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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Work on turning drills. Put down a cone or some kind of soft marker and work on circling it in both directions as close as you can at slow speeds without braking, controlling your speed with the clutch instead of the throttle. Especially focus on pointing your chin in the direction of your turns. I was taught to use the rear brake on this. Keep revs up for gyroscopic precession, feather with the clutch. This might be helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7x7k6iXM3w
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Apr 27, 2020 05:49
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Dirt related, I did static balance drills today on the dirt bike and gently caress they're hard just getting up and started. After 30 minutes or so, I could stay up for several minutes, take my hands off, take feet off etc. Should hopefully help with low speed trail stuff
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Apr 27, 2020 06:32
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ImplicitAssembler posted:I was taught to use the rear brake on this. Keep revs up for gyroscopic precession, feather with the clutch. Dragging the rear brake while applying power to the rear wheel on slow speed drills is controversial, people have Opinions on both sides. I've heard that some countries fail you if you do, other countries fail you if you don't. Keeping revs up while feathering the clutch is a good idea regardless. Having the engine stall while you're negotiating a slow turn really sucks.
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Apr 27, 2020 11:37
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Anecdotally, when I did my M1 exit test (Ontario, GTI training) I was still really bad at throttle control so it's almost guaranteed that I dragged the rear brake while applying throttle. But since F9 is Canadian maybe this is just what we teach in Canada?
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Apr 27, 2020 12:29
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Pretty sure I was told to drag the rear during low speed maneuvers at my BRC years ago
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Apr 27, 2020 15:00
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Figure out what it feels like to lock the rear up. Then, eventually, do this at every stop sign.
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Apr 27, 2020 16:08
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Verman posted:Dirt related, I did static balance drills today on the dirt bike and gently caress they're hard just getting up and started. After 30 minutes or so, I could stay up for several minutes, take my hands off, take feet off etc. Should hopefully help with low speed trail stuff  this stuff is super helpful. I try and do them just about every weekend when I'm monkeying around offroad
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Apr 27, 2020 16:35
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I'm really wishing I had a downed tree in my yard to practice log rides and log hops.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:59
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Pretty sure I was told to drag the rear during low speed maneuvers at my BRC years ago In the UK I was told to do whatever works, but if you’re dragging the rear, you need to put more revs in and feather the clutch more so you don’t stall.
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Apr 27, 2020 20:38
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Horse Clocks posted:In the UK I was told to do whatever works, but if you’re dragging the rear, you need to put more revs in and feather the clutch more so you don’t stall. Yes. The higher RPM will increase the flywhel effect, making it easier to balance. That's the whole point of dragging the brake.
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Apr 27, 2020 21:15
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You can spin the engine up without dragging the brake, though. You just need more clutch control.
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Apr 27, 2020 21:27
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Wouldn’t dragging the rear lengthen the wheelbase also? Maybe it’s a negligible amount, but my bike definitely feels more stable at low speed with the rear lightly engaged.
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Apr 27, 2020 22:31
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I didn’t mean to endorse no brake dragging over brake dragging, just to focus on clutch slipping for speed control during tight maneuvers. Isolate the skill and develop it. Ideally work on doing it both ways, just don’t try to control your tight maneuver speed with your front brake because brake dive will cause you to drop the bike eventually.
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Apr 27, 2020 23:10
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For me it's two halves of the same coin. You use the clutch and revs to increase and maintain your speed, but you have far, far more control if you use the rear brake to regulate it. It's possible to control and vary everything much more finely playing the engine off against the brake at the same time, especially when you're moving the bars around a lot (like moving around parked cars or ground clutter) it's easier to just hold the clutch on half and use the brake for fine control.
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Apr 28, 2020 08:12
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Hmm, on the subject of slow speed maneuvers, I find that I have a big mental block on entering corners/making turns at higher speeds. By corners I mean making a 90 onto another street etc, and higher speeds are those which I know are entirely reasonable. I have the instinct to slow down to what could be described as unnecessarily slow speeds to make the turn. I'm trying to think back to when this started and I'm sort of looking at when I lowsided my 250 going around a corner on a gravely road front-braking in a turn. In my head I know this isn't the same circumstance but the same "oh poo poo" pucker factor emerges when I enter a turn at reasonable speeds, I'm always expecting my tires to wash out from under me no matter how much I know this isn't the case. I'm fighting my initial reaction to putt putt around corners by just chin-to-exit and not thinking about my tires washing and hoping that eventually the muscle memory and "see, nothing happened" overtakes the "aw here we go again" factor because right now it's the mental side of things that's killing me. Similar to when I rode my 250 in gale winds home from a road trip last year and was mentally exhausted, every time I go over a bridge and I feel a slight buffet to one side I tense up and prepare for what I remember was an shatteringly unpleasant experience being throw around in my lane, even if it doesn't end up happening. Right now I'm just riding riding riding every opportunity I get to get this out of my system. I'm only probably ten or fifteen rides in this year e: I sort of realize this sounds like I'm trying to git gud and take corners at stupid high speeds which isn't the case.
