|
I ride with my instep firmly planted in my pegs.  Of course, my pegs are forward controls and made out of twisted railroad spikes that we had chromed and welded a mount on to. CRUISERS!!!
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2011 19:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 17:46 |
|
|
Bah, real cruiser riders have pegs big enough that they have floormats.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2011 19:17
|
|
|
Indeed. How else are you going to install under floor heating?
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2011 19:23
|
|
|
I ride with both, instep in traffic so I'm right on the controls. Sometimes you just have to drop a gear cause you missed something and oh god they're coming in your lane NOW. When cornering I just move my left foot back and forth whenever I take a turn. I can't see a reason to not be on the instep for 90% of the time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2011 22:07
|
|
|
I ride sidesaddle so I can usually only get one foot on the peg while the other dangles merrily, if I need the back brake I just lean back and work it with my hand
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2011 06:02
|
|
|
Well, 2 weeks ago (having not read this thread yet) I bought myself a baby 250cc motorbiek, hopped on in borrowed gear with precisely 0 hours of riding in my belt, figuring that I've ridden a bicycle before and how hard can it be right? Perfect Sunday afternoon, no cars around as I'm in a beautifully quiet area, thankfully. coming to my first left turn at 40kmph (about 25mph) and I do everything wrong. Fixated on a pothole miles away from me, started turning, saw gravel, panicked, front braked mid turn and ooooh pretty sky. Minor damage to the bikes farings, left indicator light cover is broken, left mirror and the shifter was bent funny. The bike did well aside from that, no other damage to report. The (idiot) human has minor rash on a knee, an elbow where the ill fitting jacket rode up, and a chipped bone in the right wrist from trying to use it to slow down with or something. Lessons learned: 1. fixation is a bad thing. 2. being on the road with no experience is not only a bad, but a dangerous thing. 3. not owning your own gear is an expensive thing when you have to replace it. 3a. wearing any gear is better than no gear! that would have hurt a LOT more if I didn't have any on. 4. do the goddamned MSF course! just because it's a baby bike, it still hurts to come off! So, I've booked myself into the equivalent MSF and will try again but a little more educated this time. No pics, they're nothing new or worth mentioning.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2011 08:01
|
|
|
Welcome to the hobby!
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2011 14:01
|
|
|
sildargod posted:Well, 2 weeks ago (having not read this thread yet) I bought myself a baby 250cc motorbiek, hopped on in borrowed gear with precisely 0 hours of riding in my belt, figuring that I've ridden a bicycle before and how hard can it be right? Not that your friends are responsible for your well-being, but it sucks that whoever you borrowed the gear from didn't have the common sense to know that you don't belong on public roads with no experience or formal training.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2011 15:23
|
|
|
sildargod posted:4. do the goddamned MSF course! just because it's a baby bike, it still hurts to come off! There is a tendency to discount the risk in riding small displacement bikes, this is basically akin to thinking a handgun is safe because it isn't a machine gun. At least you got your first crash out of the way nice and early. A lot of riding skills do translate from cycling if you have a lot of experience riding in traffic. It is almost all to do with awareness and mind set though; the practical skills are too different as you have found out.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2011 15:26
|
|
|
nsaP posted:Why? Because riding with your instep on the peg might give you the bad, bad habit of resting your toes on the shifter. That's a pretty good way to learn all about gearbox shift-forks replacement. If you promise to keep your dirty toes off the shifter, I see no real problem with your riding style though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2011 15:29
|
|
|
Sir Cornelius posted:Because riding with your instep on the peg might give you the bad, bad habit of resting your toes on the shifter. That's a pretty good way to learn all about gearbox shift-forks replacement. I'm duck footed as poo poo, breathe a sigh of relief my friend. FuzzyWuzzyBear posted:Not that your friends are responsible for your well-being, but it sucks that whoever you borrowed the gear from didn't have the common sense to know that you don't belong on public roads with no experience or formal training. Not to speak for this guy's situation, but some friends can't be told. I have a buddy still looking for his first bike who can't be convinced to take the course because he's ridden a few hours of dirt and thinks he'll be fine. I've bugged him about it worse than a recently converted non-smoker, and still I don't think it'll work. It's only 25 drat dollars here so I'm signing him up for Christmas, but I have a feeling it'll be a waste of money. In that case, you can be sure I'll give him some safety gear to start (as I'm sure he'll go out in a hoodie as well) but there's not much that can be done otherwise.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2011 16:21
|
|
|
