Swopping bikes... and brain patterns!

[Jeremy]

Even switching betwen two bikes of the same sort feels really weird. When I was using Coleman's demo GN250 while they tried to work out what was blowing the fuses on my bike last week. There were all sorts of things that were very different, acceleration curves, brakes, the handle bars didn't feel right and changing gears was very different.

[Kickaha]

Worst was switching between bikes on a raceday,one with race pattern and one with road and changing up gears instead of down into a corner or gassing it up out of a corner and then downchanging(instead of up)and having a bit of a lock up

[Wolf]

Not at all like cars where the only problem you have is whether the indicator is on the left stick or the right. And even that is rare these days.

I've encountered cars where the reverse is where you'd expect 5th to be, then there's the great "which side of the box is reverse on" and the pure delight of driving an old CA Bedford with a column change - hand took the "scenic route" to the gear lever every time, out towards the non-existant floor lever then up to the column stick. Also there's the high beam lever "forward for dip, back for full" vs "forward for full back for dip" (with pull further back to give that twat who hasn't dipped his lights some well-deserved grief).

I know people who freak out getting into cars with power steering (drive up their own exhaust pipes) and others who can't handle cars that don't (bloody near drive into the scenery and whine that "it's too hard")

Cars/vans aren't that "standardised".

[Motu]

One of my scariest moments was when I worked on tractors,we had late model ones in our fleet,and I maintained the local tractors.We also had some old vintage boat tractor things out in the yard,we dragged them out of where they last ran,got them going and put a paint job on,then were put on the lot,Fergies and stuff.

But we had an old Nuffield,that was yellow,with some big weights on the front axle.I had never driven it,but in an idle moment I thought I might fire it up and give it a run...it was 6 volt,but got it running and went for a blat down the rutted gravel road our shop was on.

Now most tractors have a hand throttle under the steering wheel,on the right side...pull it back towards you and the motor revs up,push it forwards to slow down...I could drive a tractor eh?,but our ones had foot throttles for road use.The Nuffield had full govenor control and a lever vertical on the right side of the tank,pull back for slow,push forward for fast....

OK,I set the throttle and motored out on the road....1st,2nd,3rd...not going too fast,then I put it into top,the road gear,and it was about 4 steps up - the govenor slams the throttle wide open with the new load and she's off!!! It's so light in the front that the front wheels are in the air,it's half a turn lock to lock and as the front wheels land I keep over correcting,the front is bouncing side to side as it bounces up and down - mean time I'm trying to shut the damn thing down,one hand on the wheel and the other on the throttle pushing forward as hard as I could,but the throttle was jammed wide open!!! This was really scary,I was totaly out of control,I was soon going to flip or spear off into something expensive or very painfull.

THEN I remembered to pull back on the lever to slow the motor down!! Oh man,that was scary shit,much much worse than any bike I've had out of control

[Madmax]

try going from an old H1 tripple
to a ZX10R!!!, gets you going shall we say

[Madmax]

should say that i was running the gearbox
shaft about face!! up for down ETC
and on the wrong side!!
will put it back a bit sooner next time

[TwoSeven]

I just took my race bike for a shakedown ride (well just up and down the street in 1st gear). I've long since lost my logbook with all the settings in it - so having to guess.

Little things annoy me like the tightness of the throttle (after riding a 250 for a while) and the clutch travel is more than 2mm.

It keeps changing up gears on me because the pegs are 100mm higher up and the lever angle was for my old boots that I no longer have - its so sensitive that the weight of the boot changes gear.

Same with the rear brake - I used to have it so you just breath and its on, now I was wondering why the rear felt so heavy. Must adjust it slightly.

I'd completely forgotten what a joy ohlins suspension was - my little old 250 used to go airborne with all the bumps, this felt like it was on an air cushion.

I forgot that I bent the top yolk slightly, forks and all that are straight but the right bar is several mm further forward so you kinda feels like you have to ride sideways (I remember I picked up 10mph down the straight because of it) - must fix it when I find someone that does frame straightning.

Its things like this that bring back how fussy I am with bike setup these days. Still I shall enjoy relearning how to ride it.

[MikeL]

Commuting on the CB-1 and riding the XJR on weekends, I find it fairly easy to make the adjustment. The bikes are quite different in weight and power. About the only problem is if I hop onto the CB-1 straight after riding the Yamaha and forget that the brakes on the bigger bike are much better...