Bad Habits?

[zzzbang]

Arches of feet on the pegs thanks - as in where the shifter and brake are instantly handy. I keep my balls in my pants.


I have a habit of keeping my bikes immaculate - fucked if I can understand why people spend that much on a new ride and then let it turn into a visual piece of shit.

well.. we have one thing in common, keeping bikes in perfect condition. everytime it rains or grime/bugs accumulate just have to go and wash the bike lol.

[LBD]

рпфашт ыони, very loosly translated means *&%^@! %) ^!@# and I think that is universal.

wot? you thought I can write Russian?...


But now that you brought it up I might get my translater to typer up some choice phrases....

[Pwalo]

Balls of the feet on the pegs (short legs), two fingers for braking (L twins slow down pretty well on engine braking, and I can't keep my little pinkie bent around the grip), grip the tank to keep the weight off my shoulders/wrists, and clean the SV and my visor every night.

Simple, or perhaps simplistic. or perhaps OC.

[awayatc]

So I got to thinking about this. Doubtless I have countless bad habits, but from a cursory examination, the only ones I can think of are these:

If you want to get a complete list of your bad habits just ask your wife.....

wives seem to be very good at that.....

[vifferman]

From my experience doing emergency braking practice, I think two fingers on the brake lever will still get you stopped ok? The only thing that might go wrong is not throttling off if you still hang on to the throttle with the others..

Well, it does work for me. Throttle control is actually easier with two or three fingers available.

The instructors told me it was bad and to place the peg in the arch of my foot. I think they were arguing that it gave you instant access to the rear brake and gear shift.

So what do others do? I changed my habit after that course, but did I go from good to bad or bad to good?

It doesn't matter what others do - this isn't "Riding by Consensus".
As for the "instant access" issue - you still have instant access to throttle, brake and clutch. If you're riding defensively, in most instances you'll be aware of / anticipating hazards and there's HEAPS of time.

Four fingers will give you better feel and control on the road for stopping, though some people have far more practice with two fingers and so tend to use it all the time. That's fine though. Whatever works for the individual, so long as they can generate consistent braking force and control in all situations. There isn't one technique though. Practice stuff in a relatively isolated environment until you find what works for you.

There's an example of this in a thread in here somewhere, where I switched from my usual 1 or 2 finger braking to using four to bed new brake pads in.
Disaster....

... grip the tank to keep the weight off my shoulders/wrists

Oh.
There's another example of something I need to work at - and I bet summat LOTS of riders do: leaning on the handlebars. Too often I catch myself doing it, especially when tired.

If you want to get a complete list of your bad habits just ask your wife.....

wives seem to be very good at that.....

My original post was shorter than intended - my wife walked in when I was writing it, and one thing she hates is me posting on KB.

Another bad habit I have is riding the same routes when communtering, and getting into the habit of doing the same things. Like using parts of the Kombat Kommuter Kaos as a personal racetrack - not excessive or dangerous speed, just a bit fast. "Ooh! Nice curves, no traffic, just give it a bit of throttle..." That's how I got my last ticket.
You sort of get settled into a groove, which has the daanger of becoming a rut. It's easy to switch off a bit, and do things by rote, and not give your ride sufficient attention. It's how I wrote off my last VFR.
It wasn't my fault as such, technically or legally, but if I'd been just a little more alert, listened to the small voice inside my head, been a bit more cautious, instead of just boogeying along, I wouldn't have a pain in my leg that sometimes keeps me awake at night.

[Okey Dokey]

Thanks for the feedback on the balls vs arch query. I think the town vs country style of riding is pretty accurate. One size doesn't fit all, as per usual. Cheers!

"Riding by Consensus"- I just wondered whether your example was good or bad, that's all.

[madbikeboy]

Hey Viff.

I'm a one finger braker. I rest my finger (the finger) on the brake. I can brake, and throttle to downshift/blip smoothly. Two fingers are overkill for a GSXR1000, and I can lock the front easily.

