Covering the front brake - Part II

I've been trying not to. Cover the front brake, that is. Since the
discussion a little while ago, it seemed like a good idea to break the
habit on the open road and take hold of the twistgrip with all
available digits.

The outcome has been mixed - I unfurl fingers one and two from the
brake lever and wrap them round the inboard end of the throttle and
the feeling of "wrongness" has substantially disappeared. The
persistent fingers reappear though, from time to time. Just when I
least expect them to, like n the motorway when a car wobbles across
the white line ahead and I consider it may be time to be ready - the
fingers are already there. The thing is, I don't know how long
they've been there ...

Anyway, perhaps smoothness has been improved - certainly corner speed
has not decreased noticeably so it isn't a bad thing.


On the other hand, I had an incident:

Out on the BOMB run from Pixiefest, I was on a bit of a mission along
one of my favourite fast roads between Kimbolton and Chelveston. The
mission was to make up time and have a bit of a hoot (and a hoon) as
the road was empty and the weather conducive. At something in excess
of twice NSL, there was a sudden bang and something hit the carbon
knuckles of my right glove a sharp blow which bloody hurt - and in the
same instant the front wheel shuddered hard and perhaps locked for an
instant.

The front end had a sharp weave and I seriously considered the
possibility of surfing some Northants tarmac. I nearly shit, so I
did. I wish the old RF would accelerate as well as my heartbeat -
from 80 to 150 in a snap.

As it calmed down a bit - well, the bike sorted itself out, thank ****
- I realised what had happened. The cable tie securing the right
upper fairing inner panel that runs from in front of the right knee
area to up beside the clocks had let go and fucked off. This left the
said fairing panel unsecured at the front/top edge and the air
pressure inside the fairing had forced the panel up and back, breaking
it away from its location in the fairing and into the side of the rev
counter and it came out with a bang.

The panel rotated on the rear fixing (cable tie) and smacked my
fingers a mighty blow which the glove did a fine job of dissipating.
It also applied the front brake very hard indeed; hard enough to trap
fingers three and four behind the brake - and the lever doesn't
usually come back that far, even in abnormal use.

My point is that I had been trying not to cover the brake,
particularly on that day as we were going quickly along familiar
roads. At the time of the incident I was on a straight which
undulates but has no junctions for half a mile in either direction, so
I should have had all four fingers on the grip and not over the brake.

However I had been covering the lever - and to be honest I'm pleased
that I was - had the lever come back on all four fingers then I don't
think I'd have been able to release the brake. I had two fingers free
and as I instinctively opened my hand forcibly against the impact and
pressure from the panel, it released the pressure on the lever. I
really don't want to think about what might have happened if the brake
had remained on as hard as it must have been for that split second.

It was a very nasty moment and I think I got away with it .. again ...

Thanks to Hog who supplied a replacement cable tie a few miles up the
road and to everybody else who let me wibble at them in a white-faced,
chain smoking, wild eyed sort of way. I really must sort the fairing
out and get some proper fasteners in it before the next hoon, I
reckon.

 

There is is option of undertaking at this point. Well, slightly before
this point..

Maybe a temporary bit of plastic or something attached to your glove?
Not still enough to prevent your fingers from working but something with
enough resistance for you to know it's there/happening?

You'll never stop acts of God like this, you'll be buying solid tyres
next to prevent punctures ;-)

That's not a bad idea. You could also molish a semi-circular scaffold
pole to fit the ends of your bike in case it happens again. I've seen it
done in cartwheel style on those stunt videos and don't see why it can't
be done on a RF ;-)

 

On the same hand, shirley.

A similar incident happened to me earlier this year.

I was making progress along a favourite piece of road. A number of
cars had moved over enough to make my progress easier - and the one I
was passing was no exception. The only fly in the ointment was the
oncoming car appearing around the (RH for me) bend with its offside
wheels on the white line. If I had been on a straight then nothing
would have happened but at this time I was leaning towards the middle
of the road and my brake lever collected, I assume, their door mirror.
The bike did a little squirm/squat and on I went. When I next went to
use my brake lever I found that it had been bent back and downwards.
When I got off at my destination I found the bike had a bust RH fork
seal and I had fork oil over my right boot.

