I am wondering how the handling will change with the Conti Motion tires.

I run the Conti Motion on my 06 Honda 599 (Hornet) and they perform really good. Handling and agility is almost telepathic up to 50 MPH in the twisties (surprisingly, they stick as good as Michelin PP CT2 in cold weather conditions)

Any comments? Experiences? Thanks

PS: I do not care how long they last as long these perform.

As usual, thanks in advance for the help :fing02:

For starters I do not like to ride at night, local 4 and 2 legged wildlife come out to play and there is lots or road hazard lately. Shredded truck tires and boat stuff being most frequently noted. 

Yesterday though I was coming back home well after sunset, stopped at light to join local street after exiting expressway. Checked both ways as usual then concentrated on traffic coming up from the left so I can ease in. Give myself a go after spotting beak in traffic and looked right last time and there it was bicycle  bugger right in front of me, running on a sidewalk without lights and on good rate of speed. Thing is we have practically non existent pedestrian presence up these parts, easy to get complacent. Mental note to watch out for camouflaged high speed sidewalk bicycle  runners...

Q to our Brit members, is that symptom of next level of state interference with recreational activities, atop of cameras and points or just TV tabloid piece?

Happens so my wife use the “other” app, I am ready to load it then learn it is damn google owned....

I wonder what you guys use and recommend, I hear navimii is good for motocycling?

Apparently we do not do well on runabouts on this side of the pond, as people can’t figure out how to behave on one or even paint signs on one. Guy on the tube mentioned one in Michigan that is in top 4 intersection in number of crashes. We have small one in our neighborhood that I am comfortable to enforce right of way in big pickup truck, never on a bike. Not sure what gives, how other jurisdictions fair? Your thoughts? 

Save some paint already 🙂

Big one in Coral Gables, well established but crazy with bicycles...

Some serious VFR action. 

The Crash

It’s been 28 days since I crashed in the mountains west of Redding, California on July 9th. It’s high time I write about my experience as it involves so many more people than me. Besides that, long before I was a rider, I was a professional writer/reporter and still love to write—I have had plenty of time to reflect upon my crash and a close brush with death and thought some of you, especially those of you who were with me and helped me out of the creek and those who helped stabilize me and to recover, might like to know how things are going. I also have a greater circle of friends and family who would like to be brought up to date on my recovery. I will be posting this to my Facebook page and of course to VFRD, the place where my circle of riding friends began and several of them were with me and witnessed the crash.

To be honest, writing is a respite from the mind-numbing content on TV. I’m not saying it’s all bad, just mostly all bad. I normally work on my feet all day and being bed-bound and chair-bound makes me feel like a Labrador locked in a kennel. I need to get moving.

Since there are many angles and aspects to the crash, the lead up to the crash and the aftermath-- which continues, I’m going break this up into several parts as I realize most folks don’t have as much time to read as I now do to write.

But to get the important part out of the way, I’m doing pretty darn well. Of course I have a lot of people to thank for that, but my wife Pauline is my angel of mercy. We’ve been married 40 years and I’ve never seen anyone so unselfish, so nurturing and so worried about the health and contentment of everyone around her. The fact I was not killed when I could easily have been killed that day and that God has allowed me to return to my wife, to my life, to my kids, grandkids and friends, is what has kept me in good spirits throughout the ordeal. Pauline looks after me, is beside me, cooks good nutritious food for me, gets my pills ready for me, helps me inject blood thinner, dumps my overnight urine bottles, and scolds me if I try to push my recovery too fast. I cannot overlook the fact she’s also handled all the paperwork involved with the doctors, hospitals, insurance, disability income forms, etc.

I broke my pelvis in four places, my left scapula, two ribs and had deep bruises along my thighs, seemingly bruising me to the marrow of my bones. I also have this thing along my upper left thigh/hip area called a hematoma. This is a big slab of spongy flesh where the muscle was tenderized and the blood vessels are engorged with blood and it’s exactly where a good set of hip pads should have been, the only failing in my otherwise full complement of protective gear. My riding pants have Kevlar patches and knee armor, but no hip pads, I was scanning the web for a set just before my trip but didn’t find what I was looking for. I had minor road rash, a result of running out of road and spilling over a boulder embankment said to be somewhere between 20 and 30 feet high. The people who winched my poor old bike out of the creek told my step daughter Sarah (who took care of the extraction of the bike from the creek), it was all of 30 feet, but who’s counting.

All in all, there was little pain as long as I didn’t move my legs or pelvis, but when I did have to move I had to move very gingerly, I didn’t realize the pelvis connected so much to so much. Now I know. When the nurses slid me off a gurney onto the CAT Scan table the pain was excruciating, when they slid me off the Cat Scan table back to the hospital bed I bellowed out, and when they prepared me for surgery and got ready to slide me from my bed onto the operating table I pleaded with the anesthesiologist to knock me out first and he complied. Sweet dreams.

So today, 28 days later, that crunching, grinding sound in my pelvis is mostly gone, thanks to two oversize titanium screws going from one side of my pelvis into the other, and to healing of the slighter fractures. The deep thigh bruises are feeling better, my scapula is now bolted back together, and titanium was needed as the “displacement” was just too great to allow it to heal on its own. The hematoma is getting smaller every day and the ink-black bruises along my back and inner thighs are either gone (back) or light and fading (thigh). I can get around on crutches better than Pauline and the doctors probably like because they worry I will try to do too much too soon. I don’t see why I can’t use my lawnmower as a walker. I’m planning on putting down my hickory hardwood floor before I go back to work, I suppose I should wait until I get the ok from my doctor, or three weeks, whichever comes first.

Don’t worry, Pauline won’t let me do anything stupid.

