[Fire-Limey]

Well, seeing as you were all so decent on my first post, perhaps you can help with my little problem......here it is: I lose my nerve on right hand corners! Yes, the arse cheeks pucker and Mr. White-Knuckles pays a visit and rather than just lean in, I start to go wide. Very embarrasing and potentially fatal. Now, I've only just got back into riding after some 17 years, mostly as I lived in Bermuda and the biggest bike allowed is 100cc (most are 50cc) and the speed limit is a cheek-rippling 21mph. However, when I lived in UK I had all manner of bikes and don't remember having this fear. At 38 I am certainly more aware of my mortality, but I'm not trying to be a daredevil, just go around the bloody bend! Anyone else have this irrational problem? Or have I become a sad old has-been who should sell his beloved sprint and spend the money on a nice safe, comfy armchair? Help me lads! Please feel free to ridicule and poke fun at me and maybe the bike-Gods will remove this curse!
Lee :???:

 

[trotsky]

Practice makes perfect mate. Not so many roundabouts over here to practice on though.

Head out on your favorite ride and make sure you have lots of bends that give you good sight lines. That way you will always know if you go a little wide you won't end up as a hood ornament.

 

[bakwheeltango]

hey dont feel bad.
I get squirrley sometimes when a car is in a right hand bend the same time as me.

It sounds to me like you need to find a empty parking lot and just do giant right hand circles.

ride your favorite route is also great advice trotsky!

its important to set yourself up properly before the bends.
**stay at the speed limit before you get to the corner this way you guaranteed not to come in too hot and panic.
(most of the time the police is on the straights, so if you behave yourself. you will avoid big tickets and coming in too hot into a bend. all of the fun is in the twistys anyway, and any monkey can turn the throttle in a straight right? dont become luggage! LOL)

talk yourself thru it (out loud) only you will hear it!

have all your braking done before you meet the bend

keep your head and eyes up
look turn your head to where you want to go )not where you dont.)

if its a slower corner try not to be in first gear.
these bikes are torquey and its hard to be smooth in 1st.
so second.... perhaps even try rolling through the bend with your clutch in (if you need to (they teach this in MSC)

your goal is to be as smooth as possible braking and through the bend.

accelerate out of the bend.


hope it helps.



[ This message was edited by: bakwheeltango on 2006-11-03 19:24 ]

 

[Alsworld]

Lee,

not here to poke fun at all. Sometimes it takes practice at lower speeds. Don't rush it, but take your time in your comfortable zone.

A motorcycle riders course does wonders. I know that sounds like a textbook answer, but you are having a problem that hands on training can help with. Getting comfortable with your bike is also something that they can assist with while overcoming your situation.

Your goal is very reachable through varying means. I suggest a MSF course to begin with. Even senior riders learn from them. No shame involved whatsoever, just good education. Think about it awhile. If you love motorcycling, it's one option to consider...

 

[mglemans86]

The faster you go the tighter the arse cheeks grab the seat. Go for it!!. You won't fall off

 

[DaveM]

Fire-Limey,
no need to worry mate. I have not really had much of a gap ever in 30 years without a bike but it is all just practise and mind over matter.

The more you ride again the more confidant you will become.

Just as you already know ride within your abilities and go steady.

I am 46 well very close to 47 actually and am a confidant rider in most conditions but I have had a lot of experience and have also had more than 10 accidents, one of which wrote the bike off over the 30 year period.

I ride pretty hard mostly and don't commute. As you get used to your more modern machinery your abilities will improve.

You have chosen an extremely easy machine to ride in the Sprint ST.

You will be fine just ride as much as you can and try not to scare yourself too much.

We all don't have Mike Hailwood ability after all do we?
:wink:

Davem

 

[upNorth]

Focus! Who is in charge - you or the bike? LOOK where you want to go and push that side of the handlebars. Do not look anywhere but where you want to go. You will be there.

 

[Beach]

Hey Lee,

I think this is something that most riders go through at some point and will continue as your riding ability and skills advance. You get one thing figured out, then you find another technique that has you stuck.

