tmckeen

Good body position reduces the lean angle of the bike for a given speed and radius, and using less lean angle has lots of benefits from more traction to reduced tire wear, or most importantly the potential for increased speed as for your 3 points 1: suspension works best in the vertical plane, doesn't work at all in the horizontal, so the more upright the suspension the more its able to work. so the less lean angle the bike has the better the suspension can do its job, not sure how thats a disadvantage 2: Not entirely sure I understand what you're saying but the size of the contact patch doesn't create G force, unless you are trying to say that a larger contact patch = more grip = higher attainable cornering force, regardless the more upright the bike , the more the "Fat Part" of the tire is in contact with the road, the greater the available traction, which is why the pickup technique is taught at the school and regularly seen in professional racing world wide 3: well beyond my knowledge to comment on Tyler

oh thats not limited to track / racing, thats every time I throw a leg over any of my bikes

EricG, I think what your describing is mostly just evidence of how important having your suspension properly set up for your weight is. to go off of what you said slightly, stock suspension is always tuned for a specific weight rider, the S1000RR is designed for a much lighter weight fit world class racer, while the K1300S is most likely designed for a slightly more realistic human being, and the added weight of the bike itself means it has stiffer springs anyway. Take either of the 2 smaller bikes, respring the forks and shock for a rider your weight and I'd bet most of the complaints you have with the way it handles go away, I think your generalization about riders being 50% of the bikes weight is is kind of irrelevant, its simply a matter of adjusting the suspension for your weight vs the OEM rider weight, be it simply adjusting preload or completely changing the springs front and rear Tyler

2013 FJR1300A

Some of that is really dependent on the quality of the ABS or TC, the #1 complaint I have about my newest bike is the ABS and Linked Braking system being a always on kinda thing, its not a Race ABS system or anything and it cuts in to easy for my liking, I'd much prefer normal traditional beefy calipers to the ABS and linked system, although I've not yet had to use it in the wet, where it might be a very useful thing

I ALWAYS !!!! put my left glove on first, and if by some mistake I put the right one on first, I'll take it back off and start over with the left Tyler

By todays races, you mean the ones from Assen on Saturday ??

nah, those are normal tread sipes

I think you need a photo with you wearing a Schuberth hat over a BMW hat over a Dunlop hat over your Superbike School hat, just like the guys on the podiums Ms_Schuberth Lot of good info there with regards to proper care and feeding of a helmet and the 5 Year replacement recommendation, might even be worth starting a new "Care and Feeding" thread to sticky with assorted do's and don'ts about helmets in general now back to the stumping the experts challenge, Do you happen to have any actual test data, in house or perhaps some 3rd party or regulatory testing that shows comparisons between a new helmet and one that has been "aged" in some fashion ? Or perhaps just the materials testing, spiffy new EPS compared to some that has been subjected to considerable UV degradation, excessive humidity, extreme dryness, etc. or or something of that nature ?

Welcome to the Forums, If you have tons of questions, this is the right place to start. You might even find someone who actually knows what She's talking about to ask. Tyler

Thats the OEM BT-023F front tire from my FJR1300A , had about 10k miles on it when I pulled it off, I thought the bizarre wear profile was a tire pressure problem but every time I checked em it was at 36 psi cold just like the manufacturer recommends. The bike was bought new in January so its not a "aged" tire and the lets call it a "pyramid" wear pattern was much more pronounced when it was on the bike and inflated, and let me tell you it made riding on painted lines and freeway seams while lane splitting to and from work a nerve racking experience. It's definitely not from lots of spirited riding, unless you consider freeway interchanges and 85 mph spirited riding. Also this is the first time I have EVER worn through a front tire faster than a rear, which is still on the bike but most likely wont last more than another week or two My best guess is that its poor design in a dual compound front, The Q3 takeoff I replaced it with has just over 1k miles so far and hasn't yet displayed this wear pattern but I'm keeping a close eye on it.

OK how bout these

That refers to the outer shell only, theres also the internal polystyrene form or whatever it is that absorbs the impact, that could potentially go bad with age, harden up and no longer absorb as much impact force etc. But with the exception of the test Eirik is referring to, there seems to be very little hard data available. Also still being good enough to pass the EU test doesn't mean the helmet hasn't lost some of it's impact absorbing ability due to aging of the materials, you would need to compare the test results of a brand new identical helmet with a aged one and look at the numbers, not just the pass fail outcome

I was pretty sure that was just a typo or something along those lines Congratulations Benny, and Good Luck !!!

