[eternal05]

While I haven’t really had a similar experience (not counting an “explorative” lowside in PLP), I definitely relate to that uneasy feeling of not trusting your traction. It’s weird, but ever since I’ve been riding on the track, I’ve been losing more and more confidence in my traction when on the street. All the bumps, potholes, sediment, and the fact that often I ride short enough distances (< 4mi) or slow enough paces (25-30mph stop/go small-road commutes) that I can't count on my tires to have really warmed up, have conspired to psychologically affect me. I just realize how easy it would be to go down. You'd think that experiencing the kind of tire grip that keeps you perfectly planted in a 90mph knee-down sweeper would give me MORE confidence in the grip of my tires when trundling around town... The human mind is a weird thing, and given how illogical the more instinctual parts of our brains can be sometimes, I’m really glad to hear that you’re working past the shellshock of your, albeit minor (the best kind), get-off. May you find yourself conquering the local twisties again with full fervor asap! P.S. Where are the local twisties for you? Given that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you passing in traffic before, your “local twisties” might just be mine as well. Have any particularly dear routes you want to share?

[eternal05]

May there be another order of magnitude on your odometer still to come

[eternal05]

Sport Rider, Motorcycle magazine, Two (UK), Performance Bikes (UK), and MCN (UK) all did similar comparos and were in agreement: working ABS beats human every time.

[eternal05]

I can’t tell you with certainty, but often times, manufacturers will share parts within a particular subsection of their model line. The GSXRs all share the same levers, for instance (or at least they did last I checked). It’s not a bad place to check.

I would honestly recommend getting ahold of some ASV levers (or at least your brake lever). It’ll be around $100, but you’ll never need another lever again. They’re made to simply fold back in a crash, and have a real serious warranty on them, so that if they do ever break (even in a crash) they’ll just get fixed or replaced. The other bonus is that they’re very adjustable, so you can control how far away the lever is from the bar to match your preference.

http://stores.sportbiketrackgear.com/Categories.bok?category=ASV+Inventions%3AUnbreakable+Levers

[eternal05]

Ok, fine, but only because you asked so nicely

[eternal05]

What did I JUST post? Gettin’ all greedy on me

[eternal05]

This is a great post above from Bob Harley. I wanted to add another bit of wisdom. Nobody here will tell you not to get a GSX-R or CBR. They just don’t want you to get one FIRST. And it’s not because they hate you and want to deprive you of fun. It’s because they’ve been there before and know how hard it can be to control one of these bikes. For reference, I started out on a Ninja 250R, and not because that’s the bike I really wanted. I had my heart set on a gixxer from day one, but I made myself work for it. After a year on the Ninja, I bought a gixxer on sale, and as I tell everybody, I still do all my city riding on the Ninja. It’s more comfortable, easier to manage, and a lot more fun to ride in the 20-45mph range.

Anyway, start with a bike that will really teach you to ride, and THEN worry about this:

[eternal05]

Why go out of your way to go all the way to an entire website dedicated to starting people off slow just to make a fuss about not starting off slow? It’s just straight trolling.

I should know better than to let this get to me, but we all know the drill:

[eternal05]

“Hello” from another native Californian (even if I don’t live there anymore).

[eternal05]

Ideally, when performing a stoppie, you do not want to lose traction. While racers occasionally get out of sorts before corners with their rear wheels in the air, they, for the most part, manage to brake VERY hard with both wheels on the ground. Hard braking is obviously a requirement for a stoppie, but it’s the moving your bodyweight way forward that really does it. You shouldn’t need to approach a front slide to pull it off, at least not with any bike I’d consider as “stoppie-capable” (aka NOT Elwood’s sporty). Conversely, I’ve locked the front on numerous occasions, but never have I sufferred an accidental stoppie. The two things (loss of traction and stoppies) aren’t directly related.

[eternal05]

I was just looking at california tracks and saw it listed as “Sears Point (Infineon).” Figures

[eternal05]

So what’s the big reason that you’re average consumer doesn’t want ABS? The argument I’ve heard is “a skilled rider is unlikely to need it,” and that’s no argument against having it there, just in case.

[eternal05]

The smaller a gear is (bigger engine-rpm/wheel-rpm ratio), the more power the engine will have to move the bike, but the slower it will be able to do it.

[eternal05]

The SV650SF-ABS would be an excellent choice of next bike. It has a ton of power (0-60 is about the same as a GSX-R), handles really well, is more upright and therefore more comfortable than a supersport (though the SF SV does have a more aggressive riding position than the standard SV naked that’s discontinued), and thanks to being a V-Twin, will be very easy to ride with a broad powerband in any gear.

[eternal05]

Second gear isn’t 2.7…, but rather 1.7…

Makes more sense that way too

[Author]

Posts