Riding Style Question

[yorkie_chris]

I thought you called yourself a high mileage rider?

I am... but I ain't going to be riding 40 odd thousand kilometres through twenty odd countries and back again for a spin around the dales.

[yorkie_chris]

It's worth it lol

I bet it is. I have seen your vids and some of it looks suspiciously like some of the best scratching roads in the Adelaide Hills and the country.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I wouldn't mind a spin round some twisties with you to see which works best. Let me know if you're ever in the yorkshire dales!

You've been round the Kinlochleven loop behind me, you know how quick it is

[keith_d]

Being a newbie, I'm not going to add much to the discussion. But so far it seems to depend which bike I'm on. On the SV I'll go down through the gears using all that lovely engine braking, but on the VFR there's not much engine braking so I use both brakes for speed control and change down later.

Naturally, I've not tried approaching a roundabout at top speed on the VFR. Twice the NSL is a bit quick.

[21QUEST]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

I ride harder than most people and have never dropped an SV or even come close because of the limitations of the suspension while cornering or braking for corners. I suppose it all depends on the way you ride and your ability to ride round a bike's faults, but I never really had a problem with the stock forks on all the SVs I rode. Sure they are a little lacking, but they aren't as bad as most people would have you believe (and I'm having a dig at the inexperienced recently qualified riders in particular here because they just repeat/recycle all they've read or heard without having any real experience of good suspension setups to compare with).

Maybe I can put up with a lot more than most people before I start whinging and/or falling off. Maybe some of you should try riding fast on sh1te old bikes that never handled well to start with and see how long it takes before you make a hole in the scenery. I get the feeling too much blame is apportioned to the suspension's faults, and not enough is levelled at the rider's hamfistedness and inexperience

I like this post .

When I hear some folks coming out with some of the rubbish(imho) they come out with, I feel like going for a ride with them...I'm not that good to be honest but it might still be fun

And this is froma guy who has ridden one or two SV with some nice suspension bits...Ktech, Maxton, Ohlins Technoflex, Nitron, Emulators, progressive springs



Cheers
Ben

So you think an healthy and civil discussion of the relative merits of different riding styles is rubbish, eh?

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

This was the post I was referring to, I was just too lazy to go back, find it and quote it. It's talking about block changing before braking?

Yeah- I guess just an example for being in too high a gear- I prefer to use both the engine and brakes together to slow me from higher speeds- does a better job. So I'd rather start braking at a gear in high revs and therefore need to drop a gear or two first.

With hindsight, it's probably not a well thought out example and not totally relevant to the OP (I just get carried away thinking about it all sometimes!)- I'll rarely be in this situation unless I've planned really badly, but I guess I did it more when inexperienced.

Originally Posted by merlin427

Why only 2 (possibly 3) fingers on the brake?
I've never understood that habit, I know some bikes have very strong brakes (but the SV doesn't - or at least my curvy didn't) but even so the braking power is not governed by the amount of fingers but by the amount of force each transmits. What happens if you unexpectedly need to slow down quicker than originally intended and need more power than 2 fingers can provide? Now you've got to hope for the best or try and get more fingers to the lever. Worse still what about if your lever comes back so far it pinches your remaining fingers (I've read many post regarding spongy brakes on here), now you can't even apply the pressure available with the 2 fingers.
I always blip (or at least raise the RPM) on the down-change but do it using my thumb and the area of my hand between it and my index finger.
Oh, and what about your foot?

I just find it easier to blip the throttle with my little finger(s) 'off' the brake. They don't stay on the throttle, just aren't pressing on the brake. If I needed the extra force (I'm not sure I could get that much more tbh) my whole hand would be available (might struggle to blip at this point though).

No chance of getting them caught because 1) they aren't between the grip and brake, just relaxed 'off' the brake; and 2) really? brakes shouldn't travel that far.

I'll give it a go today using a different area of my hand to blip (very important in this weather!), see if it makes a difference.

No excuse for not using my foot. Just never found it useful for stopping and feels like it would unbalance me more by moving my foot than I would gain by using it. Just a bad habit I guess.