Total Motorcycle Community Forums

yeh gravel sucks pretty hard, its pretty deceiving. i have a crummy gravel common drive and if im going to realtively fast and have to stop at the end for cars or people or whatever, ill slide my back tire and its my damn own driveway. ill used to stall on it too trying to find the right spot between stalling and thrashing rocks, but ive definately learned to deal with how the bike moves.

but if you ever find some way to ride a dirtbike, give it a shot. learning aside, its just plain fun

GrandGT wrote:I'm not trying to tool on anyone here, but new guys need to seriously consider borrowing a friends dirtbike for even just an afternoon. I have no idea why people say that dirtbiking doesnt help street riding at all "cause its not real experience" or yadda yadda

Dirtbike practice actually has been praised around here - just look it up. But, no, most of us don't have access to a dirtbike, which makes that sort of practice difficult to manage. There's no reason, however, that you shouldn't take your street bike onto dirt roads and practice. I don't do it often myself, but I have friends in Michigan who live on a long, washboarded and chunky dirt road, and when I go to visit them, I consider it good practice for me and my bike. Their house is also at the top of a hill, with the driveway being loose gravel with large tire ruts. More practice.

I hate to ask... but why a replacement with race fairings? Are you planning to drop the bike again and these fairings will offer better protection? I'm confused...

Oh well - just glad to know that you're unhurt after your drop. Take 'er easy!

Cheers,
Loonette

GrandGT wrote:I'm not trying to tool on anyone here, but new guys need to seriously consider borrowing a friends dirtbike for even just an afternoon. I have no idea why people say that dirtbiking doesnt help street riding at all "cause its not real experience" or yadda yadda bullshit bullshit. Before I started doing serious riding I hopped on my uncles old dirtbike and hit some sandpits. First turn i made in deep sand, i fell over immediately. By the end of the day I was flying around the pits and never fell over again. Plain and simple, dirtbiking teaches you to balance your bike. Yeh a 150lb dirtbike with knob tires isnt the same as a 400 pound street bike, but you wont be taking your streetbike into 6 inches of loose sand, or riding it across small ravines, so its a scaled experience. think about it.

+1

This is how I started and while I dont think it really helps with normal real world street riding, it will definitely give you an understanding on how to keep the shiny side up when you face conditions besides clean asphalt.

Actually a good example of this was during my BRC. My only experience going into this class was some dirtbiking and little bit of riding the Enduro I'm using now. Anyway we were practicing the emergency swerves, and the instructor totally forgot to tell me which direction to swerve until VERY late...now, the reasonable thing for me to do would be to just ignore that time around however I attempted to swerve anyway. I came in a bit hot, and grabbed the brakes too early and the tail end started came around on me pretty hard. If I hadnt had any experience on dirt prior, I would have surely high sided the bike but I actually ended up straightening it out and stopping within the right distance. The instructor said something like "I'm not sure how you didnt crash right there. I'm sorry for forgetting to signal but make sure you dont brake in a swerve next time"

For that type of stuff, I know it has helped me. If you can ride over dry creeks, stumps etc, every day stuff you might find on a road(or while parking off to the side) should be easier to handle

My little cousin has an even "littler" XR50. It is about a foot and a half off the ground and weighs nothing. That is the first bike that I ever rode, and toy around on it whenever I am down in Texas, where they live. Definately a fun ride, but I think I (6'5") need something a little bigger to get any real experience out of.

Even though it's a small bike, that kid is crazy with it. He hits these 6 foot dirt jumps at around 30 mph. One time he hit the mound wrong and flew into a wire fence. Bike was fine, but he went to the hospital with a badly bruised and swollen arm and hip. He got back on that thing as soon as his mom would let him. Kid is a die hard.

Loonette wrote:

I hate to ask... but why a replacement with race fairings? Are you planning to drop the bike again and these fairings will offer better protection? I'm confused...

Oh well - just glad to know that you're unhurt after your drop. Take 'er easy!

Cheers,
Loonette

well sharkskinz is supposed to be the best fairing you can get. it can withstand a lot of punishment from what i heard.

i'll either modify the race bodywork for easy track to street conversion or i'll just get the street bodywork from sharkskinz.

Ahh its ok, Verm. We're all just razzing you a bit.

































We'll stop at page 10 .

oh and maybe i forgot to say...

i won't be getting race plastic anytime soon.

since this one has been scratched already... i'll use the stock for my 1st trackday.

i also plan to ride her more, get more skills, be more aggressive, attend trackdays... then i'll make her shiny again once i get the over-confidence i need.

www.sportbiketracktime.com

Hang out with the factory roadrace team Yoshimura Suzuki and they'll answer your questions and you get to ride newly paved Mid-Ohio circuit and they may even help you even more. Cost is $495 but you'll have to factor in plane tickets.

learning from experienced people is great if you have the cash...
http://www.schwantzschool.com/aboutksss.htm starting at $1600 (full gear provided and bikes).

A cheap alternative is Kevin Shwantz Suzuki School's 30 track tips from Motorcyclist magazine August 2006 (buy the magazine I ain't gonna list 'em).

glad you are okay verm.

I have no idea why people say that dirtbiking doesnt help street riding at all "cause its not real experience"

i hack on dirtbike experience, but usually it is when it's a person saying they ran dirtbikes or atvs for a few years thinks they should be able to handle a streetbike. Most times these are the 16-18 year olds that may have only been driving in a car for 1-2 years.

Basically the street has different dangers than riding off road. the streets have cages and traffic rules, whereas dirt riding has more bumps/dips, loose terrain, water etc.

Dirtbikes are great for learning how to handle gravel and things of that nature for sure though.

bok wrote:glad you are okay verm.

I have no idea why people say that dirtbiking doesnt help street riding at all "cause its not real experience"

i hack on dirtbike experience, but usually it is when it's a person saying they ran dirtbikes or atvs for a few years thinks they should be able to handle a streetbike. Most times these are the 16-18 year olds that may have only been driving in a car for 1-2 years.

Basically the street has different dangers than riding off road. the streets have cages and traffic rules, whereas dirt riding has more bumps/dips, loose terrain, water etc.

Dirtbikes are great for learning how to handle gravel and things of that nature for sure though.

Everyone here (at least I think everyone here) agrees that dirtbiking will help your street skills. I'm not sure where the idea came from that someone here would say otherwise.