Going quickly round the bend
It’s really easy to ride a scooter, and it’s easy to ride a scooter fast, but it’s bloody hard to haul a scooter around a bend fast, and I mean… fast!
Ispent a lot of years chasing some of the fastest scooter racers around the circuits of Britain, but other than occasional flashes of brilliance (usually in the rain) I never made the podium. Yet when I’ve gone out with club road riders we can come to a roundabout or bend and I can ride considerably quicker than the vast majority of road riders. Yet the fast boys on the track will be lapping me quickly. Why is this? Well, basically, spending time on a racetrack gives you experience, knowledge and of course the development of testicles in a safe and controlled environment. We all know the state of the roads in this country and cornering fast on small wheels is something that can be pretty damn dangerous. You see, 10in scooter wheels drop into holes, undulations and bumps even easier than bigger motorcycle wheels. And that makes scooters inherently more unsettled and unstable, unless it’s a really smooth or fresh new section of road. Oh, plus the fact that scooters were not really designed to go into bumpy bends at 75+mph!
But if you’ve spent time on a race track you’ll be treated (generally) to a very smooth surface and you get the chance to build up your speed, lap after lap, as you build your confidence and develop your riding skills. Try a little faster each lap, try a different line through the bend, and you know that (hopefully!) you will not be meeting a car coming the other way… so you can enter bends with confidence. You can also usually follow someone faster and with more skill than you to see how they do it.
You’ve got to lean off the scooter, put your feet back, put more weight on to the front end to help with the cornering. Push your knee out and down. That’s not so easy to do on the roundabouts on the A14 or wherever you live, as there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll be meeting some spilt diesel or oil on the road surface. You might even put some fancy expensive race compound tyres on to your scooter, but riding down the dual carriageway is really not going to get the edges up to the temperature where they become sticky and liquorice soft so you can dig your nail in and scoop rubber. Whereas on the race track you can gradually get faster and lean over further and get the tread fully worn. If you ever get the chance to be in a race paddock check out the tyres as the fast boys come in off the track and you’ll see balls of rubber right off the edge of the tyre wall. Try and do that on the A14 and you’ll be on your arse with a side panel sliding past you, most likely as you hear the sickening sound of rough tarmac ripping your metalwork apart. I once got a knee very nearly down around a roundabout much to the shock of the following club riders who I had just blasted past, but the rear tyre let go, slid sideways and extremely luckily I caught it and managed to somehow stay on. I’d have looked a dick sliding down the road, wouldn’t I?
I have been passed by some big fellas on some very quick scooters on the road, but they are then braking ridiculously early for the bends and just sitting bolt upright. Or they are getting into the bend on a weird line before realising they are out of talent and jamming a brake on, unsteadying the balance, locking a wheel and then hopefully staying on… just.
So, unless you have a natural talent the race track is the only place to learn how to (properly) corner fast. The top BSSO riders are cornering sometimes at frankly ridiculous speeds and the more talented may even be sliding the rear wheel. Watching Mikey Bonett or John the Greek coming out of the hairpin at Lydden is jaw-droppingly exciting and terrifying in equal measure.
So, if you think you’re a fast rider, and get the chance to share the track with BSSO racers, unless you’re super talented then you’re going to get a shock when you think you are going really fast… and then someone comes past you with their knee on the ground and bits scraping the track. I remember vividly the first time Dave Webster and Malc Anderson came past me like I was standing still. I’d ‘won’ newcomer sessions yet still these guys caught and passed me in four or five laps of Three Sisters racetrack. Even the guys at the back of the grid looking slow could blast past typical road riders into a corner like the road guys were standing still. It’s all relative.
In August this year the BSSO will be putting on a track day and race school. If you fancy experiencing a racetrack and tuition from some of the very best scooter racers in the country… (probably in the world) then keep an eye out for it. One thing I can virtually guarantee you, though, is that if you think you are fast on the road you may just be in for a pretty big shock out on the track!
In August this year the BSSO will be putting on a track day and race school. If you fancy experiencing a racetrack and tuition from some of the very best scooter racers in the country… (probably in the world) then keep an eye out for it. One thing I can virtually guarantee you, though, is that if you think you are fast on the road you may just be in for a pretty big shock out on the track!