I've been racing cars(road course) for many years and while its quite physical as your neck and upper body take a beating in the turns I can manage


Modified by essex at 10:55 PM 3/22/2004

 

its not that physical. when you first start riding your wrist might be sore from pullin in the clutch a lot for the first week. long rides your lower back and wrists might feel it if you're on a sportsbike. but you're definately capable of riding without any hindrance from not being real strong.

 

Damn you would roll on a track. As stated my wrist hurt for about a week. I ride an F2 and rode 3hrs to OC. Not bad at all.

 

it's also very mental- things that you normally could get away with not doing in a cage like checking your rearview at a stoplight and stuff gets pretty tiring. You have to be a lot more alert riding than driving... I get tired a lot easier while riding as opposed to driving.

 

I've never done it, but I think tracking a bike is very physically demanding. You're hanging off the bike..

 

Small guys were made to ride bikes... err the other way around. You've got 40 pounds on me... roughly that's 5hp all around. And that's just the power aspect.

Riding is a lot of back, abs, obliques. Also a little on the wrists and hand. Depending on your style you may find yourself working the inner legs as well. It's not bad at all, nothing you need to really prepare in advance for. Riding conditions you for riding. Steering effectively requires some relatively heavy input but nothing that would put you at a disadvantage due to your size.

 

Weighing as much as you do, you bike will definitely be more capable considering the power to weight ratio. I weigh about the same and I can't wait to hit some tracks, as for physical stress, normal riding doesn't do anything to you, I don't know about at the track though.

 

cool thanks ...any other thoughts/tips are welcome

The 2 things I worry about the most was/were/are:

1. Dropping the bike on the street as in Slow speed riding as in parking moving it around etc.(actually this is my biggest fear really as I'm not the strongest)

2. I have no worries about my skills around a track so with riding a bike I would only have to concentrate about how to push the bike and not "drive/ride" the track but I was just worrying about how the strentght issue would fair in as you guys said the turning the thing in the corners...but you guys don't seem to think it would be much of an issue which is good to hear

thanks again

 

experience in slow speed situations will give you confidence. This is key in not making a jackass of yourself in a parking lot. You may have trouble backing the bike up to park due to your height and there's not much you can do about that. Sorry

 

When i first started riding, the palms of my hands killed me due to all the upper body weight being on them. My wrists were very sore as well. As far as corners go, its not hard at all. You will be just fine and most likely, faster than the rest of us due to your weight once you learn how to ride.

 

riding fast takes a toll on you. when i get done with a hard ride i can feel it in my abs, lower back, neck, hands and forearms.

all of these will be sore at first if they're muscles you don't often use. once you get accustomed to riding more they won't be sore unless your on the bike for a long time.