Another Ride !!

[XRNR]

Excuses Excuses ...

Your unlucky or lucky, I don't know which !

What happened to the gloves? They come in quite handy when your smoothing out the tarmac with your hands.

You never know when your going to loose it, best to be prepared for it.

[Ranzer]

Excuses Excuses ...

Your unlucky or lucky, I don't know which !

More explanation than excuse... if you can explain it, you can learn from it - and I'd rather learn from my mistakes and try not to make them again rather than leave my next off entirely to luck.

[wkid_one]

My best advise is to keep your head and even your upper body upright when cornering, and just bank the bike down as low as it needs to go, bending yourself at the waist... I think this style is similar to what's used on dirt bikes? At any rate it seems to make cornering a lot easier/more comfortable on this bike.

Advice I'd avoid like the plaque. You are effectively pushing the bike down under you and removing the directional forces on the tyres and replacing them with lateral ones. If anything - you want to be lent in FURTHER than you bike - hence getting off the seat.....

You tactic will make you ride a wider line than you need to

[FROSTY:Me]

For me riding scenic drive is a two way affair.Ride up it once checking out the gravel patches then ride back with a bit of pace on.
it seems to be one road that changes every time you ride it

[Motoracer]

Hey dudes, Sorry I missed the ride. Sad and sorry to hear about the bin too man. You have considered the enviroment and the bike but have you considered the rider as a factor as well? Not meaning to sound nasty or anything but if you think about it, the rider factor is something you can work on and maybe avoid future missfortunes. I am just trying to give helpfull advise so please don't take it the wrong way.

[Two Smoker]

Yep you definately learn from crashes, from the looks of your chicken strips do you counter steer?? your not winding the bike over very far at all, although it your new riding technique feels better i think it might result in another bin due to what Wkid One said, try getting off the seat glad to hear you didnt get majorily hurt and the bike looks pretty fixable (just a lick of paint by the looks of it)

[6Chris6]

Yep you definately learn from crashes, from the looks of your chicken strips do you counter steer?? your not winding the bike over very far at all, although it your new riding technique feels better i think it might result in another bin due to what Wkid One said, try getting off the seat glad to hear you didnt get majorily hurt and the bike looks pretty fixable (just a lick of paint by the looks of it)

It wasn't Ranzer that binned it this time although he did on same corner, same model bike 1 year ago

[wkid_one]

For me riding scenic drive is a two way affair.Ride up it once checking out the gravel patches then ride back with a bit of pace on.
it seems to be one road that changes every time you ride it

Very prudent approach.....

I should have done that on the Rimutakas. Oh - wait - I did ride over it twice that day before binning it. The lesson I learned is the road can change between the first and last time you went over it......regardless of how soon the last time you went over it was.....cars can pick up gravel, drop shit etc etc....make sure you save 10% to evade.

[erik]

You are effectively pushing the bike down under you and removing the directional forces on the tyres and replacing them with lateral ones.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.
As far as I can tell, all you are doing by keeping your body more upright is moving your centre of mass a bit to the outer side of the bike which means you have to lean the bike over a little further in the corner for a particular speed/cornering force.
Provided you haven't used up all of the bike's available lean angle, I don't understand how there could be any benefit from leaning in further than the bike and getting your knee down.

I took some measurements on my brother's zzr250 to try to figure out what sort of a difference in lean angle it would make shifting your weight to the inside of the corner, or shifting it in the other direction. If I've got things right, then if you can move your centre of mass 250mm to one side or the other (for an 85kg rider on the zzr250), the difference in angle is about 17 degrees. But if you're not leaning over so far that you're scraping the pegs, it doesn't really matter, does it?

[FROSTY:Me]

To quote an instructor at superbike school (many years ago)
Dont worry about your riding style cos style is all about looks not about going fast.
My go fast mode style is to use HUGE amounts of body english -ie i hang waaay off the bike and pull the bike down onto me. That feels comfortable to me. A mate of mine prefers to keep his bum glued to the seat and lean with the bike. Whos quicker--well my ego demands i say ME but reality we're about evenly matched.
Watch a vid of a gp race and see all the different styles -yet they are all going just as fast.
I'd be more concerned about the lack of gloves issue. I still have scars from an off at pukie over 10 years ago--and i was wearing race gloves too

[wkid_one]

Just saying - you shouldn't be leaning against your bike....that is not the way road bikes are designed to corner. You should be shifting your CoG further towards the centre of the corner - not away from it. At worst - you should stay perfectly aligned to the rear wheel of the bike - at best - off the inside of the bike.

