Cornering...

It's ok. I never made it to your place.

 

No, I have a cough and it's getting worse. Will you run my bike in for me?

 

....and then maybe a gear or two lower still. Pick a corner, any corner,
preferably one you find challenging. Mentally note what gear you were in
*on entry* (you may need to count up and down the box). Go back and try
again, but one gear lower on entry. Try this a few times to get used to it.
Better? Try again another gear lower.

Don't try this if you're just getting back onto the bike after a fortnight
in the sun. Also, go for a bit of a hoon beforehand, to get the bike and
*yourself* warmed up a bit. If you're feeling a bit out-of-sorts, clumsy,
that sort of thing, scrub the mission and go to the pub. This isn't because
you'll crash, it's because you won't benefit, and you'll come away feeling
even more negative about corners.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Shy knees?

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

Sorby says...

I learnt by falling off lots when I was young. Keith Code wasn't there
to laugh at me, luckily for him.

 

I wish I'd learned how to ride by falling off a lot and hurting myself.

I feel a bit of a fraud having done it my way.

Nah. Code would have said, in his Californian drawl...

"How do you feel about falling off? What can you do to fall off better next
time? Can you break down the falling off into smaller steps so you can
improve each step in isolation? Great, that'll be £395 thanks, dude"

 

A bit of a bimble sounds good to me.

 

Sorby says...

Which would have been exactly why I would have punched his stupid merkin
lights out, had it have happened.

 

<fx:taps ginge on shoulder and points at JC>

--
Alex
BMW R1150GS
DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8
http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk
Windy's "little soldier"

 

Paul Corfield bored us all completely to death with wittery prose along
the lines of:

Huh? Wotcha talking about?

--
Cab :^) - almost as fast as Ginge.
GSX 1400 - 'Tarts Handbag' (tm) Bike, dead 550/4 Rat
UKRMMA#10 (KoTL), IbW#015, Bob#4, POTM#3

P.S. Remove your_head from the cab. ICQ: 83023471

 

The Older Gentleman bored us all completely to death with wittery prose
along the lines of:

It's probably down to this, to a large extent.

It's always nice to learn from others. Although I do class myself as a
fairly competent rider, I know that there are always areas that I can
improve on.
--
Cab :^) - almost as fast as Ginge.
GSX 1400 - 'Tarts Handbag' (tm) Bike, dead 550/4 Rat
UKRMMA#10 (KoTL), IbW#015, Bob#4, POTM#3

P.S. Remove your_head from the cab. ICQ: 83023471

 

Coming up to a corner last night, braking too late,
thought I wouldn't make it, tipped it in anyway and
got round ok.
At least I remembered to keep the inside pedal up...
....oops, wrong newsgroup.

 

Porl bored us all completely to death with wittery prose along the
lines of:

What's this then? Pick-on-Cab day?

--
Cab :^) - almost as fast as Ginge.
GSX 1400 - 'Tarts Handbag' (tm) Bike, dead 550/4 Rat
UKRMMA#10 (KoTL), IbW#015, Bob#4, POTM#3

P.S. Remove your_head from the cab. ICQ: 83023471

 

Have you ever ridden a GSX1400? The FJ is probably significantly
lighter and certainly much more sporty handling. And has 20bhp more to
play with too.

 

Japa-knees

 

Only very slowly.

 

read an article about this in Bike a while back. Interesting bit was a
picture of John Renoylds, leant over very far on a right hander, knee on the
deck and removing his visor tear off. How is he countersteering?

 

Yupp, I'd go along with this too, BUT, there have been times, like
after a 6 year layoff, when I've had to go through the re-learning
process, at which point all of this analysing and understanding what's
going on comes to the fore.

Similarly, moving up to the Gixxer last year I had to break down my
cornering technique somewhat, tending, as I was, to be going in far
too fast. Things like that are not always obvious and can need some
careful analysis.

Having said that, it's only once I've got to the point where I no
longer have to think about it and the natural, "I just ride the
fucker", thang is back, that I really start to feel like I'm riding
properly.

In short, if you're doing something wrong, you need to understand it,
if not, you don't.

 

One doesn't have to countersteer through the whole bend.
One countersteers to *initiate* the turn, to get the bike leant over.
The bike's geometry, tyre profile & road camber take over from there.
The throttle position dictates whether the bike leans over more, sits up or
just stays where it is.

 

Cock-knees