turnone

I plan on being there as well. Hate that I missed round #2. Chris

Sounds like you just want something else. Two bikes a possibility or are you looking for something that does both that leans to more sport and less touring? Chris

Kent, I am happy to split the room with you. Hopefully I fall asleep first as I don't normally wake up to noise. I also fall asleep fast, so all should be good. I'll PM you my cell. Thanks for offering to split. Chris

Tony at Commonwealth in Louisville. I talked to every dealer around from Cleveland, Indy, Columbus, Lexington. Only exception is comp ass. I bought from them once, never again. Last word as of last week was week of 20th. Chris

First, I love you. Second, I'm sure the 1199 won't mind. Third, I knew I bought a gopro hd for a reason, I just didn't realize it was this reason. Chris

To clarify I'm just looking to split a cabin. I have my own trailer and car. Most likely car will be full on way down and back with kids and meeting grandparents while I play. Chris

Great fun indeed. Also have 2 little mini Honda nsr's (50 and 63cc) and one NSF100. I sometimes run the neighborhoods on those although the 63 is too loud for me not to feel remorseful. Chris

I've never been to the dragon, but I really want to go this year. I should be able to make all the arrangements. Anyone want to split a cabin or have a space for one more? SWM 40, trailering down Aprilia RS125 2stroke and Ducati 1199 (assuming I have it by then). Thinking Thursday arrival and Sunday departure, maybe Monday. Chris

I'm expecting a base w/ ABS sometime next week (hopefully) from Commonwealth in Louisville. I'm sure it will be the best bike I have ever owned. Not sure it will be the best bike ever or for everyone. Chris

I haven't used that. For $120 you can get Bluetooth GPS module (I use Dual brand) and Harry's LapTimer Pro (iPhone/iPod Touch) or Android App. Assumes you have the phone/device. I have only used one practice day and worked well. I'm still learning. A lot of tracks already configured, but setting a new one is pretty simple. Just walk to start finish line and click button. I haven't used all the features yet. I haven't crashed with it yet either. Chris

I had a great time! Highly recommended. The bikes may be little, but the thrills are real and the lessons and skills carry over directly to bigger bikes. Chris

You are probably right. But I'm new and it is helping my post count . And I can't make this up, years ago, I saw a guy on a Japanese cruiser who would not lean with the bike, he was slowing down and taking EVERY corner like a parking lot turn. It was scary! Chris

Good advice in here. I always like to remind people that rules don't technically matter if you are dead or broken up in the hospital. You are responsible for everyone on the road. Ride like it. I never ride directly behind any vehicle that uses retreads as tires. Those blow off with quite an explosion with some pieces big enough to kill you or at the very least knock you off the bike and lay you on the highway with oncoming cars/trucks. Be especially aware of cars turning left in front of you. This is the #1 way to die on a motorcycle. I ride with my high beams on during the day. I also flash high to low beams if I want to draw attention from side street or oncoming cars. It is very easy to be overlooked as a motorcyclist. It's not prejudice just standard human behavior. If you can't avoid an object in the road, you want the bike to be straight up and down, not leaning, turning or braking as you hit it. Raise your butt from the seat and just hit it like a dirt bike. When you get to the 'turn in' point of any corner, TURN! Regardless of speed, or confidence. You get off the brakes, lean and roll on the throttle slightly. You will almost always make it even if you didn't think you could. Keep a light grip on the handlebars once leaned over. Bikes steer themselves for the most part. Don't get in the way. Just let it do it's thing. I personally never ride in the center lane of 3 lane roads (same direction). This is just part of escape route technique. Anticipation is your best asset on a bike. Anything that distracts from you estimating what everyone will do before they do it is a risk that you don't have to take. Tire pressure is very imporatant. Draw bridge grating can give you an uneasy feeling that the bike is moving sideways instead of the normal forward, especially when you have to take at an angle. Just go slow and steady, don't make sudden changes. Road debris (sand, salt, leaves, etc.) have to be taken seriously. Don't understimate the potential to put you on your bottom. Safety gear works, but I won't fault you if you don't wear it all the time. But if you do have a helmet on, make sure it fits and is buckled properly. Chris

Let's make a distinction that there are TWO ways to get around a corner. 1. Not counter steering. Typically I would call this parking lot speeds. Bike leans one way, you lean the other. You turn right, by hanging off the bike to the left. 2. Counter Steering as described in my previous post. Works best at speeds above parking lot speeds. 10-15 mph +. You lean in the direction of the bike. You turn right, you lean off to the right (if at all). Now about the less time to get around the corner simply means = if you are in a race for example, getting around the corner in less time is a good thing and leads to lower lap times. Nothing hard about that. You don't have to be a bad ass to still understand how the fast guys go fast. Chris

