faffi

The Quaker State isn't bike specific and they even refuse to call it synthetic although I guess most makers would. As long as an oil doesn't inhabit friction modifiers, I'm not overly concerned about the oil I use. Even using very, very cheap mineral car oils have I noticed anything special regarding wear. My old KZ400 twin didn't even need valves adjusted at its service interval despite living a hard life of short hop riding even every day through winter and snow. And the oil was the cheapest I could get. I replaced the oil every 3-4000 miles. A taxi fleet in, I believe, NYC, was driven with various oils, ranging from Mobil 1 (top ranked afterwards) to cheap minerals. Although there were far more sludge after 60,000 miles in the engines that had been driven with cheap oils, there were no measurable differences in wear. There was a bloke who rode more than 200,000 miles on a Fireblade, running cheap oils. There were Honda CB750s making it to 200,000 miles without overhaul - and the oil available in the 60s and 70s weren't exactly fantastic by current standards. In 1978, Honda said the oil were to be changed every 7500 miles/12000 km in the CX500 and GL1000 engines. That was with ordinary 10W40 SE mineral oils. Renault has sold cars for a decade that are supposed to have their FIRST oil change after 20,000 miles/30,000 km! Is a better oil better? Definitely. I use high quality oil in my car because I drive 10,000 miles per year and only change the oil once. Lots of cold starts during winter as well. In my bikes, I think it matter less. I never to short rides and I never ride in freezing temps and I do not race. I may hit redline a few times every ride, but I do not live there. There are more things to consider. For instance, the oil ages twice as quickly in 2nd gear as in top gear (give or take per model of bike). Cold starts is the main cause of wear, bit for engine and oil. Idling cause the same stress. Sitting in a cue on a hot day is murder. What I'm trying to say is that the use will determine the need for how good the oil must be. Gentle use and frequent changes doesn't require the same as hard use and infrequent changes. Finally - costly oil doesn't have to be good and cheap oils doesn't have to be bad. Gawd, I'm rambling

Even Rossi & Co sometimes go down without being able to find an explanation, even with all the telemetry they have. My point was simply that you perhaps leaned over so far that your tyre weren't designed to allow enough grip, at least not in those conditions (temps, tyre pressure, speed, body position, whatever) and that it wasn't a result of you doing anything particular wrong apart from being leaned over a degree too far

It generally doesn't matter much these days, I believe, as long as you stay away from low friction oils and use high quality fully synthetic. I have found that some oils, like Quaker State, allows my clutch to separate fully from cold and makes every gearchange from the first to the last silent, whereas others, like the Shell mentioned, cause a slight drag when the clutch is cold and always lets me know about the 1-2 changes. But again, I doubt there is much difference in actual protection - the engine is probably the last thing to go on a modern bike more often than not.

You seemed to be leaned over quite a bit more than the bloke following you, and also quite a bit compared to just about anything, from what little I saw on screen. Could you just have overextended the available grip?

I envy you! Honestly. After nearly 50 broken bones, internal injuries and permanent muscle and nerve damage, I still willingly take risks on virtually every ride by overriding the conditions. Just because it is fun. Overriding the conditions on the road without taxing your own limits are easily done. Ask yourself what will happen in the next bend if the road is covered in sand or oil - will you make it through or stop in time? I find myself generally relying on the road surface being clean and ride accordingly.

It makes the ride more pleasurable once you manage to swallow your pride and chicken out instead of just pinning the throttle when the brains screams NO

I have tried to relax my death grip on the grips for 30 years without much success, but for some reason it is no coming together. It makes the riding much more pleasant and far more relaxing. I use force - and hence need to grip hard - briefly when changing direction, but quickly relax again. Most likely I would start gripping like crazy again if I go fast enough (but not actually fast compared to real riders) to scare myself, but I am making a great effort to also stay within my comfort zone now.

I find it very hard to believe that the difference between sitting straight and leaning in is that of 52 and 39 degrees at the same speed. No way. Hailwood cornered just as fast as those hanging off back in the late 70s. Yes, I'm aware that style has evolved, but still - 13 degrees difference is MASSIVE. For street riding, I very much prefer picture/style #1 most of the time, although I sometimes shift my weight slightly inwards or push the bike slightly down from time to time if that feels natural for a given corner.

If possible, try to plan the move several corners ahead. Ideally, if the rider hampers you midcorner and getting out, you will sit back a few bikelenghts into a corner where you are significantly quicker, take up most of the slack on the brakes and start accelerating sooner with better drive. Ideally, you should just be alongside as the corner ends and then continue to pull away. If the rider is relatively weak on the brakes, using Bullet's advice is easier and better - just make sure you are really close and wait for the rider in front to brake first.

Just wind it on harder than the slow guy

The tyre will also deform and flatten more the further you are leaned over, increasing the actual contact patch greatly over what it would be if the tyre stayed uniform with the shape it has without pressure.

