[Gary856]

Another thing I found very helpful is to video myself doing tight circles and figure-8s during parking lot practices. When I did the practice, it felt like I was leaning the bike a lot, like I was about to drag on hard parts, but when I viewed the video, I saw that the bike could lean a lot more before touching hard parts. That kind of visual feedback really helped me understood the amount of bike lean available and its relationship to my body positioning, and that knowledge also resulted in greater confidence when cornering.

[Gary856]

“Hang off” (I’ll use it to mean leaning your body into the turn) is just a technique to minimize bike lean -> maximize traction. It’s independent from how fast you go. Slowing down when traction is poor is a given, and hanging off buys you extra margin. Correct body position is an integral part of riding, so I don’t know why one would not want to hang off when cornering, unless you’re just into a mellow ride and not want to bother with the effort of the extra body movement. Also, noticed that I didn’t say how much you should hang off – again, that’s up to you to learn, discover, and decide how and when you utilize a technique. I never said that you should hang off to the point of compromising your bike control or becoming a traffic hazard. There maybe specific situations where you wouldn’t or couldn’t hang off, but then again, it’s up to you, the rider, to decide when to utilize certain techniques.

I know many good street riders just keep their body position straight up and down when riding at their “normal” pace. They know and trust the bike and the tires to handle the necessary lean angle. They even make fun of new/inexperienced riders leaning their bodies excessively at fairly low speed while the bike is hardly leaned. I disagree with that mentality. For new riders, it’s critical to build up the correct muscle memory as soon as possible, and the way to do that is to use the right technique all the time, whether you need it or not, so it becomes an automatic response when you really need it. When you get really experienced and can ride with your eyes closed around a corner, then you have the luxury of riding more sloppily and laugh at the new guys.

I purposely shy away from mentioning “knee down” and “track technique” because I don’t want new riders to confuse a basic riding technique discussion with going fast. In fact, I think it’s often misleading and counter-productive to say GP racers do this and that because they’re riding for an entirely different purpose, not to mention the totally different environment, equipment, and the extreme talent level involved. The purpose of riding technique discussion in this “beginner general forum” is to maximize control and safety. Being able to go faster after you’ve mastered the control is the result of better control.

[Gary856]

Alan (IBA270), I got you – we were essentially in agreement on this issue the first time. I was more responding to eon and eternal, but in general, it’s totally understandable that people read and interpret things differently. Heck, I often read the same article several times and get different meanings out of it each time. Anyway, I really appreciate an experienced rider like you taking the time to help us beginners along.

[Gary856]

A bit more on body positioning, or “pre-positioning” before a turn. It works the same for all turns, but in difficult corners, such as a steep downhill hairpin turn, or when there is debris/gravel/water on the ground, our psychology and instincts often work against us. The instinct is try to keep our body upright, or even lean away from the turn, to not fall, which are exactly the opposite of what you should do. The scarier the corner looks, the more you need to lean your body into the turn, or even hang off on the inside of the turn, to help the bike turn with minimized bike lean and maximized traction. Get your body pre-positioned BEFORE the turn!

Always remember – safety first. It takes time to build up the confidence to lean hard into a scary corner. You just need to practice it all the times, even on city street corners, to build up the muscle memory. Start with lower speed and work up the speed gradually based on your own comfort level. For me, riding on streets exclusively, it took me over 1 year, 11k miles, to finally get comfortable on the most difficult roads in the local hills.

[Gary856]

I’m a fairly new street rider, as I suspect most people visiting this site are. I’m not interested in shaving off a fraction of a second like track riders do. While reference to track/race techniques is often useful, my posts are generally focused on how to apply the techniques for street riding.

I did a quick web search on clutchless shifting, read many dozens of posts on this, and now understand it better. The reason that 1-2 shift tends to be abrupt is because of the huge gear ratio jump from 1-2. For this reason, even for people who regularly do clutchless upshifts, many still use the clutch for 1-2 shifts. As you get into the higher gears, the gear ratio different between gears becomes smaller and smaller, and that allows clutless upshifts to be very smooth. To me, 2-3 clutchless shifts are still kind of abrupt, but from 3-4 and above, it’s so smooth, it feels like throwing a light switch with a weak spring. All it takes is a light nudge of the shifter to “roll” into a higher gear. Also, while the technique is the same, the feel on different bikes is different, as expected.

To me, playing with clutchless shifting has nothing to do with necessity. Also, it’s not hard, just different. It’s just fun to learn a new technique, doing something I didn’t know was possible before. There are people who do clutchless upshift AND downshift. There are people who do this (or don’t) on the streets, on the tracks, in the dirt, etc. Well, do a web search and educate yourself if you’re interested to know more.

