Total Motorcycle Community Forums

When emergency avoidance is needed is it best to lean the bike while keeping your body veritcal? I find it much easier to swerve my bike this way, but I can see how it also could cause me to over do it too.
I don't usually take corners this way, because I enjoy leaning with the bike, it gives me that flying feeling.

Look here it will explain what's happening.

http://www.flamesonmytank.co.za/navigation.htm

This probably isnt the most politically correct tip in the world, but I do it....I'm a corrections officer, and the raquetballs that end up on MY sidewalk, usually find their way to my riding jacket.

If I have someone following too close to me at night, I discreetly slide one of the balls out of my pocket and bounce it toward my back tire-with practice, you can usually put it dead center of the tailgaters windshield.

This seems to get soccer-mom's attention.

The big rules...

1. The vehicle with the most lug nuts ALWAYS has the right of way.

2. All other drivers are trying to kill you.

3. You are invisable.

4. NEVER ride faster than your guardian angle can fly!

good points^^

Also, DON'T EVER PANIC. Panic can kill you. I duno if it's been said, but i'm lazy so read it again if you have to.

+++1, Geoff650R!
While taking my husband out on his maiden ride on his new Honda Aero w/ Voyager kit we were enjoying a beautiful afternoon ride on the mountain roads near home. Since I was unfamiliar with these backroads (I ride to work and back) he lead (led??) the way. While making a left turn he took off with me to follow and turn to an immediate right. There was a steep hill with a blind turn on the right with alot of trees and shade. As I prepared to commit to my turn a cager came flying up the hill and around the hill as my front wheel was entering the lane. I didn't have time to finish the turn as he or she would be on top of me. Rather than become a spot on the backroads I gunned it and went straight across the road, down a steep incline and kept my feet on the pegs and rode it out. My husband feared the worst as I disappeared out of sight so he prepared to park and pick me up out of the ditch. I came riding up the hill grinning like a possum, 1st because I didn't panic or try to put my feet down, and 2nd because the jerk missed me! I'll never forget the look on my husbands face as I crested the hill and back onto the pavement without missing a beat! Stay calm as possible and always have an evasive move ready when on ANY road.

P.S. There was a cager behind me that witnessed the whole ordeal that follwed us for quite a while (maybe to get another show??) , and no, the idiot driver never came back to see if anyone was hurt.

Spiff wrote:

cb360 wrote:... by the time I die I will never have popped a single wheelie OR stoppie. Not on a motorcycle anyway.

So, do you plan on doing a few stoppies or wheelies in a car?

Now THAT I'd pay to see!

Spiff

Supposedly my dad put a huffaker racing engine in a VW bus as a joke, he said the thing reared up on its back wheels like an angry caterpillar. Not sure if it's just hyperbole but it's sure one heck of a mental image.

Nibblet99 wrote:When starting out, as soon as you are comfortable on a bike, AND THERE IS NO TRAFFIC ON THE ROAD, try experimenting with counter steering (where you lightly push the bars in the wrong direction, to lean the bike, at speeds of 40mph and above).

Eh, doesn't countersteering kick in, on most bikes, at far lower speeds?

Gummiente wrote: I also weave the bike from side to side in the lane as I approach, especially if there is a larger vehicle behind me. Often the cager is focused on the larger target and may not see you as they prepare to launch across the intersection to beat the traffic; by "wiggling" the bike it draws their attention to you and, hopefully, they won't move.

This was actually the suggestion to come out of a British study on crashes caused by vehicle right-of-way violations. The study looked at human perception and noted that people can't detect the "y" or "coming towards them" vector, but the jinking side-to-side triggers the "x" vector senses, which then lead to the detection of the forward velocity. If I can find the link, I'll post it.

Media Weasel wrote: Eh, doesn't countersteering kick in, on most bikes, at far lower speeds?

Yes, but most people don't notice it.

The fact is, on two-wheeled vehicles, all turns are countersteered.

If they weren't, you'd fall over to the outside of the turn instead of leaning in.

To lean, you have to move the contact patch out. You can try to just lean, but while the top half is leaning in, the bottom half will lean out, because the center of gravity won't torque about the contact patch unless the contact patch finds a lateral force to cause the torque. And to lean in, you have to push the bottom out, which means first steering out so you can lean in.

After that you steer in so you can maintain the constant lean.

But the difference between high and low speeds is that at high speed the force from the trail is a lot bigger, so your hands have to do less of the delicate work of maintaining the stability of the turn. At low speed you're doing most of the wobbling manually, so you're doing more steering. But it's all still counter-steering.