Tight U-Turns

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by RhythmJunkie

A push bike is very lightweight as 'therealvw' remarked, so its more difficult to use its mass in the same way so you are constantly waggling the steering to keep it going straight.

Maybe, alot depends on the bicycle and frame geometry, my push bike is setup to steer sharply and it only needs a tiny tweak of the bars to get it to turn, I've noticed though when I've got a bit of speed on, it does respond to counter steering, but its quite radical and it nearly had me off one day.

They do vary an awful lot, two cycles can look almost identical yet ride very differently.

Question.....how can you use full lock on an SV cos the tank gets in the way of the bars?? Tries to squash yer hands! End up with yer wrists pressing up against the tank!

Originally Posted by RhythmJunkie

2mths yes that is cool when they rev a chevy and it twists the whole car it does seem connected to power though cos the best twisters seem to be drag top fuellers!

Thats mostly down to the engine torque pushing through the driveshaft, and backbreakingly hard (or non-present solid) suspension. It takes a fair bit of torque to overwhelm the stickyness of a freshly burnt-out 10+inch slick, and thats just the PSM (bike) class sizes. It may be that the chevy is made of monkey metal instead of good old pig iron too, which won't hack the extra power (because it was on a diet to make it perform better )

With 7500hp on tap in Top Fuel, its no wonder they have wheelie bars on longer than the SV is

[Mark_h]

Ref getting hands trapped between bars and tanks.

I had this on my Naked after the local suzuki agent did some work on my forks.

If it's a naked, look on the bars where they are fitted into the clamps. You'll see a little punch mark. This has to be EXACTLY in the middle of the clamp join otherwise you get this issue. Mine was probably less tham 1mm out and I nearly broke my thumb.

Thanks Mark. I'll check that out.

[fizzwheel]

I've got my brake and clutch levers adjusted so that I could draw an imaginary straight line through my elbow to my wrists.

I find this means that my wrists are lifted up quite high and that means that the dont get trapped between the tank and bars when I'm on full lock, makes life a lot easier and more comfy to.

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

I've got my brake and clutch levers adjusted so that I could draw an imaginary straight line through my elbow to my wrists.

I find this means that my wrists are lifted up quite high and that means that the dont get trapped between the tank and bars when I'm on full lock, makes life a lot easier and more comfy to.

Ditto - you only need to rotate the bars a little to do this - makes riding much more comfy too.

You can aid tighter turns by standing up on the pegs (harder on the SV than on, say, an off-road bike) as that lets you counterbalance better. Takes practice to get used to it - the bars are a bit low really, you can end up being a bit stooped over. The IAM went white when I asked if that'd be alright. Anything that involves moving in the seat freaks them out...

Yeah that makes a lot of sense fizzwheel. I mean, the bars are virtually the same settings on all the bikes but we are all different shapes and lengths! I'll have to have a tweaking session before we go away! 450 miles in one day!

[Mark_h]

Shouldn't need to move the bars at all. Just losten off the lever mounts and align them where you want them. Beware:-

1. Make sure you are V.v.v careful when next taking the lid off your brake fluid as it may now be tilted far enough to spill.

2. Make sure you do not foul the choke lever. Especially as you'll not need to use it for months then when it come to time to use it you'll find it jammed tight against the clutch lever mounting

3. Your mirrors will be looking out for passing air balloons. They'll need shifting too.

By not moving the bars you'll not risk smashing your thumbs into the tank.