Draft - help please? "The things that you need to know when you start riding."

**FROSTY:Me** · 24th January 2005, 07:27

a little known sectret here. The US army trained chimps to ride a bike at pase in a straight line in perfect conditions.
My point here being that the best thing you can do is practice practice and more practice.
Keep in mind the front brake will be more effective by far than the rear
tyres dont work well when theyre cold
Smooth riding will make the bike seem so much nicer to handle
avoid white painted lines in the wet if you can -they be slippery.
DONT BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS -NO MATTER HOW STUPID.
I remember as a pimply faced 14 year old asking what the difference was between a 4 stroke and a 2 stroke bike. The salesman was patient enough to explain it to me .

**TonyB** · 24th January 2005, 07:28

COUNTERSTEERING- (if I hadn't read about it the night before I wouldn't have gotten my first road bike -RZ250- around the first corner..)
Look as far ahead as you can
Apex late- stay out wide longer than you would in a car
Keep yer head on your side of the centre line on right handers
If something pulls/walks out in front of you DO NOT LOOK AT IT, look for a way around it
If see an animal on the side of the road, don't look at it- keep it in your perhipheral vision and look for it's freinds (personal experience here- golden lab on side of road on rainy night, stared at dog till it didn't have time to run in front of me, looked foward again and saw it's dark coloured freind standing right infront of me

)
If you lock the front brakes, don't freeze just let go of them again (one of my major riding faults, tied in with example above

)
If you think you are going into a corner too fast and the road is dry, and your tyres are warm and in good nick, and your pegs aren't on the ground then you should be fine...
Allways keep your hands and arms loose- especially when riding in high winds

Funny how I "know" all of this, but then seem to forget all the time...

**inlinefour** · 24th January 2005, 07:38

If your going to have an accident and you can.
Get away from the bike and whatever it will hit, if possible. The road hurts much less than a solid ogject that will slow your velocity quickly. I've hit a cow on a farm bike, I launched myself off it, flew superman style for a bit, then landed in a big puddle of mud and shit. I was very young then and was also doing motorcross. The bike was spare parts only, the cow was put down and apart from graises all I needed was a bloody good shower

**justsomeguy** · 24th January 2005, 07:42

One of the problems I have is when the corner "tightens" mid-corner or the radius of the turn suddenly decreases, I have a bit of a problem (lack of experience) in tightening my line, and brake to slow my self down which is not too scary while turning right, as if I go wide I go towards the pavements and pray that I can ride it out, but when the corner curves to the left it is infinitely more frightening as if you overcook it and can't follow the bend you go straight into THE

OPP0SITE

LANE

**TonyB** · 24th January 2005, 07:53

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

One of the problems I have is when the corner "tightens" mid-corner or the radius of the turn suddenly decreases, I have a bit of a problem (lack of experience) in tightening my line, and brake to slow my self down which is not too scary while turning right, as if I go wide I go towards the pavements and pray that I can ride it out, but when the corner curves to the left it is infinitely more frightening as if you overcook it and can't follow the bend you go straight into THE

OPP0SITE

LANE

I still get caught out by decreasing radius turns. That's the idea behind apexing late/ staying out wide longer- you have a better chance of seeing whats going to happen next, wether it be a tightening line or a cow. If I start getting worried and allow the 'survival reactions' to take over, I nearly always find myself hugging the inside line with my eyes looking only a few metres infont of the bike

That's one of the many things that makes riding so cool- you are constantly battling your survival reactions- your natural reaction is nearly always to do the wrong thing, you have to overcome that and make yourself use the correct technique.

**vifferman** · 24th January 2005, 08:45

Good effort, Dude.

A couple of things to add: You go where you look.
This has a couple of important implications:

Look where you want to go. Look through the corner, not AT the corner. It can also be termed "leading with your chin".
Don't 'target fixate'. This means, you go where you look. So if there's a potential hazard, or something alarms you, don't stare at it, but instead look at the path you need to take in order to avoid the hazard / obstacle.

So say you think you're going too fast for a corner (I say "think", because in most cases, except for an inexperienced racer, your bike can usually go around a corner faster than you think you can). The inexperienced rider will go, "Crap!! I'm going too fast!" then look at the corner itself, brake, the bike will stand up and end up going where you are looking (or crash, if you've braked hard and lost tyre grip).
The experienced rider will look throught the corner, and won't even think about whether it's too tight or not. If the corner is tighter than expected, he/she will know that feeding in more throttle will cause the bike to tip in more, and this will also balance the suspension for better grip.

