hardway
Junior Member
When I was riding yesterday I came through a section of four successive curves that gave me some trouble.
The curves are on a hill with a pretty steep slope, and I came into them going downhill. In that direction they go right, left, right, left, with no space in between, all curve.
I know the road, and was waiting for these turns, so I came into the first one going pretty slow (not sure what speed, wasn't looking down at the gauges). I was applying the throttle control rule #1 from 'Twist of the Wrist II', "Once the throttle is cracked on, it is rolled open evenly, smoothly and constantly throughout the remainder of the turn". This, and the steering rule of making only one steering action per turn, got me through the first three really smoothly and it felt great.
By the time I entered turn four, I felt like I was going way to fast and was going to go wide left, into the other lane. There was a car coming up the road in the other lane too. The car was far enough away that I could have swept into his lane, made the turn and got back into my lane before it got too dangerous, but I didn't want to freak out the other driver so I stood the bike up and emergency braked (no cars behind me). FZ6 brakes worked exceptionally and I rolled through the rest of the turn without incident.
I was bummed because I thought I was going to clean the curve section and was feeling really good until that last turn. What should I have done differently? Lower entry speed to turn one? Less throttle through turns one to three? There was no space between turns to scrub off speed, and since I was going downhill, rolling off the throttle didn't do much to slow me down. I didn't feel like I was applying aggressive throttle, just enough to be continually applying it.
Any advice appreciated, thanks!
The curves are on a hill with a pretty steep slope, and I came into them going downhill. In that direction they go right, left, right, left, with no space in between, all curve.
I know the road, and was waiting for these turns, so I came into the first one going pretty slow (not sure what speed, wasn't looking down at the gauges). I was applying the throttle control rule #1 from 'Twist of the Wrist II', "Once the throttle is cracked on, it is rolled open evenly, smoothly and constantly throughout the remainder of the turn". This, and the steering rule of making only one steering action per turn, got me through the first three really smoothly and it felt great.
By the time I entered turn four, I felt like I was going way to fast and was going to go wide left, into the other lane. There was a car coming up the road in the other lane too. The car was far enough away that I could have swept into his lane, made the turn and got back into my lane before it got too dangerous, but I didn't want to freak out the other driver so I stood the bike up and emergency braked (no cars behind me). FZ6 brakes worked exceptionally and I rolled through the rest of the turn without incident.
I was bummed because I thought I was going to clean the curve section and was feeling really good until that last turn. What should I have done differently? Lower entry speed to turn one? Less throttle through turns one to three? There was no space between turns to scrub off speed, and since I was going downhill, rolling off the throttle didn't do much to slow me down. I didn't feel like I was applying aggressive throttle, just enough to be continually applying it.
Any advice appreciated, thanks!