up VS down (HILL!)

[aardvark]

By conciously gripping the tank with my legs and using my upper body muscles to take the weight of my wrist

You should be holding onto the bars with the same amount of force it would take to hold a baby chicken (I was going to write chick, but some smartarse would be bound to say something). Your arms should be parallel with the ground, or as near to as possible without being uncorfortable and your elbows tucked in.

Try this:
crouch down in front of your desk so you are sitting on your haunches and hold onto the desk. Try moving your upper body around. Easy huh?

Now try holding onto the desk but with your body at a 45 degree angle, and your body and legs straight (kind of like a push up position, but leaning on the edge of the desk). Now try and move around. This is the way a lot of riders ride (not the position, but the stress on the forearms and wrists). Stress on the forearms and wrists causes tension in the shoulders, which is counter productive to effective counter steering.

Learn to relax and everything will feel better.

[Nanna10r]

Itsalso because the road camber works against the bike for the more visible corners. I use a wider entry "slow in", hold a tighter apex longer "just in Case" & crack the throttle into the corner, trail Back brake on exit in Case it Lights Up.
Only my 2cs, I'm no Legend. Speaking of whom Stu/Strap On whats the go fellas ?.
Cheers Brett

[Yankee]

WOW!!
AWESOME!!!! So far so good guys!!! Glen, Jase, Smitty, Nova, Bob, Java : GREAT ADVICE THERE!! some i knew, some i didn't, some comes natural, others doesn't... got me thinking anyway....
and Rusty, yeah, you are right.... where we were it was very BLIND turns coming down, and I was doing the same thing... i couldn't "see" my exit, so i was tip-toe-ing thru.... (resonable on public roads with semi's swinging wide into your lane!!)
anyway, as they say: practice makes perfect!! can't wait to go practice!!
oh yeah, next ride I hope that I have a bit more time to sit and talk about this stuff right after we practice it!

[Gosling1]

Some really good tips on here Yankee. The best one is.....practice makes perfect. Once you really learn your favourite piece of hill, it should be just as easy on the downhill as going up.

One other thing - most of the 'issues' with running downhill fast are in your head. Running uphill, your mind already knows that if you roll off the throttle, you will slow down. Bit hot into a corner ? just roll off. This does not happen on a downhill run, roll off the throttle, and you will not slow down. Your mind is very aware of this, and this may cause you to become perhaps a little more 'rigid' in throttle/brake application on a downhill run, when 'smooth' is the order of the day for a faster speed.

You cannot see further through a corner on an uphill run than you do a downhill run on the same corner, but you will always 'feel' faster on the uphill run. It does take a lot of practice on the same stretch to get really comfortable on a downhill run, perserverance is the key

just my 2c worth

[Smitty]

Can i also suggest you get to look at some Teev/Video/DVD
footage of races at the Island and look at the riders going into MG
probably the tuffest 'downhill' corner on any race track in the world.....

look at their body movements and positioning on the bike
from the top of the hill (at 120+kmh) as they brake
down to 80kmh at the very bottom

very illuminating


cheers

[smek]

look at their body movements and positioning on the bike
from the top of the hill (at 120+kmh) as they brake
down to 50kmh at the very bottom

wow is it that slow, feels a lot faster when you're there
certainly dont have time to check the speedo.

[Smitty]

look at their body movements and positioning on the bike
from the top of the hill (at 120+kmh) as they brake
down to 50kmh at the very bottom

wow is it that slow, feels a lot faster when you're there
certainly dont have time to check the speedo.

oops typo ..should be 80 (Motogp and Superbike racers)..fixed
ta mate
us mere mortals will be doing 60+ I reckon