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Kendo
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 11:25 AM
http://www.ridelikeapro.com/

Kendo
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 11:25 AM
Back to the Basics

The first thing you must master is head and eyes. What this means exactly, is that wherever you look, that's where the bike will go. The reason the phrase head and eyes is used is that if you turn your head to the right, but your eyes look straight ahead, the technique WILL NOT work. Both your head and eyes must turn in the direction you want the bike to go. Never look down unless you want to go down. Head and eyes does take practice to become second nature. The good news is that you can practice this technique every time you are on your motorcycle. Simply pulling out of your driveway, for instance, if you are turning to the right, turn your head and eyes to the right, look down the road where you want the motorcycle to go and you'll immediately notice you will be making a much tighter turn than normal. When you stop at a stop sign and are about to make a left hand turn, turn your head and eyes to the left, avoid looking at the curb or the center line of the road and focus on where you want the bike to end up and you will find you will never drift towards the curb or the center line of the road. You can even practice this technique on a bicycle by making U-turns on the street in front of your own home.

The second technique you must learn is how to use the friction zone. The friction zone is the area on the clutch between fully open and fully closed. In other words, as you let the clutch out and the bike starts to move, you're entering the friction zone. An easy way to become accustomed to riding the bike in the friction zone is to practice the slow race. That is simply going as slow as you possibly can without releasing the clutch completely.

The third technique is the proper use of the rear or controlling brake. With the motorcycle in the friction zone, keep your foot on the rear brake and feather it as the bike starts to move. By doing this you are making the motorcycle think it's going faster than it is. When you apply power and keep your foot on the rear brake, it keeps the motorcycle from falling over at low speeds which is where most people have a problem. I've never heard of anyone having problems balancing their motorcycle at 50 or 60mph. If you don't use these techniques at 5 or 10mph the motorcycle feels clumsy and wants to fall over on its side. AVOID using the front brake at all costs when riding at parking lot speeds, as applying the front brake at 5 or 10mph with the handle bars turned even slightly, will pull you to the ground like a magnet. Of course, once above parking lot speeds, you must use the front brake as well as the rear brake, as 70% of your braking power comes from the front brake.

Avoid dragging your feet along the ground as this tends to upset the balance of the motorcycle, and of course, if your feet are dragging on the ground you cannot have your foot on the brake. As soon as you start to move your bike from a complete stop, both feet should automatically come up to the floor boards or pegs and your right foot should be feathering the rear brake. Once you master these three simple techniques, you will be amazed at the tight maneuvers your bike can perform. You'll know you've gotten it right when you can make full lock turns in both directions at 5mph with the pegs or boards scraping a perfect circle in the pavement.

Remember, all it takes is a little practice. Good Luck!

Kendo
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 11:26 AM
The Barrel Race

Whenever you mention the words practice, exercise or even training, it brings to mind something unpleasant. Now, if I say the word "race", it seems to have the opposite effect. So, let's talk about a race this month. And no, I don't mean the slow race, as that can get kind of boring.

What I'm talking about is a barrel race. A once popular event at local bike meets. Haven't seen it much lately and it's possibly due to the lack of skillful riders. For those who don't know what a barrel race is, here's how it works.

Set up two cones, cans, rocks or whatever you got handy in a straight line about 60 feet apart. Then you set up another two objects along side these with about 100 feet between them. Put your starting line about 60 feet from the first object, have both bikers race towards the first object and make a complete circle to the left around it. They then head for the second object, make a complete circle to the right.

They then head back to the first object, circle to the left and then head for the start/finish line. The trick is, to make the tightest, smoothest circles around the object. The rider who can do this, will win every time. As you are circling the object, keep your head and eyes up and never look down. If you look down, chances are, you will go down.