I spend almost all my riding time on short hops in the inner city and I am probably shifting every 30 seconds so I have the bad habit of just resting my foot near the shifter and brake. Wearing light runners so I am well aware of not actually putting pressure on either of em while I ride, but I lose that awareness with my new big rear end leather boots on. I guess I will just have to retrain myself and learn to pay more attention to where my feet are. And for actual content, nothing serious but as I am posting any way... I ended up putting my bike down on the weekend, entirely through my own stupid fault. Coming off a longish freeway stint, long right hand that tightened up a little. Came in a little too fast and was looking around for too long before I got into the corner, ran out of road half way through the turn and mounted the lane divider. Almost got the bike to a complete stop before it fell over, more of a car park drop than anything else. Still walked away with a couple of decent lessons cheaply learned, which is nice. 1. Speed is hypnotically deceptive, I had just spent an hour or two at 130kph so dropping down to 80 felt quite slow. 2. I was looking around for directions and to get my bearings, If I had just ridden the road in front of me I could have easily turned around a hundred meters down the road if I made the wrong turn. 3. New gear can play tricks. I normally ride with an open face helmet and I can tell within a few k's my speed just by wind force and engine noise. The new full face helmet kinda insulated me from that feedback. So now I have to replace the rear view mirror on one side, no big deal. My rego also lapsed 10 days ago as the arresting officer was so kind to point out, so it was an expensive weekend all things considered.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 01:34
|
|
|
sildargod posted:front braked mid turn and ooooh pretty sky. This is actually not a bad thing at all. It is just that hard breaking requires a smooth application of front brakes (to teach yourself this: first you tighten your pinky, then your ring, then middle and at last your index finger). This takes less than a second, but gives the bike time to put some weight on the front. This gives the front more grip, so you can brake harder, et cetera until you dig a rut in the asphalt. That is to say that the first step in an emergency stop from a turn is to straighten out the bike first, but that doesn't mean braking in a corner is always 100% wrong. I'm willing to bet that you slammed the poo poo out of your brakes, making one or both of the wheels lock up instantly.  Next time, don't do that.
karms fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Nov 22, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 04:40
|
|
|
KARMA! posted:I'm willing to bet that you slammed the poo poo out of your brakes, making one or both of the wheels lock up instantly. I'm still surprised I didn't lowside when I did this on my SV650's front brake without the bike being perfectly straight. I felt the front end begin to go and let of the brake for half a second, the bike settled, and then I stopped. The forks have Traxxion internals now though so maybe that helped.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 05:40
|
|
|
I know people claim that brakes mid corner = instant death, but that's not true if you aren't riding 10/10ths. Granted, not a whole lot of brake, and to really scrub off some speed you need to stand it up, but gentle pressure isn't going to lowside you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 05:57
|
|
|
K.Y. Jelly Donut posted:I was looking around for directions and to get my bearings, If I had just ridden the road in front of me I could have easily turned around a hundred meters down the road if I made the wrong turn. I've noticed I ride way worse if I don't know where I am and am trying to get my bearings. Considering this is often in crowded urban confines, I'm justifying getting a GPS mount as a safety measure.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 06:11
|
|
|
I don't know what made people decide to be scared of braking in corners, but I've also never ridden anything hard that had horrible tires.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 06:11
|
|
|
I've heard older standard bikes used to stand up real bad if you braked in corners. Combine this with the general cruddiness of older brake and tire technology and add a healthy dollop of Layer Dan Lever mythology. Trail braking is poor form in general but it's not going to smear you across the blacktop if you're smooth and gentle about it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 06:30
|
|
|
FuzzyWuzzyBear posted:Not that your friends are responsible for your well-being, but it sucks that whoever you borrowed the gear from didn't have the common sense to know that you don't belong on public roads with no experience or formal training. He did, but you know how it is. I AM A GROWN ADULT MANCHILD I BREAK RULES DAMMIT! one day I will figure out how to break these fundamental laws of physics everyone keeps telling me about! nsaP posted:Not to speak for this guy's situation, but some friends can't be told. Absolutely true, I was way too impatient and my buddy was gracious enough to allow me the use of his gear so that if I did balls up, I wouldn't be too badly off. KARMA! posted:This is actually not a bad thing at all. It is just that hard breaking requires a smooth application of front brakes (to teach yourself this: first you tighten your pinky, then your ring, then middle and at last your index finger). This takes less than a second, but gives the bike time to put some weight on the front. This gives the front more grip, so you can brake harder, et cetera until you dig a rut in the asphalt. I need to learn this, because I definitely locked up the front brake in my panic. Safety Dance posted:Welcome to the hobby! Thank you good sir!
