How To Ride Winding Road..

[JINKSTER]

you still get "The Drift"

 

[Saxoplay]

Good rider. Man, that wrong side of the road thing would be hard to get used to!

 

[JINKSTER]

(Saxoplay @ May 27 2007,09:10) Good rider.  Man, that wrong side of the road thing would be hard to get used to!

i was thinking the same thing....man?...i'd hafta ride the wrong side of the road there for a week to get my head re-programmed enough to feel safe enough to wick it up a bit...then my luck?...come back home to the states and have a head-on!

 

[Red05]

One thing universally true....be smooth, and that guy is really smooth.

 

[DaCol.]

Ok Guys, did you notice NO knee dragging, NO moving you Butkus off the seat and NO moving your shoulders from side to side. AND he ALWAYS looks  

through the turn NOT at it. His turns were smooth because he uses his knees to push and his inside leg to push down (or steering with his legs). Problem with us is, if you do it that way, you'll NEVER get rid of your chicken stripes or touch a knee

 

[Wire Dawg]

(Saxoplay @ May 27 2007,12:10) Good rider. Man, that wrong side of the road thing would be hard to get used to!

You know, it was actually easier to adjust to the left side of the road with my bike than it was in a car when I lived there. I kept walking up to the wrong damn side of the car to get behind the wheel...

 

[BusaWhipped]

(DaCol. @ May 27 2007,17:15) Ok Guys, did you notice NO knee dragging, NO moving you Butkus off the seat and NO moving your shoulders from side to side. AND he ALWAYS looks  

through the turn NOT at it. His turns were smooth because he uses his knees to push and his inside leg to push down (or steering with his legs). Problem with us is, if you do it that way, you'll NEVER get rid of your chicken stripes or touch a knee

Actually, pushing down on the inside peg will cause the bike to lean over further and make the chicken strip go away.

 

[bitabur]

Yea, I was gonna say, leaning your body into a turn makes the bike lean over less... (that's the point, actually, because it gets more rubber on the road while you're leaned over).

 

[CrashTestDanny]

Wow - very smooth. Anyone recognize the bike? Very nice lines - I like it!

 

[hunkie]

that;s a KAWASAKI .

 

[dadofthree]

No strips

 

[raydog]

On the street one can be smooth, emphasize the proper line and ride quite well without getting off the seat or dropping a knee (witness early race films of John Surtees, Fumio Ito, Gio Augustini, etc.). BUT, that doesn't mean modern knee down style isn't the fastest way to ride. Anyone who takes their track days seriously, or racers, know that if they stayed on the seat, their lap times would be significantly slower and there would be an increased frequency of low-side crashes. I think one of the problems is too many 19 yr old ricky racers watch Speed Channel then try to replicate the style with their 600's on the street (including when passing cars on busy mountain roads) without real training and experience! There's a time and place for everything. Raydog

 

[DaCol.]

Geezzzzzzzz, I agree with the fastest riding style is not what this guy is doing. But he is showing how to take turns on Public Roads, NOT race tracks. Different style and less tiring by using your legs and lower body. Don't confuse with riding technique on the road and on the track. Too many seem to think they're the same.  

 

[raydog]

DaCol. With respect, I'm very clear about the differences, but I wasn't on a track today when riding quite hard on a very twisty mountain road, and I was way off the seat with knee way down, and felt very safe. I don't do it around cars, motorhomes, driveways, etc. , only with a group of equally skilled veteran riders on certain special uninhabited roads, far from civilization....and that reality coexists with the fact that the Japanese rider was smooth, skillful and like a bird in flight. Raydog

 

[drumminman]

Anybody else notice that he never shifted gears? That makes it a bit easier to be smooth.

Riding in the mountains on winding roads with elevation changes definitely improves your skills. I just got back from a trip to the mountains of NC with plenty of time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 226, 181 etc. My ability to look through turns increased as well as over all confidence.

The great thing about the Busa is for 80% of the time you can leave it in 3rd or 4th.

 

[JINKSTER]

I believe the bike is a Kaw ZX7...with a diminutive yet smoooth asian dude piloting her...proof that one doesn't need 150rwhp to move a human body through 35mph street curves...but it sure is a blast on the straights!

For me?...as a street level rider?...Going "azz off/knee down" on long sweeping curves is always an option but on tight technical stuff such as esses and switchbacks?..i'll scooch my azz a tad from side to side but find that full blown "hanging off" can be quite disruptive to the chassis when you hafta switch too & fro in short order..so i usually elect to just shoulder point in the tight stuff...especially when dealing with the likes of ORens 500+lbs...knee grinding the tight technicals should be left on the track...no room for it on the street...which is what this dude is explaining towards the end of the clip...where he's limiting his bikes tires to using just 2/3rds of his own lane..leaving the remaining 1/3rd for his leaned over self.

Here's some killboy pix of me on ORen at the last "Fall Bash"...just click forward tab and it'll go into slide show...

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/AlbumSlideshow.aspx?a=324283

L8R, Bill.