GREAT RIDE

I rode the Sunrise Road in Mt. Rainier National Park Friday afternoon and again early Sunday morning.  The paving is better than it was when the description in the link was written--only one hard dip that compressed a spinal disc or two.   Lots of 3rd gear curves and three 2nd gear curves, tall fir trees, hillsides with wildflowers, 12,281' Mt. Adams to one side and 14,411' Mt. Rainier right in front, both potentially active volcanoes.

I just finished reading Lee Parks' TOTAL CONTROL:  High Performance Street Riding Techniques.  Great book, highly recommended.  His cornering techniques are:
--Slow before cornering
--Deep delayed apex
--Rider's body to the inside of the bike's centerline
--Look through the turn with the eyes parallel with the ground
--Use only the arm on the inside of the turn to control the handlebars
--Countersteer to start a sharp turn then ease off as the turn progresses
--Roll on the throttle through the turn

Getting the body way over to the inside of the turn before turning wasn't my usual technique, but I gave it a good try, and it allows tighter, faster cornering without dragging a peg.  By "looking through the turn" Parks means to look where you need to go, way ahead, not where you're about to go, looking over the mirror or maybe even more out to the side.  It is a bit unnerving to look as far as possible through the turn and only see the road the wheels will pass over in peripheral vision, but that, combined with the inside arm steering, makes the turns seem more powerful.  As he wrote, one has to be careful to avoid turning too tightly in the turn.

Anyway, with the new, very smooth turns and the fabulous scenery, I got into the zone...it was sublime.  My mind was 100% into the riding and mellowed way out.  I've not felt anything like that very often.  Riding, and life, doesn't get any better than this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-jb6FIzx-A  I like this guy's approach, especially on eyes.  If I'm not riding right my eyes are doing it!  Think I'm going to get his course.

The principles are the same as described above.  

This fellow's video of riding the Dragon must be nifty, too.  I know that road very very well and learned many things not to do watching folks.

The only riding school I've been to was the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Experienced Rider Course which was good but didn't reach very-good.  It is all slow speed maneuvers.

The police training video clearly shows the riders looking way to the side to the point where they need to go, not right in front at the pavement they're about to run over.  They make a very interesting movement where they make the little S-swerve before the low speed U-turn or circle.  That's a slow speed countersteer.  They swerve right to tip the bike to the left for a left turn.  Neat gimmick.

This video shows a Goldwing on a track!  We can see the rider lean his body to the inside before he begins his turn.  He must be a very experienced track rider to shift his butt across the seat (hang off) and drag his knee the way he does.  For curvy road riding, just leaning the shoulders way out and looking "through" the turn" does the job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BKYLMx2SM