Overpowering the bars?

[mrpetebojangles]

Hey all,

still in my first year of riding, ~4000 miles now. at times I wonder what is the limit of a strong push on the bars. I'm just wondering how hard the bars can be pressed in a 25mph-40mph area, such as coming from a faster speed and then slower speed for a right angle city street turn. I'm wondering if it's possible to be too aggressive at this speed and create a lean angle too far or throw off handling.

Just curious, how do you guys go through those little connecting roads of higher speed to parking lot speed for a hard and narrow right angle turn?

 I generally will engine brake down to 2nd gear (14T) apply slight throttle, rear brake down to correct entry level speed, slightly pull in clutch lever, apply front brake if further braking is required, or not, do a strong push of the handlebars to right/left side, apply slight throttle at beginning of turn and opening up throttle more into turn.

Twisty mountain roads make way more sense to me haha. It's much easier to see correct lines, but on city roads one must twist their head as soon as they can see around that building, curb, signs, other vehicles etc etc

The times I do notice, my turns are their worst, is when my vision is fixated on the hazard.

Also, many of these city street connecting little canals here in Reno have sometimes pretty poor and uneven blobs of asphalt. Other than being bumpy, should I be worried about those? My trusty Italian gal has guided me through these uncertainties, but I'd like to know what to watch out for and to start doing better.

Anyways, here's a pic of her up in the historic Virginia City cemetery (not in it, but outside of it. that would be disrespectful) , one of my favorite rides.

[mrpetebojangles]

Unfortunately, she's still bone stock... which isn't a terrible thing. But I'm looking forward to a Sargent seat, Darmah body kit, new exhaust, bar end mirrors etc etc 

[Slide Panda]

Though you're probably out of luck, geographically, Lee Parks Total Control classes
http://www.totalcontroltraining.net/HTML/Schedule.html
Might resolve a lot for you.

Yes, it is possible to push too much - not too hard. Generally speaking, a harder push will change the direction of the bike more quickly. But keep in mind that of you grossly over do it you can end of causing a low side by pushing the bike too far to one side. But as said, this would be the case if you grossly over did things.

An assertive press on the outside bar as you're exiting a turn will stand the bike up more quickly than - say just going to neutral pressure on both bars and letting the bike come up on it's own.

If suggest you find an empty lot and give it a try under circumstances where there's not walls, cars, debris or other crap to avoid. Start off with a slower, larger diameter circle in one direction and then when you complete the circle give the bars an assertive press back to netural and see how it feels. The bike should right up quickly.

Lather rinse repeat a few times adding some pressure to the push progressively  as you comfort with the reaction of the bike permits. You should notice that with more pressure the bike rights faster.

Work at that for a bit in both directions. Ways to make it harder will be to tighten the circle diameter - DON'T go faster. Tightening that circle just a bit will feel plenty fast.

After a bit of this, if you feel improvement, open up the circle and see if you can transition from one direction to the other (Figure and work that.

Take it easy during these drills. It can frazzle ones nerves pretty quickly.

In addition to the bars, do not forget about your lower body. Managing your weight though the pegs will do a lot to help the bike transition from one lean to the opposed side.

And probably the biggest item, that you already made note of, is looking/vision. The bike will track where you look. So if you're in a right and know you've got a fast left coming up, you'll need to be looking left potentially before you you have fully exited from that right. If that's a problem *SLOW DOWN*