riding in bad weather

johnelka

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this weekend i took a little trip to south scotland ,the weather was a bit duff but it was a good trip anyway. now i don't ride a lot but have a few years on my gs 1100. the problem for me is i always find riding in the wind on a motorway bad and get a light front end feeling which really scares me.
does anyone know why or is it just me and what can i do .thanks john
 
try lifting your arse off the saddle a little so that the wind doesn't get squeezed out between your thighs causing your front bits to lift
 
Try not to tense up too much Be as relaxed as you possibly can ,that helps you to sense the bike moving, and also not to do non helpful inputs to make it move more than it otherwise would.
 
The bike is a lot more capable than most riders give it credit for. Let the wind blow the bike about. Not too much of course but if you constantly try to fight every wiggle, you will be spending most of your time correcting problems caused by your own over-corrections.
 
There is a lot of sticky out bits on a GS that will catch the wind, this will have the effect of a lighter front end. Shift your weight forward a bit and slow down a bit so that you feel a bit more in control.

At the end of the day the only way to get more confident with riding in bad weather is to get out there and ride in bad weather. :rob

Good luck and enjoy your riding.
 
this weekend i took a little trip to south scotland ,the weather was a bit duff but it was a good trip anyway. now i don't ride a lot but have a few years on my gs 1100. the problem for me is i always find riding in the wind on a motorway bad and get a light front end feeling which really scares me.
does anyone know why or is it just me and what can i do .thanks john

Relax and hang loose. Get your elbows below the handlebars and let the bike do most of the work until you need to make a big correction.
 
this weekend i took a little trip to south scotland ,the weather was a bit duff but it was a good trip anyway. now i don't ride a lot but have a few years on my gs 1100. the problem for me is i always find riding in the wind on a motorway bad and get a light front end feeling which really scares me.
does anyone know why or is it just me and what can i do .thanks john

speed up , honest , you'll find your a lot less blown about around 90mph than 70:thumb
 
One of the many occasions where going slow and/or hitting the brakes are amongst the worst options.
 
speed up , honest , you'll find your a lot less blown about around 90mph than 70:thumb

Gyroscopic forces from the wheels :thumb2

Remember these?

41a0s8%2BPYZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Same principle :thumb2
 
As I understand it a bike doesn't really make that much use it's wheel's gyro effect, though it must play a part, The steering castor effect is much more important in keeping the front wheel in line.

Side wind loading is a balance of forces. A 30mph side wind on a bike doing 30mph gives a side force equal to the straight ahead winds loads created by driving the bike forwards. Simplistically, the same side wind on a bike doing 90 is only 1/3 of the forwards progress wind loads.

In reality the side wind is an even smaller fraction of the forces involved because the forward wind loading with speed increases as a square law. Perhaps someone who can do maths can maybe work out the real numbers. But suffice to say the bike going faster will suffer less sideways buffeting effect than one going slowly.

It explains why a 50mph gust on the old Severn Bridge, while you are doing 50 limit will cause the bike to swap lanes before you even realise its happened.
 
Too tense/gripping the controls like a posessed person.
Too slow
Over (and especially) under inflated tyres.

All have a bearing.

Sit in to the bike more, loosen your grip and relax.
Keep your speed up.
Correctly inflated tyres.

They're my survival kit.

Oh and knowing when you really should just leave it in the garage too ;)
 
But can you use all this advice as a defense in court.

High winds on the motorways
so speed restrictions go up
you say sod all this it is safer for me to go much quicker
get stopped for speeding
end up in court
blah, blah, blah

but sir I have a degree in applied mathematics and the forward motion must be greater than the sideways motion- hence my speed

nice fine and points go your way
 
### Rant mode on ###

We all know that speed cameras were originally about making money but the grasping "safety" partnerships became so cumbersome its all lost on administration. So the cameras now exist to increase journey times in the hopes more people will use buses & trains. Of course none of it works and for all the costs very few if any lives have been saved. On top of that we now have 49% of drivers who have one response for every hazard (hit the brakes) and never drive over 40. The other 49% don't know how to overtake so we all go everywhere in slow moving queues.

The remaining 2% ride bikes to glide by and filter between the road clogging rabble.

### Rant mode off ###

PS next year BMW are releasing a car that can drive itself in slow moving traffic queues so its not just my imagination.
 


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