ncpbmw1953
Member
pffog;1094737 I will give you the same advice I give newbees at track days or riders who say they want to learn how to drag their knee said:DO NOT TRY!! The only goal should be to be SMOOTH!!![/SIZE]
Once you master smooth, you get comfortable, and once you get comfortable, you ride a little faster, and trust your equipment, and guess what, soon the chicken strips will disappear.
If you want to accelerate your learning curve, attend a track day, it is the best place to practice SMOOTH!
I'm certainly not trying to remove chicken strips per se--but they indicate I've never experienced how far the bike can lean. Why do I care? Here's the truth of the matter for me: I don't care to ride any faster thru STREET curves than I already to as I don't see it as safe enough for a 64.5y/o with rather frail bones (I do have a degree of osteoporosis already, probably in part from 33y of diabetes!) and pretty dang scrawny musculature despite pushups and more! Meaning, I'm not going to be able to tolerate a crash as well as a younger stronger and more padded person.
I basically follow the old 'Pace' concept, actually, Pace 1. This being said, it leaves me wondering how I will react at that potential panic moment when it's either panic and stand the bike up thru a curve, or lean it more and take the usually better odds for a slide out. Beyond mentally prepping for it which may in fact be enough (I absolutely know the bike can be leaned over more, i.e., that I have room to lean the bike more).
That's the agenda here--trying to experience this lean angle before I have to if I ever do. The biggest underlying part of the Pace is separating track behavior from street behavior, and I see and endorse this in spades. Many folks don't, but that will never be me as I think it's a form of crazy quite frankly. I do have some doubts that going thru the rigamarole to use the track I have that is about 55 miles from here once will really translate to enough learning to be applicable to street riding, but maybe that's not true. It's interesting you mention this because just 2 days ago I was at the local BMW dealer and was talking to a ~68 y/o who took his XR to this track and promptly crashed it causing modest injury to himself as well as his XR. Another guy was there in the conversation and said 'to be sure to get the helicopter transport insurance'. Well, one thing I'm not real keen on is crashing a '16 RT in order to learn how not to stand up going thru a curve if it that ever presents itself!
So, I'm working on it in my daily riding more now. As a Pace follower I already strive for all of the other stuff, the best lines, delayed turn in and apex, smooth, mega awareness and anticipation, etc. As a result, I have yet to get anywhere near a close call, and I'm hardly crawling thru the twisties. One thing I have not done much because I have never needed to is trail brake at all--once again at the pace I ride it just isn't necessary because typically it's engine braking before I get to the turn in, EXCEPT, once again, I'm therefore not prepared to apply what braking I can in an emergency situation, and I do generally understand the physics involved having read enough about it. So, the goal for now is to always use the front brake to slow coming into a curve just so I'm prepared, plus apply A LITTLE front brake SMOOTHLY while leaned (remember, I'm not super leaned) just for practice sake, which I've really never done. Strips range from about 1/2" to 7/8" wide, and weight is inside the bike's midline towards the curve so is a little less leaned as a result. This allows me to comfortably enter curves 20-25mph over the posted speed (or, how the curve looks to me when there is no posting) then accelerate at the apex. I'm real smooth at this and have been. But, once again, am not sure what the bike can get away with never having leaned to the point of reducing strips down to say 1/4" or less. I have no idea when hard parts start to touch down. In addition to introducing some trail braking my plan is to delay my turn in a fraction more to encourage me to lean the bike more by increments.
After this litany I go back to read your comment and the take home message to me was useful! Just keep working on smooth and a bit faster, later turn in, and the strips will narrow of their own accord.
Last edited: