Dealing with corrugations in the road

[slofox]

When you hit a corrugated piece of road (usually in a corner on the twisties), how do you deal with it? (Let us hope I have used the correct forum this time, eh...)

[Kornholio]

Cane it!

[BigAl]

Hold on tight and hope your suspension will cope

[Motu]

Depends on where it is, if you can avoid it, change line. But more often than not, it's on the inside of a left hand corner...right on your apex.

I was having problems a couple of months ago on some back roads up north, the road was corrugated everywhere, the bike was pattering and running wide as it pushed on the corrugations....nothing I did could stop the problem. I was sounding like Casey Stoner winging about my bike. The bike was in standard BMW trim, with panniers for the trip, but without them for the day rides. Back home and I fitted my streettracker seat back on and hit the perfect Waikato roads. No more problems with corrugations, which is back to normal for me. I use the single seat because it lets me move around on the bike more - and getting forward in the corners solves the patters.

[slofox]

Hold on tight and hope your suspension will cope

Well...yeah. I do the "hope the suspension will cope" bit but I tend to slacken the hold off as much as possible. Seems to me that the bike copes better on its own than if I fuck around with it.

The "cane it" comment above tends to cause the bike to hop sideways across the road in my experience. Not always desirable on a narrow road.

[slofox]

Depends on where it is, if you can avoid it, change line. But more often than not, it's on the inside of a left hand corner...right on your apex.

Perzackerly. Ran into a bit today on the Kawhia road...

In general, my "line" through a corner is "wherever the surface is best". None of this "racing line" shit...but as you say, sometimes there is no good line.

[Gremlin]

Relax your grip on the bars a bit, clenching them will only result in all the vibrations being transmitted through your body. Keep looking where you want to go and the bike will head in that general direction as it slowly sorts itself out from the corrugations.

I wouldn't really bother with sportsbikes in NZ. They don't have the ideal suspension travel required for our bumpy roads. The KTM Supermoto with long travel suspension was brilliant, soaking it all up, the BMW almost as good. I keep the bike pointed where I want to go and let it figure out the bumps while I look for the next corner.

[slofox]

Relax your grip on the bars a bit

See post #5.

[onearmedbandit]

I do nothing. My grip is already 'loose' and I don't hold a closed throttle mid corner. I've had the bike jump right off line before, and it always sorts itself out.

[BigAl]

My grip is already 'loose'

With due respect, you're not going to exactly hold on tight.......