Smoothness is the key in this type of race, not speed. It's a great way to practice the three techniques, head and eyes, the friction zone, and the proper use of the rear brake. It's also a fun competitive way to get some training in. The more riders you have, the more fun. Go ahead, give it a try, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Kendo
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 11:27 AM
The Foot Dragger

The reason I bring up the "foot dragger" is because I see more and more of it all the time. I'm not sure if this is due to there being a lot of new riders on our roads or just simply a lack of knowledge of the basic riding techniques.

Then again, it can't be just a newbie problem because I've seen people I know that have been riding for over 30 years, drag their feet around an entire parking lot. I know what the problem is, it is instinct. Your instincts tell you, you're going slow, the bike may fall over, so keep your feet down just in case. As I've stated before, riding a motorcycle is not instinct. Most of the time the proper technique is actually the opposite of your instincts, as in the case of the foot dragger.

All this came to mind recently while I was doing some filming at the Leesburg Bike Festival. I watched a middle aged rider, obviously looking for a parking space on Main Street, riding about 5mph drag his feet the entire length of Main Street. It was at least a 1/4 mile of some of the worse foot dragging I've ever seen. I had to use the zoom lens on my video cam to catch the entire spectacle. I think many riders aren't ever aware they're doing this.

Here's your first clue, if you wear out your shoes before your tires on your motorcycle, you're probably a foot dragger. Another draw back of being a foot dragger is that people who really know how to ride, will pick you out as a "no riding" fool, and they will point and laugh at you behind your back. If that's not enough to discourage you, keep this in mind. You could get your foot caught between the muffler and the pavement and break your ankle. In addition, you really can't control your bike at low speeds while dragging your feet because your foot isn't on the rear brake where it needs to be at low speeds.

The answer fortunately is very simple. As soon as you let the clutch out and the bike starts to move, pick your feet up and put them on the pegs or floor boards. At parking lot speeds (below 15mph) use your rear brake only and stay in the friction zone. remember, at low speeds, if you hit your front brake when your handlebars are turned even slightly, it will pull you to the ground. Using the rear brake while in the friction zone and applying power will keep the bike upright just as if you were going 50mph instead of 5mph. Practice the slow race (going as slow as you can with both feet on the pegs while feathering the rear brake). Remember to keep your head and eyes up and look where you want the bike to go. Never look down at the handlebars or the ground.

Practice this technique and you'll find you have better control of your bike, your shoes will last a lot longer and you will no longer look stupid while riding through the parking lot at the local bike night.

Kendo
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 11:28 AM
Counter Steering

In a nut shell, counter steering is simply pushing the handle bars right or left in order to steer the motorcycle. In other words, push left to go left, push right to go right. On most full size cruisers the necessity for counter steering occurs at about 15mph and up. At low speeds, below 15mph whatever way you turn the handlebars, that's the way the motorcycle will go. It's called, handlebar steering. Counter steering doesn't come into play until the gyroscopic effect of the two-wheeled vehicle takes over. The shorter the wheelbase of the motorcycle, the lower the speed gyroscopic effect takes place. I don't believe it's anything you have to think about as it is one of the few riding techniques that is instinctual. In order for the motorcycle to turn at higher speeds, you must counter steer whether you realize you are doing it or not.

A friend of mine who recently purchased a Kawasaki Nomad and obtained his learners permit, asked me to help him pass the motorcycle drivers test. Unfortunately, he picked one of the most difficult motorcycles to drive through that particular course.

The course was designed years ago when most motorcycles had short wheel bases. The problem area with the state course is the off-set cone weave. This consists of 5 cones set 12 feet apart, with 2 of the cones having a 2' off-set. In order to maneuver through this exercise on any long wheel base cruiser, especially the Nomad, you have to be able to turn the handle bars from lock to lock at less than 2mph. For new riders, or even experienced riders who don't know the technique of HEAD AND EYES or have not mastered the friction zone, it's damn near impossible.

I set up a replica of the exercise in a parking lot and was able to get my Kawasaki Nomad through it, but did find it quite difficult. Most people believe it is impossible to get a large motorcycle through this exercise. While difficult, it is not impossible. However, it is going to take considerable practice. Your best bet is to borrow a friend's small 250cc, etc. type bike or take the motorcycle safety foundation course. If you are intent on passing the motorcycle exam on your cruiser, here's my recommendations to get you through it.

