metal_on_metal

I would've if I still had the book to reference! My copy has been lent from buddy to buddy to buddy so many times that I can't remember who has it now! -Trevor

I think you are on the right track in terms of grip pressure. In my experience, a lighter grip pressure seems to "unlock" some of the arm tension and "free up" some arm power.. ...which should translate into more efficient steering. Another power-booster idea: If you think about it, the angle at which you press the grips (in an effort to turn the bike or even just to track along in a straight line) can really be anything from horizontal (a straight line parallel with the triple tree) to vertical (a straight line perpindicular to the triple tree, in other words "straight down"). Now if we hold to the "horizontal wheel" idea from the other thread, we know that a horizontal push on the grip will be the most efficient... And a vertical one will be the least efficient. You can prove this for yourself with this experiment: Ride along in a straight line at a moderate pace. Now take your hands off the grips, make fists out of them, and then rotate the fists so that your thumbs are 'up' (like they'd be if you were holding a pistol in each hand. Now replace your hands on the bars so that your hands are resting in that same gun-position on top of the grips (not wrapped around 'em). Now try to steer the bike by pressing straight down on the grip of your choice. Does the bike lean or steer at all? The quick answer is no. Not one bit. Although you might hear it said from time to time, one does not steer a bike by pressing down on the grip. It is done pressing forward (or pulling backward). In reality I think most riders find themselves exerting pressure on the grips at some angle between horizontal and vertical.. ..and the vertical percentage of the pressure.. ..the pressure you are using to "hold yourself up" by the grips.. ..is generally the percentage you are not able to apply to efficient and powerful steering. Now of course something else has to take up your weight if you aren't using your hands and wrists.. ..and this is where the rest of your body (and its' placement) comes into play. Now that you have the physical awareness of your grip pressure you can experiment with your arm angle too. Just try a series of weaves on a straight section of road and see which arm position/angle yeilds the best steering performance. Somewhere along the way you'll likely find a comfortable seating position/arm angle that works well on the straights and the twisties. Some not-so-obvious things may contribute to your arm angle. While riding along in a straight line, skootch your ass back a few inches towards the back of the bike; do you feel a change in the pressure on your wrists? you might. I'll ramble on and on about peg weighting later Maybe someone with a little more qualifications will step in and lend his advice? -Trevor

Wow Rifleman... ..sounds almost like you have some issues with the sensation of speed, or maybe your death-gaze-on-the-turn-in-point is creating some sensational issues for you. The thing that I don't like about using turn-in points for street riding is that there aren't many reliable ones to use.. ..or rather you don't make laps on the street so you aren't as likely to be able to use the same one again and again (and meaure your progress with a lap counter even if you were making "laps". Seems to me that most street riders have a "turn-in point" which is really nothing more than the point at which they commit to turning the bike. The "point" is really more like a small region in which the rider feels pretty comfortable with the notion that if they steer within the region the bike will track its' way out of the corner OK. You said that you are the king of corner exits and so I think you are OK once you get your eyes up and towards the exit; the trick is maybe to get your vision a little less tunneled before that point. A couple of things that helped me (and that I force myself to remember every spring when I work my way out of the beginning-of-season worries): *the difference between the width of your bike and the width of your lanespace is pretty significant; you can fit three bikes side-by-side in yer average country lane so really the corners you face on your bike are not unlike a 3-lane highway in width. That's an awful lot of pavement available for you to use... ...and it means that (for less than rolling-crime-spree speeds ) your turn-in point isn't a tiny, uber critical, make-it-or-break-it patch of pavement that must be hit with all the precision of a squeeze between parked cars. In other words, there isn't such a need for you to focus on the "turn-in-point" to get through yer average street twisty.. ..just getting it in the "region" is good enough. *A few words on watching something roll right up to the tire: After a certain point in time (it will vary based on your speed) you won't have the space (or time) available to do anything about it if you are off-course. Consider how many feet per second you are covering at even 30 MPH (44 feet per second); if you are looking to make a steering correction to hit a mark on the pavement at 30 MPH you'll have less than 44 (linear) feet to pull it off... ..probably much less than 1 second, given your reaction time, etc etc. In other words, don't fixate on the stuff you really cannot do anything meaningful about. If the lane ahead is clear then just aim for your "region" and once you have it in sight switch it to your peripheral and try instead to get your eyes up and on the exit.. ..sounds crazy but really we use our peripheral vision to get through a lot of our tight spots... ..do you have to concentrate and focus on the toilet seat to sit on it? *Sometimes we fall victim to Machiavellian tendencies ("the end justifies the means"). Maybe our goal is to hang off like a magazine shoot and so with that goal in mind we commit our turn-in, body language, etc to making that goal happen. If you are "reaching" your knee out for the pavement then I bet you're falling for this trap (I've done it!). The big problem with this IMHO is that your line selection gets seriously compromised since it was set up for a kneedragging attempt rather than a quick and efficient cut through the curve (and you know it when it isn't right). Ask yourself: could I have gotten through that curve at that speed without hanging off at all? Why not try it again just to see? Another trick I sometimes use to rethink my riding is to cut "the line" out completely. I pick a suitably twisty road and then try to ride while "mirroring" the dividing line (staying exactly a safe distance from it, say mabe 5 feet.. ..on the straights and all the way through the corners). Istart out slow (say at the speed limit ) and then go again a little faster, then again a little faster still. By putting an emphaasis on the lane marker line I am forced to use my peripheral vision more and therefore break the habit of tunnel-vision a bit. Once I am really ripping along I start to hang off, etc and have some fun. **You can also do this type of thing on a highway on/offramp "cloverleaf" if one is available. -Trevor

