Ease up on the handlebars

[LS1Bandit]

I've only been riding for about 8 months and I've had the misfortune of having 2 accidents already. Of course I'm fortunate in that I came out of both basically unscathed.

Each one was caused by a careless cager, but in both cases I think better technique on my part could've avoided the accident. And in both cases I think the same basic thing could've saved me: lighten up on the handlebars.

Most of the books I've read all basically warn you about being heavy on the handlebars, but IMHO it's something that should be highlighted in as many ways as possible. Learning to ease up on the handlebars has been the single biggest improvement to my riding since I've started.

In accident #1 I had only been riding for 3 weeks and I was coming down Hwy9 from 4 corners toward Saratoga. 2 turns before the first hairpin, I came around the blind right to find a cager had crossed the double yellows. I made 2 mistakes at that point: 1) I applied the front brake while still leaned over. 2) I completely stiff-armed the bars. I was going slowly enough that just applying the brakes probably would have been OK even leaned over, but combined with stiff-arming the bars caused the front end to push out and I skidded right into the car - basically a head-on. I got thrown and the bike got squashed. The collision occurred in my lane (i.e., he was still over the double-yellow), but there were no witnesses and we were unable to get CHP there, so it was a "he said, she said" despite the fact that I had photos showing my skid marks clearly ending well within my lane.

Fortunately I had collision insurance, so the totalled SV650 got replaced with another SV650.

Then about 5 months later came accident #2. I was turning left onto lawrence from saratoga ave. The light was red in my direction as I approached. When I was about 100 yards away, the left-turn lane went green so I maintained speed as I approached the intersection, and actually sped up slightly because I was concerned the light would turn yellow before I even got there. As I got into the intersection a car came flying through from the right. He clearly must not even have realized the light was red because it was way too long after his light would've turned red. I hit the brakes pretty hard and the front skidded out from under me and I low-sided. No contact with the other vehicle - in fact he never even stopped. I picked the bike up, moved it to the side of the road and assessed the damage. There was surprisingly little damage. The only really troublesome piece was that the peg on the gear shift lever snapped off. But I was able to hook my boot on the straight part of the lever to shift, so I was able to ride it home.

While I did hit the brakes pretty hard, if I hadn't stiff-armed the bars, I don't believe I would've skidded. I tested that out a bit in the parking lot later and using roughly the same level of braking, but bracing myself with my legs instead of arms lead to a fast but controlled stop.

Ever since then I make it habit to always focus on how much pressure is on the bars and if I ever feel pressure I immediately ease up and try gripping more with my legs. I also practice riding one-handed, which really helps train me to be light on the bars.

Except for the very minimal amount of pressure it takes to initiate the turns, I think just about any pressure on the bars can only make things worse. Of course I'm just a n00b so I could be wrong there, but based on what I've read and experienced that seems to be the case.

Since then I've had a couple close-calls, but in each case I was able to avoid the accident and I think it's been largely due to learning to be feather-light on the bars. The first one was back in december - I was coming up hwy84 from 1 and around one of the curves there was mud across the road. The bike started sliding and went over far enough that my boot and lower leg were dragging on the ground. But I kept my arms as loose as possible, kept the throttle exactly where it was, didn't touch the brakes and gripped the bike tight with my legs. As a somewhat-unintended consequence of getting loose on the bars and gripping with my legs, I weighted the outside peg a lot more and I think that's what kept the bike from going all the way down, though I'm not 100% sure. It could've just been the bike regaining traction as I got past the mud. In any case, I was able to keep the shiny side up.

Close-call #2 happened about 1 mile later and was a near-replica of the first. Mud, slide, stayed loose, dragged a boot, but stayed up.

Close-call #3 happened about 10 miles later on hwy35 north of Alice's. I came around a blind curve to find a cager dead stop in the road, perpendicular to travel, covering both lanes. !?!?! Hard application of brakes, loose on the bars, came to a fast stop just about 5 feet from the driver's door. She gave me a wave like "sorry". Yeesh.

3 close calls in about 20min ... I decided to go home and watch a movie after that.

Anyway, as I said - the biggest thing I've learned is to put some egg shells on those bars. HUGE difference in control, from braking to cornering.

