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Old 15-06-07, 12:27 PM   #1
zunkus
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Default What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

Motorcycles have an innate, engineered desire to be tipped over when they’re not moving, or moving very slowly. I call this “lowest potential,” a mysterious force permeating the universe. Motorcycles, especially, are stuck with it. Like every object, the bike is constantly seeking a place to “rest”, where it will have no desire to move again.

Example of lowest potential: a boulder that has fallen off a mountaintop and come to rest in the bottom of an empty valley. Only an earthquake or a flood is going to make that boulder move. And it’s not going to cause any more trouble. It’s done. Example of highest potential: the same boulder teetering on the mountaintop, ready to fall onto a pile of nuclear weapons set on “hairtrigger.” The boulder wants to fall off, and the bombs want to explode. (Another example of high potential is the fertilized egg cell that eventually developed into Thomas Edison.)

Think about it: a motorcycle, if it’s lucky, spends its life balanced on two wheels. When unattended, it’s up to the sidestand or centerstand to keep it balanced. A strong wind, a brain-dead motorist backing up, or soft asphalt can give the motorcycle what it most wants—to reach its point of lowest potential, the point at which it can no longer move on its own. On its side. When you buy it, you become a lowest-potential babysitter.

When you adopt a motorcycle, you take on the responsibility to never let that thing reach its lowest potential. Your entire relationship with that bike will always have an undertone of effort, of watchfulness, of stewardship––when it’s not moving or moving slowly, you’re charged with keeping it from doing what it really wants to do (fall down), and instead keeping it in an “unnatural” upright state (fun and adventure balanced perfectly on two little patches of rubber).

When an ordinary motorist catches a glimpse of a motorcyclist, out riding around in the big, scary world, they might think: “Wow, that looks like a lot of fun.” It is fun, but what they don’t see is that awesome responsibility, hidden beneath the surface, of having to constantly be on guard and working against gravity just to keep the “shiny side up.” Fortunately, a moving motorcycle has a very strong desire to keep moving and doesn’t fall over easily. So what’s the best way to keep a motorcycle from falling over? Ride it!


by Pat Hahn
MMM Issue #92—April 2007
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Old 15-06-07, 12:33 PM   #2
glsuk1970
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

True!
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Old 15-06-07, 01:22 PM   #3
Toypop
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

Until you stall when pulling out of the works car park on full steering lock!

Nothing £170 can't put right but I always say the greatest chance you have of crashing your bike is when travelling at less than 10mph.
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Old 15-06-07, 01:27 PM   #4
Alpinestarhero
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

Wow, makes it sound hard!

I just let gyroscopic forces do it for me when im moving

Matt
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Old 15-06-07, 02:25 PM   #5
DanAbnormal
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

Awesome!
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Old 15-06-07, 06:08 PM   #6
Draper
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

as zunkus is on about, its probably the physics behind it, nice idea of gravitational potentials there

I should imagine that as toypop says that its down to inertia and other bits and bobs, the faster something is going, the less it wants to be stopped from doing that i believe. so at slow speeds it doesnt want to carry on upright as much
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Old 15-06-07, 07:03 PM   #7
Posky
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

That makes it sound like a whole lot of not-fun.
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Old 15-06-07, 07:04 PM   #8
Draper
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

if its an excuse to keep speed up...
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Old 15-06-07, 10:46 PM   #9
sinbad
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

Quote:
Originally Posted by alpinestarhero View Post
Wow, makes it sound hard!

I just let gyroscopic forces do it for me when im moving

Matt
Heh I think that's the major point of the piece They want to stay upright when you're using them, but it's the attention/vigilance they require once motionless that is the chore we are all "burdened" with.
I certainly don't worry about it, except when I'm in a shop and look outside to see a gang of "rowdy teens" mulling about in the vicinity of the bike, then I think: if one of those hoodlums pushes it over I might not even be able to ride it home.
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Old 17-06-07, 02:02 PM   #10
John 675
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Default Re: What’s the best way to keep from falling over?

this is my problem i tend to grant the bike the ability to obtain its lowest potetial after some speed an argument then a crash well only twice and once on slow full lock u turn . . . . but i have found a new friend just recently who has calmed me down and taught me how to stay on the bike when doing only up to 10 miles an hour . . .

its called the rear brake lol
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