To give advice or not

[Riff Raff]

During the course of the Coromandel loop ride yesterday some people threw a few snippets of advice my way. Now some of you may have got the impression that I'm an ungrateful bitch, which is probably true. I'm very aware of my own failings, but get a tad precious when they are pointed out to me.
Went on a decent ride today and spent half of it analysing my riding style, then a brainwave hit me as two separate and (I thought) unrelated conversations came to me. One was on target fixating, and the other on the wobble my bike has on some cornering. Noticed the wobble was occuring on right handers and realised that I was focussing on the centre line and not on where I wanted to go. Simple stuff really. I'm not sure when I started doing this, but it is fairly recent and probably has something to do with a couple of near misses I've had with cars straying over the centre line.
So anyway this is a thank you to those offering advice. I'll try to be more receptive in future (unless I have PMT in which case I'll be totally irrational), so keep throwing snippets at me.

[R6_kid:Me]

thats the good part of riding in a group. If ya like i'll set you up on one of the Bronz Ride Right Ride Safe courses so that you can practice your braking and turning in a controlled environment. I did it and had a wicked day.

[Ms Piggy]

Good on ya. I reckon there are only a couple of ways to improve your riding:
a) By riding.
b) By being receptive to advice from more experienced riders.

As long as you're having fun while doing both though

[Riff Raff]

thats the good part of riding in a group. If ya like i'll set you up on one of the Bronz Ride Right Ride Safe courses so that you can practice your braking and turning in a controlled environment. I did it and had a wicked day.

I actually did an advanced riding course 6 months ago which was very useful. I think the problem was that I'd a had a few frights and got a bit nervous. I practice emergency stops and countersteering regularly when I'm out and about. Now I'm going to try to analyse my riding on a fairly regular basis to make sure I don't slip into bad habits - and take on board well meant advice. Of course if someone comes up to me and picks at every aspect of my riding I'll probably bite their head off - subtlety is probably the best approach with me!!!

[Teflon]

During the course of the Coromandel loop ride yesterday some people threw a few snippets of advice my way. Now some of you may have got the impression that I'm an ungrateful bitch, which is probably true. I'm very aware of my own failings, but get a tad precious when they are pointed out to me.
Went on a decent ride today and spent half of it analysing my riding style, then a brainwave hit me as two separate and (I thought) unrelated conversations came to me. One was on target fixating, and the other on the wobble my bike has on some cornering. Noticed the wobble was occuring on right handers and realised that I was focussing on the centre line and not on where I wanted to go. Simple stuff really. I'm not sure when I started doing this, but it is fairly recent and probably has something to do with a couple of near misses I've had with cars straying over the centre line.
So anyway this is a thank you to those offering advice. I'll try to be more receptive in future (unless I have PMT in which case I'll be totally irrational), so keep throwing snippets at me.

Probaly not you, could be the bikes steering head bearings.

[R6_kid:Me]

bit of topic, but Riff Raff, are you an ambo officer at north shore St johns? if so do you know george and andrew brock?

[Riff Raff]

bit of topic, but Riff Raff, are you an ambo officer at north shore St johns? if so do you know george and andrew brock?

No my station is in the deep south at Otahuhu. Don't know them sorry. Only shore person I know is Speedmedic. If they're not on the same watch as me chances are I haven't met them.

[Mr Skid]

Sorry if I was a bit presumptuous with any advice. I come from the perspective of a learner who really likes being given any advice on his riding, and I forget some people are quite happy to get on and work it out for themselves.

If I think of anything intelligent to say in the future (highly unlikely) I'll do my bestest to be subtle about it

[merv]

The comments on the thread about the ride certainly weren't bagging you so even though I wasn't there I'd say don't take the comments made on the ride too seriously. I don't know how much experience you've had, but in my view biking is fun when you learn to ride smoothly feeling like you took each corner well. Good point to point speed comes from smoothness and that comes from feeling relaxed about what you are doing and making sure you are riding by thinking ahead and avoiding surprises that cause the erratic type of riding.

