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5 Common Wear and Tear Items on Motorcycles
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TrialsRiderParticipant
Bought an Outback Oilskin jacket while I was out west recently
http://www.outbacktrading.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=109
I didn’t really purchase it for the bike but I must say it makes a nice riding jacket for not too much money.
…the cape is removableTrialsRiderParticipant…oh you mean at a stop light;)
Jeff’ method works for me except I don’t generally go for neutral unless I need to tie up a boot lace or something, I touch down the left toe only, goes back up on the peg on takeoff.
Right foot seldom leaves a brake ready position!
….makes for a shakey stop if your right foots down before the bike is stoped, even worse when riding 2 up. When I do ride 2 up I put down both toes at the lights, just incase the passenger weight shifts.It’s very confusing if you ever ride older English or Spanish bikes that have the foot controls reversed, I find I need to ride the rear brake a lot, just to remind myself where the brake is!
underwear?
TrialsRiderParticipant…the heavier the bike, the more important it is to keep that engine engaged and in control of the rear wheel braking. If I came into a corner hot with my K100RS and pulled in the clutch to use only brakes to slow down, I’d be into the rhubarb or guardrail for sure! either that or the rear brake would do little at first and then lock up the back wheel uncontrollably. Given a choice between only the engine to brake the rear wheel or only a rear brake, I’ll take the engine any day.
I had a complete rear brake failure on a TY175 in the first loop of an event and after a much better rider said “ride without it, you don’t need it anyway” I persevered and finished the event with a second place position. He was totally right and I learned from that experience, I had been over using the rear brake all along. The front provides the lion share of the brake force and the rear just needs enough force to hold the rear wheel from passing the front! Using the engine to brake is like having anti-skid rear braking. :(as long as the engine doesn’t stall or lock-up completely)
TrialsRiderParticipantI read that is a fiberglass helmet, which is the best helmet composite for absorbing an impact (and destroying itself in the process). Manufacturers err on the safe side and say you should not even drop a helmet from waist height, which I’m sure is a little over the top. Bottom line is; if there is visible glass damage it should be replaced or it may not provide life saving properties in the significant impact situation, that might never happen …are you feeling lucky?
I would probably keep it if it’s not already worn out in other respects, but just like the manufacturer I will accept no responsibility for anything etc, etc, etc.
TrialsRiderParticipantDon’t get me wrong definitely not trying to criticize, in fact I applaud your ambition and enthusiasm, don’t loose it!
The bits that sent out alerts to me; you’ve already been on the freeway but still haven’t nailed down engine braking or counter-steering. “Riding back I got up to about 85mph at one point” …that equates to 135 kph which is roughly a 300$ speeding fine on the fastest highway in Ontario. “…ended up coming in a little too hot…” etc. that part was scary just reading it, but from reading your latest post I can see that you are catching on very fast.
You need to recognize that I learned on dirt and by the time I first entered a highway I had 6 years riding experience under my belt (and numerous crashes) then it was another 6 years before I owned a bike capable of pulling 140 kph. Not to suggest you need to do the same, but now maybe you can see why I said you’re running pretty fast there.
Keep up the good work, I truly envy your newness.
TrialsRiderParticipantTraining instructors will shoot me down for this post because they are going by the book …a very OLD book! Yes there was a time when a clutch and front brake required so much force to apply an entire fist was required, but those days are long gone, unless you are still riding a vintage BSA or similar. Hydraulic actuated clutches and modern disk brakes made the full fisted practice totally obsolete and I challenge any to prove me wrong when I say one finger on each control lever or at the most two is by far the best practice. Even beginners recognize you need at least three fingers and a thumb to maintain a firm grasp on the grips. Training course instructors insist you use all of your fingers to apply the front brake and the clutch and that is just SO wrong. I’ve seen you tube videos of beginners going over the bars and getting kicked out of class simply because they hauled on too much front brake and I hold the instructor totally responsible for such a failure.
Anybody riding at a skilled level in motorcycle competition does not use a full fist of front brake or clutch, so why it is considered a best practice for beginners??? Try riding a Trial with a full fist of lever and your arms will be so pumped and fatigued you won’t survive one loop, except maybe the loop over the handlebars. You can do nose wheelies with one finger on the brake, lock the front wheel going down steep hill or smoke a front tire braking from high speed on a street bike, so why would anyone teach you to use a fist full of front brake???