Get yourself 5 cones, cups, cans, etc. Set them up in a straight line 12 feet apart. Keep your foot on the rear brake, stay in the friction zone, keep your head and eyes up and look at least two cones ahead. The more cones you set up the quicker you will learn to weave your way through them. If you are worried about dropping the motorcycle get some heater hose or an old garden hose and tape the pieces to your crash bars. You will be going so slow that if you do drop the bike, it should not cause any damage. Once you get comfortable weaving through the cones, start off-setting the 2nd and 4th cones in 6 inch increments, until you eventually get to the two foot off-set.

With enough practice and patience, this can be accomplished. If at first you have to put the cones 14' apart to comfortably weave through them, do it. Good luck and ride safe.

Kendo
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 11:29 AM
Slow Ride

I've received some E-mails lately asking why I only write about how to handle a bike at low speeds. One person stated, "I never ride around at 10 to 15MPH and nobody I know does either, so why should I need to know how to make tight turns at low speeds?" Another rocket scientist writes, "why don't you teach people how to pop wheelies and do burnouts in a circle?".

Let me answer the 1st question first. You DO ride at 10 or 15MPH or even SLOWER if you turn into a parking lot or if you are stuck in traffic. No one I know or have ever seen riding a motorcycle has a problem balancing their bike at 50 to 60 or 70MPH. At those speeds, the gyroscopic effect of a motorcycle keeps the bike up all you have to do is steer. It takes little or no skill to ride in a straight line at those speeds. Statistics show that when a motorcycle crashes, the impact occurs at less then 20MPH. The reason for this is, let's say you are traveling down the interstate at 70MPH, the car in front of you suddenly stops, you jam down on the brakes. By the time you strike the car, you have already slowed to about 20MPH.

Now, if you know how to handle you bike properly, you could brake hard, turn your head and eyes to your escape path, release the brakes and swerve and lean your bike till you are out of danger. If you never practice hard braking, leaning, and swerving and the proper use of head and eyes, I GUARANTEE in that situation, you will lock your rear brake and stare at the car and slam right into it.

If you learn to handle your bike at low speeds, high speeds are easy. It's at low speeds where everyone has the most problems because obviously, with two wheels, the bike wants to fall over with out enough momentum. By keeping the bike in the friction zone and feathering the rear brake while applying power, you're making the bike stay up on it's two wheels as if it were going much faster.

You can lean the bike over until it scrapes the floor boards at 5MPH and make extremely tight turns if you use these techniques. Believe me, knowing how far you can lean your bike over at 5MPH is far better then learning the same thing at 60MPH for obvious reasons. If you follow and practice these techniques, your confidence will be much stronger and you will improve your riding skills tremendously and hopefully be able to avoid that crash or at least minimize the damage to yourself and your motorcycle. Yes, it's true, there are some crashes you can't avoid no matter what your skill level, but, there are many more you can avoid with the proper training.

To the person asking why I don't teach people how to pop wheelies and do circle burnouts, it's simple, I can't think of even one instance where doing either one of those things will help you avoid a crash. In fact, just the opposite would happen.

McVaaahhh
Wed Oct 11th, 2006, 12:06 PM
Good read. :up:

Sully
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 10:50 AM
werd

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 10:57 AM
Crashes Involving Motorcycles

Most single vehicle crashes involving motorcycles, occur while negotiating a curve. Accident investigators have found that the crash is almost always the riders fault and was not due to sand or gravel on the road along with other obstacles. Investigators have also found that in most cases, the motorcycle was capable of making the curve at the speed the rider was traveling.

So, why did the rider crash????

What generally happens is the rider believes he/she is going too fast to complete the turn so they hit the brake with the bike leaned over, consequently, the bike slides out from under the rider or the rider releases the brake and high sides. Some riders will hear the pegs scrape, panic, and straighten the bike up and run right off the road. Others will simply look at the edge of the road and of course, the bike will go where you are looking and you will ride off the edge of the road. To avoid these situations is very easy.