What is the Schuberth stance on the replacement of Helmets due to age?? Are they good forever as long as they don't receive a impact, or should they be replaced after a set number of years from date of manufacture due to age and possible deterioration of the materials?? Also have you done any testing or have any data on helmet material deterioration over time and how it affects impact absorption?? Tyler

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Great Stuff Eirik, where in the heck to you find all this stuff anyway

The way you've phrased this makes it sound like you perceive Quick Turn as a all or nothing kind of technique, which I don't think it is, as Dylan stated previous in the thread the technique is to steer as quickly as possible for the conditions, you can always turn the bike quickly, and quicker steering action always has benefits on your line, you cannot however steer the bike as quickly at 150 mph as you can at 15 mph, the massive increase in gyroscopic force to be overcome means no matter how strong your upper body strength you cannot throw the bike down as fast as you would be able to at a much slower speed, A raked out chopper might not steer as quickly as a Moto 3 bike, but you can still use the quick turn technique to steer "As Quickly As Possible" and carve a tighter line that someone who steers the same bike at a much slower rate. I assure you, after watching Joe Roberts and School Coach James come through the 4,5,6 sequence at Streets of Willow at full tilt, the S1000RR quick turns just fine

I though the school bikes were all on Q3's ?? Did you request the upgraded tires ?

Were you running Tire warmers or just taking a few laps to warm up the tires ?

Looking back at the original question of "Can quickturn be overdone" The answer is of course yes, all tires have a limit of traction and that can always be exceeded, however that limit might not be low enough that you personally, or any human for that matter, can physically overcome. In the rain tires have less traction so the scenario of steering the bike so quickly that the front tire loses traction becomes plausible, but is still dependant on the type of tire and compound and the physical strength of the rider, In the dry it becomes much less likely that you can physically overpower the traction of the front tire from the act of steering the bike alone, but clearly some mechanical pneumatic steering actuator that can steer the bike with say the force of a thousand elephants could. Can it be overdone: yes Can you overdo it: most of the time no, but in some situations possibly Tyler

I believe Keith has proven that to be a myth, the act of applying throttle alone does not cause the bike to "Stand Up" Remember that the lower the power of the bike, the more important carrying speed into and through the corner becomes, The difference between the Yamaha and the Honda is not at the exit of the corner which is where this technique is applied, its at the apex of the corner, The yamaha carries more corner speed through the apex, like a 250GP bike, The honda is better suited to carry less corner speed at the apex, turn the bike and power out, like a Superbike, Its a matter of the "U" vs "V" corner style. the point of the "Pick Up" is to get the bike back onto the "Fat Part" of the tire for better grip so you can drive out of the corner sooner, clearly less time spent on the edges of the tire will result in a reduction in the wear of the tire. so given 2 riders on identical machines at identical paces, one standing the bike up first and then shifting his body weight back onto and one bringing his body weight up with the bike, the former will to some extent conserve his tires better that the latter. As to somehow being able to carry more speed through the corner by not using the pickup drill, I don't think that really makes any sense and cant quite visualize a scenario where it would actually work, if you use the entire width of the track and stand the bike up without the "pick up" technique , then you should be able to use slightly less track at the same speed with it

While neither of my daily commuter bikes have been VFR800's ( Gen 1 FZ-1, FJR1300A ) I have been using my trackday takeoff Q2's and now Q3's for quite some time with considerable success, I always managed very good mileage on the Q2's for commuting, but have not managed to wear through any sets of Q3's. At most I've used up 1 rear Q3 so far and am unsure of the actual mileage I achieved with it. I can however attest to the incredible wear life of the Q3 front tire. The Q3 front I just put on my FJR to replace the crappy OEM tire has already seen 8 track days at Streets of WIllow and 1 Race day at Chuckwalla, I probably could have squeezed 2 more days at Streets out of it by flipping the tire but I needed it for street duty. The handling and front end feel is a MASSIVE improvement over the stock tire. I plan on tracking my commuting mileage over a few tires and can report my findings. Give them a shot, the schools pricing on them is VERY good, the cost savings could very well more than make up for any shortfall in mileage over the Pilot Road, and its always nice to have sticky tires when you unexpectedly need them Tyler

Judging by the weather report for Rosamond, we're looking at some triple digit weather this weekend, drink plenty of fluids !!! Tyler

That was seriously some of the best edge of my seat racing I've seen from the MotoGP class in quite a while, hopefully they keep it up because honestly the racing thus far this season has been a little dull