I don't want to fall off my new SV650S teach me not to

[northwind]

If there's one lesson I wish I'd learned earlier it's "trust the bike". An SV in stock trim will get you round corners that you'd swear you've blown completely, where braking will only make you crash. I guarantee that the first time I binned mine if I'd just kept the head and leaned it over I would have got round just fine, but instead I bottled it, jammed on the brakes, and only luck stopped me from having a very nasty accident.

I'mnot saying the SV will get you through whatever stupidity you may throw at it, just that it's limits are, at this stage, probably way past yours.

Been riding for about 18 months now (10 of those on a cg125 ) and haven't come off and i'm not planning to.

But i think thats the problem with riding - theres nothing you can do to guarantee zero accidents in a lifetime of riding. And i must admit, i am rather terrified by BigApes pics and will look into getting back protection asap.

But i love riding and won't be deterred because i could be killed by a car mounting the pavement while walking, or any number of unforeseen circumstances (sorry to be morbid) so i think all you can do is not take unneccesary risks.

here's some impt points IMHO that ive learnt in my short time biking:-

1)plan ahead while riding, think things through before you get there eg. corners and junctions etc - anticipate that all other road users are inebriates (present company excepted of course )

2)watch out for crappy bits on roads eg. tar and grids - take extra care after rain showers, greasy roads can catch you out

3)be careful when engine breaking on an sv - severe!

4)relax and enjoy - you will be less likely to do panicky things like grabbing the front brake

5)defo look where you want to go and not that curb you are scared of

there are loads of things you can do for safer riding but most of them just involve common sense - which may abandon the best of us when that v-twin is urging is on

everythings been said but for


Ride at the speed you can see to stop in

but dont listen to me i was driving perfect and got sideswiped

since then i leave my brain at home and sod em if im in front they cant knock me orrfffff

And look out for nastys on corners!

Pile of gravel right down my line and someone in front causing me to break hard managed to break my bike quite hard too!! (and it hurts quite a lot even in leathers!!)

Going down the centre of traffic on my GSX 250 (some time ago)at around 30 mph, as bikers do to get through rush hour traffic, and a dumb blonde bimbo decides she doesn't want to wait in traffic anymore because the traffic going the way she came from is faster, so she does a U turn and I went into the side of her porsche 911, I go over the bonnetshe gets out and she says "are you ok? i didnt see you, where did you come from?"
I start F-ing and blinding at her telling her that blondes are allowed to use mirrors as well as indicators, she starts crying, I start laughing at her, saw the state of damage to her porsche picked up my seat which had come off put it back on the bike and rode off as i wasnt insured

And no I wouldn't drive without insurance again but i was 18 and invincable and new better than anyone else

[timwilky]

Suprising that nobody has mentioned it but look through corners/bends.

Target fixation is that point where you see something and think I am going to hit it, if you don't look away you will. So look where you want the bike to go.

Road engineers are not bikers otherwise they would never place metal grids on bends in the middle of the road etc. So look out for them in the wet as you will loose your traction as if on diesel.

When riding with others do not give into peer pressure. The tail end rider usually has to be the fastest to keep up and you normally see them taking risks to get past cars/trucks etc to catch their mates. Ride in the middle. Hopefully the more experienced rider will guide you as to your line and indicate hazards back to the group as he sees them.

Always check your tyre pressure before going out. a simple digital guage costs a fiver. I was out with my brother on his new blade last week when he twice lost his back end and could not understand it. When I checked his pressure he was down to 15PSI, fortunately he was experienced enough to recognise something was wrong and recover before binning it.

As others have said learn to use your brakes. If you are not happy with a bend brake before you hit it, with an SV you can get the power on to pull you round and should therefore be able to exit at a reasonable pace.

Low speed manouvres. learn clutch/throttle control for that and again avoid target fixation. You will find yourself in time double/triple reading the road. 200 yds ahead for bends/cages/children. 75yds ahead for grids and the abundance of painting that they seem to put on the road these days, 25 ys ahead for gravel and pot holes.

Diesel is a pain. Watch out for it around filling stations, bus stops, roundabouts and haulage yards. with the price of the stuff you wonder how anyone would want to spill it, but they do. Fortunately you can generally smell it before it gets you. If you see the streaking on a wet surface it is a good indicator of its pressence.

Clean your visor and keep it clean. If you can't see you should not be on the bike.

Enough preaching, just wear you protective clothing. Even when you are completely innocent of any blame it still hurts. A biker will always come off worse in an argument with 4+ wheels.

As BigApe was saying, this is a link on how to counter steer

Counter Steering

A big thank you to everyone thats posted - LOl to bigdogs blonde story, I just can't wait for my SV to arrive so I can get out on it, it doesn't feel the same riding to work on the TS knowing that I'll be on my new SV next week!

I assume you will be fitting crash bungs. Thats the best piece of advice I can give you.

My latest speciality (and the way HowardR went down recently) is stalling when just commencing a right turn. Once your committed its bloody hard to keep it up if that happens. May not be an SV-thing tho, I don't remember doing it on the SV ever

And the most likely timws and places you will drop your bike are:
1. In an especially busy place, most likely with lots of bikers around
2. Whilst looking at yourself on your lovely bike in a shop window
3. Whilst looking at a woman

[ophic]

Originally Posted by Rich

3. Whilst looking at a woman

especially if she's your pillion