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Goods

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Everything posted by Goods

  1. Robza, Yes. Sounds like I need to go back and review. I do however increase the lean angle along with the throttle. I don't slam the throttle hard enough to break traction. Sounds like I have probably fallen into some bad habits. I guess that can happen when you don't get to ride but a few months out of the year. Thanks, Goods
  2. Stock tires have come a long way from the 70's and 80's. No I am not quite that old. I just like to read up on things. I have run stock Dunlops on all of my bikes. All my friends would give me ###### about not changing up to race/street tires. I always thought about it, but I never saw any real reason to since I was able to keep up with them, even at max lean!!! It did take a little while for me to gain that much confidence in stock tires, but they can and will hold. Just be sure to take the time to warm them up properly. Properly warm tires can make all the difference. I actually dropped my first bike do to cold tires. Never mind the fact that it was winter and the temp as 15 degrees. A cold road and cold tires is like black ice. Dangerous combo. I had made the turn several times before during the winter, but had always warmed the tires. I was running late, forgot to warm them, and whoops there I went. I have never forgotten to warm my tires since. Just warm your tires and they should grip fine for none hard core race purposes. If you race them they will hold for a while then get all greasy and slippery on you. later, Goods
  3. I believe it depends on what you are doing with your speed through out the range of the curve. I almost always c/s into a turn. It is easier and more efficient for me. Now if I am trying to accelerate through out the curve and exit at a higher speed than what I entered I will c/s through out the curve, increasing my lean angle as I go, to allow the bike to handle the increase in speed while maintaining my line. If however my speed has to decrease or remain constant in the curve due to traffic than I only c/s to get into the curve, but not to hold my lean angle. I hope this makes sense and helps. I also hope that if I am doing this completely wrong that some one will set me straight, but it seems to work for me. later, Goods
  4. Keep in mind that the number of miles on your bike nor how many years you have been riding mean anything about ability. I have been riding for 5 years and have met guys who have been riding for 10-20 years that I can out do. I have also met guys with 1-2 years experience that give me a run for the money. Motorcycling is a skill. Learn it. Practice it. I am in the navy and so am usually gone for 6 months out of the year. When I get back to home port first thing I do is jump on the bike, but not for some wild back road racing. I find an empty parking lot or a back road and go practice for a week or two and ease into my riding. The TOTW books are awesome and you will learn a lot from them. I still use them. Just remember to practice what you learn from the books or the schools. If it freaks you out going low in corners start off slow. Pick a curve and go through it at a comfortable pace. Turn right back around and do it again practicing what you have learned from the books. This helped me a lot. No two corners are a like so I felt over loaded trying to learn it all on so many different corners ( use curves and corners interchangably here). I was able to find a nice chicane with no blind curves in it. I started going through at about 35 mph. By the end of my practice session, about an hour, I was going through at about 65 and exiting around 80. Maybe it took me awhile, but I learned a lot and built a lot of confidence. I used a really backwoods road for this (I saw one car in the hour I was there). The tracks and schools are always safer to learn on and to go fast. If those aren't possible, $$!!!!, pick a good road with the most minimum traffic. Good luck and don't get discouraged. It is a process. later, Goods
  5. I think you were lucky the cops left you alone. I have wanted to do the same thing for a while now. A buddy that taught me to ride told me it was the best way to get used to the lean angles needed for "real" riding. A few years back I was in Europe and picked up a biker mag. Can't remember which one. They had a story about trying to crash a bike on stock tires. These crazy Brits took a bike with OEM tires to an airport and rode around in a circle getting lower and lower until the bike crashed out. I was stunned to see how low the rider got. I am not talking knee dragging, but pulling the knee in to get even more clearance. Got to love the Bits!!! Could you imagine one of the American mags doing that as part of a camparo test with the new 2004 bikes?!! I think not. Glad the test worked out for you.
  6. Will, I know what you are saying about cost. I am lucky enough to own a bike let alone have money for track days. That is the real reason why I have never been on a track or even to a live race. I would love to try my hand at racing, but I just don't care for PB and Jelly all that much. The major point was to just drop all the baggage. Go ride for riding's sake and figure out what makes it enjoyable. That is where the focus should be, not neccesarily the racing if it complicates things to much to the point of destroying the fun of it all.
  7. I would have to agree with Doug. Right now it is below 30 dregrees with threat of snow and rain. The weather kills me. I hate the cold, but I ride in it any way. Each morning it takes me longer to get dressed than it does my wife. I double up on the thermals. Get the scarfs and debate for 5 minutes which pair of gloves to take. The thin ones which offer better throttle and lever control or the thick ones which make it difficult to grip the clip ons, but keep my fingers from going numb for an extra 10 minutes. Why do you race? Might as well ask the question why do you ride. I went through this a number of years ago. Had a wreck that should have killed me and the guy that got me on my first bike moved. Even before I could fully walk again I went out and got another bike. Took me 5 minutes to get my leg over the seat. I was sweating terribly from the effort. I got the bike home and it sat for 3 months. I was physically able to ride by that time, but I didn't know why I would want to or why I wouldn't. It took a lot of soul searching. Finally I realized that I had no reason to ride. None what so ever in my mind. I did not even remember why I bought the bike in the first place. This of course troubled me. I decided I had to find out why. Why ride? Why a bike? Did I even like motorcycles? I was a little scared and worried when I finally suited up and went out to wrestle with the demons. I realized how much of a novice I felt like climbing back on to the bike. I then realized I was a novice, only a year of riding, somehow missing the fact before. I went out for about two hours and just rode. No racing, no stunts, no peers to influence my riding style. I realized a few things on that ride. I had no riding style. I was an extreme novice, but I loved the feel of the bike, of the whole experience. Simply I feel more alive on a bike than in a car. For a large part it is about being outside and free vice stuck in a box cutting you off from the outside world. I also learned that I had a lot to learn about motorcycling and riding. Thank goodness for Keith Code and others like him. I have never officially raced let alone been to a track. I get my race fix from the speed channel, magazines, and websites and yes from stupid group rides out on the back roads around town. Over the years I have learned something though. For me it isn't about being at the front of the pack. It isn't about bragging rights about who got to point "B" from point "A" in less time. It is about the ride itself. Maybe this is the same for you. I understand having to ride at a certain pace on the track to stay away from the "novice pack" with something to prove. My pace changes to keep me in front of or behind the show off extremers. My advice to you would be to do some track days. No racing. No pressure. Just you, the bike, and a good track. Don't bother with how fast your lap times are. Just ride the track and figure out what it is that lures yor there.
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