Dragging parts on the ground is a bad idea. They can catch on the pavement and upset the chassis. Also, parking lots are a terrible place to practice aggressive turning. They are filled with oil and gravel.

Finally, read up a little bit about body position and try to work it into your riding style. It will make you a faster safer rider.

 

I personally like to hit the interstate on/off ramps. If you find a good cloverleaf you can just keep circling.

 

Yeah I think what happened was there was a small rise in the pavement that pushed it over the edge.
Yeah like I said before I was practicing and learning. I was taking advice from an instructor who said to find the limit there in a parking lot. So that way when I'm on the road and for some reason have to lean that hard the peg scrape wont scare me into straitening the bike up during a tight turn. Live and learn.
I enjoy on ramps to but there aren't any really good ones close to me and no full cloverleafs so no luck there.

 

I personally like to hit the interstate on/off ramps. If you find a good cloverleaf you can just keep circling.

Bad idea.

 

I personally like to hit the interstate on/off ramps. If you find a good cloverleaf you can just keep circling.

Bad idea.

If you think parking lots are oily, take a look at the freeway next time you have to stop and change a flat! Disgusting!

 

word.

to add though, it's not a good idea to chase your tire's limits unless you are comfortable with crashing and great physical harm.

 

I personally like to hit the interstate on/off ramps. If you find a good cloverleaf you can just keep circling.

Bad idea.

If you think parking lots are oily, take a look at the freeway next time you have to stop and change a flat! Disgusting!

I wasn't referring to the oil, I was referring to the chance of binning and sliding into a guard rail or worse into traffic. The track is the place to test your tires limits.

 

Never thought of the guardrails since the ramps i use just have a grassy embankment. Im prepared to lay it down every time i go out on the bike though. To me lowsiding isn't scary getting hit by cagers is though. Of course i may change my tune the first time i go down on pavement been down hundreds of times on dirt though.

 

dirt is sometimes forgiving... the road is never forgiving.

 

Great. it can lean until it falls. The sky is also blue.

 

Great. it can lean until it falls. The sky is also blue.

yes, but HOW blue?

I, too, have a highway offramp I particularly like. It's not something to drag pegs on, or anything close to it, but there just aren't that many nice turns around me that have unobstructed views of traffic ahead...

 

dirt is sometimes forgiving... the road is never forgiving.

I've found after many a spill on my Husky that rocks are as forgiving as the road, only more pointy.

 

Great. it can lean until it falls. The sky is also blue.

yes, but HOW blue?

Pantone 283C

 

dirt is sometimes forgiving... the road is never forgiving.

I've found after many a spill on my Husky that rocks are as forgiving as the road, only more pointy.

this is true. how many rocks do you find in manicured dirt though?

 

Never thought of the guardrails since the ramps i use just have a grassy embankment. Im prepared to lay it down every time i go out on the bike though. To me lowsiding isn't scary getting hit by cagers is though. Of course i may change my tune the first time i go down on pavement been down hundreds of times on dirt though.

Lowsiding is scary to me...You have no control...You are basically sliding...If you hit any obstruction...You could lose body parts...as your limb stops and your body keeps going...or break major bones if you slide into an in-movable object...or my gear fails and I get major pain from that...All types of things can go wrong as you slide uncontrollable...

 

best thing you can do is keep your limbs IN. hug your chest, straighten your legs.

 

: at the OP. you found YOUR limit, not the bike's limit.

yes, the bike has a finite angle at which it cannot lean any further without touching the ground; but the speed and turn-radius at which that lean angle occurs is completely under the rider's control. At least it SHOULD be.

heal up and get to a track day ASAP.

 

Yeah I think what happened was there was a small rise in the pavement that pushed it over the edge.
Yeah like I said before I was practicing and learning. I was taking advice from an instructor who said to find the limit there in a parking lot. So that way when I'm on the road and for some reason have to lean that hard the peg scrape wont scare me into straitening the bike up during a tight turn. Live and learn.
I enjoy on ramps to but there aren't any really good ones close to me and no full cloverleafs so no luck there.

an instructor told you to go to a parking lot and find the limit of your motorcycle??? that's like telling someone to go junp off a cliff!!! and you did it!!! lol

 

a parking lot isnt the perfect setting but its better than the street where if u crash you can involve others by you or bike hitting them or them hitting you or bike.. even parts broken of the bike could due expensive damage to a car. glad you did this in a semi controlled area .. im a total street riding newbie... but common sense prevails. i too practice in parking lots... emergency breaking accident avoidence stuff.

 

a parking lot isnt the perfect setting but its better than the street where if u crash you can involve others by you or bike hitting them or them hitting you or bike.. even parts broken of the bike could due expensive damage to a car. glad you did this in a semi controlled area .. im a total street riding newbie... but common sense prevails. i too practice in parking lots... emergency breaking accident avoidence stuff.

true enough. Credit to the OP for not putting anyone else at risk.

But don't take what the MSF instructors teach/tell you as gospel. They're trying to teach you as much as humanly possible about general STREET-riding tactics in 2 days.

They don't have time to cover every technique and exception to the general rule, and they certainly don't get into anything I'd consider "high-performance riding."

The MSF course teaches you to operate a motorcycle and SURVIVE on the street. Trackdays teach you to actually RIDE a sport bike quickly and safely.

 

Granted there might have been better things I could have done with my afternoon but ehh.... Anyway I'm not a racer nor do I aspire to be one in any way. If I ever got a chance on a track I would probably enjoy it but I greatly prefer going fast in a car rather than on a bike. As such I don't usually push me or my bike to about half of what we are capable of while riding on public roads. That said if for some reason it came to it, (Improperly marked curve, poor speed judgment, obstacle, etc...) I would like to be able to confidently deal with the problem, without an OMG I've never done this before reaction. So besides leaning the bike a bit too far what could I have done to maintain that turn with the bike leaned that far over?

I'll state again I wasn't trying to go fast I was trying to find the point at which the bike touches the pegs, ie. it's limit.

 

if you get your ass off the bike, get your chest to the inside of the turn, and stick out your knee, you're moving the bike's center of gravity enough that it doesn't need to be leaned over as far to negotiate the same turn that would otherwise require you to drag hard parts.

the bike will always have a finite maximum lean angle, but proper body position allows you to reach that lean angle while maintaining a tighter turning radius, and/or at a higher speed.

 

meh, track is the best for everything huh? (rolls eyes) yea, id agree if they didnt charge ya out the ass for a few laps. ill stick to my 2am runs when theres no traffic out.

 

$90, 8 sessions, 7 laps each session.

56 laps, $1.60/lap

plus lunch included, no cops or tickets.

yeah, that's an outright RAPING, considering the alternative to getting stopped on the street... :

 

ill stick to my 2am runs when theres no traffic out...

... except for transport trucks and cops. That's how my friend, James, ended up sucked under and run over by a semi. They managed to save his leg, but he lost his race contract with Kawi for that little 2am power run on the 401.

Exercise caution at all times.