got my knee down finally...

[mikey_R6]

after reading this thread and watching the knee-down-on-a-roundabout-lessons youtube vids, i decided it was high time for me - mainly coz i thought it would be a cool thing to do. so i jumped on my bike and looked for a big deserted two-lane roundabout.

I found one and set to it. round and round i go (no, not like a teddy bear). took me ages... going a little faster, then a little faster, and so on... hanging off the bike... then finally my slider touched down. funny thing was that my first reaction was to get a fright and jerk my knee upwards! managed to do it a few more times then decided it was probably time to go home. "One more try" i thought....

got halfway into it and did something wrong, not sure what, i think i snapped the throttle shut. the bike stood up and started to run wide and suddenly all i could see was kerb coming at me at 70kmh!! i thought "i'm going to crash" then i thought "stop staring at the kerb, lean the thing over again and stop being a pussy". my bike has never felt to heavy as that one moment trying to lean it away from the kerb... anyway i rode it out and missed the kerb by about a foot, then rode home real careful-like. scared the crap out of me.

anyway, i thought about it later and realised that i probably just should've been a bit cleverer to start with.

1. i didn't have a good reason for pushing myself other than "it'll be cool"
2. i didn't have enough runoff area
3. i was on a public road (there were no cars, but there could have been)

so i hope someone can learn something by reading this and maybe thinking a bit harder beforehand about stuff than i did! i was really close to binning it whilst basically just trying to show off. woulda looked pretty stupid then.

on the other hand i am pretty happy that i can now trust the bike to those lean angles, and back myself to not lock up/target fixate when faced with a potential stack. but i should have just waited for the next track day or big empty carpark or something.

[Davey]

feels good eh?!

[Aphex]

You and your steed are in once peice and a lesson has been learned. Result.

[Joker]

squid

[Davey]

squid [/b]

hater

[Bendito]

Nice work dude

[Joker]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Joker @ Oct 5 2007, 07:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

squid [/b]

hater
[/b][/quote]

hahahahaha man, you love it

[g0zer]

at some point in a young riders life, all must drag bits around a roundabout

[ranmar850]

Always seems like a bit of a wank, "got my knee down"... when nothing else was anywhere near down...see pictures in the mags of some supposedly hot test rider, contorting himself to the max of the bike to get the knee down, and the peg feelers are virgin-- , and the corner speed, probably not even high. yeah, I know the theory, we were hanging knees out and shifting weight in the 70&#39;s, but just having knee sliders for the sake of scraping them? Rather than having knee sliders because you really need them? Do you see my point? Or even really care I&#39;ll just STFU

[thro]

Countersteering will help you get the bike down


I haven&#39;t had knee down yet, but scraped pegs on the zzr, and yes, the reaction was exactly how you describe first time.

The "holy shit what was that" stand the bike up manouver


Going to leave learning the knee down shit on the 600 till i get to the track though, my suspicion is that the speed required is quite a bit more than i&#39;d consider "safe" to *learn* at on the road.

Just me tho

[Uncle Ho]

grats... and I hope that you have put your jocks n jeans in the wash

[thro]

Just one thing... you were actually using sliders, right?


edit:
Ah yes. me fail comprehension.

[Havago]

Nice
I think we all have a roundabout/corner out there that we crank it over a little more than usual.

[Scorpion82]

I must learn how to do that one day, doesn&#39;t really feel like you need it though, as Thro said i don&#39;t think ill need it until the track. Bike seems to go around corners reasonably fast just by hanging off it, still need to get those chicked strips out

[mikey_R6]

ranmar you&#39;re probably right, it&#39;s probably a bit of a wank really. it certainly wasn&#39;t necessary... in this case it was further than i&#39;ve leaned my bike over before, though that isn&#39;t saying much! i&#39;m sure other people could have gone around quicker without their knee down and without crapping their pants.

thro, yes it was a bit fast really. i was doing about 70 i think, which by the way was the speed limit, but that doesn&#39;t make it safe when you&#39;re whizzing around the roundabout with stuff-all runoff. leaving it for a track day or a big empty carpark is the way to go.

jez i think getting rid of your chicken strips just needs a bigger lean angle, and that doesn&#39;t have to equal knee dragging.

and yes i washed my jocks, thanks! haha