Going back to the subject matter - I can't remember, but I can only
assume, that I hadn't been covering the brake lever.

 

un·der·tak·ing ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ndr-tkng)
n.

1. A task or assignment undertaken; a venture.
2. A guaranty, engagement, or promise.
3. The profession or duties of a funeral director

 

I nearly always cover the front brake with my index finger. Why is
this so bad? Would you be good enough to point me in the general
direction of the OP if it was on here?

<snip>

 

You snipped it: overtaking cars.

 

How refreshing to see a balanced view

Glad you were able to write this up (as I suspect you are).


--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
_______________________________________
jeremy at hireserve dot com

 

Would that be like, say, overtaking a bike whilst it was overtaking a car ;-)

Cheers,

Paul.

 

'It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

 

You may have a point there. In fact, it's a very good one. Part of the
reason I don't go for really silly gaps is the mirrors first and then
the jabbing of the front brake, much as Pip described, with the mirrors
on the cars.

Dexion molishment or tungsten strap-ons sound ideal for the task and as
Frank Thomas boots are complete wank for removing wing mirrors, I'm
looking for something that will maim if not kill for myself

 

Sod that - you want overtaking a bike that's overtaking a car that's
overtaking a car. You'd never catch me doing that, no siree-bob.

 

That musn't have been me then - which bit did that happen on? Was I
there? And if not, oh.

 

Did you manage to shout "****" at him as you went past?

 

The scooter rider may also have had an Oirish accent.

 

Quite right too. Fucking scooterists.

 

That will be the left slot lurking just over the crest, immediately
before the A507 goes right and heads for the woods, no doubt. That
junction is fucking infamous for nasty smashes, as the visibility from
it to the right (where you were coming from) is poor due to the crest.
You frequently get little old trilby-wearers pulling out of there at a
dawdle, then piddling along the 507 at 25mph for several hundred
yards.

You don't know the road that well, so you are in what I class as the
dangerous stage - you know where it goes, but you don't know the
hazards. That is only one step from the dreaded "I remember this
road, it goes left ... " and then finding it goes right because you've
misremembered or you've overlaid a completely different road in your
head. That happens to me when I go back to an area I used to live in
and through painful experience I've learned to ignore memory and rely
on observation. And knock 10mph off just in case.

In the case of this particular junction (and I'm fucking amazed there
isn't a speed camera covering it, but I'll come back to that) you will
find that lots of locals will roll off a bit - having just hurled
through the very pleasant banked bend preceding it - and stand on the
pegs to see if there is a car roof visible over the crest, before
settling for the right hander.

The next junction, the Millbrook crossroads, is even worse for T-bone
type crashes and again, if there were ever a case for a speed camera
to make drivers on the 507 keep it down to 60 through it ... but there
isn't. Hah.

On the subject of your well-fucked disc, I've had a look for prices.
**** me, they're scary. The best one so far is here:
http://www.holeshotracing.co.uk/parts/brakes.asp
at 107 quid for an EBC Pro-Lite disc or 89 for the PFM item.

I'd call that a result, mate. You didn't crash.

I had a similar one a couple of weeks ago further back along the same
road. Where the 507 comes out of Ridgemont and goes down the hill and
across the M1 there's a lovely sweeping left hander, easily negotiable
at the ton. Not if there's a Belgian in un camion super-grand trying
to do a U-turn using the gateway on the right, it isn't. Much heavy
brakeage whilst leaning back and left was undertaken and the RF
scraped past his back end with not a lot to spare.

That too was a result, but it left a pucker in the seat.

 

Yes, you were there, but a few minutes in front, I would guess. It
was on the section before we stopped for lunch at the pub - the
straight bits ~4km before the curves down to the pub.

Here, if you're really interested:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.s...&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&dn=629
just about where the 67m spot height is.

 

Oh yes. There are rumble strips before it. They're a big clue that
something nasty lurks over yonder crest.

--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Do it. See you shortly afterwards.

Hah.

 

Game on.

Just down the road ;-)