 

[cold100onhw1]

you could also slow down around blind corners so that you have more time to stop if there is a car doing a u turn. my rule is that there is alway a car doing a u turn and some fool is going to run every light and try to hit me. you point about keeping light on the bars in also very true.

 

[afm199]

If you are riding a stock SV, the front springs are so soft they will bottom out on hard braking every time, if you weigh over 140 pounds you should change them. (When forks bottom out, no suspension is left and the front end tucks). There is no reason for a front end to lowside on hard braking. If the bike is working properly it will stand up on the front wheel first. Literally.

 

[LS1Bandit]

If you are riding a stock SV, the front springs are so soft they will bottom out on hard braking every time

Yeah. Something that bugged me for a long time was how easily the front bottomed out on braking. Being a n00b, I didn't really know if that was normal or not, but I kind've figured "not", so I went to Doc Wong's suspension class about a month ago and we used my bike as the demonstration.

Gary, who was teaching the class, made the same comment about the SV suspensions. We tightened up the preload all the way, which got the sag into the close-to-acceptable range. That made a big difference in handling. The front doesn't dive nearly as much and it feels a lot more solid/planted in the corners.

Getting soft on the handlebars reduced the bottoming-out quite a bit. Adjusting the suspension helped even more. Now there's a big difference in handling.

There is no reason for a front end to lowside on hard braking. If the bike is working properly it will stand up on the front wheel first. Literally.

I suspect that I also didn't have even pressure on the handlebars which caused some steering input, which would contribute to the front end washing out. Just a guess.

I'll likely do something about the springs sometime soon. Using a trick from the suspension workshop, I have a zip-tie around my front fork to show me max travel and after a ride through 1->84->35->9, the zip tie is pushed nearly all the way, so even with the springs at max pre-load I'm just about bottoming out. Note, in case you're curious, I weigh just shy of 185. Used to be less, but the holidays are tough.

 

[LS1Bandit]

you could also slow down around blind corners so that you have more time to stop if there is a car doing a u turn.

Yeah. And actually that's one of the things that saved me in that case. The first 2 close-calls I had, sliding in the mud on the corners, caused me to slow down. If I had been going my normal speed around that curve with the stopped car, I most likely would not have been able to stop in time. So I am very thankful for my first 2 close calls.

Those slides in the mud also have reminded me to keep it a little slower during the winter, which has been good. I have hit both ice and sand on 84/35/9 in the past 3 weeks.

And all of this is a good reminder that even though the bikes can easily go through those twisties quite quickly, there's nothing you can do about the fact that you can't see around most of those turns.

 

[afm199]

preload does not change spring rate, just ride height. those springs are wayyyyy to soft for 185 pounds, you will still bottom out. I weigh 150, my SV is 50 pounds lighter than a stock bike, and I run .90 springs. The stocks are about .79.....

Try gripping the tank with your knees when braking, instead of pushing on the bars to hold your weight back.

 

[LS1Bandit]

preload does not change spring rate, just ride height.

Right. I understand preload doesn't change the spring rate. Though my understanding is that the change in ride height is, in some sense, an unintended consequence and that you shouldn't be using the preload just to change ride height. In fact, in my case I wish it didn't change the ride height. My legs are a bit short, so after changing the preload, I can now only touch ground with the tips of my toes.

The way it was explained to me was that the preload helps put you into the position of using the maximum amount of travel before bottoming/topping out.

Before adjusting the preload, I had very little spring travel before bottoming out. Now by tightening that up, I have a lot more travel before it bottoms out.

Please correct me if my understanding is not right.

those springs are wayyyyy to soft for 185 pounds, you will still bottom out.

Right - as evidenced by the fact that the zip-tie I put on the fork shows that after an "average" ride through the hills I very nearly bottom it out.

Try gripping the tank with your knees when braking, instead of pushing on the bars to hold your weight back.

Which was exactly the point of my post.

 

[slydrite]

your bike is not the problem

www.msf-usa.org

quite a few good braking drills in the basic class

 

[stan23]

I think you should work on panic braking.

Don't just mash on the brakes like you would do on a car in an emergency situation.

Teach yourself to modulate and apply with steady force instead.

