Look no hands! I know its dumb but....

[brightspark]

Recently I've seen several bikers riding 'hands free', at relatively slow speed. As a newish biker, I have no idea if my eyes are deceiving me, or are these bikes still moving under power without a hand on the throttle? As soon as I lift my right hand off, engine breaking kicks in and I would probably grind to a halt within 20/30 metres.

So is my perception, as a spectator different, and are these bikes actually gradually slowing down, or is there some technique to keep forward motion going? ( posted in this forum as, yes I know its stupid to take both hands off, but I'm just curious!)

[FilthyLuka]

In most scenarios, the bike is actually slowing down. The engine braking on a high revving 4 cylinder is very minimal (atleast compared to a 600 thumper) and if its a two stroke theres none of it at all

[madmal64]

I do this from time to time. Usually when Im coming into a town from open road speed. I do this if there is clear road in front and no side roads for things to come out of.
For me its more of a stretching thing and gives me few seconds to sit up and have a small wriggle of the wrist and back. Of course sitting up adds to the slow down time too. So I am slowing down.
Hope that sort of answers your questions.

[onearmedbandit]

I do this a lot...

[Fatjim]

If you are in top gear the engine breaking is not so bad, even on a big vtwin.

[FROSTY:Me]

A good way to check if things might be amiss with the bikes front end.Habds off bars see if things start to wobble

[brightspark]

so.... you are not somehow powering your machines without touching the throttle, just using your skill & expertise to make it look like you are...

[onearmedbandit]

Nothing to do with skill and expertise. If you're in a higher gear on a larger bike engine braking is not enough to slow the bike abruptly. On my thou I can slow right down to a wobble before I need to grab the bar.

[McJim]

A good way to check if things might be amiss with the bikes front end.Habds off bars see if things start to wobble

And if a not very good rider tries this then soon things WILL be wrong

The VTR250 has a fair amount of engine braking for a first bike so you will feel daunted as a relative noobie. I moved from the VTR250 to a Ducati 600ss which has way more engine braking but I know the bike pretty well and know how quickly it slows down in each gear so like tonight after a blat round the countryside as I came bak into a heavily policed 50 zone I sat up and took both hands off the bars and let them hang down at my sides to loosen up.

I take the hands off the bars quite often these days coz all the roads round here are straight and I get a bit stiffer than when I was caning the twisties around Auckland.

Thanks for the tip Frosty - good to know my front end is fine.

[johnnyflash]

and no, it doesnt slow the bike down if Cruise Control is engaged :-) how the hell are you meant to drink your coffee and eat pizza :-)

[McJim]

and no, it doesnt slow the bike down if Cruise Control is engaged :-) how the hell are you meant to drink your coffee and eat pizza :-)

You forgot texting dude. Shit, are you the Cruiser from Ponsnobby or summat?

[johnnyflash]

You forgot texting dude. Shit, are you the Cruiser from Ponsnobby or summat?

Sorry McJim, forgot about that, I aint perfected one handed txting yet, takes both hands and cant take eyes off lcd screen for at least 5 minutes, , its those four page txts with one finger on each hand that takes at least 5 kilometers to complete.

[riffer]

I do this from time to time. Usually when Im coming into a town from open road speed. I do this if there is clear road in front and no side roads for things to come out of.
For me its more of a stretching thing and gives me few seconds to sit up and have a small wriggle of the wrist and back.

Hah! I thought I was the only one who did this. Cheers Mal. I don't feel alone any more. It's a good time to have a bit of a stretch but keep your eyes peeled on the side roads.

[sAsLEX]

A good way to check if things might be amiss with the bikes front end.Habds off bars see if things start to wobble

Another one for front end stability at speed is to give the bars a Delta input of a short sharp whack, this in essence contains all frequency vibrations, and if you have a poor set up it might induce a tank slapper!

[babyblade250rr]

i know some motorcycles (Dont ask me which) have an idle speed adjuster on the handle bars so by increasing it allow the bike to move forward from the high idle, As for people like myself that have no idle adjuster use a higher gear you get a longer roll! but be careful!!