No Harley Bikes here ..?

[PrivatePilot]

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I took the advanced rider course with a buddy who owns an FJR. It performed admirably. Again, butt in the seat mattered more than the bike itself.

He spanked me (and many/most others) when it came to emergency braking of course (massive dual disc vs my single, and others less willing to dance on the edge of lockup and dumping their bikes) but I will admit that my bike did surprise me. I've self-practiced threshold braking by myself in the past on my VTX (and any bike I've ever owned for that matter), but not to the level we did in the course, nor using the tactics we were taught to maximize it right to the bleeding edge.

A little OT, but for those curious about some of the stuff we did at the advanced rider training course, here's a shot of by buddies FJR during one of the threshold braking training runs. Look at his front tire. No, it's not flat, it's just compressed to the max - there had to be 14" long by 6+ wide contact patch going on there. Too bad the shot wasn't a little more square on (it's hard to gauge where it's going to be) but you can clearly see it.

His back tire is off the ground, as well.

 

[Mad Mike]

An FJR has a lot of breaking power up front, particularly if you switch off the ABS. I'll bet he was doing stoppies by the end of the course -- I know I was!

 

[sburns]

So do any of you guys actually ride gymkhana ?

Is that a code word for something else so you don't get link snatched.

 

[Evoex]

Is that a code word for something else so you don't get link snatched.

 

[Mad Mike]

I know a few cop riders -- they'll do the cop rodeos -- they're not gonna touch this.

 

[PrivatePilot]

That looks fun as hell but I'd like to see them do it at 1/4 the pace. Going slow is the hard part.

Edit: Yes, I get it, fairly confident these are timed where speed matters more than accuracy, but again, I'd like to see one of these guys in one of the courses in the video I posted above where accuracy and skill is equally as important as speed.

 

[Trials]

... where accuracy and skill is equally as important as speed.

That would be called Moto Trials competition :|

 

[Mad Mike]

That looks fun as hell but I'd like to see them do it at 1/4 the pace. Going slow is the hard part.

Edit: Yes, I get it, fairly confident these are timed where speed matters more than accuracy, but again, I'd like to see one of these guys in one of the courses in the video I posted above where accuracy and skill is equally as important as speed.

I'm pretty sure a Gymkana rider would murder a cop-cone-course at any speed. Low speed maneuvering favours cruisers over sport bikes, these riders use the same techniques but at speed -- tough!

 

[Evoex]

That looks fun as hell but I'd like to see them do it at 1/4 the pace. Going slow is the hard part.

Edit: Yes, I get it, fairly confident these are timed where speed matters more than accuracy, but again, I'd like to see one of these guys in one of the courses in the video I posted above where accuracy and skill is equally as important as speed.

On a sport bike?

 

[woot]

I would say no not really. Doesn’t take a whole of skill to sit on a cruiser and just click off miles. On the other hand I’m a firm believer that riding as many different style of bikes as possible allows you to keep improving your skill set.

I admit I am struggling to think where riding a cruiser has helped me on other bikes.

I would disagree. I always enjoy the challenge of motorcycling. I found that even on an ER6-n I could no longer challenge myself on public roads without risking my bike/licence/life. I got a harley and it was a new challenge. Not big on clicking off miles but to be able to ride it as hard and aggressively as my previous bike was a new skill. Scraping forward control pegs while pushing on ape hangers is fun and can be done without riding outrageously fast.

 

[Trials]

Can't recall riding a motorcycle of any description at any time and not having fun.


Didn't really start learning much until I started to follow better riders, that works.

 

[Evoex]

Can't recall riding a motorcycle of any description at any time and not having fun.


Didn't really start learning much until I started to follow better riders, that works.

Wait wait wait, didn't you recently post about riding an older standard Harley and giving it right back?

 

[Trials]

That was an Italian motocross bike with Harley stickers on the tank, was in poor repair and had the most narrow power band I had ever seen. lol ya if your bike is crap that's not a fun ride, my bikes are not crap, I'll go back to riding mine.
btw: I don't regret the experience of having ridden it.

 

[blackcamaro]

I would disagree. I always enjoy the challenge of motorcycling. I found that even on an ER6-n I could no longer challenge myself on public roads without risking my bike/licence/life. I got a harley and it was a new challenge. Not big on clicking off miles but to be able to ride it as hard and aggressively as my previous bike was a new skill. Scraping forward control pegs while pushing on ape hangers is fun and can be done without riding outrageously fast.

I’m not so sure that’s expanding on your skill set though. It sounds more like you are enjoying the experience of riding a bike with lower limits then your previous bike.

 

[Trials]

Thread needs a nice Harley photo:

... this one looks well enough sorted to ride

 

[Wingboy]

Thread needs a nice Harley photo:

... this one looks well enough sorted to ride

A lot man's Norvin.

 

[Wingboy]

A poor man's Norvin.

 

[Evoex]

That was an Italian motocross bike with Harley stickers on the tank, was in poor repair and had the most narrow power band I had ever seen. lol ya if your bike is crap that's not a fun ride, my bikes are not crap, I'll go back to riding mine.
btw: I don't regret the experience of having ridden it.

Just sayin' reading that post did not come off as you having 'fun'.

Only keeping you honest Trials, they pay me extra for that.

 

[Trials]

Still, highly recommend that everyone ride every motorcycle they have the chance to ride.
lol just be careful until you see how bad it really is.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Still, highly recommend that everyone ride every motorcycle they have the chance to ride.

On that we can agree.

I'm lucky to have some good riding buddies who trust me enough to hand me their keys and offer me a ride and vice versa - have been able to try out a few new bikes that way including another Goldwing over the weekend. The owner was one of the friends I did the advanced riding course with and it's helped him immensely.

We all had so much fun that we re-created a portion of the course and practiced some of the exercises again this past Sunday. For what quickly turned into 3+ hours...we were having so much fun.



I took out his Goldwing at one point, rode it around a bit to get comfortable (not my first time on one, but like anything, you need to feel it out), started taking it through the courses, and was scraping the floorboards in fairly short order. Now that he knew that was possible without dumping the bike, he promptly went out and did it himself about 20 minutes later, having gained even more confidence.

I then dumped my own bike about a half hour later when I ran out of lean (hit the frame) while trying to make a turn that was just basically impossible it seemed, but that's another story. And I now officially know how far my bike will lean before it just can't anymore, LOL.

No harm really, and no complaints considering that was the first time I've dumped a bike since 1994...in a wreck which wasn't my fault.

I'd rather dump my bike at low speed in controlled environment testing myself and bettering my skills then crashing on the open road or in a parking lot somewhere (with an audience of course) because I was so afraid to drop my bike that I never learned them to begin with.

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