When do we Graduate from Road Riding to Track Riding?

To many riders out there, road and track riding is just a matter of perspective. Everyone gets on a bike and does road riding first then track if ever. Road has always been accessible to our “training” its always there. One short trip to Genting/Bukit Tinggi/Kuala Klawang and we are all charged and learn something new, or did we?

Here’s some perspective to some of us who has a valid bike license. We decided to buy a bike and  we asked ourselves if we had a B full license and how do we get that? The driving school of course? and how did we obtain the license? we go for a few hours class explaining what is road signs, do’s and don’ts on the road then we proceed to a little course which i’d like to refer it as a TRACK!!!(of which we do that in a trackday too, just not few hours. just around 15 minutes) then we practice the figure eight, the bridge aka titi, braking zone and a couple of U-turns and some variation of turns to simulate real world riding BUT in a safe environment. Did we ever get a road test in the process of getting a B full license? im not sure, you tell me.

So we got ourself a valid motorcycle license and we proceed to riding our flashy new bike without the L or P license of course because that would be distasteful to display that ugly sticker on our race livery, brand spanking new superbike to the public (First offense). Then we call our riding buddies to tell them that you finally got your first 200bhp superbike and are eager to test it out on the mountain roads. Of course your friends are gonna welcome you into their groupies and we all race our vehicle up the hills (second offense). It is almost impossible to keep the rev range on your new bike during the run-in period as the bike always over revved its limit during this “pantang” period as you are tailing your friends and learning their lines up the hill pass. Yeah, we all been there. I mean, where else are we gonna train ourselves into a better rider then?

The roads are accessible, you dont need to embarrass yourself in the process of learning, you dont have to admit you were overtaken by an EX5 (possibly a security guard late for work) as it is a public road, no one is racing. Nor anyone is training to be the next isle of man TT racer. Did we really think thats what happened there? Did we not try to out pace ourself in that particular corner compare to the weekend before that? Did we not time ourself on total uphill/downhill timing to complete the course? c’mon, we all know its a lie. These road has served many racers we know today as a training ground before they took up track riding (we’re not gonna lie about it)

Question: How many turns are there in your favourite hill roads vs the amount of turns are there in a track (SIC, ELITE,SIKC,MIMC,ETC)?

Question: Why did we train on a circuit in driving/riding school to get a license to be a legit rider on the road just to find ourselves training on the road before we get into a race circuit to be a better rider?

While it is true that road serve as our training ground before the big ol’ circuit but when do we really graduate on road to the circuit? to trackday? ive often heard that track riding is for the pros and there’s no where near a newbie’s target in this whole motorcycling escapade. Better to “train” on road first before we get into the circuit so we dont look uber noob in the process.

Question: Which of the following would you be able to draw if your mothers life depended on it? Your favourite mountain road or Sepang International Circuit?

The thing is, not everyone would be able to trace the route from guard house to the mountain peak. Most of the spirited riding came from your balls or your feeling. Even if you could, would you be able to translate the road condition into a useable data?

Bear with me in this post its gonna be a long one but i assure you road training is almost as good as doing a ride to 7-11 for a pack of cigarettes.

Perspective of Road vs Track

1. Need not to say, road  was never consistent. Some part damp, some part dry, black marks are either water or oil, dry looking tarmac may seem safe at first but there might be grimes after rain.
2. Roads are narrow and windy to allow constructors to make a path up your favourite casino using the shortest way and materials possible due to the gradient of the hill whilst a track is designed by circuit designers to make sure you wont die in the process of challenging you and your vehicle to its limit.
3. There won’t be wild boar, stray dogs/cats, family of monkeys, drivers texting on WhatsApp, uncle with a worn down car struggling to drive up hill, poorly maintained “bas persiaran” spraying oils on the road in a track.
4. in a race track, it allows 2 busses getting into Turn 1 side by side without colliding with each other. On the road, you be the judge if you would like to get into the corner with a bus.
5. slow in fast out on most hill roads is bullshit, the turns are so small that you can benefit from a fast in slow out or vice versa. Heck, Ive seen in front of my own eyes a rider going in and out of the turn with NEUTRAL GEAR and used the shortest time to overtake another rider from the outside.
6. on road most would engage the lowest gear possible (as precaution) whilst on track you would engage the tallest gear possible. How would you get faster by engaging the lowest gear?
7. You have 100+ of corners to memorise on road vs 15 in Sepang International Circuit (SIC)

If you are wondering what’s the psychology behind people riding fast on road, you could probably read this write up

my noob moments into track riding

lastly, back to answering your question. When do we graduate from road riding to track riding? The answer is, When you finally decided to improve of course. In all honesty, training on road will only make you good but not better. The variations on road is just too random.

Truth is, no one has ever graduated on road riding. It has always and will always be a survival skill to ride on road. While im not going against road riding, but set an objective to it will ya. To polish up your riding senses, reaction and to blow off some steam, we all do that. To polish your riding skills, get yer ass to the track. Same like how you got your B Full license. ON A TRACK. NOT ON THE ROAD. Theres nothing shameful or humiliating about it. Everyone is a track virgin on their FIRST TRACKDAY and everyone has to go through that

“It is foolish to Fear what we’ve yet to see and know” -Itachi Uchiha-

Next write up: What is it like to go for a trackday from a track virgins perspective

The above write up is a perspective from the writer at the time of growing up on road riding and finally got into a race circuit