It's kind of hard to believe that just three (3) short months ago I couldn't even start the bike off from a standing stop without the bike bucking and heaving violently. Stalling out at almost every stoplight. I've logged over 6000 miles on the ZZR. Most all of them ridden on twisty backroads. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I have also learned from all of them. My riding has improved each day. 

I'm now at a stage where my corner entry, and turn-ins are much more consistent. I'm able to save my cornering mistakes instead of totally abandoning the turn. It's also a lot easier to adjust my line within the corner. There hasn't been any overstepping of the centerline. I've become more relaxed during high-speed cornering. I now expect vehicles to always be coming around the corner, and don't mind when they do, as I focus on my "exit" to ride past them - sometimes looking through the vehicle to accomplish this.

My endurance has gone way up. Now my wrists don't hurt like they used to, as I've learned to use my torso muscles more to balance my weight. Standing starts and launches are now reliable. I can perform u-turns both to the right and left within 18 inches of roadspace.

I've gotten my knee down, scraped both pegs, and can finally ride smoothly (smooth enough) in 1st gear.

When going around corners I'm comfortable letting the suspension and tires soak up the bumps and sand in the corners. I'm also managing power throughout all the gears a lot better. I can even do clutchless shifting, but I use it rarely. One handed swerves/corners, lock to lock riding at low speed, riding on the expressway, riding in traffic; I do it all now and I can also finally enjoy the ride.

However, there is still so much room for improvement. I try and practice every day. Some movements are fluid, but not completely automatic. Sometimes I slip back into hanging onto the handlebars during a lean, instead of holding my body up by pressing on the pegs and using my torso muscles. Sometimes I misjudge or improperly execute the turn-in point, and end up fifty-pencing the corner. I wish my throttle inputs after turn-in were much smoother a lot of the time. Sometimes I put too much weight on the handlebars.

I enjoy the ride now, but I am still apprehensive everytime I get on. I don't think that feeling will ever go away. 

Went out for an evening ride today. We are still smack in the middle of love-bug season it seems. The little critters fly around taking up almost every foot of airspace, while constantly making babies. They get squished and stuck onto anything moving over 15 mph.

While cruising up the back stretch, two riders wearing nothing but t-shirts, shorts, and sneakers; rode by me in the opposite direction. I made a quick u-turn after they passed to see where they were headed. As I caught up to them, I could see them trying to go faster, but then suddenly slow down.

In less than a mile or so we came upon an intersection. They stopped and immediately proceeded to brush and wipe the dead bugs out of their eyes and off their faces.

It was hilarious.

They both had GSX-R1000s, and were trying to ride them without helmets or any additional gear. They didn't even have the good sense to wear glasses.

Ha Ha!!!

When fast cornering:

1. Lead with the inside shoulder
2. Pull with the outside knee
3. Roll-on the throttle

Modify as necessary for existing conditions.

I have found a place that is just about perfect for practicing my cornering and everything else that goes with that. It is just super awesome. Safe run-off, great surface, no traffic and low top speed.

I was there today for the first time, and the only thing I regret is that I didn't wear my leathers. I scraped my pegs four (4) times, twice on each side. Whoooooo!!! I probably went around the track at the very least 50 times. It was a workout. At the end I practiced some low speed exercises (U-turns and such). It was a truly excellent experience.

Now. Chicken-strips are down to about a millimeter on both sides of the rear. 

 

PS: Glad to see there is still some - 1 mm - reserve left on the tire even after scraping the pegs. Also, it's good to know the tires held true in the corners at the 2 up pressures (37.5 psi front, 42.5 psi rear). Ambient temperature: 97 F.

Trail braking is a real science onto itself; there are so many variables involved. That rear wheel will slide out on you if you touch that rear brake - maybe yes, maybe no. The only constant I found throughout, is that, you really should be off the brakes completely at the apex if you're coming hard into the turn. I tend to get off the front brake by the beginning of the lean, and then use the rear brake the rest of the way in if necessary, to set the line.

PPS: Scraping pegs is definitely not recommended. In fact, after scraping my pegs each time, I was always scared to go around the corner the next time for fear of going too low. I'm already hung off as much as I can, with my shoulder hovering only about a foot off the ground. However, it's very nice to have it reinforced that the bike can lean over significantly - till the pegs are scraping - and the tires still hold nicely.