This is not even me but every picture I have of someone riding advanced Trials clearly shows the same thing, one finger on each lever. (my levers are moved in further on the bars than his)
I ride with one finger on the controls nearly all the time other than going up extreme steep hills or splattering a rock face and the reaction time is a fraction of what it takes to open a full grip from the bars. If your fingers are too weak to pull in your clutch or front brake, exercise your hands more and move the levers in on the bars to give you more leverage where you can.
This first part is important: You will likely need to go through the motions of using their full fist method to pass your training course, but I still maintain it is totally wrong, just don’t argue with the teacher on my account. Personally know 4 motorcycle training instructors to date that I can out ride, so if they disagree; come on out and ride against me in an observed trial competition or challenge me to a slow race If anyone can whoop me using a full fist to clutch and brake, I’ll take back everything I said and clean their entire motorcycle with my tooth brush
…engine braking is very important and even more so with a heavy bike, learn it well.
Elsewhere you inquired about servicing; I spend nearly as much time cleaning and servicing my motorcycles as I do riding them.
TrialsRiderParticipantI gotta tell you your posts make for a scary read sometimes! It seems like you are bent on learning to run before you can walk.
Counter-steering is the Only way you can make a motorcycle go around corners once you traveling with any appreciable speed. I won’t even attempt describing it in great detail because I’m sure it’s been done before, other than to say; when you want to go right you lean into the right bar and when you want to go left you lean into the left bar. This is the opposite of what seems logical to ‘steering’ around slow turns, but it works because it makes the motorcycle lean and it’s the lean that makes it turn corners. If you try and steer around a corner with any speed, it will make the bike stand up and go in a straight line! Yes, this will be covered in the MSF.
Please stay off the highway, I’m pretty sure your license doesn’t cover it and the cops are going to spot you a mile away just by the way you are not turning.
This may sound like a dumb question, but have you ever ridden on the back of a motorcycle with a skilled rider at the helm? …that might be a very valuable experience for you at this point as it would teach you about leaning to turn.
TrialsRiderParticipantLife’s just too short to make it work with all the Internet Exploder workarounds I’ve struggled with tonight, I’ll be back once BBM is Safari friendly again.
…pic posting seems to be busted too
TrialsRiderParticipantHA! …I guessed it without reading ahead
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…is that a tiny little horn right behind the front tire?
TrialsRiderParticipanthmmm bruised ribs, following a little too close were we …maybe you better send a truck to pickup the next one
TrialsRiderParticipantSafari browser doesn’t like the CAPTCHA, IE works but throws an error alert “Unable to establish a secure connection to ‘api-secure.recaptcha.net’. There is a problem with the security certificate from that site (The identity certificate has expired.)”
Hope the admins can sort it out IF the problem is at that end, thx. I see there is much less participation as of late, possibly others are experiencing similar issues If you know of a fix please post it here.
lol, either the new captcha sucks or I need new glasses, half the words have me seeing double
TrialsRiderParticipantJust goes to show it’s been far too long since I’ve been out that way
Words fail to describe the beauty of the majestic West Coast Redwoods, by far the most impressive creatures on Earth. If you love nature as I do and still haven’t seen them live, make it happen and take your kids. …but be prepared to feel a little less for mankind when you see what we did to the biggest one so soon after discovering it.
Thanks Nate, you just gave me incentive to visit California again before I pass.
TrialsRiderParticipantNot necessarily just Dealer service related, but if you ever wondered what brake fluid is and why you need to change it frequently here is a good read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fluid
It convinced me to undertake a flush and fill of my Cota before the nationals next month and the Beemer before my riding season actually cranks up.
…it snowed this morning! Madjak, would you please stop sending the white stuff this way
TrialsRiderParticipantYou get what you pay for. When I was designing a product line to be marketed to some of the wealthiest professionals in the world (Ophthalmologists and Optometrists) I learned the hard way that most don’t really want or even recognize quality products, they all have tunnel vision on the bottom line. (…subtle joke buried in there;) Companies that produce truly high quality and technically advanced products are constantly faced with spending a tremendous amount of time and resources to educate consumers on the advantages featured in their products. There’s a major difference in the metallurgy found in Bavarian and Chinese castings, but it’s either trust in the quality control of a company that cut one in half and looked at it with an 80,000$ microscope or save big bucks on the initial purchase and be prepared to experience catastrophic materials failure first hand.
All the Chinese do is keep the price low and the feature list long and consumers can’t seem to see past the notion of ‘I can buy 2 of these for the price of 1 of those’
… I guess somebody’s gotta fill up those landfills5 years is pretty good, but let’s see what it’s like at 23
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