justin_o_guy
Ex Member
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One of the roads I take to town has a fairly wide sweeping turn & a pretty tight turn (at 35 accelerating to 40 in the Honda it's squeeling tires). I have been working on this one section pretty hard for just over a year & yesterday, it all came together. Since it's a left turn it is mostly off camber or flat with just a few feet at the center of the corner, if ya dive across & cut low to get as close to the stripes as possible, that are canted to make staying in the corner easier. Staying outside & cutting across a little later than usual really worked out, good thing cuz I was quite a bit faster going in than usual, & instead of scraping a peg & wobbling out at 40 or so, nothing touched down & it came out of there very smoothly at 50 MPH. I am pretty sure I felt the whole bike drift a bit sideways in the last 10 feet, but no fork flex was apparent, since, ( I guess this is the reason) I didn't hardly use any countersteer to get it in the turn. I think heavy countersteer flexes the front pretty bad. I have tried it just running down the road & iit feels like it to me. I guess the suggested "late apex" really does work. That 1 section with the 2 90 degree turns of different radii offers 4 corners to play with. I now feel like I have 2 of them pretty well handled. I hope I can remember the spot where I turned in & hit it again. The early attempts at this corner have seen me in the ditch twice. Maybe I didnt Have to let it go there, but had I been too proud to do it, I would have been totally on the edge of a crash to make it stay on the road, so standing it up & laying on the brakes till the grass got there & then rolling it out & slowing down gently seemed smarter than seriously risking dumping it just to be able to pretend I hadn't screwed the corner up reallly badly. *** Legal disclaimer... I do not recommend taking chances or breaking any laws, not man law regarding speed or God's laws of physics, wherein the laws of friction & speed are challenged.In other words, if you BUST your Buttt because you think I inspired you to take a chance, It ain't MY Fawlt!
Most surprising part of it? It went faster thru that turn than ever, by 8 MPH at exit, & didn't drag the peg. I have had that peg on the ground in that turn lots of times & have suspected a better rider could go faster thru & NOT drag it. Yesterday, I proved that.Now, I hope I can learn how to ride like that all the time instead of once in a while.
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