| Author | Message | ||
     Midknyte |
This morning as I was settling in at work, it hit me! I've been having a difficult time with my XB with right-hand turns from a stop and it's been bugging the crap out of me because I am not a new rider. I've dutifully read "Total Control" (Lee Parks), and while my situation is not spelled out in the book, what I've learned from it puts it in perspective and it makes "total" sense now. So for the benefit of others, I divulge... One of the many things that drew me to the XBR is the relatively same ergos of my other sportbike (a Honda VTR). The XB is just under an inch taller in seat height and only a smidge wider. On my VTR, I can flatfoot both feet. On the XB, I'm on toes, so when I come to a stop I just shift myself a little so I can put a solid left foot on the ground (can you see it coming?). I finally realized that, shifting to put my left foot on the ground, that everything about my posture says "left turn". It is no wonder to me now at all that I have difficulty initiating a right turn. My weight is on the wrong side of the bike and it it is also therefore tipped, even if only a few degrees, to the left and when I go to make a right turn, among the sins here, I am causing a small whip effect when the bike crosses the lean from left to the right. So there you go - fellow short folk - when you come to a stop, be sure to put down the foot on the side that you intend to turn. | ||
| Southernmarine |
Thanks for the tip. One of the things you made me realize is that usually, I almost always put my right foot down. The weight shifting from a stop is something to think about. We have to be careful here on the Air Station. Some Genius decided that he wanted tiles down at the intersections for crosswalks, etc.. Well, they were supposed to recess them in the road and have grit on them for traction. Nope, set them on top and their slick as all get out. Sucks. Now we don't have a rain problem here, but when they get wet from rain, or screwed up sprinklers, etc.. you have to be extremely careful. I think someone dropped their bike, that or came really close because of them. I've felt mine slip on me several occasions. | ||
| Hootowl |
I always put my left foot down so I can keep my right foot on the rear brake. Making a right turn from this position involves pushing the bars slightly to the left while looking through the right handed turn, and then motoring away. Like countersteering from a dead stop. | ||
| Midknyte |
Follow-up. Got a chance (a dry day) to put this into practice, and it works. I still find that I need to come to a stop with my left foot, so that my right foot is available to work the brake. But once I'm stopped, shifting to my right foot made for marked improvement. | ||
| M1combat |
Why don't you just stop with the front brake? | ||
| Charlieboy6649 |
Cuz you should use both? | ||
| M1combat |
Really... I almost always just use the front. I use the rear every once in a while just to bleed a little bit of speed but almost always just use the front to slow down for stops or corners... Probably the wrong technique... | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Using both lets the whole bike squat more evenly then just using the front brake, of which I am notorioulsy bad about, just because I know why doesn't mean I practice it. Though I did yesterday...the rear brake is useless with the back wheel 2 feet off the ground. | ||
| Charlieboy6649 |
What Wycked said. If you nail the front brake and weight transfers forward, handling is diminished. Using both causes the bike to "squat", good word Wycked, and retains your ability to swerve when the brakes are released. Fresh from the advanced riders course  | ||
| Opto |
I didn't think Buells had rear brakes that did much more than keep you stationary for a hill start. Well, I haven't ridden one yet that does much more than look like a rear brake. If I near stand on it for 5 seconds with the power still on it improves slightly...  I got the impression it was designed for keeping the tail end in line under heavy braking and that's all mine gets used for. | ||
| Gusmyster |
I took the MC experienced rider course a week ago Sunday. While I debated which bike to take I ended up with the “geezer glide”. I thought that whatever I could learn to do on that I could easily transfer to the S3. One of the exercises they do is stopping with the rear brake only. There was a guy there with an S1 and I wasn’t sure if he was every going to stop! Even though it was way lighter than anyone else there it took him longer to shut it down. Of course when he used both brakes he stopped quick. The instructors were always on him about keeping the rear wheel on the ground when he stopped!  I would recommend that course to anyone, it was good to know this old dog could learn new tricks! g u s | ||
| Mikej |
Gus, Did they do any exercises of stopping with the front brake only? Just curious. | ||
| Gusmyster |
Mike, No they didn't. I guess this is the last year they will be doing the rear wheel only learning tech. Something about always telling students to use both brakes and then doing the rear wheel stopping exercise wasn't sound training. I dunno. I'm glad they did it. I've always used my front brake alot, but my right hand/wrist were a little sore by the end of the day.... | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
There are times and road conditions when you need to use very little front brake and alot more rear barke. That was the original reasoning for the rear brake only exercise. I adjusted the rear brake lever so I could apply more pressure then when I rode it off the lot. It improved the rear braking power quite a bit. It suprises me to hear that they no longer talk about those road conditions. IE: Very loose gravel/sandy conditions or back when they used to do the solid painted crosswalks, when they were wet you didn't want to touch the front brake as you came up on it or the front end would lock cause the paint when wet acted like a pool of oil. Even now the big patches of fresh laid oil can be a zone where you really don't want to use very much front braking at all. |
