Re: [ST] Re: Code redux

[kwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ken Haylock)]

> As someone who's taken classes from Code (and Reg Pridmore and the WSMC
> crew) I'll suggest a qualification on Ken's point. I think track work is
> extremely useful to street riders, for two reasons:
> 
> 1) The standard (if thankfully infrequent) street crash in my riding group
> (www.labiker.com) is the "ohmigod I'm going too fast straighten up and
> brake ride into the dirt on the outside of the corner [fortunately not yet
> through the oncoming car] and fall down". 


{snipped much good stuff}

Agreed entirely. Biggest sole cause of single vehicle fatal motorcycle 
accidents in the UK is people bottling out in corners, people who wouldn't 
have had any trouble getting round the corner if only they'd done the right 
thing. Most of those riders weren't even going that quickly...

> 
> 2) The ability to "turn quick" that is taught by Code is EXACTLY the skill
> you need when you come upon the (downed rider/tree branch/refrigerator) in
> your line.

Absolutely agreed again. Emergency countersteering is a fine and 
valuable evasion skill in its own right and the ability to change line 
mid-corner is also invaluable. But, as per your point, if you've already got 
your peg and knee on the deck when that refrigerator appears, your options 
are more limited. Shut throttle? Tree. Tighten line? Tree. Brake? Tree. Do 
nothing? Icebox.

> >on the 
> >road there's really only one safe maximum speed to enter a corner, and 
> >that's the speed where you can reliably stop, under control, in the
> >distance 
> >you can see to be clear on your own side of the road. Any faster than 
> >that is an act of faith, faith that the road is clear, the surface good 
> >and the corner doesn't tighten up. 

> I
> tend to push the above recommendation slightly (as do many of us) by
> stating that I'm willing to hit something at walking speed...so if I can
> get down to less than 10mph in the distance I can see, I'm happy. 

Yeah, it's a tricky one. We all know a few corners where to get round them 
at a speed where you can reliably stop, under control, in the distance you 
can see to be clear on your own side of the road, you'd need to virtually 
get off and push. OTOH, we can probably all also think of a few accident 
scenarios where 10mph is still way too fast to have an accident. Late 
afternoon round here, all the farmers come out of their fields in whatever 
piece of machinery they happen to be using, and drive back home for their 
tea. It concentrates the mind wonderfully when you see something that looks 
like a 6 foot by 4 foot bed of 3 foot long nails mounted facing ahead on the 
front lifting arms of a tractor coming the other way up the road, for 
example. Riding on roads with e.g. sheer drops on one side, or a lot of 
field gateways, or a suspect looking road surface will give me cause not to 
'stretch the rule' as well. Otherwise I apply a similar degree of 
flexibility on occasion...

> 
> >See http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/011341143X for more on this,
> >my favourite theme...
> 
> BUY THIS BOOK!!
> 

Hey, maybe we could get ourselves a commission deal :-).


- - --

Ken Haylock - Sprint ST + TT600 - MAG Life Member #93160

- --------------------- http://www.cix.co.uk/~kwh ------------------------
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