The greatest piece of advice I can give (being a new rider myself, who has just gotten comfortable taking turns at higher speeds) is to get comfortable with leaning your bike. How? well 1 take the MSF course, if you don't have the time or money to do so right now. Simply go into a big parking lot (not crowded) and go in a bunch of circles (both ways) and really get used to the feel of leaning your bike. Sport bikes love to lean, and I didn't really realize how much your bike can actually lean. You can get your foot pegs all the way down till there scrapping, that is your limit, anything up to that is fair game. start with small leans, and go slow and get used to leaning the bike more and more. Also, take some cups/cones/beer cans/ whatever and set up yourself a couple of turns or leans away from traffic and road debris and PRACTICE.

good luck!

 

good advice... but dont use beer cans, unless youre in Milwaukee or vegas. (lol) if your learning that kind of turning, dont use anything that can be run over and cause damage or a crash, use chalk.

get as much seat time as possible and become one with the machine. in time, it will become second nature. beware of getting too comfortable, stay aware.

when doing higher speed corning, the keys are weight distribution and throttle control. when you get it right the first time, it will become obvious that it happened and the light bulb in your head will go on...then riding gets fun!

the bike is designed to corner well, it's you that holds it back.

 

Good idea about the cones, I will probably get some of those small 3" cones so incase I run one over I am not getting a full blown cone tripping me off the bike.

 

Tennis *****, cut in half, make good markers.

Ern

 

what happens if your turning really tight and your tire hits something plastic?

not a good idea.....

 

Yea, that sounds good. I just need a good idea for spacing the cones.

For doing the tight circles and leaning to the peg scrape, how fast do you have to be going to keep the bike from sliding? I've seen youtube parking lot knee dragging, but when I tried it at 15-20 mph the bike got over far enough to scrub all the chicken strip off but I never felt the peg scrape on my f4i. Never got my knee down either, I feel like when I'm getting that far over I need a gauge other than the pegs. I'm too tense to really hang and have control, I know that is an issue. I don't really want to drop the bike again trying it, but I need to get comfortable w/ a steep lean.

 

Scraping pegs / dragging knees shouldn't be a goal. Nor should it be a limit marker. With good body positioning, there isn't a turn you can't make on the street without touching either.

Also, good body positioning reduces the amount of lean needed from the bike. Which means having more traction in reserve. Work on getting your body positioning, especially the transitions, down. When you have that solid and start getting faster, your knee will touch naturally. And because you're not forcing / chasing it, you'll be more relaxed when it does

 

I'm just looking for a way to get comfortable w/ more extreme lean angles, that's really the goal. Since I lowsided, I've got a fear of leaning the bike over far and am looking for a way to overcome it. The stupid part is the accident was b/c I froze up on the bars, nothing to do w/ lean or turning. I'm gonna start working on getting off the bike little by little.

 

Just ride. before too long youll forget all about the crash and be back right where you were, only a little wiser.

 

Lol dude remember: Yolie at the dealer with a $7k repair bill right now

I know exactly where you're coming from. Actually al lil worse off: I've gotten used to the BMW's weight and power. I just got my F4i on the road while Yolie gets her skeleton replaced. And the first ride on Ororo was about as shaky as when i first started. Never mind taking corners at speeds where I had to direct steer instead of counter-steer

Once I finally said "**** it, I ain't going down today", first thing I did was to find that planted feeling again. When I'm stable on the bike, I'm confident on the bike. And stability comes from body positioning. The leans come naturally from there.