I went for a ride yesterday evening. The weather suddenly changed and we got the first balmy day of the year - 16C Lots of wind, too, but it was mild and no problem. My bike is based upon an old Daytona 900, but the tank/seat/rear suspension is from a Thunderbird. 98hp and 260 kg means it's no rocket, but it's still good fun. On a winding section, I quickly caught up to a Hayabusa. The rider was shifting his bum a bit and leaning his torso even more into the corners, whereas I mostly sit there like a sack of potatoes. It surprised me how much lean the 'busa used for the sedate pace, and I guess I must have used something similar. Didn't feel like it. Having dispatched of the Suzuki, I turned it up a notch or 5 to put to use some of what I have learned here lately. It took a bit of time to lift my field of vision - I've always preferred to turn in on the brakes and keep slowing until the apex, and I think the reason has been for not looking far enough ahead. Since I was trying to keep things smooth, using little brakes and rolling on the throttle early, I did hit a few SR moments at first when I looked down and either hit the brakes or chopped the throttle because I was riding differently but still looking like I used to. I did manage to stay mostly relaxed, though - I used to tense my hands very much. Once I managed to look up and relax completely, I got into a nice groove. My bike wears a BT012 rear tyre and a BT001 front in the softest edition. I have zero chicken strips on the rear, but about 1/4 in up front. There is little doubt I could lean over much further, but this is my street riding limit. Finially, the actual point - grip. The amount of grip available on modern tyres is fantastic at my moderate pace. Even leaned over almost to my personal limit - which admittedly isn't all that much - the rear tyre will take full throttle in second gear! Entering the corner with just engine braking or a hint of brakes, then rolling on the throttle smoothly early and then, just as the bike is passing the apex, quickly and smoothly rolling the throttle fully open, redlining 2nd, 3rd, getting into 4th on the short straight before slowing and repeating the process while staying relaxed was a new experience. A very fun experience And this is hopefully just the beginning. I am not a terribly fast rider, and I'm too old to be bothered, but being able to ride reasonably briskly in reasonably safety is my goal. And thanks to TWOW2 and this forum, I may actually reach it some day.

I really cannot see any problem with removing and inserting my glasses every time - I've done so for 30 years and it has never bothered me. Helmet goes on and pulls ears down along with it, push glasses in place, put in fingers to lift the top of the ears back, fasten helmet strap and on you go. Even if I could keep the glasses on, I would still have to correct my ears, so having to take them off and put them on add maybe 10 seconds to the job. No big deal. Wearing too big glasses, however, is problematic. You need glasses that are not much wider than your temples for comfort.

Could also be that the tyres doesn't give any warning. My brother found himself sckyrocketed when the BT020 let go without any warning on a track day. The tyre had never let go before in any way, but when he finally slipped it was a total surprise.

OK, they're probably right. Rossi was last on the list shown on the live TV coverage after the race.

Not almost - THE lowest top speed. Rossi and Lorenzo complained about wheelspin preventing a good drive out of the corners (low end speed), Burgess hinted that Rossi was overgeared because they had planned for him to sit in Stoner's draft (not enough power). Who knows?

Entering the corner, in the corner, exiting the corner - done it all. Even crashed very heavily because of it. That was back in 1991.

I agree it looked like it was under braking, but if I read him correctly, he was either not braking hard enough or not forcing the change of direction hard enough, which seems a little strange. Then again, F1 cars will go off the track if they're not going fast enough around corners to generate enough downforce and hence grip, so who knows? Not me

MOTORRAD performs repeated tests at the same venue, which has grippier than normal asphalt. The measure stick is the BMW K1200R Sport with 37 metres from 100 kph, which is around 10.5 m/s2 or well over one G. I agree that the trivia figures seems pessimistic. Most likely, they have erred well on the safe side in order not to get into trouble with readers writing in to complain that "you said I would have X amount of grip and could lean Y degrees, yet I fell down and now I will sue" or something to that effect.

When and where do you need to apply this pressure? How will rolling on the throttle a little affect this?

The magazine and its riders - several accomplished racers - doesn't advocate riding hard enough on public roads that grip or cornering clearance should be a problem. They still do it, though - just as we all do from time to time

MOTORRAD suggest pushing the bike down on alpine serpentine roads because it allows quicker changes of direction according to them. For road use, they suggest a combination of pushing the bike down (slow corners) and sitting neutrally (most corners). They advice to leave hanging off the track riding on sport bikes, especially because it requires much more energy and plenty of practice than "normal" riding positions.

Do you want an honest answer

Just a bit of trivia regarding grip: 1) Leaned over 36 degrees you can still brake/accelerate at 85% of what you can do upright 2) Grippy race track asphalt can allow up to 1.2 G of braking/acceleration 3) Normal asphalt in good condition allows around 0.9 G 4) Worn asphalt allows around 0.7 G 5) Cobble stones and wet normal asphalt allows about 0.5 G 6) Wet dust allows approximately 0.3 G 7) Black ice allows only 0,08 G 8) To stop from 100 kph, you will - according to the list above - need from 32.8 metres up to 491.3 metres. 9) With 0.5 G available, you can lean safely to 27 degrees, 1.2 G allows theoretically 57 degrees. Source: MOTORRAD

I would guess that it a) takes some time from you close the throttle until the wheel loses momentum, that it takes even more time for the wheel to regain traction and c) that it also takes time to compress the suspension once the tyre starts gripping before it can rebound and send you flying. But as per usual I could be wrong.