Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

The natural tendency for bikes is to go straight so you need to apply a steady input via the steering, or via the throttle (off road,) for them to keep turning. Push on the inside bar more when you're in the corner to maintain your line. This is especially noticeable at lower speed / smaller lean angles.

this is the hardest thing about motorcycles when coming from 30 years of MTB.
the level of input that is required is so unintuitive / unnatural.

the only way i can get it to feel natural for me is for me to stay almost near vertical and lean the bike way in.

That’s counter-lean. It’s what the police do especially at lower speeds.

There’s a Ryan F9 (FortNine) video about leaning I believe.

i like the counter lean for low speed stuff, as most would.

At higher speeds, I suspect I'm not going fast enough to need to decrease lean angle.

none of this matters one bit.

Just a curiosity.

carry on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/pmuoyo/fortnine_motorcycle_riders_youre_leaning_the/

All your weight is forcing the bike down if you sit up on top, you're acting like a big damper. Totally different if you're off the inside of the bike. Keep trying to maintain pressure on the inside bar - you have to push way harder than you'd expect to really generate movement.

Gratuitous Doohan 500GP pic, but check out the difference between his body position on a ill-tempered, no TC two stroke and what the current generation look like on their torque-vectored, ground effect missiles. Mick is keeping a bit on top so when it spins up, he doesn't get fired into orbit. These days, the fast guys would have their helmet on the deck, down by the front axle if they could stretch that far.

Take a look at Lorenzo and then finally Quartararo!

Quartararo is just mental this years GP. Not sure how much lower they could go. He was laying down his lid in Catalunya.

He's an outrageous talent! Amazing to watch, even if they kind of look like slot cars the last couple of years with all the aero.

Ridiculous on every level

Those photos are basically me, in kevlar jeans, on every roundabout in Swindon.

ITS FINISHED !!!
The shed built (quite literally in a shed on the Isle of Harris) BMW R65LS (missing all the LS bits:-( ) is completed. Passed its MOT yesterday. Did I say pass or sail through with flying colours ? Oh yes it was the latter.

I had never so much as changed the oil in anything and this thing was fooked ! Stripped to frame. Rebuilt carbs, fuel taps, new lines, cleaned and stripped inside of tank, rebuilt entire braking system (all new), sorted wiring, cleaned, treated and painted the frame etc etc etc. Hundreds of hours between 4am and 7am over 7 months and it lives and rides brilliantly. Here’s a few pics (the after ones are first !) to prove that anyone can have a go at this !!!

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I recommend the opening scene of the original French version of Taxi, if you want to see counter-lean done effectively enough

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Nice. Now go ride it!

Stunner

Oh I am mate !!!

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Nice, sensitive resto. This is mine after a wash in May, otherwise it's not had the covers off all year!

I've had it 20 years now :-

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They are bloody lovely things.

Mine's a bit of a fire breathing street rat. Of course I ride it like a litre sportsbike in my slippers with a pipe hanging out of my lid :)

Boxers just fill me with dread

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I'm not a fan of the GS line but people do get moist about them so who knows!

To be fair that part of the head is very easy to replace and there's not usually a whole lot of oil in there. If you pop it off and clean up as much metal as possible, then stick it back on and keep topping up the oil you could probably go a significant distance.

Not easy to find in a field but some metal duct tape would go a long way if the heat didn't destroy the glue.

You also have to hit something pretty significant to rip a hole in those. I've scraped mine pretty thin on the underside touching tall kerbs.

Yea, it was more a tongue-in-cheek, as I know how beloved boxers are to riders that have owned them.

I am aware of a number of hacks. Short of the foil tape or quiksteel, I believe that if it’s the underside you can also swap one side to the other to put the hole up top?

Congratulations - that's terrific work! Looks well worth all that effort.

Looks great. Ride safe