Most helpful riding tip?

[johnster]

"look where you want to go" Lee parks book.

+1.. This one's a must.

My favorite is: "Many riders spend thousands on suspension components to try and achieve perfect handling on their bikes. What many people fail to realize, is that learning smooth throttle control is the BEST suspension mod you could ever do..."   -Keith Code

[misti]

+1.. This one's a must.

My favorite is: "Many riders spend thousands on suspension components to try and achieve perfect handling on their bikes. What many people fail to realize, is that learning smooth throttle control is the BEST suspension mod you could ever do..."   -Keith Code

Seems like the two main things that keep coming up (just worded slightly different) are visual skills/situational awareness and smooth throttle control.  I like this quote by Keith and it reminded me of a funny situation I encountered when I was working with a student at Barber Motorsports Park.  The student kept complaining that he was bottoming out the suspension and scraping his foot peg going into turn two and that he needed a stiffer spring and needed to make suspension changes and needed a new bike and needed to loose weight and on and on and on, but what I was seeing him do was delay getting on the gas  in the turn, he was just coasting,  which meant that all the weight was on the front and none was being transferred to the back of the bike.  I finally convinced him to just work on rolling on the gas as soon as possible in the turn and he finally admitted (Sheepishly) that he didn't bottom out or scrape the footpegs when he got on the gas early in the turn.  I told him he had just done a suspension modification on the fly

Of course, there are some times when you do need to change up your suspension but a lot of times, as mentioned, good throttle control, is the best (and easiest) mod you can make.

Misti

[EvilSteve]

Good stuff. Here's the ones that I'm a big fan of (may be repeated):
- Late apex
- Looking ahead
- Look where you want to go
- You are the reason you're getting cut off all the time
- Slow in, fast out
- Advanced techniques (knee down, trail braking and the like) aren't for the street, until you have no other option to save your ass so practice them!
- You're invisible & everyone's out to kill you
- Squeeeeeeeeeze, don't grab the brake - My MSF instructor drilled that one into me, THANKS!
- Smooth on the throttle and everything else too
- Don't depend on others to save your life (loud pipes, loud clutch, loud horn), you are the only one you can depend on
- Any idiot can go fast in a straight line
- Be polite to others, just because it's your right, doesn't mean you should every time (1 bike per car park? That's just rude)
- When you stop learning, stop riding
- All the gear all the time

* Every time you go out on the bike, you could end up dead. Tell your family you love them before you leave.

[Fritzkrieg]

"Always make sure you have a way out." - my room mate

"Don't panic!" - Douglas Adams

"If you find yourself goin' down, LET GO OF THE BIKE, and for God's sake ROLL! Friction is bad." - Dad