Starting from scratch, I would say the first thing to get sorted is your posture. That is how you sit on the bike. Get this sorted and everything will flow from there.

Arches of your feet on the pegs, knees gripping the tank. Sit as far forward as is comfortable. Relax your back, shoulders, and arms. An important thing to point out is that you hang onto a bike with you knees. Your hands on the bars are for control input. Practice this with the bike on the center stand.

When cornering - Turn your head!!! Like really turn it and keep your eyes level with the horizon.

Counter steer. To go right, push the right bar. Experiment with how much effort effects the bike. Counter steer going into corners and counter steering to pick the bike up to go straight and then steer the other way. You can experiment with this in a straight line as well.

Its important to keep your arms and shoulders relaxed while cornering, hang on with your knees and be flexible from your waste. The second you tense your upper body and arms, the bike will run wide.

While doing this dont worry about how fast you should be going, that will come.

A little thing that helped me when approaching a corner:

Knees in.
Relax upper body.
Turn your head (in the direction you want to go!)
Counter steer.

Dont think about it to much!

Be sure to carry constant throttle through the corner. If youre idling, the suspension is unloaded and the bike wont be working the way its designed to.

This is a real back to basics approach, but I'm a firm believer in getting the foundation right in anything and building on that. My apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here.

Hope tis helps.

Brett.

 

[mglemans86]

I am 46 well very close to 47 actually and am a confidant rider in most conditions but I have had a lot of experience and have also had more than 10 accidents, one of which wrote the bike off over the 30 year period.

10 get offs one every 3 years! , you should stick with the soft woolies, you don't fall as fast and hard and when you get off you get off

 

[DaveM]

On 2006-11-03 20:29, mglemans86 wrote:

I am 46 well very close to 47 actually and am a confidant rider in most conditions but I have had a lot of experience and have also had more than 10 accidents, one of which wrote the bike off over the 30 year period.

10 get offs one every 3 years! , you should stick with the soft woolies, you don't fall as fast and hard and when you get off you get off

mglemans86,
more than 10 actually. :razz:

One of the guys I ride with has broken just about every bone in is body racing. I havent acheived that! :wink:

If Mike Hailwood, agostini and Rossi can crash then so can I!!! :razz: :razz:

I have actually had two in the last 5 years one was a young car driver who ran a stop sign and I Tee boned him and wroter off the bike. The other was my fault, too fast in a hair pin on my Gixxer, I couldn't lean her over anymore and,............. low sided in the pea gravel on an unfamiliar road, ( I knew better, stupid just too fast).

mglemans86,
one day when you visit Oz maybe you would like to come riding? :-D :razz:

Davem

 

[soonerfan85]

Keeping my elbows pulled in closer to my body seems to help me make quicker more fluid adjustments while cornering.

The thought of running wide in a curve with oncoming traffic can be enough to cause even seasoned riders to loose confidence. Find a big empty parking lot (industrial parks on Sunday are nice) and practice, practice, practice. Empty parking lots are usually very forgiving. Never hurts to know just how far you can lean your bike over before she lets go. OK, so it still hurts, but at least in an empty lot you don't become someone's hood ornament if you happen to make a little mistake.

Good Luck.

 

[ruscook]

Lee, don't let it worry you. I've been back on bikes for 9yrs after a 10year brake and have now done over 250,000KM in this last 9 yrs. I still get nervous when I haven't been on a run for a while.

The best thing you can do is get some training. You know how to ride so don't go for the absolute basics, go for an advanced or intemediary course or the California Superbike School. I've done levels 1& 2 of that in Oz, and it's brilliant. Overall it was better than the 2 other "advanced" courses I did.

The advanced course was really intermediate and great for that first few months back on the bike, but it focused much more on road craft than technical riding skills. So after a 10yr break it was worth it to brush up on the roadcraft, but the superbike school really concentrates on the skill aspect and in a progressive way through each level - well worth it.

