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How do you with upsets while cornering?

I will be riding my new bandit 600 down I-90 to school this summer, and am worried about cornering.

I plan on just righting the bike for 1-off potholes and such, but do not know how to deal with the curving interchange ramps that have expansion joints every 20' or so.

Any experienced riders' advice would be appreciated.

Hi WH:

Fortunately, you will get to know I-90 like the back of your hand in short order so that will certainly help.

While I cannot give you much advice as I only have maybe 25,000 miles of slab time over the years, having a tuned suspension surely helps. If your Bandit 600 has rebound and compression damping adjustments, consider bumping them up a bit to the point that the bike actually launches (gets upset) on the worst expansion joint you come across on a daily basis. Back it down a click or two after that and you should be set as far as the bike is concerned.

Find a tire pressure that makes sense for the ride which may be placard or lower. Hard to tell given there is hardly any standard for bike tires other than that they wear way to fast with the stickiest rubber imaginable on some.

Something else I like to do is stand it up as I cross the worst offenders as we do when we cross a RR track. Pull to the outside or inside, stand her up while crossing the joint and then lay her back down through the rest of the corner.

There is a book written by a Mr. Lee called Total Control. I saw him present at this year’s 2010 Chicago International Motorcycle Show. I have spoken with some MSF instructors that have worked with him in the past and they regard his advice highly. Might be worth your time and investment to have look over his book through a local library.

Good Luck and be safe out there!

Wayne

Thanks Wayne, I'll keep that in mind.

I'm waiting on the manual to arrive before I go over the bike with a fine-tooth comb. Suspension, Brakes, Oil Change are all in the works.

However, I have already made 1 discovery: a 600cc bike in 95F beep-and-creep gets motherloving HOT! Is it possible to get sunburn through denim?

Depends.

Generally, just riding through it is all you need to do. Focus your attention ahead where you want to go and the bike will go there. Do not target fixate on the obstacle.

Typical road construction stuff, like expansion joints or even mildly grooved pavement should present no issues unless you're riding so far over the limit nothing would help.

Even tar snakes or minor gravel are no problem in normal (or even aggressive) cornering. The bike may get a bit squirrelly for a split second, but it will grab traction as soon as the tire gets onto good pavement.

In the rain is another story. paint stripes, metal road joints, tar snakes, etc are very slick when wet and must be treated with more caution.

And you may not get sunburned through denim, but you will surely get road-burned through it. ATGATT,

Ride. Ride. Ride.

I ride motorcycles, but generally low powered ones- current bike a 1980 Yamaha SR500-,but the general principles are the same.

Drop your speed before you get to the corner, so you are holding a steady speed-steady throttle position- before you start the corner. In general a little too slow is better than a little too fast. Changing throttle position changes the "balance" of the bike-for example suddenly having to get off the throttle and get on the brakes- it "upsets" the bike a bit. So go in too slow, not too fast.


Like Wayne says-railroad tracks are tricky.Try to cross them straight up and down-which means going straight for a short distance. If you go over slick metal while leaned over, the bike will sidestep a bit-slip then catch- it is so quick you don't even have time to be scared, but it is spooky .

Bikes are so powerful now, and have such good throttle response that a sharp bump and cause you to twist your throttle hand for a blink. Once again, too slow is better than too fast. Also, too tall a gear is better than too low a gear. You don't want too much torque going to that rear wheel in a turn, so be in one gear too tall for curves.

Like others say- look well down the curve-don't look 50 feet ahead, look waaaaay ahead -look as far around the curve as possible. You will still see close obstacles-potholes, debris- but don't focus on them.

When entering a curve, leave some room to the inside ,so you can steer inside(tighten your curve) an obstacle.Once again, your speed has to be low enough to you can suddenly change your line(curve).

Speed down, choose a gear that is too tall rather than too low, do all your braking before you start your lean, look waaaaay around the curve. Most minor upsets-potholes. small debris, you can ride through with no adjustments , if you speed is reasonable. Don't wreck yourself trying to steer around a tiny pothole.
It might not be a bad idea to practice changing your line thru curves, just to get the feel of it-in case you have to dodge something.

Like Wayne said- you will eventually know every expansion joint, crack, dip, rise on your entire route.

Luck
Charlie