You see a pothole in the road, or a piece that's fallen off a HoggleyDoggley, and stare at it. You end up running over it. Instead, look next to the obstacle, where you want to go. This also helps if you have practiced emergency swerving and braking, which you can do by riding round imaginary obstacles, or dark patches on the road, or bits of harmless debris, cowpats or whatever. Practice helps a lot, because unlike a car, where you turn the direction you want to go in order to swerve, on a bike you have to nudge/pull the bars in the opposite direction to swerve, which is counter-intuitive. So you need to practice so you will do it automatically without thinking.

Last thing: practice riding on less than perfect surfaces, such as gravel, grass, mud, etc. so that when you have no choice, you are not fazed by having to do so. Practice slow-speed turns, braking, accelerating, etc. Get to know how the bike behaves and feels on different surfaces.

**Blakamin** · 24th January 2005, 09:31

fuggit.... have read this thread 3 times now over the last whenever..

can we PLEASE learn to spell TYRES

I feel better now

**Storm** · 24th January 2005, 09:54

Always good to see a productive rant. Why are you not calming yourself with a quick dose of the red rocket? I'm sure that alway makes you a sane rational individual

**TonyB** · 24th January 2005, 09:54

Originally Posted by Blakamin

fuggit.... have read this thread 3 times now over the last whenever..

can we PLEASE learn to spell TYRES

I feel better now

One more thing- never ride when tyred. I have 2 kids and looking after them really tyres me out. Really reduces your concentration.

**inlinefour** · 24th January 2005, 09:59

Which was what caught me out at 15 years of age. I thought I was bullet proof on my RD and just keep riding hard in the wet conditions. I found out the hard way that after a period of good weather all the slippery shite gets absorbed into the road. Alas when it starts to get wet thats same shit comes back up to the surface (my Uncle was the head of the Minisrty of jerks, um Works, who explained that to me). Anyway I was riding around a certian 35km courner out at Urenui at slightly over 100km/h and the frount wheel pissed off in its own direction and left me skidding along the road.

**Blakamin** · 24th January 2005, 10:09

Originally Posted by Storm

Why are you not calming yourself with a quick dose of the red rocket? I'm sure that alway makes you a sane rational individual

coz its raining and there's diesel on pie-cock... alright in the dry, but I aint playin on it in the wet...... everywhere else around here sucks on long-weekends... too many morons on the road

:confused2

**thehollowmen** · 24th January 2005, 11:19

Originally Posted by Blakamin

fuggit.... have read this thread 3 times now over the last whenever..

can we PLEASE learn to spell TYRES

I feel better now

I tried that, but NZ dictionary in word keeps autocorrecting it to tires
I'll fix it manually, and yes I prefer UK English.

**scumdog** · 24th January 2005, 12:35

After about 40 quadjillion kms of riding I have only recently learned an Important Truth: ALWAY look at where you want to go- DON'T look at the kerb/centre-line/pothole to see how close you are going to end up to them!

Just focus on where you want to exit the corner, the above mentioned items aren't going to move or go anywhere so just leave them in your subconscious.

Even C.B. noticed how much smoother my cornering was when I got into looking 'way ahead into the corner.

Look as far ahead as you can, even if it is 80 -100 metres or more, the 20-30 mtres on front is to be ignored 'cause you won't be able to do stuff all if anything changes inside that distance on the open road.

**justsomeguy** · 24th January 2005, 14:09

Speaking of looking ahead....

One should make it a habit to look as far ahead as possible.....

the golden rule is to follow the dissappearing horizon (furthest point you can see along the road) with your eyes and the rest of you will follow.

Many professionals (racers, etc) are trained to use the trees, poles, etc to guesstimate the curve of the road before they can actually see it.

**justsomeguy** · 24th January 2005, 14:11

Originally Posted by scumdog

Look as far ahead as you can, even if it is 80 -100 metres or more, the 20-30 mtres on front is to be ignored 'cause you won't be able to do stuff all if anything changes inside that distance on the open road.

Ahh!!! Thats why. Take note people

may save your face and fairings