Tell me what I am doing/did wrong. General Motorcycle Discussion Discuss Tell me what I am doing/did wrong. in the Motorcycle Discussion forums; Originally Posted by G-Steezy Were you sitting straight or trying to hang off?"trying" to hang off Did you pick a turn point, apex, and exit point?um.... I just took the ...

[GregGorman]

Originally Posted by G-Steezy

Were you sitting straight or trying to hang off?"trying" to hang off
Did you pick a turn point, apex, and exit point?um.... I just took the turn
Where in the turn did the slide happen, entry, mid-corner, exit? mid/exit
Were you on the throttle or off the throttle?just getting into it, slight
Were you mentally tired, just ready to be home?maybe a bit
Were you physically tired?back was sore a bit
Do you wear earplugs?had headphones in

Like I said above, I'm thing the suspension is too soft for my weight, I've never set suspension up so I'm giving myself a week to learn and then I'm going to attempt it this weekend.

Thank you all for the input by the way.

Like other have pointed out, the soft suspension is why the footpeg touched first. You'll have to learn to be really good with the throttle to counter that until you can get the rear shock re-valved and re-sprung.

The other questions point to two things. The first is body position. With the sore back the natural tendency is to rely on the arms more. Any weight/pressure on the arms acts as a steering input. This means you end up fighting the bike to get it to go in the direction you want and you don't know why. Most likely there's tension on the bars from being tired.

Add to that trying to hang off but not knowing the basics of, "the lower body must be stable" and the "arms must be relaxed and lose," and there's most likely a lot of weight on the bars. This means that when anything does happen, a bump, a slide, a wiggle, it gets amplified by you.

Also, the soft suspension will make the bike not want to turn and hold a line. Which is a contributing factor to a very common mistake of adding lean angle and throttle at the same time. That scenario goes like this, you're exiting the turn and rolling on the gas. You feel like you're running a bit wide so you lean the bike over a bit more but, you're still rolling on the gas. That leads to sudden slides where you have no clue what happened which get amplified by weight on the bars.

[johng]

Originally Posted by G-Steezy

It may be lowered just because I'm a fat ass. I have never set up the suspension, I've been watching some videos on-line on how to do it properly. I am going to try to attempt this next weekend and see where I stand. I'm 6'3 and 245 so that's like a hippo on a minibike.

That makes sense! Get it set up for you! Huge difference!

[K03gsxr750]

OP, instead of tinkering with this yourself now would be a great time to go down to Super Bike Steve's or someone else in the area and watch them professionally set it up and explain why they are making the changes they are. You will get a lot more out of that in my opinion, and the second set of eyeballs could prevent you from doing something on accident.

[johng]

Your suspension needs to be resprung and revalved for your weight. Setting sag and playing with clickers may help a bit, but not enough. Most modern sportbikes are equipped for skinny little bastrads like me!

[G-Steezy]

Originally Posted by johng

Your suspension needs to be resprung and revalved for your weight. Setting sag and playing with clickers may help a bit, but not enough. Most modern sportbikes are equipped for skinny little bastrads like me!

I don't know about that, in the videos they have no problem setting the bike up for a 250 pound guy with the stock suspension. I understand this wouldn't be the baddest ass set up, but I'm not spending oodles of money. Like I said I will try to set it up based on what I have seen in a few videos and see if I can figure it out.

[johng]

Originally Posted by G-Steezy

I don't know about that, in the videos they have no problem setting the bike up for a 250 pound guy with the stock suspension. I understand this wouldn't be the baddest ass set up, but I'm not spending oodles of money. Like I said I will try to set it up based on what I have seen in a few videos and see if I can figure it out.

Sure, you can set rider sag! That should be okay for street and eliminate the peg issue. Some of the numbers will be off, but better than what you have now!

[Bichomalo]

Originally Posted by johng

Sure, you can set rider sag! That should be okay for street and eliminate the peg issue. Some of the numbers will be off, but better than what you have now!

Johng is the Sag-GOD!

[johng]

Originally Posted by Bichomalo

Johng is the Sag-GOD!

I am getting old! It happens!

[buzzcutt2]

Originally Posted by johng

I am getting old! It happens!

[johng]

Originally Posted by buzzcutt2

Dear Sir, you are cordially invited to simulate procreation with yourself!