Most challenging part of riding???

[mbalmer]

Cornering. I'm always worried about what unexpected debris might be on the road. Also the downhill corners. Gravity is pulling me down and I don't always want to throttle out of the turn. I don't want to coast either. As far as holding up cars if I need to slow down, I will hold up the cars. I don't want to push myself beyond my abilities and my cornering abilities are not fast. I do the speed limit on most curves.

[arai_speed]

Realizing that the bike can do more then I think it can.

[Jetbrett]

Cornering when I'm pushing myself.  I can be having a great ride carving tons of perfect turns  [moto] only to have a one brief mental lapse  which leads to a waaaaay early apex and/or entering with too much speed.  This in turn leads to sweeping too wide on the early apex and then a bad tendency to fixate on the ditch when turning left or the car in the opposite lane when turning right.      I'm getting much better with the whole fixation thing, but it is like peeling velcro getting my eyes off of danger. 

[Spider]

downhill turns

just when I think I'm getting there I stuff one up, get flustered, clutch-in coast the next couple and start all over again.

trying to get that rear brake drag just right is pretty hard

I'm only 6 months in!

[misti]

A lot of you mentioned downhill turns and they certainly are challenging, however, I've never used my rear brake on the street in the middle of the turn, but I hear people talking about it all the time.  How many of you use the rear brake and why?

Misti

[S2K]

I'm not too good with turns yet, but the most nervous thing for me is starting off on a hill.

[TiNi]

uphill starts

and

parking

[woodyracing]

on the track, its hard braking while downshifting and corner entry especially corners with a dowhill braking zone and more than 2 downshifts.  I've gotten a lot better at it but still not perfect.  Pretty sure the GP shift will help a bit as well (for some reason it just feels more natural on downshifting)

[DesmoDiva]

A lot of you mentioned downhill turns and they certainly are challenging, however, I've never used my rear brake on the street in the middle of the turn, but I hear people talking about it all the time.  How many of you use the rear brake and why?

Misti

I use my rear brake to help hold the bike for hill starts and quick stops.

on the track, its hard braking while downshifting and corner entry especially corners with a dowhill braking zone and more than 2 downshifts.  I've gotten a lot better at it but still not perfect.  Pretty sure the GP shift will help a bit as well (for some reason it just feels more natural on downshifting)

I thought all braking and shifting should be done BEFORE corner entry ( guess it depends on where one says the corner begins, maybe turn initiation is what i'm thinking of), so you can get on the gas as soon as possible?

[djomlas]

when approaching a light that turned yellow, not sure if i should stop or blow it, and then if i decide to stop HARD braking...last time i did that the bike slid underneath me, front wheel just went HARD LEFT and that was it,  so not a good memory of that... (only broke off a barend mirror and no other scratch).
so yeah, hard braking.... (and listening to that annoying squeaky rear brake)

[Jarvicious]

hard braking while downshifting and corner entry

+1  I can shift into gear, engine brake a little and swing into a corner all day every day, but coming into a turn FAST, having to brake, and downshift to the right gear to get out of the apex quickly still has me in a bind at times.  It has also taken me a bit to get used to looking through a turn.  It's not so much a case of technique training as it is I tense up and get scared sh*&%less every time I take my eye off of the road in front of me.  I always feel like I'm going to "over scan" and miss a gargantuan patch of gravel or something of that nature (or as I found on a recent ride, a gargantuan patch of cow pie).

Also +1 on what misti said about uturns.  Los Monstros have a nasty little turning radius so feathering the clutch, getting up to a couple thousand rpms and moderating your speed with the rear brake makes things pretty stable due to the gyroscopic effect of the higher revs.

Other than those little things, I'm pretty much the perfect motorcyclist 

[He Man]

What do you find is the most challenging part of riding.  I'm talking riding technique here, what do you struggle with, what do you find hard, what is the most difficult aspect of riding?

Misti

1) Making it home alive.
2) downhill turns
3) riding rough terrain at high way speeds

[Ducatista]

Hands down: lines.  Period.  It just isn't clicking yet.  I can't get my brain wrapped around finding visual markers  for where to turn in and then steer the bike.

[semyhr]

On staying sharp and focused...I've been known to sing to myself while riding.

Hey! I do that too! Long straight road in a city with low speeds  [moto]

[misti]

Hands down: lines.  Period.  It just isn't clicking yet.  I can't get my brain wrapped around finding visual markers  for where to turn in and then steer the bike.

Lines are difficult to master for sure.  For me it is more about having CONSISTENT lines that is the hardest thing.  So what kinds of things are you using for your visual markers, or trying to use, and what do you think is the thing that is screwing you up the most in regards to your lines?  Are you just not finding anything to look at to help you know where to turn the bike?  Or, are you focussing too much on what you are trying to use as a reference point?  Have you ever tried to use your apex as an indicator for when to turn the bike in?  Just trying to really understand what you can't "wrap your brain around"

Misti