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Apr 28, 2020 14:14
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Do you have a big roundabout in your area? Go there when there's little traffic and just keep going around it witg progressively more lean and speed until the pegs touch.
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Apr 28, 2020 20:21
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I *do* actually. It'll take me a little courage to work up that much but the roundabout is probably the best place to try
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Apr 28, 2020 20:26
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I had a similar reaction after lowsiding my first bike, but it led to me stiffening up and being unable to lean the bike more, rather than slowing down. And only in right hand turns, which was the turn direction I lowsided in. I ran wide in a blind turn once because of this, that gave me enough of a scare that I went to an empty parking lot and trained it out of myself. I still get it at the start of every riding season.
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Apr 28, 2020 22:51
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I think mental blocks start affecting your riding performance before you actually get to the affected zone. Once you hit that turn, you're already so tensed up and in your head that any amount of pushing through it doesn't change your reaction. What I'd do in your case: Long before entering the turn, before I start doing any prep for it with throttle or body position or whatever, I tense up my arms and shoulders, bringing them up to my helmet in a shrugging motion, then relaxing them fully. I'd do that 2 or 3 times, exhaling when relaxing. Then I'd just try to clear my head and go into the turn as open and clearheaded as possible. This lets my body get all tense and poo poo, but tells it to calm down. If the body is relaxed, the mind has a hard time getting as worked up.
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Apr 28, 2020 23:14
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Cornerspin or a similar class is also very good for this kind of thing.
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Apr 29, 2020 00:38
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No lie, if I can find something like this after the end of the world I will take it. I would love to get into off-road anyway and already made some inquiries but haven't found anything quite like that here.
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Apr 29, 2020 02:55
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Something super odd happened. I went out this morning feeling like I always do, excited about taking the bike out for an hour or two. After 45 minutes I stopped for some curb side coffee, sat on the curb next to the bike and read on my phone while sipping, but after I got back on the bike it felt like someone flipped a switch on my riding confidence to the “off” position. It’s really hard to admit publicly, but probably super important that I realize this happened. I was suddenly super scared of every turn — stiffarming the bike no matter how much I reminded myself not to. Every car felt like it’s was tailgating me aggressively regardless of distance. I don’t know if it was the caffeine or what that kicked me into a mood. I’ll take the bike out again tomorrow morning after a good night’s sleep but it was super uncomfortable to suddenly just feel so down on my riding after a few days of superb weather and great rides. Not really posting this for the benefit of advice, but I kind of had to get it out there out of my head, so thanks for reading my livejournal. To be perfectly clear, I’m not a seasoned rider — some of my fear may have been amplified things I *know* I’m lacking, skill-wise, but it’s never come on so aggressively before.
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May 25, 2020 01:23
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I have 4 years and 16k miles experience now and still every so often I'll get on the bike and it just doesn't feel "right" for lack of a better term. I just cut my speed and take it easy, but it's kind of weird, even mild turns on the freeway feel harder than they should. However, I noticed that it's always been after a long day at the office, never in the morning on the way to work, so it might just be my brain feeling fried. My industry is lame in that even when I have nothing to do, I have to be at the office for a minimum of 10 hours a day to keep up appearances (pre-coronavirus), so there are definitely times where my brain has just completely shut off.
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May 25, 2020 01:30
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When you get really tuned in to your riding, you'll notice gradients of that. Just today I dropped like 3 things and made a mess while making breakfast, so I made a mental note to take it easy on the bike. And sure enough, my balance was a little off, my attention was a little off, and I had to adjust with that in mind. We all have off days, and you'll also have days where every turn feels as effortless as breathing. It's a good skill to notice and keep in mind. Fwiw I've been riding for a decade+
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May 25, 2020 02:21
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That definitely happens, I've found I have some mental blocks around cornering that keep popping back up, and recently they've been worse than ever. Especially running wide on turns, it's totally a mental hangup I need to break. I took one of the more advanced safety courses right before the rona really kicked off, but there are no more of those until summer is over. I did finally locate a nice, empty, gravel-free parking lot, and I've been going there early most mornings before it's hot to practice cornering, swerving, and emergency braking. In my case, the problems were compounded by jumping up to a bigger, heavier, way more unforgiving bike, and I've had to be extra careful and still need to get a lot more practice in. There's also the fact that my paranoia about dropping it is way higher now too, I do have frame pegs on it so gentle tipovers probably won't be too bad, but I'll be so pissed if I bang anything up on this one.
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May 25, 2020 23:51
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Been riding for a decade, ridden literal hundreds of bikes, but turning right at small roundabouts still breaks my brain. I don't think I've ever done it in a way that felt right, it's the only turning related thing I struggle with. Like if they're big you're just doing an easy left, long right, medium left combination, no problem. But if they're small (like 6m diameter or less) you sort of just do a really awkward wide turn, either turning in really late and wide which makes the car drivers jumpy, or you have to cut in early and end up violating the throttle rule when the road camber turns against you on the exit.
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May 26, 2020 00:01
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Are you right handed? I'm right handed and right hand corners are always uncomfortable, the crusty old rider coach at my last safety course said "Yep!" after asking if I was right handed.
