughly recommend NGage for anybody who wishes to have decent 1 on 1 training.
Gaz (the instructor) was very impressed with the 450 (first he had seen) and a couple of times he jumped on it to carry out realistic demos as opposed to using his Yam 125cc 2 stroke which skipped through the ruts with ease. He said the setup was completely wrong for the conditions and the bike was virtually unrideable through the ruts (he still made it look easy!).
I know it is impossible to describe on a chat forum, but he explained that the bike was too light on the front and skipping away at the rear as soon as the power was applied. I am no setup Ninja by any stretch of the imagination and the bike is set up as stock (less a couple of very minor tweaks that Possu made prior to collection).
Where do I start? What do people recommend……..keep adjusting eitherway until it feels right? Adjust one way and then ride for a few hours? Get somebody to observe the bike being ridden hard etc etc?
Would love some positive advice if possible?
Many Thanks.
PS – Possu…….any sign of my NOG sticker?