Its the best accessory you can buy for your bike.
You sure it ain't a small number plate or purple headlight cover, they sure do seem popular round here
Its the best accessory you can buy for your bike.
Their friggin ego.
Common phrases of the average male egostistical biker.
Ive been ridin since i were knee high to a grasshopper.....
No-ones gonna teach me about riding me bike...
I aint going to no namby pamby poxy riding school....
Advanced riding is for nobs...
Funny that, these are normally the "nobs" i leave behind on the twisties,cos ive been trained properly,and i can read the road.
So if you do one worthwhile thing this year, go and spend some of your bling money and get trained properly.
Its the best accessory you can buy for your bike.
I'm very pleasedto see this. Thanks to Giles and other future contributors.
You'll get some crap from certain quarters of course. Usually those who are, of course completely confident and competent.
I'll always listen. I started riding again 8 years ago. I failed my test 3 times. I have very little natural talent but love riding with a passion.
Since finally passing my test I've done about 20 days and half days of professional training, none incidentally with the IAM, of which I am a member (passed my test without an allocated observer or coaching).
Despite recently having an assesment where my riding was complemented as being at a very good level, I still feel barely competent. I'll continue to learn, train and hopefully improve with the help of good folk like yourself Giles.
My thanks in advance.
Now, how about some exercises to get me turning in a bit later on tight right handers then?
Giles i have done bike safe and skills for life this year and haven't regretted a minute of the time spent on either. keep up the good work on this topic - there are plenty of us who really appreciate what you are doing.
one thing I have not been able to find is a series of drawings showing the correct line through a variety of different bends and maybe some linked ones which seems to be at the heart of a lot of training. its not in the IAM book( how to be a better rider) or the police one motorcycle road craft. there is plenty of discussion about positioniong on entry ( and your photos in the positioning thread cover this) but not through the bend(s). At bike safe the police tutor drew some lines on a white board showing the difference between the racing line and the road line. this is one of the aspects of my riding that has changed the most and as is said often a picture can be worth a thousand words.
keep up the good work
If you find you need to back off mid-turn the line is wrong, regardless of if this is caused by lack of visibility or poor line choice.
Anyway, this works quite well on the road, if you take a line on the road where you cannot (OK cannot safely) follow this rule then you are probably not on a good line.
Ummmmmmmmmmm!!!!????!!
I understand what you're saying, and Codes 'rule no. one' is not too far removed from the driving school 'ease and squeeze', but it's track stuff, not road stuff!
Any vehicle, bike or car, needs to be balanced on corner entry, and we do that by making sure we've entered the corner at the right speed, so that as our view opens we can drive on a cracked open throttle, getting that 60/40 weight distribution. This gives us a beautifully balanced bike.
When we get it wrong we 'charge' (into) a corner, we're in too fast to get on the gas, so the bike (or car) is unbalanced, the front is over loaded, the weight distribution is wrong, we struggle to turn it, and this leads to a catalogue of unfolding errors (stiff arms, target fixation, stuck off the throttle or worse still grab the front brake ... crash!!).
The idea that the perfect line allows for a cracked throttle as early as possible, is fine on a track. Speed speed speed!! get on the gas early, kiss the paintwork on the apex ..... come on, the clock is ticking!! I need to beat my 58 seconds round the Indy circuit!!
Suitable for the road? Nah!! I am a serious petrol head and have been doing track days since the mid eighties. (Not long sold my track zx6..), and I don't mind blowing smoke up my own arse and saying I'm a bloody quick road rider! But I seperate my track day head from my road head and what dictates my road head, is safety and view.
I know what yer saying, (balance and all that..) but it's about view, not getting on the gas as early as you can!
I ride a Street triple and a GS. I think because of different steering geometry it seems to me the countersteering input is very different between the two of them. On the street a very conscious push on the inside bar gets the turn started or tightened whereas on the GS I can , for example weave around manhole covers or tip into a turn by what feels like most like a hip movement and actually in terms of hands input the opposite of countersteering. any thoughts about this or ho ho counter views? what do you think about to get rapid steering input on your GS or is it all instinctive ?
whereas on the GS I can , for example weave around manhole covers or tip into a turn by what feels like most like a hip movement and actually in terms of hands input the opposite of countersteering.
At what point does spirited riding typically become likely to get you in trouble?