Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

stop slower
Seriously, give yourself more time for everything and start braking earlier - that's part of what weekendrider's smoother means. You might also be leaning too much on the bars when you're braking, try keeping your weight back a bit.

Good wet riding is smooth riding.
Smooth throttle control, smooth braking, smooth turns - it makes you a better dry rider.
Wet riding and DD weekends both are good for smoothing things out - on DD weekends for example I focused on maintaining corner speed, eg trying to do the speed limit the whole way through the OPH, including the corners.

If you find you can't smooth out your gear changes (really that is just practice) then short-shift in the wet.
The way I learnt to smooth out my shifts was to lightly load the gear lever before the gear change - ie load the lever, then pull the clutch in and change. Often the gear can/will pop in itself when the clutch comes in, just from the preload. As I said though it takes practice - like anything MC related (including crashing)
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kevindinho wrote:anyone ridden in the rain with a ZXR250? i still haven't done it yet and i dunno what smooth gear shifting means my ZXR goes crazy most of the times in the dry, my rear slides around wen i stop....any tips?

are you blipping the throttle when you change down to match engine and bike speed?

if not, start learning to do that.

In the dry, travel along at a constant speed and change up and down between a few gears and work on getting the change perfectly smooth and holding speed.

Once you can do that, you can try doing it while braking. Try using just 2 fingers on the front brake which allows you to use the throttle at the same time. Pull the clutch in, change down, blip and release clutch.

EDIT* deleted



as was said tho, sounds like you might have a tyre issue?

think its time to invest in some wet weather gear

My ZXR250 has Dunlop GP100's on it and I've never had a problem with them. Good tyre in the wet and dry, hard wearing and good in corners. If you're trying to change down when you're high in the revs, the rear on these bikes compression lockup (not fun when your in a corner and think your in the wrong gear.....damn rookie mistakes). Try on slow down your road speed before chucking it into first and sit back on the seat to keep your weight over the rear more. On the other hand though, if you're learning to control it while its sliding around now, it'll make you a better rider later

if you're learning to control it while its sliding around now, it'll make you a better rider later

That is the worst advice I have read in a very long time

kevindinho wrote:anyone ridden in the rain with a ZXR250? i still haven't done it yet and i dunno what smooth gear shifting means my ZXR goes crazy most of the times in the dry, my rear slides around wen i stop....any tips?

Yep... just ease up on the back brake and change down at an appropriate speed. I'm guessing you haven't had a real lot of experience and that's cool but just take it nice and easy and don't try and do too much all at once. Get into a car park when it's nice and quiet and just practise getting to 60 km/h and then stopping nice and smooth. Start by just using the front brake. As you get more comfortable try using a little rear brake. If you find all of a sudden you're locking the rear then you're using too much.

Hold off blipping the throttle etc until you can stop properly and be careful re braking with two fingers as well. It can be a very dangerous habit until you've built the experience to brake with two fingers properly.....and your instructor will possibly fail you in your P's if you use two (doesn't always happen but strictly speaking it's a fail)

Good luck with it

corvus2606 wrote:

if you're learning to control it while its sliding around now, it'll make you a better rider later

That is the worst advice I have read in a very long time

So if he doesn't learn how to control a 250 while its loose in the rear at lower speeds, what chance does he have when he upgrades to a bigger meaner bike and does the same thing at higher speeds? Learning how to control a bike in ANY situation makes you a better rider IMHO, and learning it on a more forgiving 250 is a better option than waiting until something goes pearshaped on a 600 or bigger and then going "oh fuck, i've never been in this situation before, WTF do I do now?"

corvus2606 wrote:

if you're learning to control it while its sliding around now, it'll make you a better rider later

That is the worst advice I have read in a very long time

Seems like quite reasonable advice, real life situations (riding in the wet) are a learning curve, over time you should get used to how much traction your tyres have & I can tell you now that controlling a smaller bike is easier than a big bike, & it is all about practice.

Had a shocker early this year at the creek..... when the rear stepped out about 500mm it feels more like 1500mm & is an eye opener but being able to control the situation I would put down directly to 25 years of road riding in all conditions & having the odd slide to keep me in check.

i thought so too robracer. i had an experience on the gorge rd in adelaide on my zxr250 where i came around a corner an hit the seam/lip on the shoulder from road repairs and the back stepped out about 6". not much but it scared the absolute shit outta me at the time and i put my foot down. all i can say about that is STOOOOOOPID! lucky that day there wasn't another car coming in the opposite direction. I learned from that experience and have never done it again. Therefore, learning to ride through the slips and slides of a 250 makes you a MUCH better rider later in life, if you live long enough to let the lessons sink in, and actually LEARN from them.

OK,

i was thinking of it in a different way, as in the kind of I want to be rossi sort of controlling when sliding

just ignore me, i take it back

corvus2606 wrote:OK,

i was thinking of it in a different way, as in the kind of I want to be rossi sort of controlling when sliding.....

haha jeez mate, if i could do that i would change my name to gary mccoy

corvus2606 wrote:OK,i was thinking of it in a different way, as in the kind of I want to be rossi sort of controlling when sliding
just ignore me, i take it back

no worries... not taken the wrong way by any means

When I first got my "Bewtyful Barge", I swore I would NEVER take it out in the rain. And I didn't. But it rained anyway. It's like life really. It's not the way you want it to be right now, but you make allowances for what's happening and get on with it. Throttle back a bit, stay up a bit more, brake a bit easier.....see? It's just like "real" life.....or something.