by JimDirt » Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:48 am
Getting him to ride in the mud will build his confidence immensely , the only thing i noticed was he was kind of coasting thru the corner and accelerating out of it , you might want to try to get him to carry his speed thru the corner
This is the main tactic that Villopoto uses to his advantage and what really gives him the ability to pull away from the competition by carrying his speed thru the corners, not just into and exiting , and by combining throttle and braking at the same time , the braking will set the bike to hold in the corner , the throttle will keep his momentum , it will take lots of practice to perfect the technique , but the final results will be a faster more confident rider that will be 1 step above the competition
Other than that , i would suggest working on the shift/clutch timing , he is hesitating when transitioning from the clutch to actually shifting the gear (losing momentum with the gap in time from each movement) , but he is just learning , but focusing on these things now rather than later in training will get him more confidence and more aggression while riding , something that will keep him at the front of the pack on race day
And please understand I am not criticizing him on his ability , all i am doing is pointing out some things that i noticed , that if mastered early while he is just learning to use the clutch and shifting and braking together , when and where needed , will give him a advantage over the other riders in his class and help him become the next Villopoto
So yes , i think he has plenty of potential , he can only get better the more he rides , but if he wants to be like Villopoto , he needs to be very aggressive in his riding , he may hit the ground a few times learning this , but then he will know his boundaries on how far he can push it , doing this now , will make him so much faster when the competition gets intense
I am by no means a expert on this , but i know how Villopoto is riding and what he is doing is being very aggressive ALL the time , his focus is to pull away right now , so he can take away the confidence of his competition , this alone is a huge advantage , that is how he was able to pull away from everyone that was on 450+cc bikes on a 250F at the MXDN several years back , he was on a smaller slower bike , but pulled away to i believe a 16 second lead , on a bike half the size , it was all due to his confidence and aggressiveness and his ability to carry momentum where others were not
Being aggressive and confident is the key to going fast no matter how tricked out or stock the bike your riding is , the key is to ride it to its limits but not to go over the limits , learn how far to push it , and maintain that pace no matter if your riding alone just practicing or in the middle of the pack in a heated battle for position , always ride like you are being chased by wolves , because that is what the competition is , a pack of wolves trying to get to you and take you down , if he keeps that mentality he will be like Villopoto in no time
2020 CRF450R
2006 CRF450X
Weiser , Idaho