I haven't seen any other 2 stroke Aprilia's in Lebanon. My teenagers would normally be the one on the RS50. Changed the windscreen to black for this year and put new full exhaust. I'll be getting my oldest a Ninja 250 in next couple of weeks for use as summer transportation and his time at OSU. He is currently a freshman there. My HS Jr. just started riding the RS50 on the public roads starting today. Feel free to tell me if you seeing him being 'stupid'. I'll be out and about on my '09 RS125 orange/yellow Spains No. 1 Jorge L. replica. Feel free to stop me or say hello. I live on the YMCA side of town. Chris

I'm suprised too. Especially when I failed to communicate to you the basics. Nothing I said is very advanced. I feel it is important you understand why bikes behave as they do. This doesn't require high speed cornering to understand which way the front wheel should be pointing to achieve the desired results. Please let me know what you think is advanced. Chris

Long time off and on rider, sometimes racer and generally believe motorcycles are cool. Had some great ones over the years and rode a lot of other ones. Previously owned FZR400, VTR1000F SuperHawk, RC51, CBR1K, Ape RS50 (still have), Ape RS125 (still have). I just started racing the mini bikes NSR50/NSR63 with OMRL. Raced in GLRRA for 3 partial seasons on the superhawk years ago. Kids are finally old enough I have more time to ride. Looking forward to reading, posting and riding with some of you. Chris

I agree with the above. I registered for this site after reading every page of this thread and pretty much every post. Guy is stubborn, thinks he knows things that he doesn't know. To be fair, many of us were probably like this at one time. But we were WRONG! So many people get the counter steering confused because they never think it through. Your brain instinctively does most of it. As some here are advocating, stop thinking and start riding, I agree this works for some and up to a point. However, I fall in the other camp. Riding is a dangerous activity and I love doing it. I don't have a death wish, so I want to have fun and be as safe as possible while doing it. To help me accomplish this, I want to UNDERSTAND why things work and how to manipulate them to my advantage. Once I understand I can practice and refine my technique. Let's start with the basics: Scenario A: Motorcycle is stationary and fully upright. As in you are sitting on it. If perfectly upright (90 degrees) from the relatively flat Earth. It is pretty easy to manage. If you let go for a moment here, nothing really happens as long as bike is perfectly upright. Scenario B: Motorcycle is leaned over 15 degrees. Like on the kick stand. Bike is much harder to manage as you feel the weight (that thing we call gravity pulling the mass of the bike toward the Earth). If you let go of the bike here and kickstand is up, bike quickly falls over and tears may be shed. When riding in a straight line, bike is similar to Scenario A above, so we will call it Scenario A1. You can let go of the handlebars and bike stays upright and goes relatively straight. Moving your body or pulling on parts of the bike will only have a very small effect on the direction of the bike. When cornering at anything faster than parking lot speeds, the bike will only turn successfully if leaned over. Scenario B1. The reason is that you are driving the bike under itself at EXACTLY the same rate as it is falling to the ground. Take a yard stick and balance it on one finger. As it starts to fall, you need to move your finger in the direction it is falling to keep it from falling completely. If the front wheel wasn't turned just the perfect amount, the bike would do one of two things: Lean more (closer to the ground) OR Lean less (more upright). This may sound complicated, but this is simply what I call Two Wheel Balance. Just like riding a bike. You trained your brain how much to move the handlebars to keep this perfectly balanced when needed. At the conclusion of a turn, you steer even further, meaning you drive the front end past the perfect balance point, causing the bike to force itself upright. Some people make very small adjustments. If you ever want to be able to corner fast, you must be able to FORCE the handlebars to get the desired lean angle much faster. This can also be helpful on the street for accident avoidance or getting caught going to fast into a corner. It's been tested by smart people like Keith Code that handlebar input is the single biggest factor in cornering. Practice doing this. I have never seen anyone wash out the front from putting too much input into the handlebars and it turns out you can put a crazy amount of speed and force into steering the bike. This is one of the things that makes fast guys fast. The less time it takes to achieve maximum lean angle, means more time at max lean, which means less time to negotiate a particular corner. Some things not to confuse. 1. When turning RIGHT, the wheel is pointing to the RIGHT. This is after you most likely counter steered to the LEFT to get the bike to fall over to the RIGHT. Once at desired lean angle, front wheel is facing the direction of the turn (RIGHT)! 2. Riding fast and riding safe aren't always the same thing. Being able to ride fast while riding safely increases the safety margin. 3. Counter steering is not very effective at parking lot speeds. Much easier to use your body weight by hanging off in the direction of turn to prevent the bike from falling over the opposite way. Depending on your bike, your weight and how far you hang off dictates how much you can turn the front wheel without the bike falling over the opposite way. My advice to the Ninja 250 rider is spend a lot of time in an empty parking lot. Ever new rider should be practicing slow and medium speed turns, threshold braking, riding in the proper gear, etc. Nothing worse than screwing up and not knowing why but thinking you do! Chris