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Riding Technique/Styles

Buellxb Forum

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Theycallmecrash

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2012
Messages
2,408
Ok enough with the mechanical threads abd the repair crap, thats over done. Some of us ride our bikes vs fix them. Daily driving is one thing, what about canyon carving? The twisties? The track? What are the dos the donts and styles you riders employ when it comes to handling your machine. Squidbuellie pointed out some flaws in my riding and its got me thinking a lot. Hand/fingers postions? Foot postions? Knees out, tucked up? More lean less lean? Im reading "twist of the wrist" its got some good info but there isnt one way to ride, some riders have flare, tricks, other methods for come through a turn hot, like in motogp, some moto2 riders adoted extending their leg out forward and slide everywhere. Lets argue (friendly of course) about proper and improper techniques. Videos or other books?

Edit: i know some of you like thrstrmech have experience teaching riding courses, any safety tips, riding tips are also wanted.
 
Great thread crash. Being a newer rider I'm also interested in whatever tips the more experienced riders can provide. I realize, experience is 90% of it (AND having a mindset of being safe & improving instead of just trying to show off) but I'm always open to the other 10%.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Sport-Riding-Techniques-Develop-Confidence/dp/1893618072
Sport Riding Techniques is a better book in some ways IMHO, The writer Nick Ienatsch has been around forever on the track and as a magazine writer and has a great way of putting things together in a way easy to understand.
Personal experience as far as Buell Lightning XB wise, short wheelbase bike with a strange center of gravity geometry can be very unforgiving. When pushed toward the limits off the track, the stock suspension has a difficult time dealing with road dips and bumps. Especially compared to a bike equipped with Ohlins or the like. With big torque I think it's better to brake early, early apex and minimal trail braking when riding hot.

Matt
 
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I'm also curious on proper technique as my xb9s will be my first sport bike or even a real bike coming off 3 months of riding a Honda rebel. What I thought was leaning on my rebel will probably be highly shocked the first time I go out and ride my buell.
 
I second the Sport riding techniques book. It is very good. Always brake early when street riding, late apex for me ( so i can see around the corner better) and near zero trail braking with the buell. It stands up alot during trail braking. My three rules of thumb are: lead with your helmet's chinbar , push on the inside handlebar and weight the inside peg.
 
Stay on your toes, and push with your legs.
At the end of the day your legs should be tired and sore not your arms.
Remember the rear brake is only 20% of your stopping power. Your rear brake is only used for two things...
1) your stopped at a stop light/sign on a big hill.
2) ripping a wheelie or hard on the power over a crown in the road and you need to get the frontend back on the ground.
Think of a lane in three parts left, right and center. When taking a turn start wide then like a hawk man "dive"
When your Buell suspension is set right for you, you will trail brake with your front in the middle of the turn, which will increase your lean angle. If you use your rear the bike will stand up.

And the most important thing to remember is look where you want to go.....
In what could be a life or death scenairo, If you focuse on a on coming car or something you don't want to hit, odds are your going to hit it.

Good luck, don't get over loaded and get out there and just pay attention. Soon things will just become muscle memory.
 
+1 on the countersteering. The first ime I pushed my first Lightning in a corner I was very happy I was well versed in countersteering as I really had to force the thing to keep from going way wide. Probably doing 80+ in a 35mph corner to get to that point though, but they really seem to need some coaxing to lay over all the way. Cautious confidence.

Matt
 
some good things stated so far...lanes looked at in 3rds, move away from traffic as you pass, i.e lanes in 3rds, leave yourself a buffer zone in order to "escape" if s#@! hits the fan, press on the handle bar in the direction you want to go, when braking hard always look straight ahead, your bike will go where you're looking, look through your turns from entrance to exit, track your turn from the outside, to inside, to outside, your turn should be a nice smooth line, if you brake in a turn, again look straight ahead and cover your brakes (4 fingers) here, your front brakes supply 70% of the overall braking power, if you lock up the rear don't let it go, stay on it 'til you stop, if you do hang on for a really bad oh s#@! moment...I'd suggest practicing your swerving technique, find an open parking lot and set up a few cones if you have 'em pretend there's a parked car, semi truck or some obstacle in front of you and just before coming up on that obstacle swerve either right or left, control your braking afterwards, keep your head up always, do some figure eights, while doing 'em look through your turn, don't look at your instrument cluster or the ground only through the turn and at the same time, roll on your throttle, slow down, look through the turn...repeat, slow, look and roll, repeat...this little routine plays a vital roll in tackling longer and sharper turns as you hone your skills, this takes time like everything else...ride within your limits and that of your bike...good luck guys, safe riding
 
So far this is great infomation, specially after reading a good chunk of the twist of the wrist, it makes a ton more sense. Thought i understood what a lot of the common words regarding motorcycles like "apex, trail braking, rolling the throttle" now i have a much better understanding.

