www.citybikerblog.com » Leo

GPS on a Scooter?

Leo — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:14:45 +0000

There’s probably no better way to get around Manhattan on a warm day than on a scooter. A motorcycle is fine, but more work, and most don’t have the storage (and small traffic squeezing size) of scoot. And if you need extra storage you can strap a backpack onto the front and still have enough room for your feet. I always use an extra (blue) bungee (you can sorta’ see in the picture) in case the backpack strap fails somehow. It’s a good place for electronics because the bag lessens the vibration and bumps; as well as for things you want ready access to (like my camera). It’s also a good place to stick a car GPS (when it’s not raining).

Most scooter riders don’t need a GPS, but some of the streets around the Village are tricky… And it’s been a while since I’ve been to Cornelia street, and I knew I’d only have a few minutes to get there from Houston. So I plug in the GPS, and listen for the turn by turn directions while looking down at stop lights to see the name of the street I’m turning on to. Passenger helmet under the seat, and even room for a passenger jacket up front. Not bad.

Related posts:

Why Segways can’t replace motorcycles

Leo — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:43:43 +0000

Or…why a Segway will never replace motorcycles and scooters…

Related posts:

Another school promo…

Leo — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:21:58 +0000

There’s more than one good riding school out there, but these guys are among the best. I mean who else could get Valentino Rossi to come do a training video? And this promo is slick. Which is important…because attending a track school should not only be educational, but it should also feel like a dream come true.

If you’ve ever thought of taking a an advanced riding school or track school, I’d say do it. Even if you don’t plan to go to the track again. I took the CSS level one a while back and thought it was worth every penny (and I could definitely benefit from level 2)… But let me know what you think. Have you been to any riding schools? Worth it for a street rider or no?

Related posts:

Tire wear and suspension problems…

Leo — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:10:20 +0000

It’s a good time of year to put some serious miles on your tires (when the weather is under a 100), and if you’re a corner speed junky, you may be getting some serious tire wear. It’s probably a good things to be able to scrub off some serious rubber because it exposes the fresher (stickier) rubber underneath; but there might by something in the wear pattern that your bike is trying to tell you…

Cue Dave Moss, setup specialist extraordinaire. Here he walks the viewer through some common wear patterns and their causes. If you’re new to this then you should know that even experienced riders often find these discussions hard to follow… But if you’re interested, check out the video above, and the if you’re still interested you can watch Dave Moss do his thing in the two videos below.

The bottom line for most of us is: you need to look for is even wear across and around the tire. When there is intermittent wear, it’s a potential sign of a suspension “problem.” I say “problem” because it doesn’t mean your bike is not fit to ride, just that with a bit of adjustment it could handle better than it does currently…

Related posts:

Where do you put your helmet?

Leo — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:48:46 +0000

This is probably the easiest way to ruin your expensive helmet: put it down for a second on the seat or a ledge. Even if it’s perfectly stable, a breeze could come knock it over. Well.. you can file this video under “useful ideas”, only I saw this on Motoblog, so I don’t know if you can get it here in the U.S. Helmet spoilers that double as stands. It reminds me of those helmet donuts people use to put their helmets down on a table or the floor in your office… You can check out their website here.

So where is the safest place to put your helmet down for a minute or two? Not on the floor by your feet (it can roll around or get kicked), and not on the tank (although that’s what I tend to do)… Probably your best bet is to hang it on a mirror. Got a better idea? Share the wealth in the comments!