First, become familiar with the maximum lean angle of your bike. Do so in a parking lot at low speeds. You will find that scraping the pegs still allows you to maintain control and is not a reason to panic and straighten up the bike.

Second, NEVER brake hard in a turn with the bike leaned over. If you're going to have to brake hard, you must first straighten the bike up even if it means going into the opposing lane. The safest procedure for negotiating a curve is to place the motorcycle in the portion of the lane which gives you the most visibility around the turn. Quite simply, if the road curves to the right, you should be in the left side of your lane looking to the end of the curve and visa versa. You need to look as far to the end of the curve as you possibly can and keep your head level with the horizon.

NEVER look at the line in the road or the vehicles coming in the opposite direction. Your braking should be done before entering the curve. Now, go find a winding road and have some fun practicing this technique.



Group Riding

Often times I see large groups of motorcycles of 15, 20 or 30 motorcycles or even more. Generally, they are spread out over 1, 2 or 3 lanes. The riders towards the rear find themselves having to at times run red lights to keep up with the group. There is no reason for this. For safety's sake, it's best to keep the group at no more than 6 riders. If you are all going to the same place, what's the difference if one group arrives moments behind the other group. If you have 10 riders, split it up to 2 groups of 5 riders, etc. Always ride in staggered formation and make sure everyone is aware of the route you are going to take.

The lead rider should be experienced and conservative. Hand signals are a good idea, however, they should be held to a minimum. Everyone should do their best to stay together and it should be the rider in the rear's responsibility to keep riders from falling back too far. Allow enough space between the motorcycles for a safe stop, but not so much that a motorist can feel they have enough room to pull out from a side street between the group.

It's a good idea to discuss the ride before departing so everyone in the group knows where they should be in the formation. Whenever possible, keep the group in the center lane and try to avoid constant lane changes. Do your best not to block traffic. If you have to move over to the right to allow cars to pass, do so. New riders should avoid group riding till they become familiar with their motorcycles and different traffic situations. All these tips may seem like common sense, but I have found that common sense isn't so common after all. Pay attention and remember, HEAD AND EYES and keep the shiny side up.

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 10:57 AM
Having An Escape Path

I was recently asked about how to avoid one of the most frequent types of motorcycle accidents, (the vehicle that turns left in front of you, violating your right of way, and what can you do about it).

This is a tough one, I am not trying to avoid the question, but the best answer is, it depends on the situation. If for instance, you are driving on a two land road, approaching an intersection where you spot a vehicle that you believe may pull out in front of you. First, you should be covering your brakes whenever there is a possibility that another vehicle may violate your right of way. For instance, if you are north bound and the vehicle is southbound and about to make a left hand turn, the best thing may be to first, brake hard then release the brakes and swerve to your left going around the back of the vehicle. Of course, if you are going slow enough to stop, do so and avoid the swerving maneuver.

A good idea is to practice the brake and swerve maneuver in a parking lot so that when this situation arises, you will know what to do. In this same situation, you are on a four or more lane road with a busy intersection you may have only one choice. That would be to stop prior to hitting the vehicle as swerving to the left could cause a head on collision with oncoming traffic and swerving to the right could cause a collision with a vehicle going the same direction with you.

In other words, if there is an escape path, make sure you turn your head and eyes to that escape path. Never become target fixated on the left turning vehicle or you will surely hit it. There is no hard and fast rule on this situation. The best thing to do is practice your braking. Concentrate on the front brake. Practice braking from 20, 30, to 60 or 70mph in a controlled environment, such as a deserted road or parking lot. If you always ride at higher speeds, practice braking at those speeds. In a panic situation, you will always revert to your training. If you never train, you will only have panic and dumb luck to rely on. Practice, practice, practice. Practice is the key.