Thrstrmech made a slight comment about fingers, how do you position your hand clutch and brake? I generally two over clutch, 3 over brake. But ive also conditioned my hands to be comfortable with 4 and 4, 2 and 2. Just from the different bikes ive had, different finger positions felt better than others
 
Remember the acronym C.O.W. Chin Over Wrist. When you are riding and you want to lean forward and in. Keep your arms loose. You should be able to tap the insides of your leavers mid turn. All the way though the turn you should be able to wiggle your arms like a chicken.

Remember smooth is fast.
 
Remember the rear brake is only 20% of your stopping power. Your rear brake is only used for two things...
1) your stopped at a stop light/sign on a big hill.
2) ripping a wheelie or hard on the power over a crown in the road and you need to get the frontend back on the ground. b]

20 % with that crap original rear brake??? never...!

after changing to the Brembo Hidden Brake...you can use your rear brake also for street and track braking...
and anyway, why not use 10% or more stopping power?? doesnt make sense to me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjp1AYXZw5Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeJ1JH2ah00
 
+1 on target fixation. One of the best lessons I learned in dirt riding was if you don't want to hit it, don't look at it.
 
I thought It's was slow is fast.....
And at high speeds and aggressive lean angles the last thing you want to do is use your rear brake.
1) it stands the bike up right
2) since it is only 20% of you have to apply more brake, which can give you some wheel lock. So then you loose traction.
3) you upset the balance of the bike in the turn. You want a smooth transition from front to neutral to rear.

To give you a good idea, while coming hot into a turn with a Buell (heavy flywheel bike) into a tight 45mph turn in 3rd gear at about 3900rpms you'll want to start wide with the bike at neutral (even weight on front and rear) in the middle of the apex you want the weight to go to the front either by your body or by using your front brake. Look through the turn then crack on the gas I.e transfer the weight to the rear to keep the power to the ground.

If you use your rear brake in the middle of the turn instead of the front your weight transfer will still be close to neutral. so the bike will try to stand up and not steer as well. this can be bad if ther are pebbles, dirt oil or a messed up crown in the road. Which can have the rear slide on you, you can go wide, high side or low slide or run off the road.
Rear brake + high speed + 40deg lean = high side and f-cked up bike...

Now I know there is going to be a couple of nah sayer that are going to disagree. But those are people that can't ride. they ride there Buell like a mid life crisis man on a 10 foot long chopper.
 
Squid when you mention the heavy fly wheel, what does that mean? Does it have to do with the gyro affect that resists a change in angle? Or something to that affect?
 
It has to do with engine braking. One of the things that take time to get used to. alot of people down shift brake then go into the turn. you have to know the sweat spot in the rpm's so your not red lining it or way under the power band.

The other thing is that there is no belt lash.
 
I agree with legs tight against the tank, pushing into the tank on turns; balls of your feet on the pegs; Keep the Abs/core tight and let them hold up the upper half of the body. My shoulders should be capable of moving independently of my waist and my arms coiled but loose. I keep my chin slightly tucked and eyes up till its time to turn/maneuver. I usually cover the clutch with 3 and the brake with 2.

Your elbows shouldn't be locked with your arms holding you up while your lower half is just plopped on the seat with your knees flared and feet covering the shifter and brake). The ability to react and make adjustments is hampered by that posture. Not to mention it will wear on your back. I find the range for what I can do on the bike, react to situations, manipulate the bike around objects as well as shift body weight accordingly (like keeping it centered over the bike when I lock up the rear) is better with the body position described above. Just my two cents.
 
I love Threads like this. Twist of the Wrist II is a more Street oriented but the first book will give you great tips that transition to the street very well. Something I usually aim for on the apex is to get my shoulder pointed at it. Roll your inside shoulder to point at the apex or the end of your sight line. Keep the outside arm down on the tank as to almost hug it. And the above mentioned is well worth noting. Your thighs should be a tad sore if you are pushing yourself, not your forearms. Balls of your feet, you should always been looking ahead through the turn, head/eyes pointed down the line.

This is taken from "Total Control: High Performance Riding Technics" Written by Lee Parks.

Step 1: Reposition foot.
No matter what kind of bike you ride, ground clearance will become an issue as your skill and speed increase. Whether you're using footpegs or floorboards, it's important to tuck in your foot so it doesn't stick out. Otherwise, it can catch on the ground and throw your leg back hard enough to cause you to crash.

I can't stress this enough, I see many first time riders with their toes out. Keep them in and inline with the bike.