As a matter of fact. All 4 times that the pegs scraped, the bike never reacted in any adverse way, the tires weren't howling, or slipping, there was excellent feedback from both the front and rear suspension, and the ride around the corner was very smooth.

Finally went out yesterday to get some proper riding gear for my wife. We must have spent about 2 hours in that store just trying on and picking out stuff. She ended up getting a helmet (Shoei RF-1000), Jacket (Tourmaster - mesh), and a pair of mesh Icon gloves. She looks so gorgeous all suited up.

It rained a lot yesterday, so after breakfast this morning she decided it was time to try out her gear - with me riding of course. So for her first ride I wanted it to be exciting, but not too long. So I took her on my morning route. It has some nice scenery, a few nice sweepers along with some other curves. 

When we started out I did a few quick banks to get her used to to the motion and leaning with me and the bike. That scared her just a little, but she adjusted really quickly and was ready for more. We made it onto the open road and took off.

The bike certainly feels different with two people on board. Not radically different, just heavier in the back end, and heavier gear shifts. I kept the revs up a little higher than normal, just to be on the safe side. Other than that, the bike really handles nice with both of us riding. Of course, I toned down the corner speed a little, but everything felt familiar. She moved around quite a bit back there, but it wasn't anything I wasn't expecting, and to a large degree I just ignored it.

We stopped halfway through the ride so I could ask her how she was doing. Her hands weren't used to holding on to the tank, and she felt she was sliding around on the seat. I explained how she could move around by standing more on the pegs, and also lift up off the bike when going over bumps.

My wife is such an excellent passenger. On the way back we kicked the speed up a couple notches, really leaning around some of the corners. We even tucked in together to brace against the wind. It was so cool!

When we got back. I was very surprised. She loved it! Awesome! She had a smile from ear to ear.

I don't expect her to be getting her own bike any time soon. But, I'm glad she really enjoyed our first ride together. 

Almost home a 24 foot box truck tried to block me from passing by straddling the center line of the road.

I will never forget you Mr. Evil Truck Driver.

Yup. I'm up to 5000 miles now. You know I had to celebrate this with another long ride. This time I figured I'd take a nice cruise along the countryside. Look at some lakes, some horses, a few cows and goats, and of course... lots of curves. You bet. This ride had a lot of turns. Sharp 90's, some chicanes, a few hairpins, fast sweepers, super-fast sweepers, and yeah a couple straights in-between to relax and enjoy the scenery. Over 300 miles worth round trip. Plus any of those bends that I really liked, I went back and did it again. Sometimes more than once.

It was a sweet ride.

And, as always..., since I'm always studying..., I learned a few new things on this trip. The first thing that is now cemented into my mind is that, the first time through a turn wont be the best. It doesn't matter if it's a corner that you ride every day. Corners change daily. Heck, sometimes they change during the day. So the first time you hit that corner that day, you're gonna be at least a little apprehensive. You want to feel the corner out, so you'll hold back, even if it's just a little. Now each day you might get better at taking that corner, but the first run of the day wont be your best.

The second thing I now know is fact, is that corners change daily. My favorite spot for practicing those really hard and fast leans was almost totally messed up today. Only Turn 3 was clean. The rest of the corners had sand or grass in them, and Turn 2 outbound has a large shallow pothole in it now. Turn 2 is the one that I had my very first peg scraping on (sigh). So, I could only practice on Turn 3. That's okay. It made the practice session more focused, and I got my knee down on all but the first two passes of the day. Sweetness!

When doing the U-turns for each go-around, I experimented with controlled slides. Scary, but very cool. It's a little weird, since the rear brake is on one side of the bike. So, sliding the rear wheel around to the left or to the right is kinda the same, but sorta different. It's just body position, and muscle tension that you have to get used to.

Anyhoo! The other thing that I tried and verified is that the tires will always slide in sand. Regardless! Well I've always wondered if when going around a corner if suddenly - hello - a patch of sand appears in the road, will the tires really slide. Yes, yes they will. However, if you have good tires and they can see pavement again once they slide out of the sand they'll hook up again progressively, and then you'll be good to go. Now whether, you make it out of the slide or not, depends on how much more the bike has leaned over since it started sliding. So, don't chop the throttle, don't try to slow down in the slide, and let the suspension do it's job.

