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Re: [ST] Crossing over



I'm not sure I know all the arguments being put forth on this issue as I
haven't been keeping up on the list mail, but let me say this:  If you are
trying to ride through twisties while keeping your sight distance longer
than your stopping distance, you might want to try shortening your stopping
distance rather than trying to lengthen your sight distance by changing your
position on the road.  Of course the way you shorten your stopping distance
is to slow down (say what!).

On a racetrack, you can talk turn-in, apex and track-out points all day long
(because, after all, you are trying to go faster), but on the street I think
it's best to follow a conservative line, keeping a somewhat constant
distance from the centerline throughout the turn.  On a right-hander here in
the US, I will usual keep my contact patch ~1/3 of the width of the lane out
from the centerline.  On a left-hander I will keep the tires ~2/3 of the
width of the lane out from the center line.  With some leaning, that puts my
head roughly over the center of the lane at the midpoint of the turn.  It's
not the fastest way through the turn, but that is not the goal of riding on
the street IMO.  As it was said, why would you want to straighten out the
turns?  That's the fun part.  Go a little slower, but turn just as hard or
harder while still leaving room for error or evasive maneuvers.

On 6/20/02 I was on the Cherohala Skyway with three other friends.  I was on
my ST and the other bikes were a VFR, a ZRX1200, and an F4i.  I pretty much
rode away from the rest of the guys, but still had enough in reserve to come
to a quick and panic-free stop when I was going around a curve and came upon
an ambulance and police car.  It was the scene where, as I found out later
on, fellow ST-er William Sanders had a fatal crash.  I think that is the
only reminder we need to put some perspective on what is an appropriate
level of riding on the street.

BTW, there is a similar discussion going on over on the T5 list where a
rider had a fatal head-on collision with a law enforcement vehicle on a
curvy road.  The rider had a video camera on his bike (the tape is currently
being held by the police) so one day we might get to find the unfortunate
truth about how the incident occurred.

- -Chris

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Haylock [Emerplym Ltd]" <kwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> The 'legitimate' reason for crossing the centre line on the approach to a
> bend (in the absence of double whites) is (or was, before the IAM & RoSPA
> had a rethink) to enable you to see further round the bend. If you ride on
> the road so that you can always stop in the distance you can see to be
> clear, then the further you can see up the road, the faster you can safely
> take the corner. The further out you are, the more you can see, the faster
> you can theoretically take the bend....



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