Mastering The U-Turn

Recently some friends and myself took a Sunday afternoon ride to Ybor City. Ybor, for those of you who don't know means, NO PARKING in Spanish. Once there, as usual, we had a tough time finding a parking space. In order to actually park, we had to make several quick U-turns on the narrow streets. Since I was leading, I could see in my mirrors the dirty looks my friends gave me as I led them on several U-turns in an effort to find the elusive parking spot. Their grumblings over the quick turns inspired me to write these tips.

As I have stated before, just about all production motorcycles are capable of making a U-turn in well under 20 feet. That means that you can U-turn on just about any two lane road including the narrow streets in Ybor City.

Here's the technique you need to apply. If you are about to make a left hand U-turn, keep your foot firmly on the rear brake, keep the clutch in the friction zone and roll on the throttle. Dip the bike towards the right curb, then quickly and smoothly turn your head completely around to the direction you want to go. At the same time you are turning your head, you should be pushing on the right grip turning your handle bars as far as possible and leaning the bike to the left. The same technique applies if you are making a right hand U-turn.

To practice this maneuver find a parking lot with back to back parking lines. You will find the white lines of the parking spaces are placed 10 feet apart. At first, use three parking spaces. Start with your motorcycle towards the left side of the first parking space, then ride forward towards the right of the opposing parking space, turn your head completely around as you turn the handle bars and make a 30 foot U-turn.

Keep practicing this making your turn tighter each time till you can eventually turn using only two of the parking spots. That will give you a 20 foot U-turn and enable you to make a U-turn on just about any street.

Practice this maneuver equally to the right and to the left. You may find that making a right hand U-turn seems to be more difficult if you are right-handed. That means you practice the U-turn to the right more than to the left and you will get comfortable making the U-turn in both directions.

The real key to this maneuver is to look where you want the bike to go. Remember, if you look at the curb or the end of the pavement on that narrow street, that's where you will go. So, at all costs, avoid that temptation. With about 3 hours practice, you should be able to turn on any street whenever you feel like it with total confidence. Good Luck!

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 10:58 AM
Is Experience Really The Best Teacher?

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a bike gathering at a local Harley Dealer when I struck up a conversation with a guy who was taking delivery of a new Anniversary Edition Ultra. The guy was into his mid to late 40's and he tells me he's been riding for 20 years and this was his 4th new Harley. He said he had an 02 Ultra, but some clown turned left in front of him and he had to "lay her down".

The bike was totaled and he had a broken leg which he said was now in good enough shape that he could start riding again. I then asked him if he had ever taken any rider training courses. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I've been riding 20 years, that's enough training for me". I then watched him as he duck-walked his bike around a U-Turn a Greyhound bus could have easily made, and then saw him drag his feet about 100 yards through the parking lot and out onto the highway. It made me think of something an MSF Instructor recently told me.

He said he teaches the MSF Experienced Rider course and that he see's a lot of people who think they're good riders because they have been riding 20 or 30 years. The instructor said what they really have is one year's experience 20 or 30 times.

That made a lot of sense. In other words, a rider gets to a certain level and then, never improves any further, but instead, keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Now, if you're driving a car, you can get away with a lot of mistakes for a lot of years before it catches up with you. But, on a bike, there's usually no such thing as a little fender bender. In almost every crash on a motorcycle, you're going to get hurt or even killed and your bike is going to be a mess, if not a total wreck. The point is, don't fool yourself into thinking you know what you're doing just because you've been riding for a lot of years.

Look at it this way, if experience was all you need to be a good driver, then that 80 year old guy blocking the left lane of the highway with 60 years of driving under his belt should be able to easily win the Daytona 500 should he choose to since he has far more experience than most of those young whipper-snappers in Nascar, right? Of course not!

Those young experienced Nascar drivers have received the best training available and constantly practice and improve their skills. Now, the old guy with all the experience, like you, the experienced rider, can cruise on down the road just fine, until something unexpected happens. Then, all he and you can do is jam on the brakes and hope for the best. The highly trained driver or rider can rely on his skills and training and probably can avoid the crash altogether instead of "laying her down", (in other words, to avoid the crash). Now, it's true, you can't avoid every crash, but it sure would be nice to avoid most of them.



