Jump to content

chipset

Members
  • Posts

    19
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Previous Fields

  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
    I have attended Levels 1-2.

chipset's Achievements

Cornering Enthusiast

Cornering Enthusiast (3/5)

  • First Post
  • Collaborator
  • Week One Done
  • One Month Later
  • One Year In

Recent Badges

0

Reputation

  1. If I am making a turn, obviously you have your outer foot weighting the peg. I used to put a lot of weight on the inner peg making turns. That's changed lately. But I also try to be light in the saddle. I haven't noticed it lately, but I know I was being light in the saddle and having issues.
  2. I've never slid the front tire unless it was on a less than decent surface. And yes, I saved it. But it was an FJR with ABS on a gravel/dirt road. That being said, the front is not going to break loose unless you are: On a bad surface Overload the front (which rarely happens unless you give too much brake) Have cold tires. The concept is simple. The front may slide a little bit? And how do you correct it? Add more throttle, as it will remove the load on the the front tire.
  3. However, good body position will help with unexpected things happening on bikes. It all has to do with changing the Center of Gravity. For example, with proper body position, you can make sharper turns without changing steering input (hook turns, for example). And it can also help in the case of slides. If you are crossed up on the bike, a minor slide can be harder to correct than when in proper body position. Proper body position makes it easier to turn the bike, as your arms are parallel to the ground, meaning that all the effort to steer is occurring horizontally, rather than other angles. It also keeps you loose on the bars, providing less input into steering. And being locked in makes the bike more stable. Proper body position makes it easier to have better throttle control as you are less likely to give inadvertent throttle controls input due to bumps in the road, as your weight is off the bars. Hanging off is not required, but upper body movements, such as moving your upper body to the inside of turns, can help considerably. In my street riding, I try to practice being proper on the bike, but I don't hang off. I do move my upper body with the turn. On the track, I am hanging off (quite well on my left side... my right is another story). T
  4. Thanks for the suggestions. I was at LVMS running levels 3 & 4 this weekend. I had a nice rear slide. I could feel the rear tire break a little and while it seems like a second or two, in reality it was a split second slip. However, it was great. Just held the throttle and she hooked back up and away I went. I am so ready for more track days. I learned a lot, got a little over my head and when I dialed it back down, I was that much more precise and in control. It was a great learning experience. Thomas
  5. Thank you very much for the explanation and graphic!
  6. I just did level three and they cover this. Here's what I understand, and see if this makes sense. Here's a drill to illustrate the action. Stand facing a wall, as if under arrest. Remove your left arm from the wall. Now lift your left leg. Feel unstable? Try pushing with your right hand into the wall. How does that feel? Now put your left leg down and pull up your right leg. Now push with your right hand (as your left hand and right foot should no longer be touching anything). How does that feel? It also comes from concepts such as lunging in fencing, for example. Your rear leg provides the strength. Now that you lock your outside leg onto the bike, it keeps the weight off your hands, and allows you to turn the bike in with less effort.
  7. My entire foot has to reposition. When I ride, I ride on the ball of my feet. The shift level is set too far forward so I have to pull my foot off the rearset, move it forward, shift, then return it. The peg on the rearset sits underneath the ball of my foot or near the toes. My toes aren't long enough to shift it without repositioning the foor. In this case, I have to apply weight someplace while the weight is taken off one foot to shift.
  8. So, I was riding last night and noticed a problem. Any time I go to shift from one gear to another, I have to adjust and end up putting weight on the handlebars. Any advice on what I should change?
  9. In ToTWII, it talks about how having the weight planted in the 40/60 (front/rear) keeps the bike from getting twitchy under power. Without the engine keeping the motorcycle in the sweet spot, the motorcycle: Off-Gas Results 1. Weight is forward, overloading the front tire and underloading the rear, reducing available traction. 2. Suspension is out of its ideal range, causing the bike to over-react to the pavement. 3. Steering response quickens, adding to any twitchy tendencies. 4. The bike wants to wander outward, not holding a line. 5. Cornering ground clearance is reduced. 6. The bike slows. When you get to the throttle determines where the bike is actuallyworking. Results 2-6 certainly apply to pulling in the clutch. And I suspect the motorcycle will be somewhere near 50/50 weight (or maybe 45/55) if you are coasting, depending on the type of turn.
