[Author Index] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

[no subject]



 > I don't intend to
 > scrap my pegs on the street, and I have no illusions that the speed I
 > was traveling on the track is appropriate for the same corner on
 > street.  The street has hazards that the track will never have, as
 > you've pointed out, and as I am well aware.

I'm very happy to read that, and yes I did misinterpret your original
message as suggesting that you'd feel better about your riding when you
could regularly scrape pegs in the corners on your favourite twisty roads
:-).

 > Well, I think that my limits all around have been increased, and I am
 > now more confident about my evasive skills (partly because of newfound
 > comfort with lean angle).

That's the really cool thing about the Code stuff, it gives you the
skills and confidence to be the master (or mistress, even) of your
motorcycle, and to make proper use of its astounding capabilities rather
than to be a mere passenger astride an intimidating and mutinous beast (to
take two extremes). But that knowledge and ability only makes you and those
who share the road with you safer if you use it wisely, young Jedi...

 > I've always been the slow one, and I attribute this to two factors:  (1)
 > lack of skill; and

A difficult one this. On the road at least there is no linear relationship
between skill and speed. Any fool can ride fast, it just requires a
functional right wrist. Riding fast without unnecessarily risking either
your own life, or the lives of others, that's the clever trick. Accordingly,
it's your judgement of an appropriate speed entering a corner that matters,
not the judgements made by others, not unless you understand and share the
same objectives and metrics that they are applying to make those judgements
for themselves, anyway. If you are trying to follow people who are entering
corners they know at speeds they know their motorcycle can easily cope with,
all else being equal, then if you are trying to ride at a speed governed by
what you can actually see, they are /always/ going to be faster than you,
assuming you both successfully achieve your aims. Eventually, though, if
they ride far enough, they are going to have a wreck that you won't if you
both keep true to your different approaches. _If_ you are both using the
same criteria for setting entry speed _then_ it's worth asking 'why?' if
they are coming up with different answers to you on the speed question on a
regular basis.

 > (2) as a female, I think that I have fear the untoward consequences of my
 > actions more than my fellow male riders have.

This may be true. OTOH, I know a couple of women with RoSPA (Royal Society
for the Prevention of Accidents) Advanced (Road) Riding qualifications who
don't fit that sexual stereotype very well. For myself, at 35 years of age I
have a sense of my own mortality that I simply never possessed at the age of
18. If I'd been riding bikes at that age instead of driving cars like I was
then odds on I wouldn't be here to have this conversation now. But having an
imagination, or an awareness of hazards that those you are trying to keep up
with haven't been made aware of, will always slow you down in places where
the less imaginative will keep it pinned.

 > I think that the fear keeps me  honest, but as I increase in
 > skill, the tenancy will be to go faster, though probably still not as
 > fast as a certain number of the males I ride with.

It isn't a male thing. Fear keeps all of us honest. The more we learn, the
less the mundanities of riding scare us, and the more other, more rational
stuff does. Fear is a healthy influence! Unless there's a rutting stag
dynamic happening which involves a bunch of young men trying to prove their
enormous tackle size by demonstrating an irrational willingness to take more
outrageous chances with their lives than everybody else in the group,
anyway... but who'd be that stupid, eh? [FX: Lots of men shuffling and
whistling at this point].


 > Still, I know I have
 > to keep my speed in line with my skill level.  I really want to find a
 > middle ground which I define as a place where I can ride and my husband
 > can ride when we are in sight of each other and both having a blast.

As I said earlier, I think you both need to compare notes and work out what
criteria you are using to determine the appropriate entry speed for a
corner. If you are both asking yourselves different questions then it should
be no surprise if you are getting different answers. If (or when) you are
both asking yourselves the same questions, then _if_ you are still getting
different answers, one or both of you _may_ have the /wrong/ answer and it
might be worth doing some work to address the differences. Two people on the
same type of bike doing things to the same agenda with good core machine
control, speed, distance and hazard perception competencies shouldn't be
getting _too_ far apart if riding the same roads in spirited fashion. If you
are riding to different agendas, though, all bets are off...

 > I HATE that he has to stop and wait for me,
 > though I've become used to it, and if he rides "with" me, I know he is
 > not fully enjoying it.

That is a pity. See above, though.

 > You also have to realize that my 10 mph faster means that I am not even
 > going by what "most" of the riders I ride with consider to be the
 > "normal", default entry speed for corners here in Texas, minus
 > indications that the "normal" speed is inappropriate (i.e. factors that
 > really boil down to lack of knowledge of the road or if you know the
 > road, things like the driveway in the middle of the curve, a dog usually
 > hangs out there, rocks tend to fall there, etc., as well as your
 > enumerated factors).

Ideally, except in extremely limited circumstances, whether you know the
road or whether you haven't ever seen it before really /shouldn't/ affect
the speed you enter corners at. The favoured way of setting your entry speed
to corners on the road according to Motorcycle Roadcraft is by reference to
the 'limit' or 'vanishing' point, which at any given moment is the place you
need to be able to stop by if you are to stop in the distance you can see to
be clear.

 >  Going that 20 mph faster would simply mean I could keep
 > up better. . . . ., though, of course, the whole group could still be
 > going too fast. . . .

See above. You really will need to ask how the people you ride with judge an
appropriate speed to enter a corner. I don't know the people you ride with,
of course, but some people do seem to have some funny ideas. Sometimes it's
what I've been prattling on about, sometimes it's 'at a speed I know I can
definitely get the bike round the corner', sometimes it's 'just what feels
right', sometimes it's 'that's how fast my friend who has been riding for
years goes round these corners'. Sometimes it's a lot less scientific than
that. For instance, and it seems to me bizarrely from a UK perspective where
we don't /have/ posted speed limits on corners, on the VFR mailing list a
few years ago people used to sagely report that they consistently went into
corners at '30mph over the posted limit' or 'twice the posted limit',
because that was a prudent speed to ride on the road, presumably relying on
the competence of a local highway engineer to tell them how quickly they
should enter the upcoming corner. It struck me that one stroke of a magic
marker to turn a 30 into an 80 when they were all out riding together and
the list would suddenly have got a whole lot quieter...

In other words, find out how they are doing it _before_ deciding whether you
want to aspire to their pace or not... :-)

See part II


     *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
      The ST/RS Mailing list is sponsored by Jack Lilley Ltd.
          http://www.TriumphNet.com/st/lilley for more info
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST, RS and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=