Dirt biking is similar, speed comes from smoothness - something Mr Townley is famous for - if only we could all ride like that eh!

[2_SL0]

I will always gratefully accept advice, anyone who wishes to pass on any helpful info I will gladlly accept.

[F5 Dave]

Best advice I ever heard:

‘Listen to what people say, but don’t listen to what people say’

:spudwhat:

Sounds a bit cock, but it came from an auto electrician friend. People used to tell him what they thought was wrong & he’d find himself looking for the wrong thing & so it means listen to what people say & think “what would make this person think this?

How does this apply to the above. Well only very loosely, but I’ve typed it so there you are.


I’ve been racing for a long time but I still have to remind myself from time to time ‘look where you want to go’. This is the hardest concept for people to grasp sometimes. I believe people who are ‘naturals’ pick it up from the go.
The eyes have it.

Driving cars is often a breeding ground for bad habits as they turn differently.

On one track with a long never-ending corner I found I was running wide & realised I was getting lost halfway around. I sat at the apex & practised looking around so I would get used to the sweeping motion my eyes had to make.

While this may seem abstract from the road as everything is potentially new, but the eye motion is important. Imagine your focal point as a greyhound following a rabbit quite some way ahead of you. Scan the surface & your position with your peripheral vision, but your focal point way ahead. On tight corners this means you have to turn your head quite a lot.

[2_SL0]

I do have a question on leaning if someone could offer some advice. I go into the corner I have a reasonble line, but I still seem to only lean so far, (this maybe in my head) I would like to be able to go thru the corners a bit quicker but I dont think I am leaning over far enough?, any tricks to do it. I understand the countersteering thing and put that into practise, but I just feel I would be able to go thru the corner faster if I was able to lean over more.

[Two Smoker]

I do have a question on leaning if someone could offer some advice. I go into the corner I have a reasonble line, but I still seem to only lean so far, (this maybe in my head) I would like to be able to go thru the corners a bit quicker but I dont think I am leaning over far enough?, any tricks to do it. I understand the countersteering thing and put that into practise, but I just feel I would be able to go thru the corner faster if I was able to lean over more.

to lean the bike over more, you have to be going faster.... find a nice corner, and go around it..... take note of your entry speed (DONT look at what speed you are doing IN the corner)......

Then increase it by say 5-10kmh... and see what happens.... Lean angle is weird, you cant really judge how far you are leaned over, (except for pegs/toes/fairings/knees scraping)

[riffer]

I do have a question on leaning if someone could offer some advice. I go into the corner I have a reasonble line, but I still seem to only lean so far, (this maybe in my head) I would like to be able to go thru the corners a bit quicker but I dont think I am leaning over far enough?, any tricks to do it. I understand the countersteering thing and put that into practise, but I just feel I would be able to go thru the corner faster if I was able to lean over more.

Not really advice, more anecdotal here. I had a real problem with leaning the bike for a while too. I found that the more I tried to lean the bike, the "weirder" the bike felt. In the end I discovered that although I was trying to lean the bike in I was also subconsciously fighting it (that old self-preservation thing again!) and tensing up my outer arm, which of course made the bike want to stand up. End result - corner wobbles.

Once I realised I was doing this I tried to consciously try and relax and I discovered that the bike pretty much knew where to go. After a while the bike started to go smoother. Dave's advice about lines is spot on too.

[Quasievil]

Well If I can add my incapable arse comment cause its working for me.

I found I was tight in the arms going through a corner, thereby making countersteering tense I fixed it by listening to better riders on KB and reading, now this is what I do.
I relax the arm on the inside of the corner ie a right hand corner ,the right arm, I relax my shoulder and arm and lean more shoulder into the corner (in a relaxed way) I find by doing this I, 1/ can use counter steering better, 2/ I actually turn in quicker with a relaxed inside arm shoulder.
I know the old story different things different people Blah Blah, but hey try it it may be good for you. If some of you say DOH, yeah well Im still learning lol