  10. Of course. Some people hang off uselessly or because they see someone do it without knowing why it is done. They do it to look cool. Just like some trucks have big tires and wheels and the truck is running a skyjacker. And it does look cool. As for my original question, thanks for the answer.
  11. As a street rider, I have been working on the persistent SR 1 a lot, and can tell that it is hard to eliminate, since it is a natural reflex many times initiated by sudden traffic conditions. As a way to reduce the braking effect of the sudden roll-off, I have been training my reflexes for combining the roll-off with a simultaneous clutch-in. That liberates the rear wheel and allows the front brake to take control over the (more gradually) deceleration of the bike while I stand the bike up from any lean (as much as possible). Very good questions, Chipset I can see how rolling off the throttle and pulling in the clutch might help with the speed, but are you just substituting one SR for another? If you are training your body for this and you are in a curve, is rolling off and pulling in the clutch going to help or hurt? Fritzdacat, I have had moments like that, as well. Running on the back roads and see freshly cut grass on the road or gravel on side roads. If I have to hit them, I try to keep it in maintenance throttle. But how do you train for the rear stepping out unexpectedly?
  12. I have been reviewing a lot of TotW II, again. And it struck me that the survival reactions can actually be grouped into two categories. They are somewhat linked but one category deals with physical actions (or reactions) whereas the other group is more mental. Both can be mental, but the mental group will not cause an action in and of itself ont he motorcycle. SR 1 Rolling off the throttle is a severe action on the motorcycle. Street riding may treat this more as a benefit, unless you really need it. In which case, not rolling off the throttle will cause a crash. SR2 Being stiff in the bar causes additional forces to be added to the chasis and makes it harder to control. SR7 Braking, both over and under, causes all sorts of issues. Those are direct physical actions on the motorcycle that have a direct input. The others, frantically looking, target fixation, and freezing in place, are less physical in terms of actions on the motorcycle but tend to be more mental. The last one, running into the item you are looking at, seems to be both, as you can move directly into something but it is caused by mentally. I certainly have suffered from all of the SRs. Generally speaking, the physical SRs are caused by visual SRs. At least for me, they are. There are defined exercises to try to work through the visual SRs, such as wide vision, the two step/three step and whatnot. And the exercises can be practiced while driving, walking, sitting in your office. SR7 can be worked on by braking drills. You can practice braking, over and over. SR2 can be worked out by focusing on body position and recognizing when your body is tense and doing things to relax (such as chicken winging, etc). SR1, which tends to be the one that strikes me more often, is harder. Without having a slide bike to practice on, how do you practice not rolling off the throttle when the rear tire gets loose? How do you practice for the activities that seem to be more panic related regarding SR1?
  13. We all agree that body position has an effect on cornering. I am trying to figure out why. Imagine the same same rider, the same lean angle, the same turn in, the same speed and the same rate of turning. Why is it the rider who hangs off will carve a tighter line than the one who doesn't? In watching TotW2 DVD, I can see it. But it doesn't really explain why. Is it due to centripedal force?
  14. Uli, I don't think it will matter. At the end of the day, smoothness counts. On the BMW, the rain mode will smooth out bad rider input, but you can still have poor throttle control and it will affect the motorcycle. I have had thoughts about this for a long time. For example, imagine a motorcycle that would graduate you to higher and higher speeds rather than let you open it up on a track. Therefore you slowly worked your way up and could focus more on body position, throttle control, and braking. Instead of charging the corner, you had to plan for it. And I thought the magic answer would be a motorcycle with a governor and a GPS, which might allow you to make 1-2 mph improvements over your baseline each lap. But then I realized we have something like that... 125s and 250s. Not to mention a technique, such as riding in a higher gear like 3rd or 4th. I the case of the BMW, I run considerably slower in Rain Mode on the BMW. Part of it is because I can't accelerate out of a corner as fast as I'd like. The TC comes on pretty quick. It also softens the inputs. However, I could still send in bad inputs and it would overload the tires, or panic brake. TC and ABS can let you get away with some things, but they don't solve the problem of bad input.
×
×
  • Create New...