I'm with that guy...
Counter steering seems to be really important to learn. Sure we do it naturally. it's just that when you understand it and practise getting control over the bike it gives you so much more options.
My thoughts are;
- practise counter steering
(when you get this sorted move to)
- practise changing your line through the corner by counter steering.
(it's really useful stuff when you find a large stone or pot hole in your line, you can steer the bike (while leaned over) around the object rather than hitting a large rock and going down the road or hitting a pothole and unsettling the bike.
(when you get this sorted move to)
- practise increasing your turn in speed. you see once you get the idea of counter steering you realise you can come up to a corner countersteer firmly and quickly, diving the bike down to the height you want, do the corner and throw the bike back up again. Doing this means you will dramatically lift your corner speed for any given maximum lean angle you use. Practise until you can dive your bike to the lean angle you want. This takes a little practise to find. You will need a lot more speed, or you'll need to drop the bike in later and pull it up sooner, or have less lean angle.
(so this countersteering skill and the ability to fire the bike up adn down quickly is life saving knowledge.)
(Once you have this sorted)
- practise braking firmly on a dry road or carpark and when you've got the front loaded, countersteer the bike gently. Some folks when they overcook a corner hit the brakes and shoot of the road. When in fact they could have turned the corner. Understanding you can steer while braking will give you the transition from hard on braking to turning. Be gentle with this you just want to get the idea it can be done.
- lastly you've gone to all this trouble I'd take the time to learn to brake;
- so that would be loading up the front before applying the brakes hard.
- and braking without loading up the bars, taking the weight through your legs and the seat (gripping the tank). You should be able to brake hard with relaxed arms.
For those that say don't worry about it I think you need to make a decision whether you want to be able to control your bike well and therefore have a far better chance of survival when things go wrong or not.
It seems you already made the decision.
P.S. With countersteering try pushing and pulling. I've found pulling far more effective. With the push the arm is at full extension and weaker is my guess. Logically a push-pull would be good. If you're finding the left harder it may be that your pushing on the right at the same time. This often happens with riders where they focus on the push and forget they are fighting the other arm. Both arms need to move not just one. One pushes while the other relaxes or pulls. You're steering the bike not pushing a lever.
Personally since you've decided to figure out how it all works I think you should ignore the well meaning but ignorant advice of those that say don't worry about it. Their advice is based on their lack of knowledge of never learning to do this stuff. I think if you asked every rider that took the time to learn this they'll say they're riding improved dramatically, they're ability to act when things went wrong improved dramatically as well. You'd never ask someone that had only ever riden a 125 what they recommend for riding a 1000cc bike. Likewise I wouldn't listen to the advice from riders who know nothing about the experience of using techniques of motorcycle control and haven't bothered to learn them, have never mastered them and don't have an inkling of the benefits.
That's my thoughts.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by sinned
ok now I'm on your page
That road really is awesome for learning countersteering on, 50K's all the way and loads of corners; the wind can be a little hard to deal with sometimes but I live in welly so that's just another thing I need to learn how to handle...
Bookmarks