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I like to choose my gate based on condition. I like to be towards the far outside or far inside. I make the final choice based on finding the best gate. Things like the rut after the gate, if the dirt is deeper or drier on one side or the other, how the dirt is before and after the gate etc. The first 5 feet seems the most important to me, if you nail the first 5 feet the rest takes care of itself. But if you make any mistake initially it doesn’t matter the rest of the start.
Practice practice practice.
2nd gear, sit middle of the seat, lean forward slightly, both feet down and be as balanced as possible. Once the 30 board goes sideways let the clutch out to where it’s barely engaging and hold it there with medium throttle. Hold yourself in place with the front brake, this loads the rear wheel, chain etc and puts it under pressure. As you go to release the clutch and leave it won’t break loose as easily since it was under tension already.
When the gate drops release the front brake, feed out the clutch smoothly and immediately feed in more throttle.
Practice nailing the shift to third. That’s where I struggle the most to be honest. I manage to miss the shift to 3rd and watch good starts go to shift fairly often.
I'll add that I definitely consider the difference between concrete and dirt. Get off the concrete cleanly and smoothly, then hammer it when you reach the dirt.
Practice and repeat until you can launch the bike with out having to let off to put the front wheel down.
The Shop
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Pit Row
sit centered. lean forward slightly, grip the bike with your legs, when you launch power through the gate, a lot of people teeter out the gate bounce over it and lose ground.
also however you do it, you need to practice a lot.
when i was racing i did 20 at the end of every practice. I got to the point of regularly starting in the top ten and the occasional holeshot in fact one weekend racing two classes i nailed 4 for 4.
*** forget to add, you have to visualize getting to the corner first. and you have to commit. a lot of people start letting off as elbows start getting close or they let off early
When 30 goes sideways, put bike in gear, tense up the whole body and then focus on gate around 4sec from 30 board goes sideways.
You have a second or two until your mind starts to wander and also muscles and nerves becomes slow to response.
This is why you see some people being late to the gate from bike problems or similar, get great starts.
We had 20 gates and there were 35 people. I started in the second row and was in the top 10 out of the first corner.
Unfortunately some local racers know some tricks and the starting gates do have flaws, so some do cheat and can view the gate dropper in the dog houses reaction or sometimes the mechanical gate parts will glitch right before it drops such as a pin in the gate rod giving that person the split second edge that puts them 5-6 feet out right at the start looking like a flawless reaction time.
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