[ST] Suspension/Tire Mods

[Gerrit Herbst <Gerrit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good day All,

After this weekend's run down to Phakisa (SA MotoGP) I realised what MY most
important upgrade or modification should be.
It's not fancy tires or hugely expensive shocks and I will tell you why:
On our 250 mile return trip we took the scenic route which was full of nice
twisting sections including some *very* technical parts where you had to now
how to ride a bike or slow down. As this is Africa, and we define "speed
limit" as red-line in top gear, we went full out. 
The guy leading our fast group is the owner of the local triumph dealer and
he got away from everybody (RS's ST's a CBR900RR, Daytona's and S/Triples),
well actually he blasted the rest of the group, specifically through the
difficult stuff.
Guess what he was riding...Well it's not the latest Daytona or some
high-tech Italian job. It was a stock standard 1200 Trophy (you know those
big, top-heavy, lazy tourers with the huge panniers and thin tires).
After the ride home everybody was in agreement that the only reason for us
trying to keep on with the pace of the leader was that we all knew we had
superior bikes to him. If he had been on a modified Daytona and maintained
the same pace we would have all dropped behind and just said "well he's on a
faster bike so let him go" 

It's not what you ride it's how you do it. That guy was faster on his Trophy
than everybody else, even though on paper the Trophy is slower than the ST
or RS.
Before spending $1000+ on Ohlins + RaceTech or any upgrade, upgrade your
skill. When you honed your skills to the level where you can safely say "I
am as good as I can get" (or your name is Mr. V Rossi) then you will know if
you need the mods. I am of the opinion that most riders upgrade their
machines to try and compensate for less than perfect riding skills. My
message is.. know the difference.  

It's like computers: If you have a shitty O/S with poor resource
utilisation, your Applications will be slow even on a high-spec machine (or
bike). To make your Apps run better you need to upgrade the O/S(rider
skills) before you up-spec the machine. 

The above is an opinion held by myself based on a single event where my boat
was rocked. I realised that my 18 years experience on bikes of all kinds and
the one superbike school I attended was not enough and that I need to work
on my skill, ride more, and more often. 
 

A skilled rider is a safe rider, a rider who thinks he's skilled is a dead
one.
Gerrit   
'01 Yellow RS

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