SwanTiger
28th March 2006, 22:10
Sportbikes are a new kettle of fish for me and my experience riding and maintaining one is extremely limited. I have had plenty of experience riding various bikes, however its all limited to off road type riding in a leisure type way.
Now - my back end slips now and again in the wet, I can make it slip if I want it to and control it. My front end is pretty flighty and now with the wet weather, it seems to be giving way a bit more too.
What can I do to improve my handling as traditionally the GT 250R's are good looking commuters, not exactly your hard core sport bike.
Front
SHINKO SR740 Tyre.
110/70-17 M/C 54H
Tubeless with a maximum load of 212 kg's
Rear
SHINKO SR741 Tyre.
150/70-17 M/C 69H
Tubeless with a maximum load of 325 kg's
My physique and riding style
I'm roughly 6,1ft and 115kg's. My riding style or better explained philosophy is to enjoy the road, however I like to take corners at a fair amount of speed and am comfortable (so to speak) navigating them. I don't hang off the bike much, if I do at all. Use a lot of counter steering and 7 out of every 10 corners I will follow the best possible line I can work out. 3 out of every 10 corners I might misjudge a little, needing to correct or lean harder.
Suspension
The bike has a rear mono shock which can be adjusted, I've never adjusted one on a bike before but I have a bucket with similar style adjustment (which I presume is standard...) so I could practise on that before hand. The whole task of getting in to the shock looks pretty daunting and time consuming.
The front forks are USD, they are pretty "floaty" and i've managed to get them down quite far. If I take a corner fast, occasionally the front will get flighty which is uncomfortable. It doesn't feel like the suspension is keeping the tyre on the road, it only feels like its "taking the impact".
I don't know how to adjust the front forks.
Pictures attached of top of Front forks and rear shock.
Any advice or help apreciated :)
EDIT: Before any wankers rise up with RTFM or similar, I have done so, the manual is about 30 pages long and isn't very helpful. There is a tiny bit of info on the net too, but not suffice, I want sound knowledge from a source (hopefully) I can trust. Primarily I want to work out how to make the best configuration according to my physique and style of riding.
Now - my back end slips now and again in the wet, I can make it slip if I want it to and control it. My front end is pretty flighty and now with the wet weather, it seems to be giving way a bit more too.
What can I do to improve my handling as traditionally the GT 250R's are good looking commuters, not exactly your hard core sport bike.
Front
SHINKO SR740 Tyre.
110/70-17 M/C 54H
Tubeless with a maximum load of 212 kg's
Rear
SHINKO SR741 Tyre.
150/70-17 M/C 69H
Tubeless with a maximum load of 325 kg's
My physique and riding style
I'm roughly 6,1ft and 115kg's. My riding style or better explained philosophy is to enjoy the road, however I like to take corners at a fair amount of speed and am comfortable (so to speak) navigating them. I don't hang off the bike much, if I do at all. Use a lot of counter steering and 7 out of every 10 corners I will follow the best possible line I can work out. 3 out of every 10 corners I might misjudge a little, needing to correct or lean harder.
Suspension
The bike has a rear mono shock which can be adjusted, I've never adjusted one on a bike before but I have a bucket with similar style adjustment (which I presume is standard...) so I could practise on that before hand. The whole task of getting in to the shock looks pretty daunting and time consuming.
The front forks are USD, they are pretty "floaty" and i've managed to get them down quite far. If I take a corner fast, occasionally the front will get flighty which is uncomfortable. It doesn't feel like the suspension is keeping the tyre on the road, it only feels like its "taking the impact".
I don't know how to adjust the front forks.
Pictures attached of top of Front forks and rear shock.
Any advice or help apreciated :)
EDIT: Before any wankers rise up with RTFM or similar, I have done so, the manual is about 30 pages long and isn't very helpful. There is a tiny bit of info on the net too, but not suffice, I want sound knowledge from a source (hopefully) I can trust. Primarily I want to work out how to make the best configuration according to my physique and style of riding.