My bad habits.
Impatience with thick people. It's rude. Also, I help out too much. People begin to expect it, and when you stop, they think you're a c*nt. I drink straight from the moo juice container. I call milk, moo juice. I obsessively clean my bike. I give too much of a shit. I use the rotary propulsion modulator for bad sometimes. But it does save the tire wear, and we know tires and global warming are linked somehow, right? I assert my space, this is bad because car drivers love to hear stories about bikers eating pavement, and this goes some way to preventing that. I have zero tolerance for morons at BBQ's who start telling me about some bad experience with bikes. I tend to use sarcasm too much. I don't always lift the toilet seat. I walk the dogs on the beach regardless of the daylight savings thing. I have too many moments of excessive acceleration. And excession loss of traction too. I think bad thoughts when my girlfriend's mother is rude to waitresses, sometimes I open my mouth and tell her what I think about it. The bad habit bit is not speaking up sooner, or nicely. I hang out with people who wear dead cow. I spend too much time on KB. I have no life.

[Mystic13]

I go for arches and pop to balls when things get tight. Leaned over tight I mean.

Bad habits would be;

- not keeping the weight off my wrists under hard braking. I just get a little lazy and my single ab is the worse for it.

- not checking the tyre pressure often enough. I believe I can feel a drop in pressure so I tend to go by that for letting me know it's time to check and fill up.

- riding around with knee pads that look brand new. I tend to keep my knee off the deck rather than touching down. Maybe I have a fear that the leg will be ripped off.

- Being envious of riders with no chicken strips on the front tyres.

- never wearing a seatbelt.

- sometimes not wearing all the gear. I promise next time I ride my sons skateboard that I will be fully kitted up.

[slofox]

Being too lazy to move my R foot forward to use the back brake...and use only the front and engine braking...unless the shit hits the fan in which case I just leap off and let the bike go where it will...while I bounce along the road on my head...which is empty anyway nowadays so no harm done...

Never cleaning the bike. My neighbour cleans and polishes his RG150 every weekend and parks it out the front for all to admire. I just go fanging around the countryside and come back all covered in bug splat the road spooge and all that. I always think I will clean it one day but that day hasn't arrived yet...it's a year old and looks about fifty...

Going riding instead of mowing the lawn, weeding the garden or doing any housework apart from laundry...no wonder my houses is full of spiders...

[vifferman]

I spend too much time on KB. I have no life.

Oh yeah - those are tow bad habits I have too.
I also care too much about things - I'm sure it prematurely ages you...

...my single ab ...

sometimes not wearing all the gear. I promise next time I ride my sons skateboard that I will be fully kitted up.

...I just leap off and let the bike go where it will...while I bounce along the road on my head...which is empty anyway nowadays so no harm done...

Never cleaning the bike.

Yeah, I'm guilty of that too.

Going riding instead of mowing the lawn, weeding the garden or doing any housework apart from laundry...no wonder my houses is full of spiders...

No, sounds like you've got good priorities. My weekends are usually so full of chores and boring crap that going back to work on Monday is a relief...

[madbikeboy]

Okay, so we have a school of bad habits here. Viff, SF, cleaning the bike is good. This is what I do.

Imagine that moment when you get asked to do something you really don't want to do, like visiting the supermarket to pick up milk and whatever else...

"Oh, honey, I just pulled the stuff out so I can clean your car"...

Translated "Are you fucking kidding? Thank fuck I forget to bring the cleaning bucket in from last weekend"

So, the Alfafa gets the speedwash, madam is happy since she has a shiny gem again, and she disappears off to the supermarche.

An hour later, I'm still happily cleaning scoot with a nice new toothbrush that someone left carelessly sitting on the bathroom sink...

Cleaning the bike is the biker's equivalent of a pre-flight check.


EDIT - I need to spread it around before blinging you again Viff.

[Okey Dokey]

When my husband and I got our second bike, after sharing one and taking rides in turn, I found a bad habit. Not used to riding as a pair, I sometimes concentrated on keeping an even gap between the bikes rather than looking ahead through the corner as I was used to doing. For a brief while I had to "re-train" myself to look past or through him on our other bike to read the road.

Could have been caught out big time for silly inattention, but happily I realised what I was doing before it became a problem.

[Maha]

Arches of feet on the pegs thanks - as in where the shifter and brake are instantly handy. I keep my balls in my pants.

I alternate, I use both options as Mystic13 stated.
As for bad habits? maybe getting to close to the centre on right handers? not so much now, I have (over the last while) been correcting that. Being behind someone who I consider one the most smoothest out there helped correct some of the thing I knew needed attending to. But yeah the feet get shifted when it tightens up.

[Mikkel]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh3qZ2FlwSI&feature=related[/youtube]