Now the last thing I learned on this trip seemed to be the biggest in regards to how it changed how everything felt on the bike, how the bike performed, and how I felt - my confidence included - while riding the bike. What I have now proven through experience is that you should not hang on the handlebars. Yeah, yeah, of course we all know that we should keep our weight off the handlebars, and keep the steering light. Still, I have been going through these corners every single day, working on looking through the turn, finding the right turn-in point, weighting the pegs, body position, etc., and, I think I have been doing pretty well. However, It started to kind of annoy me, that the steering felt heavy while I was hanging off the bike.

Now, this hasn't been much of a problem since by the time the bike is at max lean for the corner, and I'm hung off on the inside, I really have no intentions of making any sharp, or major steering inputs. But, it was still bothering me a bit that the steering was so unbelievably heavy while in a really hard corner, especially at high speed (like a super fast sweeper), and I didn't want to believe all of that was attributable to centripetal force, and gyroscopic precession.

Well, right before going into Turn 3 the third time today, I decided I would position my body so I could let go of the handlebars - both of them. Now I'm not really going to let go of the handlebars completely, but I want to position myself on the bike so that none of my weight is pulling or pushing on any of the grips. You see the tendency is, that while leaned over and hanging off - a lot - to hang on to the inside grip to support your weight (I'm saying you, but this whole thing you should realize is about me). So I am leaned over in the corner, hanging off the bike and I am holding on to the inside grip to keep my shoulder off the ground. This is why the steering feels so heavy when I'm hanging off in the corner.

So, as I said, I'm going to position myself so I can release the handlebars in the corner without changing my body position on the bike. To do this, I had to really hook my outside knee into the tank. I mean reeeally hook it in there solid. On the inside I would be standing on the peg. I mean, reeeally standing on that inside peg. The feeling you get is that you're holding up you body sideways off the ground using just your hips, and your obliques.

As I entered Turn 3 that third time, I jammed my outside knee into the side of the tank and stood up on the inside peg, what happened next - at least to me was nothing short of amazing. It felt like I was riding a whole new bike. The steering was so light (and fluffy) that I could bring that front wheel into or away from the center line at will. The steering felt just as light as it would if the bike was standing up going straight at that same speed. I almost couldn't believe it until....

My left knee slider went into the pavement so violently this time as my front tire rode about an inch from the center line. Wow! On the next pass, I did the same thing. Knee down! This time I barely had my leg away from the bike. Awesome. I used this new found knowledge the rest of the way home, and those sweepers were oh so much sweeter.

So there it is, another great ride, and a few more lessons learned. And also, now my new tires have really been broken in (2 mm chicken-strip on the left, 10 mm chicken-strip on the right of the rear tire).

Went out for a spin on my regular route. Well, actually I was gonna take it on an extended ride, but then it started raining in the direction I was headed. So, I turned around and headed back home.

On the way back, while turning left into an intersection (really slow T-junction) the front wheel let go. It was a good thing the bike was almost upright, and I was only moving at about 5-10 mph. I managed to get my left boot down on the pavement. Everything slid sideways for about a foot-and-a-half. I straightened up an rode onto the shoulder.

Hmmn... I still don't know whether these tires are any good or not. There were so many variables for that situation. It could be the tires, but then again, it just started raining, and since it happened right in the intersection, there may have been a lot more grease build up there than other sections of the road.

Who knows. At least I was cautious in the turn, and left a margin for recovery.

The feeling that I get before every big ride, or event where I have to perform at my best is the same. It's a very, very strong feeling. Today I had to lead a group ride. As soon as I got on the bike, and the wheels started rolling, though, all of that melted away. It was all about fun after that.

It was a very small group, for sure (three including myself), but it was still significant. It was my first time leading a group ride, and I had never met any of the other riders before. I had no real idea of their abilities/experience, and we were exploring a route they had never been on before. Even though each rider is ultimately responsible for his/her safety. It's also my responsibility to lead them on a ride that is safe and enjoyable.

One of the very first group rides I was on (much like this one; three people) - the lead rider went down in a corner. I definitely didn't want that to happen. My other major concern was one of the riders running into me from behind. I'm usually quite happy cruising in the back of the group, but this was my route and my ride.

As it turns out the ride went pretty well. It would have been excellent, except that one of our group got a flat rear tire WHILE going around a corner. He didn't fall, but it was good that we were in a remote area with very little traffic, and no vehicles were approaching at the time.

Got to try out my new patch kit. The inflator works great. Each of the 16 gram CO2 canisters equates to about 5 psi of rear tire pressure. We ended up using all 6 of my canisters to get 30 psi into the rear wheel. The plug held up and we made it to a gas station about 20 miles away to get some more air. Did you know some places charge 75 cents for air. Before that happened though, the ride was awesome.