WARNING (especially to new riders): Don’t try this in traffic at first. I was playing with the 1-2 clutchless upshift on an on ramp, and got into neutral by accidnt (didn’t apply enough upward pressure on the shifter). Not good with cars accelerating up to speed behind me…

[Gary856]

– Pressure molded on sidewall shows max pressure for max load. Each of my 3 bikes, 6 tires (a pair of Dunlop, a pair of Perilli, a pair of Bridgestone) shows “max load xxx lbs at 42 psi” on the tire sidewall. However, since the bikes are not normally carrying max load, especially the front, 42 psi is not the “recommended” pressure for the “actual” load. Generally, as you increase pressure, you loose traction, and gain gas mileage.

– On the left-rear swing arm of each of my bike, there’s a factory sticker showing tire size and recommended pressure. You probably have it on yours.

– I disagree that a tire would pop when impacted at rated max load pressure; that’s a law suit for the tire mfr. They’re rated to take the max impact at max pressure. In fact, for two-up riding, one of my bikes says to go up to 42 psi rear, another says 41 psi rear, another says stay at 36 psi rear.

– With new cars, during transportation and storage, the tires are “super-inflated” way pass the max pressure on the sidewall to prevent the tire rubber from taking a set (permanent deformation) from sitting around in the same position for a long time.

[Gary856]

A couple of points TrialsRider wrote about EFI didn’t seem right so I checked with a bike mechanic:

EFI heats the fuel in your tank –
I understand the fuel pump located in the tank get hot during operation and uses gas in the tank as a coolant/lubricant. However, the bike mechanic I spoke to said that, as long as there’s a reasonable amount of gas in the tank (not down to the last few ozs), the fuel pump does not heat up the gas by an appreciable amount, and certainly not to be felt by the rider on a cold day nor boils the gas on a hot day! On a hot day, if you top off the tank fully in the shade then move and sit in the sun, the heat from the sun could expand the gas in the tank enough to cause overflow. Was that what happened?

EFI bump start –
Cranking the engine is what demands the most battery charge/power. If the battery is too weak to crank the engine, but still has enough charge to run the fuel pump (the humming noise you can hear with the ignition on), then you can still bump start a fuel injected bike. If the battery is completely dead, then you cannot bump start either a carbureted bike or a fuel injected bike, because there’s no spark.

[Gary856]

Bump start means pushing (or coasting downhill) to get the bike up to speed, pop the clutch to spin up and start the engine. Usually it’s done when the battery is too weak to crank the engine.

[Gary856]

That seems like a minor carbureter adjustment problem. For such a new bike it’s obviously under waranty so just take it back to the dealer.

Associating 91 octane with the word “premium” is false advertising, a big marketing lie to charge ill informed consumers more money. There are bikes/cars that are designed to run on 91 octane, but for the majority of bikes/cars that are designed to run on 87 octane, paying higher price for 91 octane is like paying for and taking medecine that you don’t need. Check your owner’s manual for your bike/car’s octane requirement.

[Gary856]

From what I’ve read (based on dry/wet wt numbers on various bikes and web sites), for a 600-650 sized, liquid-cooled motorcycle with a 4-5 gallon tank, the wet weight is typically about 60-70 lbs higher than the dry weight, depending on the actual fluid capacity, of course. I think the battery is a part of the dry weight, while gas/coolant/engine oil/fork oil are the “wet” part.

I also have a 32” inseam. On my SV650 (w/ 31.5” seat height) I can flat foot on both sides because the suspension and the seat cushion sink down a bit when I sit on the bike. From your picture I can see the floor board of the MP3 forces you to have a wide-leg stance which explains why you have to tip-toe to reach the ground with a 31” seat height and a 32” inseam. The DRZ, which I’d like to get, has a 36” seat height, but people much shorter than me ride DRZs, so it should be just a matter of getting used to it. The seat height of my hardtail mountain bike is about 39” and that’s not a problem, so…

BMW F800GS can almost match the unique look of the MP3! I like the modern, highly stylized European look of both bikes very much. I just don’t have the heart to take something like a new F800GS off pavement and get it dirty, or worse, lay it down. LOL

I imagine serious GoPro users can wire it (w/ a voltage regulator) directly to the bike’s battery for unlimited electrical power. Nevertheless, I always assumed that it’d run out of memory capacity before running out of battery power (on a full charge).