Related posts:

Getting comfortable with lean angle…

Leo — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:27:47 +0000

Lean angle…it’s one of those things people get mental blocks over. You want to be able to lean it over, but fear takes over, and it bothers you. Now if you don’t care about lean angle, that’s fine! Better to keep the bike as upright as possible. But if you want the option of being able to lean further than you do right now, then read on! You don’t need to be a super-talented rider to lean your bike over all the way. But not being able to lean it over is kind of like not being able to turn your car’s steering wheel all the way…

First, how far can you learn to lean it over? Most sport tires give a little more than 50 degrees of lean angle (if riding straight up is 0 degrees). That’s pretty much the angle from the picture above. Regular Michelin Pilot Powers can go a few degrees further. The rear view cam of Rossi below shows a lean angle of around 65 degrees. You can’t do that with regular street tires. And most street bikes won’t even come close. Many street bikes have pegs that touch down before or around the 45 degree mark. So your bike’s maximum lean angle is probably somewhere between 40-50 degrees.

Now a word of caution. The closer you are to the maximum lean angle (let’s call it MLA), the more problematic tire slips become, or if there are bumps on the road… So you really need a good road surface to get close to your MLA. You also need good throttle control: too much throttle will overload the rear tire, and too little throttle (or no throttle) in a turn will overload the front tire sooner. So you need to use proper throttle control. And, of course, you can’t use the brakes as you get closer to the MLA.

But assuming you have the basics of throttle control down and know how to find a good line through a corner – what can you do to get over lean angle anxieties? Here are three simple tips:

Tip #1 “Turn your head and torso.” You don’t need to overcome your fear of lean angle, you really need to bypass them. Your brain doesn’t like leaning over sideways toward the ground. We humans are not built to lean that way. If you look at our anatomy, there’s only one direction in which we are comfortable leaning over, and that is FORWARD. But don’t just turn your head, turn your torso, and even your legs and hips… So that your entire body is facing toward the turn (and at a slightly different angle from your bike). That way the lean is not so much sideways, as it is forward. You lean forward into the direction of the turn… Kinda’ like a runner leaning forward…

Tip#2 “Get down.” The lower your body is to the ground, the easier it is to lean over. With your chest all the down on the tank, pointed toward the direction of the turn – the lean angle becomes less distracting. You should feel like your trying to touch the ground with your hands…

Tip #3 “Focus on where you are going.” In order to do the first two you will need a visual focal point that your body is leaned toward. For some people (and schools of thought) the focal point is the apex of the turn (or after that, the exit), or wherever you want to be at the end of the turn. For others, it’s the center of the turn radius (think of making a circle around a cone, you’d focus on the cone and ride in a circle around it – in the same way some schools suggest looking for the center of a turn’s radius as the focal point). Either way (whichever works better for you), you need the right visual landmarks in order lean over.

If you do these three things at a comfortable pace, you will learn to bypass the survival reactions that keep you from leaning the bike over. Be careful though… You might find that the maximum lean angle is so easy to reach that you’re tempted to go beyond it. That’s the point at which you need to start to really focus on body position so as to maximize your bike’s turning ability.

One additional note before I turn it over to anyone who wants to comment! As you work on this, make sure to keep your arms and hands loose on the bars. Even experienced riders return to the death grip technique when they’re pushing their lean angles… Stay loose and take it slow, and you’ll be scraping pegs in no time!

Any other tips for folks getting over lean-angle phobias? Share the wealth in the comments section!

Related posts:

Some thoughts on motogp…(this week)

Leo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:00:03 +0000

I know not everyone is into watching motorcycle racing on tv… And if you’ve recorded this week’s race at Sachsenring, I won’t give it away… But a couple of things are worth mentioning. One is this cool gyroscopic camera they’re using on Valentino Rossi’s bike: when the bike leans over, the camera tilts with the horizon so that you get a different sense of the bike’s lean angle. Cool.

The other thing is, anyone who’s seen anything about MotoGP already knows that Rossi broke his leg recently, and he still can’t walk on his broken leg without crutches… And yet he set near record lap times on a Yamaha Superbike, and so decided to run at Sachsenring. Why is this significant?