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May 26, 2020 00:08
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Yeah I am and yeah, low speed right turns are my kryptonite, but I think it's more a question of my height. The problem disappears if I'm riding a cruiser or something else very lazy like an adv or whatever, but with normal shaped bikes I find my elbow, wrist etc get all awkwardly bunched up and I can't steer and use the throttle properly at the same time. It's only a problem at low speeds, and I can get around it by just keeping the revs high and steady and doing everything with the clutch and rear brake, but it's never 'right' like other turns. Roundabouts make it even harder because you can't aim for a platonically ideal line or use your head positioning properly because you have to be prepared at any moment to stand up and haul to a stop because car drivers are unable to judge where you're going.
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May 26, 2020 00:15
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Same with the right turns. Same with right side or right rotating falls and throws in jiu jitsu. Same with right-rotating footwork in HEMA and in the bit of boxing I used to do. Turning or spinning away from your dominant hand feels more comfortable. Notice how oval tracks (including NASCAR, ice rinks, horse tracks, running tracks, ancient hippodromes etc) almost always have you turning left? Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 02:56 on May 26, 2020 |
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May 26, 2020 02:52
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Slow, tight turns are hard because you never do them outside of deliberately practicing, at least in my experience thus far. Toe Rag fucked around with this message at 17:01 on May 26, 2020 |
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May 26, 2020 03:00
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Same with the right turns. This makes sense. High speed corners going left are a lot easier and more fun for me but a lot of people are the other way, would be interesting to see a venn diagram of dominant hand vs corner preference.
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May 26, 2020 05:30
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I always thought the left vs right thing on turns was due to your right hand controlling the throttle, while your left hand isn't doing much other than hitting the clutch if necessary. Just a little harder to be smooth on the throttle when your weight shifts to the right (I know your weight shouldn't be on your hands, but still). But yeah, right hand turns feel harder for me and I'm right handed. I posted about this before but my chicken strips on the right are about half the ones on my left, even though I prefer land hand turns, and I assume it must be because I'm naturally hanging off more on left turns and just using more lean angle on right turns.
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May 26, 2020 16:02
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I'm going to be happy if by the end of year one I can keep my chicken strips from looking like chicken fries.
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May 26, 2020 16:20
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I actually noticed after I started riding that if I do one of those "tilting over to one side" stretches, I can stretch way further to the left than the right, so for me it's definitely at least partly physiological too.
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May 26, 2020 16:27
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Martytoof posted:I'm going to be happy if by the end of year one I can keep my chicken strips from looking like chicken fries. No one but street Rossi wannabes give a poo poo about the size of the chicken strips on your street bike. You can scrub them off riding circles in a parking lot - they don't mean anything. Be safe, ride your own pace, you do you, etc. Jazzzzz fucked around with this message at 16:31 on May 26, 2020 |
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May 26, 2020 16:27
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I would argue that if you're only riding on the street, you better have some chicken strips left, otherwise you're leaving yourself no room for things to go wrong (and they do go wrong).
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May 26, 2020 16:51
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Jazzzzz posted:No one but street Rossi wannabes give a poo poo about the size of the chicken strips on your street bike. You can scrub them off riding circles in a parking lot - they don't mean anything. Be safe, ride your own pace, you do you, etc. Oh I'm being 100% facetious about the actual visible strips, but I am more serious about year one goal being more comfortable leaning into turns on my bike  I also have manufacturing marks on my tires in the form of a blue and yellow line that I have just accepted will never be removed 
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May 26, 2020 17:23
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I've been riding a whole lot recently, doing the 700-800km round trips I talked about, and generally having a great time. While the 250's great around towns and cities and fun to ride in the mountains, it's loving miserable on the main highway in anything except perfect conditions. Barely maintains 100 up long uphills, and the other day I was on the flat with a headwind and topping out at 95-105 on a highway with a 110 limit and semi trucks going around me. That's with full bags, but yeah, that's something I'm gonna be doing twice a week once corona restrictions back off a bit further, and I don't think this is gonna cut it long term. Gonna go look at a vstar 650 classic tomorrow. 16500km on it. Anything specific to watch out for with theoe?
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May 28, 2020 06:25
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This is still the Intruder 250? Yeah, most 250 cruisers for whatever reason (gonna say redline and weight) are not especially zippy. The Rebel 250, for instance, is a teeny tiny little bike with like half the performance of a CBR250 despite them both nominally having the same displacement and similar weight. A 250/300/400 standard would be totally fine for your sort of freeway riding, but in a cruiser you probably want 650ish, as you suggest.
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May 28, 2020 06:43
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Yep, have a listen for rattly cam chains on startup as those tend to go bad, otherwise they're solid bikes. Having said that: if you like your Intruder you'll find the vstar very disappointing, it has much less ground clearance and handles quite badly by comparison. It was replaced by the vastly superior Bolt model which is worth checking out. Most of the other metric cruisers are awful (wasn't kidding when I said vl250 is among the best) but the newer model Vulcan is worth looking at, as is the rebel 500. Or just bite the bullet and get a sportster.
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May 28, 2020 07:23
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