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Losing the front?

well you know it's for building confidence knowing the physical limits for when i need to go there vs. the psychological that might lead to bad actions
 
Best advice I have for when you do get close to spooking yourself is: breathe. For building confidence, I think a long spirited ride is better than repeating the same corner over and over. IME.
 
ctwo said:
Well of course and I've been riding pretty much all the time since I gave away both of my cars in the last year.
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I look forward to when I can make a decision like that :laughing :ride
 
I'm not sure why dragging hard parts is a goal. It seems to me that dragging parts means you are absolutely railing beyond the limits of the machine, or your body position is wrong, or both.

I'm with Bud - if your front feels like it's pushing, it might be time for new tires. At the least, keep an eye on your tire pressures.
 
I scraped my center stand on the way in today, whoopsie
 
ctwo said:
My last bike didn't even have a center stand. That shouldn't be able to happen.
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Agreed. It’s the hard part closest to the ground, too bad it doesn’t have a hinge like the foot pegs. Have to be careful not to lever the rear off the road, so when it starts scraping I stop increasing my lean angle :laughing
 
I was going to say Kevin Schwantz, but there were others who also were very fast with their chest centered over the triple clamps.

However... not exactly like the photo. They get their ass off the seat.
 
Practice sliding on a dirt bike.

It's much more forgiving. I got used to sliding both tires in certain corners in the dirt. There was usually a berm or crest involved so it was never too scary. It's actually kinda fun when you figure it out because you end up steering the bike with the rear end. Riding in wet sand is a good way to experience this. (think Jawbone in the rain) I think it helps to have your butt off of the seat while this is happening because there's usually whoop-de-doos involved on the way out. It feels like you're floating if you can slide in and then wheelie out skimming the whoops.

Every now and then I lose front end grip on my Ducati. I think it's usually caused by debris on the pavement. It's always been momentary and then comes back. It's amazing how well it handles. Sticky tires make a big difference too. I think if you can figure out how to steer your bike with the rear by using balance and throttle control, sliding the front end becomes less likely. I think you need to get your braking done before the apex of the corner so that you can be on the gas coming out instead of having to manage traction on the front end. So when you come into that cloverleaf, get your braking done early so that you can feed it gas the whole way through and transfer weight to the rear of the bike. I've never ridden a sport bike on a track so I don't know what that's like. I used to scrape the pegs on my Honda Interceptor, but my feet scrape first on the Ducati.

If you can increase the rebound dampening in your forks (slow it down), I think that might help.
 
That is where many lean angle explorations on the street lead - a crash.

“Learn how to crash a bike in slow mo” is a great analogy for the internet. Kinda fair too. It’s hard to translate tactile feelings into words that ppl actually understand. And explaining the physics or the “correct” way to do things will never be understood by everyone, and especially not in the same or intended way.
 
Agree 100%. The two differences between exploring on the street VS track are impact zone clearances and ability to repeat the same corner over and over with the same conditions. The actual learning happens in those corners with good instruction, which I'm sure you and I have both had. Makes a world of difference, IME.
 
Holeshot said:
It feels like we're trying to figure out the best way to crash a bike in slow motion......
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It reminds me of a saying by my friend Bob Hoover on the best way to crash...

Bob Hoover renowned aerobatic and test pilot

"If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible."

BobHooverReno99 (2).JPG
 
ThinkFast said:
You may know every pothole and tar snake, but you can’t know about the big rig that left a nice little line of diesel all the way around on the line you decided to ride that day
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So, so much this ^^
For me it was Jeep Grand Cherokee with a blown transmission cooler line on Mt Tam.
As you correctly pointed out, I knew about each and every rut, groove and imperfection on that road.....that weren't man made a hundred yards and 10 seconds ahead of me.
 
gixxerjeff said:
So, so much this ^^
For me it was Jeep Grand Cherokee with a blown transmission cooler line on Mt Tam.
As you correctly pointed out, I knew about each and every rut, groove and imperfection on that road.....that weren't man made a hundred yards and 10 seconds ahead of me.
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Did you died, I mean go down?
 
I should have. Not sure how I saved it. It happened too fast to be skill.
I smeared the front PAST the fog line. Caught it in the gravel with inches to spare. Yes, there was a cliff just beyond where the front re-bit again.
That was twenty years ago. I still think about that moment all the time.
It was the perfect storm. It wasn't too fast for conditions, until the immediate changes in those conditions.
 
gixxerjeff said:
I smeared the front PAST the fog line.
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Yikes😱.

I had a moment that way, where years later it still haunts me if I happen to think of it. It was Day 1 of our annual DV run and I was two up on my ‘04 Harley leading a group of four or five bikes heading south on PCH in a great stretch of twisties up on a cliff with no side roads somewhere down around Ragged Point I guess. The corners in this particular stretch are mostly marked 35mph and I’m comfortably running them at 50 without scraping any hard parts. We’d been through here many times, and this time was the same as always, just in the flow, feeling great. Until we came around a blind left hander to find a giant slab-sided Chrysler whale sideways across both lanes in the midst of doing a three-point U-turn from the gravel turnout on the right.

He had just come out and was trying to get himself pointed North. On seeing him I instinctively grabbed a maximum amount of front brake, bringing the big girl to threshhold braking (no ABS) and immediately realized there was no possibility of hauling our 1000 pound rig to a stop before hitting the Chrysler broadside.

I was wearing a full face helmet with a dark shield, so he couldn’t see my eyes, but I could see his - staring straight at me frozen like a deer in headlights. So I physically turned my head to the right, looking past the rear of his car, figuring that if I signaled my intention, maybe he’d know which way to move next to get the hell out of the way.

It worked. As soon as I turned my head he punched the gas on the mighty Chrysler with its front wheels at full lock and it arced out of the way into the northbound lane just as I came sailing through what would’ve been his trunk. This all happened in the space of maybe 50 yards and a matter of a second and a half or so. I really did think my wife and I were both about to go airborne and over the guardrail into the Pacific. Terrifying. I knew that road pretty well, too.
 
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Crashing with a passenger is even more the suck.

Got lucky on that one Tom!
 
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