Leaning the opposite way or staying upright is a life threatening habit that you want to get away from. If you are in the habit of doing this - you response to a threat is to accentuate this and lean further away - which grossly upsets the balance of the bike. A road bike is not like a dirt bike when cornering........believe me - I have fallen off dirties every weekend for the last 2 months trying to ride it like a road bike.

Hanging off the opposite side of the bike it NOT an adviseable way to corner - esp if you want speed. Check the very vids you posted and see how many lean the opposite way to the bike.

[Posh Tourer :P]

To quote an instructor at superbike school (many years ago)
Dont worry about your riding style cos style is all about looks not about going fast.
My go fast mode style is to use HUGE amounts of body english -ie i hang waaay off the bike and pull the bike down onto me. That feels comfortable to me. A mate of mine prefers to keep his bum glued to the seat and lean with the bike. Whos quicker--well my ego demands i say ME but reality we're about evenly matched.
Watch a vid of a gp race and see all the different styles -yet they are all going just as fast.
I'd be more concerned about the lack of gloves issue. I still have scars from an off at pukie over 10 years ago--and i was wearing race gloves too

Absolutely agree.... why would you risk your hands for the price of $100 for a pair of decent gloves? Its not worth it....
Also, while sitting upright on a bike is ok, dont lean outside.... it'll slow you down. On the plus side, you have plenty of opportunity to lean the bike over less and you more if you suddenly slip..However, leaning the bike less, and therefore getting more grip should be the aim of the game, not keeping your body upright. Having 17 degrees of extra lean should make quite a big difference to your grip stakes when you are a long way over

[Ranzer]

My best advise ... is to keep your head and even your upper body upright when cornering, and just bank the bike down as low as it needs to go, bending yourself at the waist...

I'm not suggesting this style for racing, or for use on pure sports bikes.

If you're racing then yes you do want to move your CG as far to the inside of the curve as you can to make the most of your bikes lean and traction. But for most of the on-road riding I do I find it much more valuable to keep my head high and level so I can judge the road better, since (feel free to call me a slow rider ) I don't tend to take corners at speeds which are anywhere near exceeding my bikes traction (especially blind or hard to see through corners). Generally on wide open curves that I can see through I won't use this style as much. Also leaning to the inside of the curve on blind corners tends to make me take wider lines, since I like to keep my head away from on-coming traffic - I can actually take tighter lines with my head up and away from the center line.

Also so far the only road bike (and I've only ridden a couple) I've found this style useful on is the ZZR 250. Sports bikes I've ridden (FZR, CBR) have no trouble cornering if you stay in line with the bike, and the seating style doesn't leave your head feeling like it's too far to the inside when cornering - but the ZZR is a sports-tourer, and in my opinion it just doesn't corner or seat quite like a pure sports bike (if this is due to rider error please let me know I'm always keen to improve my riding).

Anyway, sorry for not making this clearer in my first post.

Ranzer

[Two Smoker]

It wasn't Ranzer that binned it this time although he did on same corner, same model bike 1 year ago

Cheers Chris, yeah that is what i assumed when Ranzar was talking, it was more aimed at the pictures. Hope the owner is alright

[Posh Tourer :P]

I'm not suggesting this style for racing, or for use on pure sports bikes.

If you're racing then yes you do want to move your CG as far to the inside of the curve as you can to make the most of your bikes lean and traction. But for most of the on-road riding I do I find it much more valuable to keep my head high and level so I can judge the road better, since (feel free to call me a slow rider ) I don't tend to take corners at speeds which are anywhere near exceeding my bikes traction (especially blind or hard to see through corners). Generally on wide open curves that I can see through I won't use this style as much. Also leaning to the inside of the curve on blind corners tends to make me take wider lines, since I like to keep my head away from on-coming traffic - I can actually take tighter lines with my head up and away from the center line.

Also so far the only road bike (and I've only ridden a couple) I've found this style useful on is the ZZR 250. Sports bikes I've ridden (FZR, CBR) have no trouble cornering if you stay in line with the bike, and the seating style doesn't leave your head feeling like it's too far to the inside when cornering - but the ZZR is a sports-tourer, and in my opinion it just doesn't corner or seat quite like a pure sports bike (if this is due to rider error please let me know I'm always keen to improve my riding).

Anyway, sorry for not making this clearer in my first post.

Ranzer

Well justified....I think almost everyone tries to keep their eyes level, by bending at the neck. I know I have used your style occasionally on the CB125T, because I didnt feel comfortable hanging off/being in line with a bike that was that much smaller than me . It certainly didnt help my cornering speed though. I felt much better when I realised I was doing it, and tried to get used to being in a more conventional pose. I am not trying to get you to change, you obviously understand the reasons behind your choice, and the other options also. Just a point of view....