Part 2 to follow.

http://canyonchasers.net/video/howto/trail-braking.php

I'm fairly new to riding and have a question for you more seasoned guys and gals. When going through a long or tight corner, I know you are supposed to look to the end of the corner. My question is, do you keep your head pointed toward the end of the corner and constantly watch the road/traffic with your eyes, or do you look at the end of the corner and watch the road/traffic by glancing or out of you peripheral?

Another question. I know most of us keep our brights on all day for added visibility, but at night do you usually keep them on as well, or turn them of for traffic to keep from blinding people?

Thanks in advance!

I took my CBR for fork seal replacement today.  In conversation, tech said that she teaches motorcycle safety and they recommend using rear brake almost exclusively.  Anybody heard of this advice?

I use FRONT almost exclusively - am I wrong?

(Shop services hogs mostly...)

Probably discussed before, but I searched.  Honest.

There are a few motorcycles and a few decades of adulthood in my past, but I'm relatively new to sport riding. This past weekend I was riding in the Cascade mountains, working on my technique, and I noticed that I had developed a real asymmetry in my cornering competency. When entering right-hand turns, I felt (relatively) balanced and in control. Left-hand turns were a different experience. The bike and I felt awkward. I realized that I am always much more relaxed in right-hand turns than I am in left-hand turns and that over time the accumulated difference has caused an asymmetry in my technique.

Interesting to me is the underlying cause of the discrepancy. Here's what I think it is. When making right-hand turns, my tires are toward the center-line and my head is toward the shoulder. I have half a lane of clean road to right of my tires and half a lane to the left -- more if there are no oncoming cars. When turning left, these comfortable margins of error are much reduced. In left turns, my tires are closer to the gravel-strewn shoulder and my head is toward the center-line and possible oncoming traffic. The margin of error buffering a possible flubbed line through the corner is smaller, so my technique becomes more tense and timid.

I'm curious if others have experienced anything similar.

I've been unable to find this information. I have a friend who wants to start riding, and I want to get her this book... but she's a native Russian speaker. Does anyone know if there are russian tranlations of this book available? I've been unable to find anything...

Link

This video has been up for a while. It just came to me today that she was unaware that a cop was sitting beside her. How did she look past him to know it was safe to run the red. Hope he got a BJ out of it she deserved some cruel and unusual punishment. The twit.

Proof exists. All we need to do is put our soldiers on bikes and let them invade. Get rid of the camos. Want to go on a panty raid get a bike. Need to hide from a bill collector sit on your bike.

I once thought putting extra lights might make me more visible but at least blue ones don't work.

Bill

Okay...maybe more like one and a half....

Alright...honesty compels me to say it was probably on the plus side of one and three-fourths...but we were definitely less than two!

Hope everyone got out and enjoyed a ride today.

You can find out more about the Program which is taught all over the U.S., Canada, and in Europe here www.totalcontroltraining.net

I have been teaching all types of motorized recreation for 20 years and have been involved with the Total Control program since 2006.

If you want to know what some others think of the class here are a few reviews for you to check out.

Web Bike World

www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-training/total-control/advanced-riding-clinic.htm

There are good articles and reviews on many forums, here is one from the SV riders

www.svrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98234&highlight=total=control

If any one has questions feel free to ask.

A link over to the Cycle World video:

http://www.cycleworld.com/introduction-to-stretching-for-motorcyclist-nick-ienatsch-tuesday?5ERbogbGdFSL4SEP.01

I'm no physiotherapist, nor do I play one on tv but It looks real, and not just Dutchy Bait   ; )

I thought I would start this again this year since it was a chilly ride in.

Here is the start, before our big snow.... Very nice to go to Hot Yoga (105 degrees) after a 25 mile commute!

Old Wind Chill Index 68 MPH @ 27F = -10.69F New Wind Chill Index 68 MPH @ 27F = 4.97F

Wind Chill Calculator

If it weren't for twisties I wouldn't own a motorcycle.

I engine brake hard at times. In fact, if you ride The Dragon and other roads fast you will HAVE to engine brake hard along with being a very smooth rider. I feel better and safer using the bike brakes as little as possible and the VFR does engine brake well. I haven't seen any evidence in the three VFR's I've owned that it hurts the engine. The VFR engine will take a beating in my experience.

Just a curiosity question. Thanks.

• it (theoretically) reduces reaction time in emergencies
• it (hopefully) makes it less likely the rider will panic and inadvertently grab too much brake too quickly

The reason for the parentheticals is that personally I'm not 100% convinced that the technique works in practice the way that it does in the classroom -- especially for non-elite riders. Still, as my wife regularly reminds me: I'm probably wrong. Here is my beef with covering the brake (two fingers):

1. I really don't like the feeling of how it weakens my grip on the bars. My ring finger and pinky alone are much weaker than all four fingers. Also, it feels unnatural and is straining on the small muscles of the back of the hand. I can only maintain the configuration for a few minutes at time before my right hand desperately wants to relax back to a normal, full grip.
2. It weakens my braking strength. Braking is, of course, still possible with just two fingers, but if I were trying to set a personal best for short-distance braking, I would without question use all four fingers.
3. If I do proceed with two-fingered braking from a covering position, my outside fingers become trapped under the brake lever. Again, this feels super awkward and, in some cases, limits the lever travel and hence stopping power. I guess one could apply the brakes with the two inside fingers while simultaneously extracting the two outside fingers from beneath the lever, but I don't have that kind of nimble dexterity.

So, what am I doing wrong?

Or, better still: Are there any of you who had a similar experience when you first began covering the brake who eventually overcame these points of resistance?
 

http://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/riding-in-the-rain-what-you-can-learn-from-nicky-hayden?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=boosted-posts|tpfn&utm_content=common-tread-how-to&utm_term=riding-in-the-rain-what-you-can-learn-from-nicky-hayden-post-052616-|tpfn