Bellevue Ducati day at the Ridge June 25, 2012

Had a big turnout from the DesmoNorthwest group.

Rich Q's 749 and Carr's 848. Rich was nice enough to trailer my bike there.

In my opinion, the Ridge is a HARD track! Fundamentally it’s hard because it is really a track of 3 big, complex bends (red shading) separated by just 3 straights (green shading).

At the ridge, ignore the main straight. It’s nice and long, and you have enough time to think about how badly you did on the last 3 complex bends, and then you go into them again. Did you notice that turn 1 is the easiest turn on the track? That’s because you have a long time to prepare for it. In contrast, between the 3 complex bends, you have 2 small straights where you have enough time for just 1 short gasp of air and then the next one is on you. But even those short sections allow you some time to set up for the entry turn that follows. So in fact, setting up for turns 10 and 13 is not too much of a problem.

But once you are in those 3 complex turns, they are tough. If you make a small mistake in them, there is not a transition straight to recover; it’s back and forth and back and forth. It requires very serious concentration and you must keep the bike on the right line with the right speed. I am not saying if you make a small mistake you will blow your lap time, forget lap times. I am saying if you make a small mistake, the next turn is RIGHT NOW, and it wants to put you in the weeds!

By comparison, at Laguna every turn has a straight in front of it, giving you ample opportunity to set up for that next one bend. This is no exaggeration; Laguna Seca is WAY WAY easier than the Ridge. The cork screw is easy compared to that monster 4 turn downhill complex they call the Ridge. For the corkscrew, you have plenty of set up time, and then it’s just throttle off flick left, flick right and then hard on the gas. Try that from the top of the Ridge and you are a goner!

I now realize what I have been doing is braking on the straights, and just before the turn, I slide my ass over and try and get my shoulder down, and then I feel comfortable and confident to enter the turn. But those damn complex turns on the ridge would not allow my style. At the ridge, I have to learn to come out of a right hander, on the gas, and then in one very small amount of time, go from gas to brake and get my body from the right side of the bike to the left, and then vice versa, and again, and again. At the ridge, so many times I found myself in the 2nd or 3rd turn of one of these 3 complex bends with my body in completely the wrong position for the next turn. It really demands you can transition from gas to brake, and from body off left to body off right in a heartbeat.

x