Do your legs or feet ever get tired while riding on twisty bits of road? Rossi’s condition reminds us that when that happens, what you really need to do is relax and practice good body position. The reason we get sore and tired is because we’re tensing up without realizing it… This applies to legs and feet, but also to arms, back, neck, shoulders, etc. Even on the most uncomfortable bike, the thing one has to learn to do, in order to ride well, is relax. Hmmm…something to think about. Cheers!

Related posts:

They’re almost here… (electric motorcycles)

Leo — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:00:28 +0000

One thing I won’t miss with combustion engines is the heat that gets blown on your legs riding on a hot day. Not that batteries and electric motors don’t heat up, but nothing like the exhaust burn inducing heat of a typical street bike. This next generation Brammo looks almost plausible as a street bike…except for one small problem: Electrics are best around cities because of the shorter commutes and the efficiency of electric motors in traffic – but where can you plug in your electric motorcycle if you live in an apartment?

Related posts:

How Dunlops are made…

Leo — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:29:09 +0000

Everyone has their favorite brand: I usually get the regular old Pilot Powers because they’re good and easy to find cheap… But I’ve ridden on Dunlops too, and I thought they were excellent! I don’t know if they make me faster or not, but I appreciated how stable and predictable they were. Dunlops don’t surprise you by suddenly letting go, they tell you how they’re doing as they approach the edge. And for me, that makes for an excellent sport and street tire.

Toward the end of this video, you get to see a little bit of how these things are made…cool.

Related posts:

Riding with Margin…

Leo — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:36 +0000

What’s a “safe” speed to ride? Good question. I want to make the case that a safe speed is not so much about an actual number, but about riding with a certain amount of margin… So some people might endanger themselves riding a particular street at 30 mph, especially one with lots of blind driveways and cars turning onto the road from stop signs…whereas another might safely navigate the same road closer to 50…

So here’s the basic idea: just the way when you’re planning your finances you factor in a margin, just in case certain things wind up costing a bit more. And just the way when you schedule your time you factor in a “margin” in case things take a little longer than expected. We need to leave margins when we ride so that we’re not using 100% of our ability at a given time. Even MotoGp racers don’t use 100% of their speed and ability most of the time – we see this is true when front runners of a race put their head down to really give it their all toward the end of a close race (often setting record times on worn tires). Why? Because they don’t race at a 100% all the way through, the margin for error would be too small, and there would be no room to improvise and hone lines while they battle for position. Instead of riding at 100%, they hone their skills in practice so that their 70% is faster than anything regular people like you and me could dream of reaching…

In the same way, I think safe riding on the street means riding at 50-70% of our ability… So that when those emergency situations occur, we have enough space and technique in reserve to handle it. 50% margin means entering turns with a line and speed that if there was gravel or an oil slick right around the bend I’d be able to handle it. 50% margin means even if the car ahead of me slams on the brakes for no reason, I’ll be able to stop without hitting him. 50% margin means I am in total control of my vehicle, and even if a pedestrian comes out of nowhere, I’d be able to handle it.

For some people riding at 50% can be quite slow. For more experienced riders with better braking and cornering skills, 50% margin could still be a brisk pace. But the point is to ride well within the limits of your abilities so that you have enough in reserve for unexpected occurrences. Valentino Rossi’s 50% on the street would probably still be way faster than my 110%, so I have to ride my own margins, not someone else’s.

Newer riders are often tempted to ride at their limit as they struggle to keep up with traffic or other riders. My advice is to stay away from those roads where you won’t be able to comfortably keep pace with traffic until you can handle them easily. You should be 100% in control of your bike, and your position in traffic at all times… because even when you’re completely in control unexpected things can happen.

What about on the track? Most people say “save the fast stuff for the track,” but even on the track, the instructors at CSS recommend riding at 75% of your pace. When you ride at 100% you survival reactions kick in, and it makes it difficult to learn anything… So instead of going at 100% and (maybe) crashing out, why not ride at 75% and use that energy to get better corner speed, find a better line, get a better roll-on through the corner – so that your 75% can be faster than your old 100%?

Related posts: