new rider cornering what am i doing wrong

Nelso · Post by **Nelso** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:16 am

At 120kg all bikes are too soft for me, so at 160kg that bike has no chance with you on it. Wind your preload as high as it will go for now and seriously consider getting heavier springs all round as soon as possible. If you can change the springs yourself it won't cost too much but the bike will handle as it's supposed to, whereas now, the suspension geometry will be all fucked up. Too many people assume a bike will ride the same for heavier riders, but they don't. There's not much point adjusting your riding style to suit a bike that is wallowing and bottoming out.

kiwi-jono · Post by **kiwi-jono** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:45 am

ive since had ron and richo have a look at my bike today correctly adjusted my tire pressures as they were low and adjusted rear preload the bike does feel alot sharper in the corners ill further adjust rear preload to suit and see if i notice any further difference
being a lams bike i dont want to invest to heavily in it so may just have to put up with the bike as it is untill im on my full licence in the mean time ill make sure i keep all the basics in check tire pressure and condition ect
also the guys gave me sound advice for cornering ect of which i have noticed correcting my riding style has made alot of difference to my cornering and confidence
even in the hail aye ron lol
thanks so much for your help guys and to everyone eles for your comments

javaman · Post by **javaman** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 4:20 pm

kiwi-jono wrote:hi there jono here new to the club and presume my topic should go here
got a couple of things i want to find out
topic 1 when im cornering open road speed say medium corner at say 70kph or so i adjust speed before entering corner move out wide lean in which is fine but sometimes as im going through the corner feels like the front is wollowing kinda like a snake moves through the sand if that makes sense and not sure why

Hi, this reminded me of few years ago, which turned out nothing wrong with the bike/tyres but the riding. Basically I changed my style to slow down early and get on the gas on corners and no problems since!

Similar also to your other post mentioned fear of sliding/losing grip etc. But when on the gas in fact these things no longer happened to me.

One other thing I also made sure I could stop at blind corner in case of turning ute, roos, or other riders making BBQ

. So not too much speed.

tim · Post by **tim** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 5:25 pm

Lol nicely done Andi

Strika · Post by **Strika** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 6:03 pm

KW, forget little adjustments. Do what Nelso suggested. the suspension on an ER is very soft. You carry a little more sprung weight than most, so will make it even softer. You really will benefit from custom suspension once you develop a little, but for now, just wind every adjuster to maximum. That will be the best solution till your ready for the next step. Hopefully, you can postpone the next step for the ZX6/10 Z1000 or whatever you get after this one. Try not to spend money on this one. Try to just learn to ride it. You sound like you are interested in learning judging by your questions and that is the first step. As someone else has mentioned, finding someone to tow you along who is just slightly faster than you is a great way to gain a little confidence. Then move onto someone who is a little faster than them once you get comfortable at that pace. Always remember, inch by inch......it's a cinch, yard by yard....is very hard. Take it in baby steps. You need to go from unconsciously incompetent, to consciously incompetent, to consciously competent, to unconsciously competent. Unconsciously competent is like Casey Stoner, not many reach it, but it is motorcycle nirvana!

6maniac · Post by **6maniac** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 6:16 pm

Gday Marty ... how are you doing ?

Re: ER-6 suspension - front has no adjustment ... rear only has 7 step preload.

Unless Kawasaki have revised their rear spring rate since '05/06, then the ER-6 has always been overly hard.

dilligaf · Post by **dilligaf** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 6:54 pm

was just going to comment on that. the front is very hard. the rear is maybe a little softer so the back tends to sit down (or it did on mine) and the handling turns to shit. Even with a lot of preload it's still not great and the rear ends up as stiff as the front.
Spent some money on mine and Izzy at suspensions r us fixed it.

UncleChopChop · Post by **UncleChopChop** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:31 pm

The best life advice I ever received was from my ol man. I was a little past my 7th birthday. He said "Son, whatever you do just stick it in and see what happens". To this day I will
be forever in debtedness to Great Great Papa Chop... The prick celebrates his 50th next week!

webcase · Post by **webcase** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:36 pm

javaman wrote:
kiwi-jono wrote:
One other thing I also made sure I could stop at blind corner in case of turning ute, roos, or other riders making BBQ . So not too much speed.

Yikes.

Strika · Post by **Strika** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:54 am

6maniac wrote:Gday Marty ... how are you doing ?

Re: ER-6 suspension - front has no adjustment ... rear only has 7 step preload.

Unless Kawasaki have revised their rear spring rate since '05/06, then the ER-6 has always been overly hard.

Not the ones I have ridden. Fucking spongecake ride. I'd imagine a few extra kilos might give similiar compression of the suspension to put it in the part of the stroke which corner speeds normally put it in. One day, have ago at that and see how the suspension actually will compress in a corner when you have more than 2 degrees of lean. It'll be uncomfortable for you at first, but, after a while you will get used to it. Loads of people do it. It's why they tend to go around corners faster than you sometimes.

kiwi-jono · Post by **kiwi-jono** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:41 pm

think ill stick to what i have for now and look into suspension upgrades as money allows im going to have the bike for at least the next year or so untill i get a full licence so spending a few hundred on suspension might be the way to go its either that or a few more hundred at the gym lol
thanks for all your comments guys

Chitchats · Post by **Chitchats** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:37 pm

kiwi-jono wrote:think ill stick to what i have for now and look into suspension upgrades as money allows im going to have the bike for at least the next year or so untill i get a full licence so spending a few hundred on suspension might be the way to go its either that or a few more hundred at the gym lol
thanks for all your comments guys

Spot on there mate, once you have a full license you may want to upgrade to another bike? Better spending hard earned coin on a bike you may want to keep longer.

Besides all that the cornering will come with more time in the saddle and maybe as i do/did trying different things on the same corner daily (i commute), however take all the advice and when riding with the guys watch and learn. Unfortunately i have never ridden with any of them

working on that ( busy homelife ) would love to just to meet and have some idea of how crap or maybe good i am. Anyway as i said as i commute and have done for 2 years now i feel a vast improvement for me in all aspects of my riding, it will come to you and you wont even realise it.

Cheers

valkau · Post by **valkau** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:18 pm

Twist of the Wrist II is a great way to understand what's going on. The DVD adds even more because you see the bike with the rigid handbars to explain counter steering and watch what happens to the guy who's looking at the wrong places on the road!

hoffy · Post by **hoffy** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:31 pm

Strika wrote:Fucking spongecake

Mmmm...spongecake...

Naked Twin · Post by **Naked Twin** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:45 am

So was up the old road on the weekend for a couple of hours Saturday morning and Sunday night and thought I would pay attention to what I am doing with locking in the legs into the tank. So I found out when I lock my outside leg in against the tank I have little or no weight on that outside peg, I found I could take I foot off the peg without affecting my handiling.

I also found out my technique was much better on left handers than to right handers. Would appear the left leg is not as strong. I also found out when I was locking onto the tank, my corner entry could be faster and you could "feel" the bike. Hard to explain but it just feels much better.

Cheers,
Nick

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