Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Riders Step It Up For Muscle Strength and Improved Suspension

Some lucky kids from the Asian Roadracing Championship are getting specialized training at none other than the VR46 Rider’s Academy. Yamaha is chronicling their trip. Below is one of a series of press releases from the Academy, where the students learn what it takes to get their bodies ready for top level racing, and learn the intracacies of motorcycle suspensions. -TS

Today Peerapong Loiboonpeng (Thailand), Galang Hendra Pratama (Indonesia), Soichiro Minamimoto (Japan), Kasma Daniel Bin Kasmayudin (Malasia), Imanuel Putra Pratna (Indonesia) again started their training at the gym, where they split up into two groups who took turns taking a pilates class to gain essential muscle strength in their legs.

While the first group was in session, the other group was again joined by a professional trainer together with VR46 Riders Academy‘s Franco Morbidelli and today also Francesco Bagnaia, who guided the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp riders whilst they were doing some stretching and spinning to keep their bodies injury free, before the groups switched places.

After the workout, the riders stilled their hunger with a four-course lunch in Tavullia with some ice cream for dessert, before eagerly heading to the Official VR46 Fan Club to sign up as members.

With their members cards in hand they spent the rest of the afternoon at Andreani Group‘s Suspension World Academy where they strived to absorb as much knowledge as possible. In the first lecture they were educated on the inner workings of car, bike, truck and especially motorcycle suspension, which was followed by a quick tour around Andreani Group‘s headquarters.

During the second class they put their attention towards getting a better understanding of how to set-up a bike and give constructive feedback to their mechanics to enhance their bike‘s performance at any track, whatever the track and weather conditions.

The work we did in the gym today was better, because we never have done pilates before and the training we did this morning helped our bodies detox from the strain from the exercises and training on track we did yesterday. In the afternoon we had a lesson at the Andreani Group that we felt was very useful, because we didn‘t have any theoretical knowledge on this matter before we came here, so this was a good step forward for my future as a racer.

Eid Mubarak greeting*:

I would like to wish my friends, family and fans in Indonesia a Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1 Syawal 1437 hijriah, Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Bathin.

This morning was my first time doing pilates. It was all new to me, but we had a good teacher so we were in good hands. We tried some moves that helped a lot to relax the stress from yesterday‘s practice session at the Motor Ranch. From our lesson at the Andreani Group I got a lot of knowledge and some of it I never learned about before, like how to set up the geometry of the bike and the centre of gravity, and it surely will help me a lot to improve my lap time whilst riding on the track. Before I came here my skills to set up the bike were limited, but after today I‘m able to set up the bike perfectly and improve the set-up to become faster!

The morning session was great. Because I never did pilates before, this session was an eye opening experience for me, I liked it a lot! I suffered a small injury on my hip yesterday, but the training relieved the pain. The session in the afternoon was also very interesting. I already had a bit of an understanding of the smaller classes such as the 250cc, but the lecture at Andreani Group gave me an opportunity to gain knowledge on bigger classes such as MotoGP. I am using Öhlins on my motorcycle, but I wasn‘t aware that they also made products for cars, bikes and trucks, so this was very interesting for me.

Eid Mubarak greeting*:

Wishing all my fans and followers back in Malaysia a Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

I went to study pilates in the morning to know how to stretch my muscles. It‘s a soft type of exercising but it helped me to be more flexible and elastic. After lunch we got a lesson on suspension from Andreani Group to learn more about front and back suspension and to know how the technique works in bigger competitions, such as MotoGP and WorldSBK. I acquired the skills to set up and modify the suspension, so it is adapted better to my riding style and the circuit‘s lay-out.