What You've Been Told

[Hotfoot]

In Twist II Keith describes four different types of information you could receive about riding.

I'm curious about what sorts of things YOU have been told about riding (outside of the school), on the road or track, on the internet, from riding buddies, or motorcycle salesmen, etc. - whether it is funny, scary, misguided, true but not helpful, or just downright bizarre...

Challenge 1: name the four categories of information from Twist II.

Challenge 2: share with us what you have been told, and which of Keith's four categories you think best describes it.

Here are some things I have been told over the years:

"You just need to get more aggressive with your riding."

"Don't worry about adjusting the suspension, that really doesn't make any difference." (this was from a motorcycle dealer, BTW)

"Trust your tires."

What category(s) do these statements fit in, and what other examples can you share?

[ktk_ace]

some of mine

 

 

"just ride more and ride in the city; You'll improve when you can filter to a knuckle's distance away from your nearest vehicle"

 

> tailgating and not maintaining safe distance

Cat: downright bizarre ?

 

 

"the way you steer is so dangerous! its gonna get you into trouble someday! "

 

> on my sub 1S quick steer ;He sees it as danger, I see it as a usable skill in optimum conditions .

Cat: funny ?

 

 

 

Per hotfoots Q's

"You just need to get more aggressive with your riding."
> Misguided?



"Don't worry about adjusting the suspension, that really doesn't make any difference." (this was from a motorcycle dealer, BTW)
>downright bizzare


"Trust your tires."
>True but not helpful

 

might be wrong thou

[lwarner]

The only one I would change is "Trust your tires.", I think that could be destructive. If you're not sure if your tires have sufficient grip, blind faith is not a great idea IMHO.

Trust yourself might be better advice? If you can't tell if you have traction it's probably not smart to proceed as if you do.

With a few of the basics in place I think riders can learn to perceive whether traction is there or not.

 

Once upon a time I was told was to just follow a faster rider: "If they can make it then you can too!". Although I was told this by nice people with good intentions I would categorize this logic as destructive advice.

Rossi said something once like, " Today Lorenzo is riding very fast. And I tried to stay with him, and I should not have tried, and I crash."

There are all different skill levels, tires, pressure settings, suspension and settings, etc. so all things aren't equal and just because one guy can corner at one speed doesn't mean everybody can!

[YellowDuck]

I dunno...for the rider who has no corner speed because they are reluctant to take any significant lean angle at all, "trust your tires" is sometimes pretty good advice.

 

Underestimating the amount of traction available is the main reason that my progress was so slow when I first started track riding. No offence, but sometimes I think the fast guys forget what it was like in the days before they had any concept of what a modern sportbike is capable of. At certain points in the learning curve, a bit of blind faith in what the bike can do is exactly what is called for.

 

Just my 2 cents. YMMV.

[Lnewqban]

In Twist II Keith describes four different types of information you could receive about riding.

 

I'm curious about what sorts of things YOU have been told about riding (outside of the school), on the road or track, on the internet, from riding buddies, or motorcycle salesmen, etc. - whether it is funny, scary, misguided, true but not helpful, or just downright bizarre...

 

Challenge 1: name the four categories of information from Twist II.

 

Challenge 2: share with us what you have been told, and which of Keith's four categories you think best describes it.

 

Here are some things I have been told over the years:

 

"You just need to get more aggressive with your riding."

 

"Don't worry about adjusting the suspension, that really doesn't make any difference." (this was from a motorcycle dealer, BTW)

 

"Trust your tires."

 

What category(s) do these statements fit in, and what other examples can you share?

 

 

 

 

Challenge 1: Destructive advice, friedly advice, useful tips and real technology.

 

Challenge 2: Early in my riding life I was told "In slippery conditions, use engine brake rather than rear brake". I have tested this useful tip during many years and can testify that it has worked as a champ for me. The reason behind is that the braking effect of the engine is pneumatic and more self-adjusting than the one coming from the foot-rear caliper.

 

"You just need to get more aggressive with your riding" and "Trust your tires" seem to be friendly advices.

 

"Don't worry about adjusting the suspension, that really doesn't make any difference" seem to be destructive advice.

 

 

[NicsDad]

grabbing handfulls of front brake and getting all of the down shifting done as deep and late in the corner as possible.. is what we have been told and we see many racers practicing this method.. depends on the corner..? Not so sure that it is good to scrub off all of that momentum.. with lots of horse power you may still get a decent drive out, but IMHO not near as much exit speed will be possible without a smooth planned entry and on a small bike definatley not. Opinions?

[tmckeen]

I was in a discussion at work the other day trying to convince one of my coworkers who is a new rider not to go buy himself a R1, a third co worker, a long time cruiser rider, chimed in with this bit of advice

 

" Crotch Rockets steer completely different from cruisers, they're backwards or something, but its totally different "

 

I'm gonna file that one under destructive advice

[faffi]

Stay off the front brake, you risk flopping over.

 

I heard that often 20-30-40 years back. Well meant, but oh so wrong. I never listened.

[Cobie Fair]

Here is one I still hear people getting told: 100-200 miles to break in a new tire!

[Pepsi Drinker]

"get your ass off the seat" then they go to demonstrate with their entire ass damn near on the footpeg.

 

While some side to side movement of your ass is needed at pace you definately don't need your ass off the seat IMO

 

I was in the Ozarks recently and a couple of the local rabbits passed our group and they both had their asses damn near on the ground while their head was squarely over the center of the tank.....Where do they pick that up? They were so far twisted on the bike their outside leg pointed perpendicular to the bike while their inside leg almost parallel to it.

So we, having some ego and all promptly picked up the pace about 15 mph ran them down and passed them for them to never be seen again. One nice thing about the trip, motorcycles outnumbered cars on the road by a large margin, but there were too many centerline crossers or riding right on it to get truly confident in any of the blind turns or the other riders on the road.

 

We heard at the lunch stop from a guy on a 1982 Goldwing how "those damn crotch rockets run people off the road all the time" and he was talking to a group of riders on them damn crotch rockets. Apparently about 5 minutes into his rant he realized who he was talking to and quietly walked away murmoring something like "they don't care" to his counterpart who stodd silent through the ordeal.

 

Cobie; you can't get 4000+ miles out of a sport tire is you go right out and ride it like you want, it requires those first couple hundred "easy" miles with little wear so the tire lasts longer...lol

I still recommend to street riders to gradually work towards the edge for 50-100 miles depending on the roads they are on before riding like they want. On the racetrack I have left the pits with brand new rubber on and leaned right to the edge in the first turn, so I know the tire will grip but I would rather error on the side of caution when suggesting that to street riders of unknown skills.