Well that's kind of what I was getting at in my post. When I put the emphasis on the inside bar on turn-in it kinda 'forces' the upper-body lean to go along with it. More often than not I've already used my legs to lift my ass up and slide it over towards the inside of the turn well before turn-in... ...the inside-bar push and coincident shoulder lean is the "last step" in my direction changing move. I remember that when I first read about pivot steering I thought it was basically the same move I was doing but with a little bit more "drive" from the leg, courtesy of the outside peg. Interesting what you say about mid-corner tension on the bars though. Are you really putting that much stress on the bars mid-corner? every time I feel any amount of tension in my hands (whilst banked over) the bike tends to track a little wobbly. It does -not- track so wobbly when I use a very very light touch.. ..the bars do need to wiggle a bit in order to keep the bike arcing through the turn (no corner is perfect). You can see where this comes from if you can bring yourself to perform a leap of faith.. ...set up a good bit of lean in a nice big sweeper at a good pace and (once you know the way ahead is clear) take your eyes off the horizon and look briefly at the steering head... ..more than likely it will be wiggling about slightly as the bike tracks along through the turn. It's always done that.. .your arms have just been taking up the "slack". A stiff arm (or arms) will impede that wiggle and it might translate into whole-bike wobbles. I've gone so far as to (briefly) lift my hands from both grips (at the same time) whilst leaned over and sure enough there was basically no difference in the behaviour of the bike. I then set my hands back down so lightly on the grips that I could barely feel them in contact with the bars and it felt just as stable and secure. As a result of these experiments I try to keep a very very light and equal degree of grip on the bars while tracking through a turn. All of the bar pressure comes to play during a change in direction/lean only. IOW I am not really "steering" at all while tracking through the turn.. ..just tending to the bike's stability with a light touch on the bars and a bit o' throttle. Sometimes I find myself forgetting to release the grip tension and more often than not it is when I use the outside grip to pull myself into the turns.. ...not sure why that is so but it does appear to be so. For some reason I have a better time on my body english (on turn in) and mid-turn lever pressure if I push the inside bar when I countersteer. -Trevor

I think I know what you mean. In my experience, an equal amount of push and pull on each grip seems like a reasonable way to boost leverage at the bars but it tends to keep the upper body frozen in position for a fraction of a second longer than just a push or just a pull would... ...thus making the bike seem to be pushed beneath me rather than "following my lead" (Ideally I'd like to lead with some lean or at least some movement in the shoulders). Imagine it in a non-riding scenario: A large, horizontal wheel (like a valve or maybe an old bus steering wheel) must be turned. If you were to turn this wheel with both hands (a simultaneous push and pull) your shoulders would likely stay stable and all of the movement would be taken up by your arms. Now turn the hypothetical wheel by pushing forward with your right hand only.. ...Chances are your right shoulder would tend to move forward (and maybe down) a bit to take up the physical slack. Now back to the bike... The steering head is not unlike that hypothetical horizontal wheel in that you should be doing your "pushing" forward and backward on the grips in a horizontal plane.. ..not pushing down... ..and once the steering head is rotated the bike will lean. I found that initiating the turn by pushing forward on the inside-of-turn grip helped me to break the (youth-on-a-dirtbike borne) habit of "pushing the bike beneath me". As my body english/positioning improved I noticed that I was often "flip-flopping" this technique and pulling hard on the outside-of-turn grip.. ..sometimes so much as to get blisters on my hands from it. The problem I found with this method was the amount of weight I sometimes felt being taken up my my "high side" hand if my body positioning wasn't good enough; I felt like an ape hanging from a branch and just like the swinging ape my weight would sometimes swing from the grip a bit and therefore contribute to mid-turn wobbles. Keeping an emphasis on the inside-of-turn arm/hand/grip seems to be the most consistent means of control for me.. ..at least when it comes to the twisties. In a panic-swerve situation I tend to use both bars much more equally but in that scenario I am looking for maximum leverage and don't care quite so much about leading with my shoulder. -Trevor