Very good article! And I agree with it totally. After cutting my teeth endurance racing on a variety of equipment, (read crap), I got used to passing and being passed. You could always tell those who were not really good at calculating a pass as you would either end up going back by or watching them crash their brains out and trying not to look and target fixate!
And that gets us to the top step of our conversation doesn't it. Once you reach the point where your racing with peers and passing equal riders on equal machinery, or at least and equal combination of both, you get into another realm of motorcyle riding.
In this top step there is not only the ballet of man and machine, but also the high speed chess match to boot. Kinda like watching the master Vale Rossi, stalk, out ride, and out wit his opponnent.
Knowing when to carry the other rider deep into the corner, when to watch him run wide, how to set him up, not just for that corner or that pass, but for the win.
I recall racing an expert plated SV from Lousiana one day and matching him for speed I knew I was going to have a terrible time passing him. As laps ran out i could keep pace easily but how to get around?? I didn't want to do something "novice" and take us both out, so I outsmarted him. I positioned my bike on an outside line (to make sure I didn't lowside or push him wide) in a place where I couldn't have ever passed on the outside...This got his attention, broke his concentration, and made him overshoot the next left-right-left combination. Of course I had waited for the last lap for this desperate move and after breaking his drive, easily outpulled him to the line for the checkered flag.
It was all mental and maybe just a tad gearing, but I got the win and he was clueless and angry..."why would you try and pass me there?" "That was impossible!" "You coulda crashed your brains out on the outside!" Tha cajun never got it, that he just got bluffed into a mistake and taken for all the marbles
