Cornering Practice (with video)

[n4mwd]

I looked at it again and I can see his head jerk forward. He looked surprised so I'm definitely going with mechanical failure. I wouldn't read too much into the brake lights. A lot of the older bikes only have a brake light switch on one of the two brake systems so he could have been hard on the one without a switch and we'd never see it at the light. This is unlike the Ninja which has switches on both brakes.

I read up on sudden front lockups and, while there are several causes, the main theme seems to be that the brake fluid gets caught in the line and is unable to flow back to the reservoir. This causes the pads to get closer and closer to the rotor ultimately increasing the friction on the rotor which causes it to heat up and expand. At that point, the pads grab the thicker rotor and don't let go until they cool down.

So in theory, this could happen to the Ninja. Perhaps a good argument for changing the brake fluid regularly.

[CycleCam303]

@greenmachine the best practice you could get is from riding a mini bike. Very close to you is a racing organization called M1GP. The director is a guy named Young Lee. You can contact him via Facebook or his website. They have a coaching program which includes a bike rental and you going to a local go kart track. Mike is the coach and he will teach you the basics of getting around a track faster. It's not that expensive either. $300 I believe. After that you'll get addicted and coming this September there will be a 24 hour race. Find a team and for $150 you'll experience the ultimate training session. This is almost exactly the way I learned to ride.

Body position, dealing with race traffic, lines, riding at night, learning how to brake and corner, you'll learn all that and be much further ahead in skills than just riding on the street.

[choneofakind]

I may have glanced over this, but it's worth saying, considering all the talk of crossing the bike line on the first 2 pages.

Remember that your bike leans when it turns. This means that even if you only clip the line with your tires, your head, part of your bike, and part of your chest is still across the line.

My version of 'clipping' a line at apex involves touching my helmet to the imaginary vertical plane coming out of the line, perpendicular to the road surface. There's nothing worse than kissing the double yellow with your tires in a hot turn, only to realize that your face is headed straight for the headlights of the on-coming car.

I tend to leave 3 feet between my tires and the double yellow when I apex a turn. I'll enter wide and edge up on the white line, but I don't like sticking my head into the oncoming lane.

Originally Posted by nautica

I've ridden with people who were reckless and I've ridden with extremely quick guys who didn't mind keeping a sane pace, and the guys who help are the only ones I ride with anymore.

I'm not fast, I'm a noob still. Since you still ride with me, where do I fall into those options?

[nautica]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

I'm not fast, I'm a noob still. Since you still ride with me, where do I fall into those options?

I ride with you to make myself feel like a better rider! Kidding aside, we got a good pace and cruise along pretty nicely and I don't always feel like I'm holding you back (unless we get sluggish like in WV ha).