 

[LS1Bandit]

your bike is not the problem

www.msf-usa.org

quite a few good braking drills in the basic class

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like I was blaming the bike. I thought I was pretty clear that the problem was rider error. The fact that the springs are a bit light for me was a side-discussion prompted by afm199's comments.

I've taken the MSF course. I also bought and read the MSF book "Motorcycling Excellence". I also have bought and read: Twist of the Wrist, Twist of the Wrist II, Twist of the Wrist DVD, Proficient Motorcycling, More Proficient Motorcycling, Street Riding Techniques, and Sport Riding Techniques. And I attended one of Doc Wong's riding clinics, as well as the Basic Suspension setup workshop (taught by Gary Jaehne, and also bought both Gary's books: Sportbiking The Real World, and Sportbiking The Real World II). :nerd

I practice panic braking and cornering exercises periodically, and I plan on continuing my education through various classes and workshops ....

I know full well the weakest link in my system is me, so I'm constantly trying to improve myself. And the one thing that I've found to be most useful was taking pressure off the bars during braking and cornering, which is why I thought I'd share my crashes and my analysis of them. Of course there were more mistakes in those crashes - certainly a big, obvious one is that I probably went into the intersection in crash#2 too quickly (as I said, I was getting concerned it would turn yellow ... that's how long it had been green ...).

 

[LS1Bandit]

I think you should work on panic braking.

Don't just mash on the brakes like you would do on a car in an emergency situation.

Teach yourself to modulate and apply with steady force instead.

Mashing the brakes in a car is bad too. Unless you have ABS, of course - but I've always disliked ABS. Actually ABS is OK on dry pavement IMHO, but I really dislike it in the snow/ice/wet. It could be unfounded egotism, but I feel I can do a better job modulating the brakes myself. Growing up in NE PA and spending the better part of my youth practicing skids taught me a whoooooole lot about braking techniques.

Anyhoo ... I'm very aware of not mashing the brakes on the motorcycle and I do practice panic braking without mashing regularly.

I'm certainly not an expert at braking. I am certain I did a bit too much mashing in both cases. It's a hard survival reaction to overcome. But based on my experiments after the crashes, I think with the same exact braking I did during the crashes, if I hadn't braced with my arms on the bars I wouldn't have washed out the front end.

 

[slydrite]

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like I was blaming the bike.

no man, no apologies necessary.....I should be the one apologizing......nothing to do with you, but many peeps on this site have a serious predisposition to blame crashes on the bike, the tires, the sun and sky etc......to make it worse, they seem to jump to the most complicated assumptive solution, to make themselves sound smart and experienced, instead of the simplest one......bottom line, rider error causes the vast majority of single vehicle crashes, I know you didn't blame the bike, I was reacting to the culture of blaming everything but the pilot when shit goes wrong......

you sound like a thoughtful person, so again my apologies for sounding like an ass

 

[arnoha]

Right. I understand preload doesn't change the spring rate. Though my understanding is that the change in ride height is, in some sense, an unintended consequence and that you shouldn't be using the preload just to change ride height. In fact, in my case I wish it didn't change the ride height. My legs are a bit short, so after changing the preload, I can now only touch ground with the tips of my toes.

The way it was explained to me was that the preload helps put you into the position of using the maximum amount of travel before bottoming/topping out.

Before adjusting the preload, I had very little spring travel before bottoming out. Now by tightening that up, I have a lot more travel before it bottoms out.

Please correct me if my understanding is not right.

Not quite right...

You can actually lose travel by increasing the preload. Increasing the preload basically trades travel for firmness.

Think about it this way: Imagine putting spring between your hands. Preload is like squeezing your hands closer together. The spring feels firmer now. However, it's still the same spring, and it will still take the same effort to collapse it to it's minimum whether you start with a little squeeze or not.

Preload will not fix maximum braking issues. Only firmer springs will. It will, however, make braking under less than maximum conditions feel better, which is deceiving.

 

[Say-G]

Light on 'em bars

Thats right. All the riding is done with the knees, thighs, feet, and fingertips. Nothing else. Oh and of course your head piece. The onlytime you'd ever need your arms is for a quick countersteer, otherwise keep them loose and relaxed. :nerd