Of course we had to cut the ride short. It wouldn't have been safe to ride that tire to where we were headed. We weren't even half-way to our turn around point (another 60+ miles of back roads).

We headed back, and decided to stop at a local shop to get a fresh tire for the injured bike. I ended up replacing both my tires as well since I almost had 5000 miles on my tires, and they were starting to look a little ragged. The rubber on the front was getting really hard, and the center on the rear was less than a millimeter above the wear beads. Now I have a new pair of Diablo Corsa IIIs that need to be scrubbed in.

All-in-all, it was pretty good.

Yeah it works. Everything is back to normal. Definitely have to use the whole picture to gauge everything accurately. Takes a lot of looking back-and-forth though.

Focusing on leading with my shoulder on every turn now without hanging off, even the really slow ones. Feels pretty good so far. Gotta keep my weight a little forward though, to allow the suspension to do it's thing.

Went for an extended ride today. Figured I would take a nice easy cruise on the cycle to celebrate the 4000 mile mark. I suited up in my touring gear and headed out.

It seemed I was hitting all the corners smooth and hitting my lines just right until I came upon my first fast right. I picked out the apex, I made my turn in, but somehow the pressure on the bar just wasn't enough and I missed my line by about 2 feet. I was way off on that one. I couldn't figure out what I did wrong. A few miles earlier it felt like the the front tire wasn't sticking that well, so I tried to shrug this incident off, and chalk it up to not trusting the tires.

I continued on. My next two left turns were right on, but my next fast right turn I was off my line again, this time by about a foot. I was really off today, yet I couldn't understand why. I rode for about another 30+ miles of all new roads with varied results. Then it finally hit me. I was getting so comfortable with the bike, that I was actually carrying a lot more speed than usual into the corners. I would be fine on the slower corners, but on those faster corners I was ignoring the speedo, and ended entering the turns at over 20 mph faster than I usually would. So for a posted 30 mph corner that I might usually enter at 60mph, I now inadvertently carried it in at 80mph. I'm thinking I got comfortable with the speed in the straight, but I really need to pay attention more to road markers as I am coming into the corners.

You know, as I'm writing here, I realize that wasn't it. I was paying attention. However, I was trying something different today. Usually I keep my eyes forward to the runoff of the corner as I'm entering, and I use this to guage how fast I'm entering the corner, and adjust my speed accordingly. Today I didn't do that at all. I purposely ignored the runoff point way before entry and just focused on the inside line. Somehow by doing this I ended up misjudging my speed - because everthing looks so much slower - but also, I was unable to calculate my turn-in point correctly.

I think it's a combination of both. It has to do with me not being used to judging my entry speed by looking at just the inside line. However, I think I need that runoff point as a reference to properly estimate where the apex is. We'll see tomorrow. Thinking back, it just seems like the apex kept moving forward if I focused on just the inside line during entry. Whereas, if I use the runoff point as a reference I know for sure that I have to start turning at a very certain point if I want to be right on the apex.

I'll practice this again tomorrow.

Notes: Focusing on just the inside line influences an early turn in (since you go where you look) this may cause you to run wide if lean angle isn't correct (the sleazeball line).

Temp: 76 degrees F
Road: Cool/damp
Air: Slightly Foggy

The rear tire slid while coming to a stop and cornering at the same time today. Kept pressure on the brake until the slide ended. No worries.

Ahh! All this sun! Had to go out for another ride this morning. Have a BBQ later to go to.

Took the back roads down to my favorite spot. I was intending to go for a nice liesurely cruise, but I met up with two other riders while stopped at the train tracks (twice). So, since they were headed in the same direction, I decided to follow them.

Another blazing adventure. Both bikes were a lot faster than mine on the straight. In the turns it was more than okay.

Lessons learned: Don't constrain your focus to the rider ahead of you. Ride as if he wasn't there, looking ahead into the corner for your own line.

This tended to happen on turns I wasn't familiar with. Ending up with me looking for the bike in front to show me the way. He might not even know the way!

The first time you scrape your pegs it's going to scare the crap out of you.

Well at least it did for me. I was out doing my regular weekend practice at my favorite spot. I had recently received some new leathers so now I had the full gear on. When going around one of the turns, the left peg touched the road and pushed back and up.