Proper Braking

I was asked recently by a friend who just purchased his first bike what is the most important safety tip you can give me? I thought for a second and answered, learning how to use your brakes. He looked at me as if I were kidding him. What's to it, he said, ya just stomp and squeeze just like in your car. That's the problem I said. Too many riders believe that, and coincidently, bikers crash way to often. You've all heard the story about the guy who had to "lay er down" because somebody pulled out in front of him. What that actually means, is he panicked, locked the rear tire and the bike slid on the ground and stopped when it hit the vehicle or just before it hit the vehicle. In either case, the rider crashed in an attempt to avoid a crash. Ninety percent of the time, if the rider had braked properly in that situation, he would never have struck the vehicle.

So, the question is, how do I minimize my chances of crashing into something? The answer is simple. Practice emergency, maximum braking. But, first there's a couple of things you need to know. Number 1: The front brake is 70% of your braking force. Due to that fact, you must put more pressure on the front brake than the rear brake. If you happen to lock the front tire, you must release it immediately then reapply it. Squeeze the front brake, don't grab it. If you lock the rear tire, don't release it. If you do, there's a good chance you will high side. With a motorcycle, you can still steer when the rear tire is locked and sliding. You must also remember that the motorcycle must be straight up when performing maximum braking. This is not to say that you can't brake with the bike leaned over in a turn, you can lightly brake with both brakes in that situation, but maximum braking must be done with the bike straight up.

The point is, you must learn to modulate your brakes to keep from locking them and the only way to do that is to practice. Keep repeating to yourself, front brake, front brake. That will assist you in putting more pressure on the front brake than the rear brake.

You should practice maximum braking from whatever speed you normally ride. I guarantee your bike will react differently when braking hard at 80mph than at 30mph. If you practice, then in an emergency situation, you will revert to your training, rather than dumb luck. The only other alternative is to buy a bike with anti-lock brakes, just remember, even with anti-lock brakes, the bike still has to be straight up to perform maximum braking. Till next month, ride safe and get some practice in.

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 10:59 AM
Obstacles and How to Avoid Them

There you are cruising down the road just enjoying the ride. You're a safe distance behind the SUV in front of you, when suddenly a large tree branch appears in the center of your lane. The SUV went right over it without a problem. Unfortunately, the tree branch is too large for you to go over it and it came into view so quick, you don't have time to brake. What should you do? Obviously, you have two choices. Now the untrained rider will probably look at the obstacle and run right into it, the trained rider will simply get off the gas and counter-steer around the obstacle.

Let's talk about counter-steering for a moment. Above about 15mph, the gyroscopic effect of the motorcycle becomes apparent. In other words, to go left you push left on the left hand grip. To go right you push right on the right hand grip. Now, this would seem the opposite of what you should be doing. But, believe me, it isn't. At speed, when you push on the left grip it causes the bike to lean to the left, and since a motorcycle at speed turns by leaning, when it leans left it goes left and visa versa.

The good news is counter-steering is instinctual. Anyone who has ever ridden a motorcycle above 15mph and has turned even slightly, has counter-steered. If you doubt me, try this. Cruise down the road at 30mph, keep both hands on the grips, but loosen your hand on the right grip, then push slightly on the left grip. Your bike will immediately lean to the left and steer to the left. Then try pus! hing on the right grip, you'll quickly understand the counter-steering phenomenon.

Now you're ready for an obstacle avoidance exercise. It's called the 30mph cone weave, but should be practiced at lower speeds until you get the hang of it, 18 to 20mph would be a good starting point. All you need is 3 cones set at 36' apart with the center cone offset 3'. Go to the left around the first cone then to the right around the second cone, the third cone should be on your left as you pass it. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, give it a try and you'll see that it isn't as easy as it sounds, especially at 30mph. If you want to make the exercise more difficult, add more cones or increase your speed. Once mastered, this exercise will improve your obstacle avoidance skills immensely.

