Working Motorcycle Events
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Mostly the same as car events
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Big difference that bikes are very personal
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Rider moves about
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Rider touches down
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Rider falls off
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Watching your first bike wreck
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Mechanical differences
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No mirrors
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No starters on racebikes
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Some "Two-smoke" engines
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Numbers
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three digit
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front and tailsection
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Racebikes
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No antifreeze
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Inverted shifter
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Attitude differences
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Vulnerable
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Falling off doesn't hurt, hitting something hurts
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Collisions are very bad
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Flags are absolutely vital
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Stay at the station if at all possible
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If you respond to help a rider, take the flag with you. It's more
important to make sure a single-rider incident stays that way
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Call a back-up flag if you need it!
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Laid back and relaxed -- but safety first
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Motorcycle performance
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Acceleration
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Power to weight ratio
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Almost *all* streetbikes can beat a Ferrari to 60mph
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Braking
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Enough to lift the back wheel
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Cornering
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Hanging off
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Knee down
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Sliding the rear
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Sliding the front
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Speed differential
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All bikes can corner pretty fast -- can the rider?
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Speed difference on straight
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The racer tuck
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Flags
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Red
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Usually doesn't mean stop, just signal and "school zone speed" to pits
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Check with organizers
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Yellow as cars
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Standing, off track hazard or a slow moving motorcycle
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Waved, hazard on track.
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Black
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Pull off and report to the nearest station (e.g. WERA)
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Mechanical or misbehavior
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Meatball
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Blue
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White/red cross (WERA)
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Red/yellow striped
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Standing
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Debris
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Worker try to point to hazard
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Rocking
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Signals
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How Bikes Wreck
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"Rider down"
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Lowside
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Rider slides out from under bike
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Generally no injuries unless tumble or hit something
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Bike may be rideable
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Highside
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Rider thrown off bike into air
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More likely to result in injury
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Bike likely to be damaged
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Get the rider status
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Thumbs-up or OK
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"Count to five" when stopped
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Watch the Rider!
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After a wreck, adrenalin is high. A rider can clear the track with
an injury, wave OK, then collapse.
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Watch until leave station.
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Don't move an injured rider
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Don't remove the helmet
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back/neck injuries
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assist as directed by medical personnel
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Passing Rules and On-Track Behavior
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Pass on the inside?
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Cars restrict where to pass, bikes restrict how to pass
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The danger of an inside pass
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What is an inside pass?
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Stuffing
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Space cushion
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Grandstanding -- report it!
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Showing off
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Wheelies
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Stoppies
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Burnouts
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Standing up on pegs
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Websites
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Official School of VIR
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http://www.cornerspeed.net
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Cornerspeed, the Official School of VIR
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Other track event organizations
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http://www.starmotorcycle.com
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Jason Pridmore's STAR school
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http://www.nesba.com/
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NESBA -- Northeast Sportbike Association, another track event organization
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http://www.foreven.com/trackdod (under construction)
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TrackDoD -- Track Denizens of Doom
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I'll be putting this outline, expanded, up there in the next few weeks
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Race sanctioning bodies
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http://www.wera.com
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WERA (think SCCA for bikes)
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http://www.formulausa.com/ccs/