OK you twisty hotdogs

[James Burleigh]

Dragging a peg isn't an instant automatic crash, but a panic reaction when if happens to you for the first time probably is.

+1

When I ride routinely, I categorize my immediate circumstances according to risk rankings: yellow, orange, red (I practically never think I'm in a green situation, even when riding the bike into the garage after I get home and raise the door, 'cause I could hit something slick or pin the throttle and wind up in the family room: "Honey, I'm home!").

City riding is usually orange to red; freeways yellow if I have a large bubble around me; twisties are probably orange since I have on-coming traffic, decreasing radius turns, sh*t on the road, my over-confidence (ego), etc.

Anyway, when I scrape a peg, it's an indicator to me that I've entered a higher risk zone, both in that moment and in my ride at the time. So if I'm in a turn scraping a peg, I immediately go into hot-curve management mode, which means don't panic and chop the throttle, be smooth, look thru the turn, give it a tad more gas to even out the shocks, and so on. And then generally it causes me to do an ego check and slow it down.

Jb

 

[TNT]

The last time I hotrodded through twisties I was on my 76 xs360 and was 18 years old, actually it was a hot curvy road in Texas and remember feeling the bike slid a little or drift, now we don't have a ton of twistys in Ohio but when I was out yesterday I was as I believe getting a little cocky in my corners [probably about 1/2 speed of most of you] but my question is this, how do you know when the limit is close, I mean how far can you lean this on good surface and be safe. When the tires were cold the first street corner I felt a little slip, I mean was I almost going down or is there some give, sorry to sound so naive but I have traveled probably 20,000 miles on street bikes but never carving up the corners.

Sport Bike Tracktime offers a good novice class trackday. I would suggest you do one to help you find the limits of your motorcycle. I have found that after riding the track, I tend to ride slower when I get back on the street. That being said, the first time I rode my FJR in the twisites, I was scraping the right peg, due to the fact that I have a harder time getting off the right side of a bike than I do the left. I was surprised at how easily the FJR handled the curves and a bit disappointed that I hadn't used the tire all the way to the edge.

Vicki

 

[snap1945]

Vicki, when you went to Sport Bike Tracktime did you ride your Feejer?

 

[MotorSWATCop]

01MAY2007----Deals----Overlook to Store.

Clicky

 

[TNT]

Vicki, when you went to Sport Bike Tracktime did you ride your Feejer?

No, that was before I had the Feejer, but I did see a person riding one at STT Barber last fall.

 

[LGizmo]

VVVVVV Yes you can drag a knee on an FJR along with pegs and cans...lol

 

[Shadowfax]

VVVVVV Yes you can drag a knee on an FJR along with pegs and cans...lol

Do you have a pic touching a knee?

 

[FJRMGM]

at the last MotoGP race they had tilt-meter on one of the bikes and he was at 57 degrees at max lean.

 

[Cdogman]

Thats cool

 

[LGizmo]

VVVVVV Yes you can drag a knee on an FJR along with pegs and cans...lol

Do you have a pic touching a knee?

Nope that one is the closest actual pic I have to draggin a knee on the FJR..... I might get a couple after my next DG trip in June

 

[Kevin Daly]

Things I learned: You gotta REALLY hang off the FJR to make much difference in lean angle compared to an R6. From the wear on the rear tire afterwards it appears the pegs will scrape just about the time you are getting close to the edge of the rear tire. (Which is a good thing. The feelers let you know you are getting close to riding past the edge of the tire)

Well said! Especially for us lighter weight guys. I am 160-170 lbs max. In the few group rides I have done (I perfer to ride alone but am gettin an appreciation for the group thing), I have noticed that most riders do not distribute their weight to the inside of the turn and some actually put their weight outside. the heaver guys who do this are scraping (i noticed no one mentions the damage it does to the roads ). This is pushing the bike to lean much farther than is necessary for a turn (in most cases for most people) and the result is that if your going in hot or something comes up that requres a steeper lean, then your outa luck.

As Lee Parks says in his most excellent book, train yourself to preposition your weight to the inside of the turn before entry and maintain that position as you push the bike down. Doing this, if you drop into the corner quickly you will initially find that you leaned the bike too far. This means that you have been leaning way too far in the past and probabily not positioning you body for the turn. PS for those of you who scrape the right side more than the left, its likely because you get further off the bike on the left side

I enjoy the lean angle, its one of the things that makes a bike not a car. but you need to save some for a rainy day!

