This anybody here?

[dschult2]

Came across this while web browsing and thought good riding (Except for about the 8:40 mark where he drifts into the other lane and a car comes shortly after that, but otherwise good). Didn't know if it was anybody from this forum.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DXJwSQxdvM]Tail Of The Dragon on my FZ6 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Erci]

Came across this while web browsing and thought good riding (Except for about the 8:40 mark where he drifts into the other lane and a car comes shortly after that, but otherwise good). Didn't know if it was anybody from this forum.

Major fail at 8:40. Lucky rider. So many vids out there of dragon riders paying a steep price for drifting into oncoming lane.

 

[Water Bear]

What the heck happened? It looked like the front end wobbled.

 

[trepetti]

I ain't no coach, but the rider looks to remain centered on the bike.....no COW here

 

[lawlberg]

He's using the shoulder a lot more than I'd feel comfortable on the inside of those turns. Asking to hit a patch of rocks or something.

 

[Erci]

What the heck happened? It looked like the front end wobbled.

I see a crack in the road, parallel to his direction of travel. My guess is when the front wheel caught it, it unnerved him, causing him to roll off (which momentarily stands the bike up). Regardless of what caused him to roll off, it took him too long to recover.. he had plenty of time to lean it back in before crossing the yellow.

Lucky.

 

[Carlos840]

I'm no expert but to me it just looked like he underestimated the tightness of the turn and hit the brake rather than push on his bar more and increase lean!

I almost had the same thing happen to me when i started riding, i came in a turn to fast for my liking, went wide. I was about to cross the center line into oncoming traffic and the first reflex i had was to put two fingers on the brake!
Thankfully i instantly told myself "WRONG" and pushed on my right grip. Bike just leaned and i came out of the turn without any problems.

Had i not read about this kind of situation beforehand i would have definitely hit the brakes and done what he did, straight into a van!


Looking at the video he doesn't look very experimented, throttle control is pretty choppy, gear selection is weird, no throttle blipping...
He almost does the same thing again at 09:15 on a left hander!

 

[sandctrev]

What's throttle blipping?

 

[Carlos840]

What's throttle blipping?

When down shifting you blip the throttle while letting the clutch go, it prevents the rear wheel from locking up and really smoothes out the downshift.

"Let's say that in 3rd gear at a given speed your engine is running at 3000 rpms and in 2nd gear it's running at 4000 rpms at the same speed. If you quickly downshift and let the clutch out without attempting to match engine speed, your engine is still at 3000 rpms but the rear tire wants it to be at 4000. The rear tire can slide until it speeds the engine up to 4000 rpms to match the road speed.

However, if you blip the throttle to get the engine up to 4000 rpms before letting the clutch back out, you're now at the right speed and all will be smooth when you complete the shift."


It's definitely not always necessary to throttle blip, but you can hear in the video that he sometimes downshifts a couple gear without doing it and gets a big engine breaking noise.
This kind of thing can really lock up your rear wheel and give you a really bad surprise.
Now, if you are just strolling along in the city it's not really a big deal, but in twisty roads like that, it can ruin your day!

It is really worth doing while breaking hard before a turn to, as it allows a smoother breaking without the jerking of the gear changes.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_cPblE6my4"]How To Downshift While Rev Matching - YouTube[/ame]

 

[rumblestrip]

Looking at the video he doesn't look very experimented, throttle control is pretty choppy, gear selection is weird, no throttle blipping...
He almost does the same thing again at 09:15 on a left hander!

I was kind of thinking the same thing. It's hard to say, but it seems like he's relatively low in RPMs for an FZ6 (I may very well be wrong) for that kind of riding... It also did seem like he was chopping the throttle sometimes, which is not a good thing... :disapprove:

Then again, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I will weigh in on it. It's easy to criticize from my desk... opcorn:

 

[Erci]

It's easy to criticize from my desk... opcorn:

Amen to that! Knowing the right thing to do doesn't always mean we can actually do it when necessary.