Quote:
Originally Posted by The Awesome
There are two major problems with passing on the outside. First, it often requires you to be significantly faster than the person you are passing, and two, it leaves you directly in the path of a crashing motorcycle/rider if that person happens to go down while you are trying to ride around the outside of them. Inside passing is MUCH easier. It's fast, it's safer for the passer, and it can be done virtually anywhere on the track. Watching national level riders get through traffic is a thing of beauty, because they can do it virtually anywhere without losing time, and with minimal disruption to the slower riders. The better you are the less patience is needed, because in reality, there is almost always room.
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Clarification, novice and intermediate passing on the inside is dangerous. They have all watched the pros do it. The majority of them have the single goal of "getting a knee down." And, if that means stuffing someone going into a corner letting them brag about how they were Ricky Racer at the track over the weekend passing people, then they will do that.
Most orgs [including my own] don't allow passing in turns for this reason. That is, especially in Novice groups. Learning to hold a line and be confident with that line is sometimes a large enough lesson without someone else in the peripheral.
Derf's note about pit lane - finding your own personal space on the track filled with parades - is IMHO the best way to deal with rules about passing.