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 11:00 AM
Thats it...... :)


Enjoy.

Suki
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 11:28 AM
now paraphrase for us with short attention spans, please! :lol:

McVaaahhh
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 11:40 AM
Anybody got Cliff-notes for that?

cdrewferd
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 12:29 PM
Very good read. I'm thinking about picking up his video.

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 12:41 PM
now paraphrase for us with short attention spans, please! :lol:


:lol: I cant translate to Korean .........

Sully
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 02:45 PM
Obstacles MAINLY OTHER MOTORISTS HEADS and How to Avoid Them

Suki needs the UBER summary on this one !!! :lol:

Suki
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 03:00 PM
OYE!!! that's a low blow lady!!!



HEADS ARE GONNNNNNNA RRRRRRRRRROLL!!!!

Sully
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 03:05 PM
OHHHH Girl.. I give ya mad FN props for keeping your bike up after that ! :up: Cuz I know I couldn't do it.. I would have to make sure I progressed down the rest of his body with my front tire ! :lol:

Suki
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 03:09 PM
lol, the FZR sure took a beating that day, kid has a freakin head like a rock! bent brake lever, peg and a banged up fairing!

my first contact incident, not too shabby, but pretty fuckin shook up!

Kendo
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 03:11 PM
That image kind of os sticks with you doesnt it......

I had a similar experience and still have the image in my head......

:shocked:

Suki
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 03:13 PM
yeah for sure, still remember every bit of it! gah what a freakin moment that was!

i was just relieved he had a helmet on, the damage that was done i couldn't even imagine what would have happen if he hadn't had his lid on. *shudders*

Sully
Thu Oct 12th, 2006, 03:20 PM
See.. you're already riding like a PRO ! :D

All-Labout-me
Fri May 18th, 2007, 10:01 AM
Very good read. I'm thinking about picking up his video.

cdrewferd,
I've got the DVD if you would like to borrow it.

Let me know. I have it loned out to a new rider friend of mine, but I can get it back anytime.

-Doug

firegixx600
Sat May 19th, 2007, 05:37 AM
That's good stuff Kendo, but I'm gonna need to know where I can get the cliff notes:up:

MAZIN
Thu Jul 26th, 2007, 03:42 AM
Hey KENDO thx man... I consider my self a newbie and one thing I do is to look down. I have been breaking my self of it but sometimes when I hit a groove in the road and feel my tires catch I start looking at the road again. I have read and will re-read this post. think I'll print it THX

Kendo
Thu Jul 26th, 2007, 01:51 PM
Very cool.... I totally forgot this post.... =)

Thanks for bringing it back to life....

.

Puck
Thu Aug 9th, 2007, 10:43 AM
I agree with a lot of what I see here. Chances are, if you are on this page you already are concious of most of what you are reading.

Keep your head up! Lining up the next turn while you are passing the apex of the one one already lined up is critical.
Keep your heels in. This will allow your joints to bend in a favorable manner to allow your knee(s) outward in order to make contact with the pavement. Make sure your butt isn't hanging way off the bike like you're on a quad. It won't do you any good.
Elbows out. Making sure your elbows are out Ben Spies style will train you to get aggressive over the front tire. By keeping your head up and elbows out, you are positioning yourself to both see and feel the turn(s) you are in. I find it does actually help to pretend my elbow on the radius side (inside) of the curve is being held by a string from the radius point.
If you're not on the track, get there. You can drag a knee on a mountain road, but keep doing it without knowing your roads and how clean they are and you will certainly end up eating it- it's just a matter of when.
Practice things like trail braking, hard "s" curves, and feathering the clutch out of a gravel filled turn while the rear end squirms. Hell, ride in the dirt to get confident. Practice means everything and if you work on every situation you'll be good (and fast) in no time

Lots of good advice on this whole site, people.