-k

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

And there are a few inches remaining before the pegs scrape.

 

[LGizmo]

And there are a few inches remaining before the pegs scrape.

:blink: someone's sure got some long legs...lol... I don't think I could get that much ground clearance unless I fell off the bike mid corner...hahaha

 

[James Burleigh]

So, speaking of scraping a peg.... This morning making a left turn on a left-turn arrow I scraped my left peg. So I guess that's another opportunity to see what that feels like....

And speaking of lean angle, I'm trying to paste a photo from my latest twisties video, but in the mean time, I stopped a couple of the scenes and put a protractor up to the horizon angle as against the top or bottom edge of the viewing window, and measured 45 degrees--and I'm not even sure that frame was the steepest lean ange (and BTW, rarely scraped a peg, so the bike can lean more than indicated). So if the camera is level when the bike's level, that should be a good indicator of the machine's lean angle, right?

Here's another link to the video.

Jb

 

[dean]

ugh, i just got back from shady valley from a rally, and i need to do something about the suspension. i was scraping peg feelers all over the place, and that was with me leaning off the bike. a riding buddy suggested i have a friend make me some different dogbones, but i don't know that that will help or not. i'm pretty much at the edge of both tires, altho interestingly i have just a little more of a chicken strip on my _rear_ than on my front.

same buddy, who's probably one of the top 3 smooth fast riders i know, took it out for a spin to check the suspension and dial in the right numbers. he came back and remarked on the jerkiness of the throttle when you first apply gas; i thought i had resolved that issue with the ergo throttle tube, but i had noticed it, too, in the corners, there was no way to make minute adjustments from no throttle to slight throttle, and it would unsettle the bike if you were in a curve. so i may give the spring mod a try.

 

[UberKul]

ugh, i just got back from shady valley from a rally, and i need to do something about the suspension. i was scraping peg feelers all over the place, and that was with me leaning off the bike. a riding buddy suggested i have a friend make me some different dogbones, but i don't know that that will help or not. i'm pretty much at the edge of both tires, altho interestingly i have just a little more of a chicken strip on my _rear_ than on my front.
same buddy, who's probably one of the top 3 smooth fast riders i know, took it out for a spin to check the suspension and dial in the right numbers. he came back and remarked on the jerkiness of the throttle when you first apply gas; i thought i had resolved that issue with the ergo throttle tube, but i had noticed it, too, in the corners, there was no way to make minute adjustments from no throttle to slight throttle, and it would unsettle the bike if you were in a curve. so i may give the spring mod a try.

Try these, scroll down to tail risers , you will scrape less. Raises the rear enough that both tires are still on the ground on the center stand. You can drop the front to correct that though.

 

[Shadowfax]

ugh, i just got back from shady valley from a rally, and i need to do something about the suspension. i was scraping peg he came back and remarked on the jerkiness of the throttle when you first apply gas; i thought i had resolved that issue with the ergo throttle tube, but i had noticed it, too, in the corners, there was no way to make minute adjustments from no throttle to slight throttle, and it would unsettle the bike if you were in a curve. so i may give the spring mod a try.

I think it's the lash from the shaft drive. Bugs the hell out of me too and makes you keep a little throttle at all times and sure makes you concious of riding smooth.

 

[HaulinAshe]

Try holding about 1/8 clutch pressure. Can't say exactly how much that is, but enough to allow the hard hits from the drive lash to slip a bit. It really helps smooth things out, but takes a lot of practice to make it predictable.

 

[James Burleigh]

See related post here....

 

[painman]

ugh, i just got back from shady valley from a rally, and i need to do something about the suspension. i was scraping peg feelers all over the place, and that was with me leaning off the bike. a riding buddy suggested i have a friend make me some different dogbones, but i don't know that that will help or not. i'm pretty much at the edge of both tires, altho interestingly i have just a little more of a chicken strip on my _rear_ than on my front.
same buddy, who's probably one of the top 3 smooth fast riders i know, took it out for a spin to check the suspension and dial in the right numbers. he came back and remarked on the jerkiness of the throttle when you first apply gas; i thought i had resolved that issue with the ergo throttle tube, but i had noticed it, too, in the corners, there was no way to make minute adjustments from no throttle to slight throttle, and it would unsettle the bike if you were in a curve. so i may give the spring mod a try.

Spring mod should be the first along with taking up the slack in the throttle cable....PM. <><