[Gary856]

Eon, I didn’t realize that MP3 was such a beast – in terms of its looks (pretty mean looking), physical size (bigger than I thought), and the weight (550 lbs?!!!) With 2 wheels in the front, it doesn’t even look capable of falling down. Just curious (and this may be a stupid question) – when it’s moving, can it fall down (drop to the ground) as easily as a regular motorcycle if you messed up, or does it hold a lean on 3 wheels and not fall down like a tricycle?

When you said dual sport I automatically thought, oh, DR650 or DRZ kind of bike, which I’m kind of looking for one also, and everyone says they’re awesome on those twisty roads. Versys and V-strom, as you note, are much more street oriented than off pavement, but still very capable on groomed gravel/dirt trails.

It’s so hard to stop to take pictures. When I get on a nice twisty road I just don’t want to stop. Need to get a GoPro kind of setup to take pictures/video without stopping.

Cruiser-wise, not my cup of tea normally, but I happened to see a photo of a 2010 Harley Forty-Eight and thought it was drop dead gorgeous. I want one! Then I read about the “Classic 2.1 gallon peanut tank” – looks great, but 2.1 gallon? Damn, did they build that bike to be looked at, or to ride? How can you get anywhere with a tiny 2.1 gallon tank? lol

[Gary856]

One thing I really hated when I was new was forgetting to shift all the way down to 1st when stopping. Let’s say I stopped in 4th gear. The light turned green and traffic started to move. Let out the clutch and the bike stalled. OK, shifted down one gear (to 3rd), let out the clutch and the bike stalled again. You get the picture – wasn’t pretty.

Also, when stationary, the bike often doesn’t want to shift down. Like eternal noted, let out the clutch and barely get into friction zone and click down one gear, without moving, pull in the clutch, then let it out and barely get into friction zone and cilck down another gear, and so on, until you find 1st. When stopped, by getting into the friction zone, or by rocking the bike forward/backward a few inches, you line something up (forgot what it’s called – the synchromesh?) in the transmission to make shifting possible.

[Gary856]

Submitted by eon on Sun, 01/03/2010 – 17:16.

Use the following code but replace [ with < and ] with >

[img src=”http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae188/deg856/ArroyoSeco.jpg&#8221; /]If your image is on the large size you can add width=660 to that and it will reduce the size so that it fits nicely on the page. Any larger than that and it overlap into the menus on the right.

Note from Gary: The above is a photo link from a photo I put on Photobucket. You’d have to use your own link for your own photo, of course.

[Gary856]

Everybody do this a little differently, so I’ll just mentioned a few items:

– When slowing down, you don’t have to engage the clutch until the engine speed drops to the point of bogging, say, below 2k rpm. This way you take advatage of a bit of engine braking.

– If you were at a higher gear, some people recommend shifting down one gear at a time as your speed drops so you’re ready to reaccelerate at any given moment, like when the light turns green before you come to a full stop. I do that some times. When I’m coming to a stop sign and know I’ll be stopping for sure, I usually wait until almost the end, then engage the clutch and click down several gears to first.

– You should click all the way down to 1st gear just before coming to a full stop, otherwise, on some bikes and some times, it’s hard to shift down to 1st when the bike is stationary.

– When I was new, I’d leave the bike in 1st and the clutched engaged while waiting at a stop. That way I was ready to go anytime. There were times when I was in neutral, and the bike didn’t want to shift into 1st when I was ready to go. After I got more experienced, I’d shift into neutral while waiting at a long light, when there’s a stopped car behind me protecting my rear.

– Sometimes it’s hard to shift between neutral and 1st when the bike is stationary. Roll the bike forward or backward a few inches (it lines up something in the transmission) would make it easier.

[Gary856]

It’s logical for a new rider to think hilly terrain needs more power. I thought that too before I started riding – does a 500 have enough power to go up a steep hill?

If you’re talking about narrow, twisty, 2 lane roads, some times even 1 lane, some times very steep, the kind of road with a speed limit of 15-50 mph, interestingly enough, I find less power (such as a GS500) is just right, or better, than more power (such as a SV650). On those roads you don’t need wide open throttle. It’s all about applying just enough throttle, cornering, braking and technique, and something like a GS500, with it’s user friendly power and throttle response and quick handling, allows for a very controlled run, and has way more than enough power. I hardly ever had to use more than 3/4 throttle, and 99% of the time it’s less than 1/2 throttle.

The only thing a 500 may feel lacking is in a wide-open-throttle style acceleration on a wide open road. It’s still quick enough for any situation, but it’s just not the rocket ship ride that a larger displacement bikes can give you.

[Author]

Posts