Russ

 

[iceman]

Lee - your apprehension is quite normal after such a long time off.
I was off bikes for about 20 years - you come back much more aware of the dangers.
The biggest advance that I found was the awareness of 'countersteering' - as mentioned above.I had never heard of it I rode all those years ago.
If you are not familiar with it you can learn it through a bike school or there are plenty of good books on riding that cover it.
The main thing is easy does it and slowly get yourself 'back up to speed'

Enjoy

Grant

ps your difficulty with cornering one way and not the other is apparently relatively common.Riding schools get riders to do figure 8s where a lot of riders find they can do the right hand turn no problem but struggle with the left or vice versa.

[ This message was edited by: iceman on 2006-11-03 23:21 ]

 

[DaveM]

On 2006-11-03 23:18, iceman wrote:
Lee - your apprehension is quite normal after such a long time off.
I was off bikes for about 20 years - you come back much more aware of the dangers.
The biggest advance that I found was the awareness of 'countersteering' - as mentioned above.I had never heard of it I rode all those years ago.
If you are not familiar with it you can learn it through a bike school or there are plenty of good books on riding that cover it.
The main thing is easy does it and slowly get yourself 'back up to speed'

Enjoy

Grant

Very good advice iceman.

Davem

 

[cactusJ]

Be patient. I understand your problem very well. After not riding for a very long time, I began to have doubts that I would ever regain what I once had. Every corner seemed too tight or I seemed to be in a wrong gear. Some times I was like I never ever ridden at all. One day the wires all connected and it's been great ever since. Take the advice other have posted. You are not a loser when you ask for help. remember this : RIDE. You cant teach a dog to hunt by leaving him in the pen.

 

[2ndSpace]

What you may be doing is quite normal. I see it a lot and have expirenced it myself.

When cornering to the right you cannot see through most tight turns like you can lefts. Because you can't see you tend to slow down more and run wide to find your line of sight. Not seeing the road can be unnerving, but you must trust the road and hold your line. Rmember, if you are cornering right there may be a cage coming the other way that wants to cross the yellow. Running wide is bad, very bad.

Go find a road that you ride often and practice the right handers. build speed slowly and increase your confidence.

 

[iceman]

Lee,

I have just found a link to a very good site that Davem put me on to last yeat - it covers all sorts of practical riding skills including counter steering.

I also recommend the riding school option.I did it and was amazed at how much I picked up - it is a good way to learn from others experience rather than learning the 'hard way'

riding skills link

and as you are going in to winter and there wil be a few days when you cant ride - check out this link

dancing biker

look foward to a progress report.

Grant

 

[Sparty]

These four things helped me most with leaning & turning:

1) I squeeze the tank with my knees. Doing this makes me feel at one with my machine.
2) I look up the turn -- WAY up the turn. That's where I'm going to be in a split second so that's where I look, not right in front of my bike (I'm already there). I can't stress this enough -- look WAY up the turn. When I finally "got" this technique I was amazed how easy the act of leaning my bike became.
3) Trust the tires & believe. Don't think -- believe. There's such a difference between thinking & believing. You can't trust if you don't believe.
4) Practice. Ride & ride & ride & relax. Be patient.

Best of luck!

--Sparty

 

[jbirdfl]

Just go slower to start, and look where you want to go, not fixated in front of you or where the bike wants to take you. Others have mentioned position, so I won't go into that. It is important, though. I speak from experience, having just come back into the game after a 30+ year absence (during which most of my riding was bicycles... BIG difference!

 

[AlaskaSprint]

Lots of good advice in the previous posts. Leaning into the turn with your upper body can help -- you don't have to do the full racer "hanging off" at moderat speeds, just a little lean with your upper body. Some call it "kiss the mirror", move your face toward your inside mirror, again just a few inches is fine for moderate speeds.

One of the best tips I got at 3 days of track riding schools was what to do if you get surprised by a tighter than expected or decreasing radius corner on the street -- drop your inside shoulder and elbow. The bike will automatically tighten up the line. Try this with routine cornering and it may well help your right turning problem.

Re: riding schools, either an MSF advanced rider course or a beginning track day riding course are both good options.

Good luck,
Jack