Bad Advice

"3rd gear pinned"

was always told jump for show corner for dough....    then the freestyle movement came to fruition. 

I have heard it for years "if you get a 450 you will be faster". (or 250 in the 2 stroke days)

Chicks dig scars

Reminds me of the saying

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

Look ahead of you in ruts, not straight down. Best advice ever.

“Look at RC’s bike and set yours up like that.” was told to me when I was racing an 85 and taller than RC.

hopefully back in the early honda days when his setup was questionable at best

Removing the rear brake.  

Chain wax

125s are safe

“Just one more beer, we’ll make 7am practice no problem”

A local pro friend’s advice to richen up my new stock 93 CR125 because it’s “too lean stock.” Fouled a metric shit-ton of plugs before considering the fact that I was a slow AF beginner at the time and he might as well have had a toggle switch instead of a throttle with the positions being “off” and “WFO”.

Had a guy tell me to reduce armpump I should let off the throttle by letting my hand off the bar for a second and letting the throttle snap closed instead of physically rolling it back with my hand. This legend pulled up and parked next to my buddies track on his monstered out kx250 and decided to toss out some free pointers, miller lite in hand and not willing to ride because he "pretty much only gears up for shoug". I will admit out of morbid curiosity I did try it for laughs and about stacked it up into the next corner LOL 

When I was on an 80,  "sit down in sand".

Forearm workouts, then heavy weight lifting.   My arm pump was ridiculous in my twenties.  Then the advice from a local shop owner and racer...the less forearm muscle you have the better.

Exactly then! 

It's the early 80's. A 14 or 15 year old kid's dad or uncle has put him on a '74 Ossa Stiletto and says, "If ya drop her, don't let her die!" I thought, that's pretty sage advice. The kid did indeed 'drop her' and unfortunately for everyone involved, did not let it die... Unfortunately because, the next lap around, he ran off the track into a drainage ditch, whiskey throttled into the bank and launched into the woods on the other side of the road. It was heinous. 

30% chance of rain tomorrow, no way we're racing. Drink up.

move over and let them by so you can see where you're losing time. 

this reminds me.

I once wondered what it would be like to have your hands under the bars instead of on top of them, what happens is you do the biggest fucking loop out you could dream of. I had told a friend about it and advised him not to try. Curiosity got the best of him, and he did the exact same thing.

start at 105 sag, if you cant tell what the shock is doing under your ass and what adjustments you need to make to it to ride how you want it to, you have no buisness changing 'SAG'

same with clickers, if you dont know what they do physically, you dont really need to turn them.

Had a buddy who, no matter what he did, couldn’t beat a fellow vet racer. Finally got the idea to get him drunk the night before a race. Unfortunately, it backfired as that guy was true old school and just used his misery for motivation and kicked my buddy’s ass the next day every moto.

Had a guy approach me in a motel lot once in the 90s while I was loading my bike at 5am and proceed to tell me how he “was invited to ride Washougal” once by his friend who “was sponsored by Kawasaki.” Told me it took him 20 minutes to do one lap…

Said guy had a glorious mullet, a cold Budweiser in his hand, and I’m pretty sure hadn’t gone to bed yet from Friday night…😂

When in doubt GAS IT!!!!

I once had an expensive suspension guy give me free advice and setup at Fox Raceway to earn my business.

He told me my handlebars had to be pulled back, levers up a bit (I do keep them ridiculously low), and then only set my static sag, by eye, ignoring my regular sag.

Before I even rode one lap, I knew there was no way he was ever going to touch my suspension again.

Low in the rear chopper style 

"I could a been a contender."  

Put a loud exhaust on it....

“Wait until the last second to brake and then wait one more second”