Establishing Limits

[gone2seed]

How Fast do you go? How far are you willing to push? 

  Does experience= wisdom? What did you take away from the last ops? Do you slow down after a get off? Question what led up to it? Blame yourself? Blame the bike? Blame the external conditions, wet road, slippery trail?

   The process of how we evaluate ourselves  and how we ride is what will keep us riding.

   “ When I need to figure out how I screwed the pouch, no need to go farther than the closest mirror”

             Jeff

[Landshark]

I learn from every crash.  I try not to repeat them.  The last one knocked me out cold and so I can't remember what error I made.  But I have a good idea.  I've gone sideways on a few occasions while riding at speed in muddy conditions.  Need to make a scale that measures pucker factor for those kind.  And twice I've encountered a "left turn in front of me" that resulted in two written off bikes.  I'm not a race guy so I haven't adjusted the speed.  It's usually the way I aim and throttle into things that cause me trouble.

 

[gone2seed]

On 4/26/2021 at 9:16 AM, Landshark said:

I learn from every crash.  I try not to repeat them.  The last one knocked me out cold and so I can't remember what error I made.  But I have a good idea.  I've gone sideways on a few occasions while riding at speed in muddy conditions.  Need to make a scale that measures pucker factor for those kind.  And twice I've encountered a "left turn in front of me" that resulted in two written off bikes.  I'm not a race guy so I haven't adjusted the speed.  It's usually the way I aim and throttle into things that cause me trouble.

 

     I unloaded in ‘04 in the buss stop on the east course,Pocano, cool down lap,  no idea what caused the high side. Ambulance ride.

  Spent enough time on crutches to get over it, mostly. ( fixed and sold the “bitch” SV track ride, before got cleared to go back to work.

  The worst part? Not knowing how I F**ked up! Or if I did.

The left turning idiots scare me more than turn 9 at mosport, sorry I don’t call Laguna Seca Masda raceway either!

[gone2seed]

I’m late getting back Landshark.

Choosing your line  is Important.

Friends don’t let Friends apex early. Stay wide till you can see what is next.  Sounds to me like you figured that out.

    ….and read the Code books.

[maddog123]

 

On 4/25/2021 at 8:36 PM, gone2seed said:

How Fast do you go? How far are you willing to push? 

  Does experience= wisdom? What did you take away from the last ops? Do you slow down after a get off? Question what led up to it? Blame yourself? Blame the bike? Blame the external conditions, wet road, slippery trail?

   The process of how we evaluate ourselves  and how we ride is what will keep us riding.

   “ When I need to figure out how I screwed the pouch, no need to go farther than the closest mirror”

             Jeff

 

I go pretty fast and I push a bit further than my comfort zone but I know my limit and capability, sometime I gather my courage and go beyond. 

Dose experience = wisdom, For me yes but not for everyone ... experience from my last

ride … break before the turn and lean into it...do I slow down after a close call,  yes for a little bit... Questioned what led to it…   I usually know right away ... who do I blame … I always blame the responsible and that's myself. Sometime I blame the tires but ultimately it's still my fault.  

 

I've had many close call but only one real wipe out, some of my close call could've been real bad but I thank my guardian angel for keeping me on the road. 

 

one of them  that I remember like if it was yesterday is was I was coming back on my tracks (dead end bush road) and there was a hill crest and I got some air time on the other side but as I landed I saw a big rock in my lane I went left of it since it was the easiest thing to do to not hit it but the road was turning to the right... never seen a ditch that close I was 40km in the middle of nowhere without cellular service .... that shook me up and got me to slow down.  

Edited February 5 by maddog123

[motonap]

The more you ride the more you push, and the more you push the more you become aware of your own limits first and then the limits of the style of motorcycle you ride. When I moved to New Zealand, the first bike I had was a CBR250R (the single cylinder) and at that point with a restricted speed limit on all open roads of a 100kmph, I told myself this was all the bike I ever needed. The same applied when I moved on the WR250R, until I owned the CB500X and found that to be all and more than I needed for the open roads and my skill level off the road.

 

At some point you will find the limits of the motorcycle style and wish you had something more capable in one area, in my case it was both the open road and off-road. On the road, I pushed myself and the motorcycle to keep up with liter-class sports bikes on hilly winding roads and then when the open road came, I would just have to pull over and watch as they either whizzed me by or took off leaving me in the dust as I wrung the throttle to the gutless 500 twin in comparision.

 

When I got the Tenere 700, I found that I was pushing myself harder around the twisties and harder off the road as well. So much so that the motorcycle has actually helped me up my skill level off the road to be faster, more confident and increased some amount of technical riding skill as well.

 

In saying that, if I were to get a WR250R in my garage again, I would be sooooo much better off the road because of the skills this T7 has helped me develop

[Budo]

      A long time ago, as in 91, when Nick Ienatsch and Mitch Boehm were writing for Motorcyclist there was an article about what they described as The Pace. You can look that up online if you're  interested. In my experience it makes for a better ride. One can always go racing for 10/10ths riding. Of course, dirt is a different matter.  A highside on the cooldown lap? Who knows? It sounds like it was just one of those things. 

 

     Cheers, Budo

[AZJW]

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This! The Pace is what I've patterned my street riding after for many years and I'm convinced it has helped keep me safe. . However, when I get on the dirt, I often go into teenager mode, but that's usually on my 265 lb. dirtbike.

[Hollybrook]

I never saw that article, but it's pretty much how I ride, though I have to admit occasionally crossing the yellow line when there is 100% enough sight distance in S corners and I am falling behind. 

[AZJW]

Here's that article.

 

The Pace

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From the archives: Riding tips from Nick Ienatsch from the November 1991 issue of Motorcyclist magazine.