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 08:09
|
|
|
Snowdens Secret posted:I've heard older standard bikes used to stand up real bad if you braked in corners. It's not even older bikes, it's just dependent on chassis geometry and suspension setup. Some bikes don't mind it, some want to stand up. Just have to be aware of what your machine will do and ride accordingly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 10:44
|
|
|
Snowdens Secret posted:I've heard older standard bikes used to stand up real bad if you braked in corners. Combine this with the general cruddiness of older brake and tire technology and add a healthy dollop of Layer Dan Lever mythology. Pretty much any bike from the mid 90s or before and especially when equipped with "period" rubber. Modern geometry and modern tyres mean you can now turn in without any significant effort under braking and adjust your line mid corner on pretty much any kind of bike. Other than a cruiser, where the choices are going straight or being launched into the air by your footboard. There's nothing wrong with trail braking unless you fall off doing it, which is exactly the same caveat one would apply to braking in a straight line or applying throttle.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2011 11:23
|
|
|
sildargod posted:Thank you good sir! Don't be too grateful, the hobby costs more to maintain than my girlfriend. It's a fully-fledged wallet-vacuumer.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2011 15:11
|
|
|
Reading through this thread and seeing all the posts about people driving on by after accidents made me want to mention my accident. I got caught in the rain and the person in front of me braked hard for an unsignalled turn. I locked up the front wheel and slid out. A couple people behind me honked at me until I got my bike out of the road. A bit off topic, but this is one of several stories that makes me regret moving from Kansas to Missouri. I never would have expected it to be so different.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2011 21:54
|
|
|
Dutymode posted:A couple people behind me honked at me until I got my bike out of the road. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2011 22:00
|
|
|
BlackMK4 posted:I'd have probably lost my poo poo, flipped them off, and made nice comments about their mothers after that one. Thinking about it now makes me pretty mad, but I was still to shaken to be more than surprised while it was happening since it was my first real fall.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2011 22:07
|
|
|
Well, after getting that first lowside out of the way, I thought I'd be good for a while :-( Managed to highside the DRZ yesterday at very low speed (10mphish). For some reason my foot decided it was a good idea to use the rear brake while I was turning into a car park. I guess I'm not used to the disc brake on the rear, yet (my 125 had/has a drum), and I locked it up. There is a small chance it was diesel again, as it was an industrial estate, but I'm more than willing to put my hand up and call it 100% my fault. Anyway, it locked up, slid, caught and pitched me off pretty quickly. I hit the ground, and then the bike landed on my foot. Someone stopped and helped me pick up the bike and park it. Then a colleague of mine took me to Accident and Emergency because I wasn't sure my foot wasn't broken. Hospital trip was pretty quick, it was only around the corner. It's not broken, I've been told to take painkillers and walk on it. Pretty goddamn painful, though. I took a photo of my foot this morning, I'll take one every day for a while as I think the bruising is going to be pretty awesome looking. Just swollen right now, though. Bike is fine, some scratches, I'll need to re-align the handlebars and possibly replace a wing-mirror. There is also a very high likelyhood that I'll be able to get CCTV footage of the crash. It was outside a storage place, and they have cameras everywhere; they keep footage for 3 months :-) I'll post photos later, the camera is on the other side of the room right now, and I don't feel much like walking :-/
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 12:25
|
|
|
polystyrus posted:Well, after getting that first lowside out of the way, I thought I'd be good for a while :-( I, for one, can't wait to see the pictures.  Were you using MX boots? Basically, with a dirt bike, just keep the back brake locked and pull the clutch in and you can pretty much turn it 180 degrees. Just keep your weight centered over the bike and countersteer the bars into and through the skid until you're ready to pick it up/stop. Points for style if you keep it feet up throughout and points for difficulty if you're going right. So what I'm saying is basically your mistake was letting off the back brake/not using enough of it. Apologies if this is a statement of the obvious. Saga fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Nov 29, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 13:13