Step 2: Pre-position body.
To keep the bike stable while entering turns, it is important not to upset the suspension. The best way to avoid upsetting the suspension is to pre-position your body in your final cornering pose before you enter the turn. This way, the weight transfer happens when your suspension is perpendicular to the ground. This is the best position for the suspension to deal with it. The important rule here is to keep the centerline of your upper body to the inside of your bike's centerline. It doesn't matter if it is an inch or a foot to the inside so long as it's to the inside and that the distance to the inside remains constant throughout the turn. For example, if you move your upper body's centerline six inches to the inside of the bike's centerline, stay six inches to the inside no matter what lean angle you are at, and don't move back to the center until the bike is completely vertical again. By moving your body into the inside airstream, the high pressure area created by doing so (especially when dropping a knee out), will give the bike a pivot point to steer around. This further lessens the amount of force needed at the bars to steer.

Step 3:push on outside grip.
As soon as you pre-position your body, the bike will want to fall to the inside of the turn. To prevent this, you need to push on the outside grip to keep the bike on a straight path. The bike will look a little strange at this point as it will be traveling straight but leaning to the outside. This is because the outward lean is necessary to counter the gravitational force trying to pull your off-center body to the ground.

Step 4: Locate turn point.
Once your body is in position, you must quickly choose a reference point to mark your turn-in. If you are practicing, it can be a well positioned cone. On the road, it might be a spot on the pavement, a rock, or a tree just off the street or even an imaginary coordinate as you might use in billiards to bank a ball. It's best to use something that will allow you to easily sense its position since you will not be looking directly at it when you start to turn.

Key point here is find a point you will start the turn. Keep it in your peripheral.

Step 5: Look through turn
After choosing your turn point, you should look as far through the turn as possible to find your exit point. If the turn is set up in such a way that you cannot see the exit, look to the farthest point you can locate, and keep modifying your view untill you can see the exit.

Step 6: Relax outside grip.
When you have reached your turn point, release the pressure on the outside grip. This will allow gravity to help pull your off-center body and the bike into the turn.

Step 7: Push on inside grip.
At the same time you release the pressure on your outside grip, add pressure to the inside grip until your desired lean angle is achieved. It's very important to do this as quickly as possible. Once you have reached your desired lean angle, use only the inside arm to make all of the steering corrections by pushing and pulling. The reason for this is to keep your two arms from wrestling for control over the bike's steering. The bike must be allowed to use its trail and gyroscopic processional forces to continually rebalance itself at your desired lean angle. By pushing and pulling with only one arm, you allow enough "Give" in the system for the bike to do what is needs to do to keep balanced and hold a smooth, tight, line. The more you use both arms to steer, the wider and more jagged your line will become, requiring even more effort at the bars to maintain a given radius. Of course, the outside arm should still be holding on, but it should be completely relaxed and ready in case it is needed. On a sport or race bike, it's best to rest your outside arm on the tank to preserve strength and make sure it's not trying to steer the motorcycle. On a cruiser or tourer, your outside elbow should be pointing down and your outside shoulder muscles should be completely relaxed.

Step 8: Roll on Throttle.
Once the bike's suspension has settled into the turn, you should get back on the throttle as early and smoothly as possible. Getting the initial "Crack" of the throttle open is the most critical part. Remember that the lean angle will limit the amount of throttle that can be applied, so only accelerate as hard as the bike's lean anglewill allow. For example, at full lean only a little throttle can be applied before the rear tire runs out of traction. On the other hand, full throttle may be applied when the bike is completely upright. Everything else falls along that continuum, and the rate of throttle application should mimic the rate of straightening up. Trying to accelerate at too much of a leanangle or turning the throttle too quickly at any particular angle is a recipe for a slide out. Accelerating out of a turn will also help pick the bike up, requiring less force on the bars to get upright.

Step 9: Push outside grip.
To help the throttle get the bike upright when exiting a turn, countersteer in the opposite direction by pushing on the outside grip or pulling on the inside grip. It is important that you not pull your body up to the bike's centerline while countersteering back.

Step 10: Move back to neutral.
Most riders have a s strong urge to move their bodies back to a neutral position in the center of the bike too early in the corner exit. It's best to wait until the bike is completely, or almost completely, upright before doing so. This is especially true when accelerating hard as the available traction will be used up primarily with the throttle, and any large body weight shifts could upset the suspension, squandering any remaining traction.

The only catch here is tight esses and switchbacks. You'll have to be quick on flicking the bike around and keeping your head looking as far ahead for your next RP's. Keith Code calls them Reference Points. These are spots you want the bike and youtself to be ready to execute.
 
^^^Very good write up. Thanks for posting the information. Its amazing that we go through all of those very minute steps in one turn and most people don't even have to think about it. Sometimes it can come naturally
 
Squid mentioned in another thread to me about setting up his suspension to allow some rear wheel spin, in other words hes a badass and has some flare to his style. Anyone else got these show type skills and how?
 
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