It seems like you have a lot of respect for these guys. Have you talked to any motor cops about the technique?
I respect practice. If you know of a forum where motor police freely discuss technique with each other or with civilians I'd appreciate a link. I doubt that exists.
How do you think the weight of a bike effects the rider's ability to manage lean angle?
I can comment on some of the ways it's likely to effect a beginner like me, the ones I know about so far. More mass means it's harder to feel small changes in lean angle, it's harder to recover from mistakes, learning is going to be slower as mass increases. It's usual to see recommendations to start on a small bike for the sake of learning. For me mass is the learning issue more than power. (Power was a learning issue for me in the first couple weeks until I stopped making scary throttle mistakes and got used to how sensitive the throttle is.) Other things being equal, the less the bike weighs the faster learning is going to be.
As best as you can, would you explain how you think body position effects a motorcycle's handling in a turn?
A quiz? Do I get some extra recess if I pass? I can talk about what I've discovered so far. Shifting upper body weight forward and back influences traction, depending on how it's combined with other variables. Shifting upper body weight side to side influences lean angle and/or roll rate and can also influence traction. There might be more I don't know about yet. (counter steering rolls the bike, counter balancing leans the bike, neither one turns the bike)
How do you determine if you are NOT ready to begin learning a new skill?
I can give examples, I don't have a general rule. I tried quick outside figure 8s similar to what the gymkhana riders do and decided I wasn't comfortable enough with traction issues for that to be productive. That's starting to change because I'm beginning to feel subtle traction changes I was oblivious to last season. I backed off working on 2' offset cone weaves with 12' spacing because there was zero progress making it smoother. One of the missing peices of that puzzle was how I used the throttle. If core aptitudes are missing then working on an exercise is a waste of time at best. Figuring out what to work on is part of the challenge.
This is a great attitude! I wish everybody who rode motorcycles was so dedicated. If the over all goal is to be a safe street rider, what skills do you think would be the most important?
My goal is to enjoy the bike and not die even once. I fault the motorcycle establishment for failing to advise wannabes and new riders properly. A few times I've been asked how to get started. I say, get a bike that weighs less than 280 pounds, even smaller is better. For the first 300 hours divide time 50-50 between the parking lot and riding quite streets under 30 mph. If you manage 14 hours of PLP within a 21 day time frame sometime during the first 6-8 weeks there's a chance you'll get addicted to skill instead of just riding around. If that happens the parking lot will satisfy the addiction as effectively as the street and if THAT happens your survival chances may improve. I suspect that is, roughly, what motor police training trys to accomplish.
It seems like you've realized that the throttle is an important control on the motorcycle... do you think there are any controls that are more important than the throttle? If so, please say why.
Scary-throttle-mistakes were my first white knuckle moments on the bike. I reasoned that throttle decisions would be the key to my survival. So far that seems to hold true.