|
|
|
Saga posted:I, for one, can't wait to see the pictures. http://www.onyertriumph.net/boots.php Saga posted:So what I'm saying is basically your mistake was letting off the back brake/not using enough of it. Apologies if this is a statement of the obvious. That did occur to me. I'm never gonna take offence at "obvious" advice, so don't worry. Definitely gonna be trying this as a drill when I'm better. Basically I panicked (oh, no, I'm sliding, better stop braking). First photo:  Hard to see how swollen it is (for reference, I have pretty skinny feet, normally), but you can see some of the bruising coming through near the toes. Also dirty toenails. Edit: First day, still, just a different view: 
dick traceroute fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Nov 29, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 13:36
|
|
|
At least it's not broken! As big a pain in the bum as they can be (especially when new), MX/Enduro boots are designed with the assumption that your foot will hit hard things and also the bike. Have a look at a bespoke trials boot for a compromise, although the downside to those is that you will be better off with a full enduro boot if you're going to do any enduros/MX/practice days on the bike simply in terms of overall protection. A trials boot usually has a more flexible last, shorter on the leg etc with a flat sole more like a skate shoe. Are you running knobblies on the road, or is this the more common SM version of the DRZ you've picked up?
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 14:25
|
|
|
Yeah, it's the sm version. The rear has some wear.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 15:42
|
|
|
Here's my friend getting tunnel vision going around a turn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3WPR8Oh0dM EDIT: Oh God, wrong video. Dutymode fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Nov 29, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 16:54
|
|
|
Dutymode posted:Here's my friend getting tunnel vision going around a turn. Huh? That's a drag race.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 17:35
|
|
|
Safety Dance posted:Huh? That's a drag race. Those are cruisers. They have to slow down to negotiate the curvature of the earth.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 17:41
|
|
|
Safety Dance posted:Huh? That's a drag race. Oops...edited my link.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 17:55
|
|
|
I like how just before he leaves the road, you can see the tyre marks where your friend crashed the last four times he went around that corner. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 17:59
|
|
|
Saga posted:I like how just before he leaves the road, you can see the tyre marks where your friend crashed the last four times he went around that corner. He's getting pretty good at it, huh?
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 18:00
|
|
|
I can only imagine the guy in the salmon shirt riding pillion on the oncoming bike just about shat himself when your friend nearly T-boned him.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 18:21
|
|
|
Safety Dance posted:I can only imagine the guy in the salmon shirt riding pillion on the oncoming bike just about shat himself when your friend nearly T-boned him. I know. Actually he clipped him with his turn signal.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 18:44
|
|
|
Dutymode posted:I know. Actually he clipped him with his turn signal. Mirror too.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2011 20:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 17:46 |
|
|
I just had one of the worst crashes... the kind I don't understand. Pulled out fro a stop sign making a right hand turn. Layed a regular amount of throttle for a clear dry day without any gravel or leaves beneath me. My back end totally lost traction and the bike lowsided... I didn't even hit the breaks. Although I spun around on the ground in a 360 the bike is mostly unharmed thanks to the framesliders. It was 46 degrees and I have stock tires on my FZ6 which I suspect are on the sporty side. I really just don't know when I couldn't grip like I do every other day.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2011 06:00
|
|
