Friday, October 05, 2012

Pilotando com Ruben Xaus em Kazan.
Riding with Ruben Xaus in Kazan.


Me and the master.
Originally uploaded by Andreas Toscano.
Pergunte a qualquer pessoa sentada numa moto esportiva o que ele gostaria de fazer da vida e, provavelmente, a resposta vai ser “piloto de moto”. Mas como a maoiria das pessoas não tem o dom, nem nasceu numa família com os recursos para isso, o máximo que se pode querer é pilotar ao lado de uma dessas pessoas que nos inspiram a fazer idiotices nas ruas. E não é culpa deles. O problem é que a gente tenta imitar nossos idolos sem equipamento, com pneus ruins, em asfalto ruim.
Em agosto, eu tive a chance de ouvir dicas e pilotar com um dos melhores pilotos do mundo: Ruben Xaus. Se voce quiser saber mais sobre ele, clique aqui porque este post é sobre a diferenca de aprender na escola e aprender com um piloto.
Quando eu fiz aulas de pilotagem com a California Superbike School, o foco do curso é fazer você aprender a teoria via prática. O que acontece é que, devido aos “instintos de sobrevivência” e à maneira como nosso corpo funciona, quase tudo que fazemos em cima da moto está errado. Para provar o quão errado você está e o quão certa a teoria é, você é obrigado a pilotar sem usar os freios, sem mudar marchas, ou usando uma mão só. Cada exercício tem uma função e todos eles são impressionantemente eficazes. Você sai do curso pensando (e agindo) diferente.
O único problema disso tudo é que numa corrida você nunca vai completar uma volta decente sem mudar marchas e sem (ab)usar (d)os freios (quanto mais tirar uma das mãos no guidão). O que nos leva à aula de Ruben Xaus.
Você percebe a diferença imediatamente. A escola ajuda você a vencer o medo, Ruben parte do princípio que medo não existe. A escola pede para você não mudar marchas, Ruben pede para você engatar as marchas certas e explica o que acontece quando você não ouve o que ele está falando (você perde 1/2 segundo por troca de marcha). A escola mostra gráficos, Ruben mostra na pista. Foram 7 sessões de 20 minutos por dia, durante 2 dias. É muita coisa. Além do esforço natural de pilotar num macacão de couro, o calor estava insuportável. Tive que pular a penúltima sessão de cada dia para rehidratar e juntar forças para a última sessão, que é uma corrida de verdade com todo mundo participando.
A pista de Kazan é sensacional. O que é bom porque foi a única coisa que eu consegui ver desta cidade maravilhosa devido ao cansaço. Para começar, meu vôo aterrissou às 3h da manhã. Dali até o hotel foi quase uma hora. Para piorar a situação, tinha um imbecil empacado na recepção, discutindo a diferença entre reserva e pagamento (ele achava que a confirmação da reserva era prova do pagamento). Mais 45 minutos de agonia (eu tinha que estar na pista às 8h). Vôo, pouco descanso, pilotagem, sol. Dá para resumir o final de semana da seguinte forma: aeroporto-táxi-hotel-taxi-pista-táxi-hotel-taxi-pista-taxi-aeroporto. A única foto que eu tirei da cidade foi de uma esquina em construção, ao lado do hotel. Mas não se preocupe: em breve, vai ter um post com um monte de fotos de Kazan.

Fui.

PS - Só para você entender a diferença entre um mortal e um piloto, clique aqui. Enquanto, a gente fica feliz de colocar o joelho no chão, eles acham normal colocar o cotovelo.


Ask anyone sitting on a sport bike what he (or she) would like to be and the answer will most likely be “a pilot”. But since most people don’t have the gift, nor were they born in a family with the resources for that, the most one can hope for is to ride with these guys that inspire us all to do stupid things. And it’s not their fault. The problem is that we try to imitate them with no equipment, riding with bad tires on bad asphalt.
In august I had the chance to learn from and to ride with one of the best pilots in the world: Ruben Xaus. If you want to know more about him, click here because this post is about the difference between learning in school and learning from a pilot.
When I took lessons at the California Superbike School, the whole purpose was to make you learn the theory through practice. What happens is that, due to “survival reactions” and the way our bodies work, most of the things we do on a motorbike is wrong. To prove how wrong you are and how right the theory is, they make you ride without using the brakes, without changing gears, or with one hand only. Each exercise serves a specific purpose and is undoubtably very efficient. You leave the course thinking (and riding) differently.
The only problem with all that is that, in a race, you will never complete a decent lap without changing gears or (ab)using the brakes (let alone letting go of the handlebar). Which brings us to Ruben Xaus’ master class.
You feel the difference immediately. The school helps overcome fear, Ruben doesn’t even acknowledge its existence. The school asks you not to shift, Ruben tells you how to shift correctly and explains what happens if you don’t (you lose 1/2 a second per shift). The school shows you graphs, Ruben shows you at the track. We had 7 20-minute sessions per day for 2 days. It’s a lot. Despite the usual effort to ride in leathers, the heat was unbearable. I had to skip the penultimate session each day to hydrate myself and gather some strength for the last session because it is a real race with everyone.
Kazan’s racetrack is amazing. That’s a good thing because that’s all I got to see of this amazing city due to fatigue. It all began with the flight: I arrived at 3h in the morning. From there to the hotel I lost another hour of sleep. To make matters worse, there was an idiot at the hotel reception discussing the difference between booking a room and paying for one (he thought the booking confirmation was proof of payment). Another 45 minutes of agony (I had to be at the track at 8h). Flight, little sleep, riding, heat. I think I could sum up the weekend like this: airport-taxi-hotel-taxi-track-hotel-taxi-track-taxi-airport. The only picture I got from the city was a building under construction next to the hotel. But don’t worry: soon I’ll write a second post full of pictures of Kazan.

PS - Just so you understand the difference between us mortals and a pilot, click here. While we are more than happy to scrape our knees on the road, they think it’s normal to scrape their elbows.

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