Using "The Pace" as a Foundation For Learning to Ride Better on the Street

[Ray916MN]

Originally published in Motorcyclist Magazine in 1991, The Pace, written by Nick Ienatsch is an article which has deeply influenced my motorcycle riding. When I first read the article, with 14 years of riding experience under my belt it codified and brought in sharper focus what I had come to think of as proficient street riding. Its’ focus on bike control over outright speed lays a foundation for speed. Without control, you'll never be fast and worse yet, without control, you are by definition a dangerous rider. It also creates a model for understanding when you are riding at or over the edge of your ability to control the bike. If you don't understand where you are with respect to your riding abilities and understand when you exceed your abilities, you'll never learn to be fast. To be fast you have to identify your riding weaknesses and then figure out how to correct them. With the preceding in mind, Pace riding is well suited as a foundation to building better bike control so you can become a better rider.

THE PACE

The Pace focuses on bike control and de-emphasizes outright speed. Full-throttle acceleration and last minute braking aren't part of the program, effectively eliminating the two most common single-bike accident scenarios in sport riding. Cornering momentum is the name of the game, stressing strong, forceful inputs at the handlebar to place the bike correctly at the entrance of the turn and get it flicked in with little wasted time and distance. Since the throttle wasn't slammed open at the exit of the last corner, the next corner doesn't require much, if any, braking. It isn't uncommon to ride with our group and not see a brake light flash all morning.

If the brakes are required, the front lever gets squeezed smoothly, quickly and with a good deal of force to set entrance speed in minimum time. Running in on the brakes is tantamount to running off the road, a confession that you're pushing too hard and not getting your entrance speed set early enough because you stayed on the gas too long. Running The Pace decreases your reliance on the throttle and brakes, the two easiest controls to abuse, and hones your ability to judge cornering speed, which is the most thrilling aspect of performance street riding.

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The Pace focuses on developing your ability to read turns at a distance so you can set an appropriate speed for a turn in advance of the turn and at developing the steering skills to enable you stay within your lane in turns. It focuses on developing steering and cornering skills to go fast as opposed to using gas and/or brakes to go fast, or more commonly to make up for a lack of cornering and steering prowess.

To use The Pace as a foundation for learning, all a rider needs to do is to set a very disciplined idea of where exactly they want to be in a turn and then to ride The Pace and keep track of how well they do at steering to where they wanted to be in a turn. By a disciplined idea, what I mean is whether a rider wants to ride a single tire track (follow the center line), outside/inside (late apex) line, outside/inside/outside (racing) line, or inside/outside (early apex) line in a turn. To minimize risk while determining the limits of your steering and cornering abilities you want to either want to ride a single tire track line or an outside/inside (late apex) line, as both these lines are the most forgiving of errors. This approach to Pace riding further simplifies riding by removing the options of using the racing line or an inside/outside (early apex) line and puts these lines in the categories of riding mistakes, as opposed to being acceptable ways to corner on the street. Riding on the street is indeed riskier than on a track, so focusing on and developing the skill to hit lines with lower risk is a valuable skill to develop. With fewer line options it also becomes easier to focus on and understand how to read a turn and see the apex.

Similar to the reduction in line choice, by eliminating the reliance on the brakes to make it through corners Pace riding, makes it easier to figure out what you could be doing better to get through a corner since there are fewer possible reasons for not doing a good job on a corner. Riding The Pace, if you blow a corner you either entered too fast, didn’t correctly see the line you were after or you did a poor job steering to the line you wanted. By limiting the number of potential issues, The Pace makes it easy to practice going through turns focusing on these skills and figuring what you can do to improve them to build skill. If 3 things are too much for a rider to effectively manage, the number of potential issues can be reduced by dropping entrance speeds and/or riding a single tire track line.

Using The Pace as a foundation for street riding simplifies riding. Simplification enables riders to better identify weaknesses and work on the cornering skills necessary to proficiently and safely ride turns on the street.