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Re: Cornering Correctly in Comfort and lots of other Crud



Marc, The upper body weight should be carried primarily by the legs when 
riding.  This will significantly reduce the weight on your wrists and 
therefore improve comfort.  It will be difficult to get used to at first, 
though.  In addition, it aids in the stability of the bike in corners.
You should be able to ride and corner with very light pressure on the bars.  
As someone pointed out, Reg Pridmore encourages this and I can say that Kieth 
Code does as well.  In fact, Code has an excercise where when in full lean he 
wants you to wiggle your arms like a chicken.  Countersteering (pushing on 
the bar for the direction you want to go; push left, go left) is really the 
only way to effectively flick a motorcycle.  Weighting pegs, knee dragging, 
and hanging off all have various degrees of importance in racing, but 
essentially they primarily aid in altering the center of graviety of the bike 
and rider to enable faster cornering with less lean, but the actual turning 
is done by countersteering.  In most turns on the street,  countersteering 
with some weight shift should get you through turns at amusing speeds.  I'd 
recomend picking up a copy of "A Twist of the Wrist II" by Kieth Code for 
more information on the art of cornering a motorcycle.

I'm taking STAR, Jason Pridmore's School in September and would be interested 
in hearing any feedback from others who have taken it.

For what it's worth, I find the Sprint ST very comfortable when riding with 
your weight held by your legs and think Gen Mars or Heli Bars would detract 
from the proper position for sport riding.  Likewise, I feel the standard 
windscreen allows more air to cool the rider and take weight off the wrists 
then the optional taller screen would.  I'm not trying to be against them, I 
had Gen Mars on my VFR and I liked them, but I just thought I put another 
opinion out there.

Also, when I first got my Sprint ST, the gearbox was a rock; stiff and full 
of missed shifts.  Eric assured me it would loosen up and now with 5200 miles 
I can say it shifts beautifully even with the shifter in the stock position.  
For those having trouble; ride it!  It gets better.

Still no one know what heelguards are?

Are people doing valve adjustments at 6000 miles?  And for any who have, how 
were they?

Any opinions on the following street tires:  BT56, BT56SS, Pilot Sports, and 
D207s.  I've seen the Performance Bikes review, I'm looking for firsthand 
opinions.

Rick Paukert
The Woodlands, TX
'99 Sprint ST
(It doesn't have a name)

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