Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

That's exactly what I've bought, so glad I'm on the right track. Mine was a strategic purchase for an enduro day so won't be much 'road work' other than travelling a few mins there and back.

Yea I wear the Acerbis pretty much all the time, even for road work when I have leather/textile jackets that aren’t a snug fit or are too retro to mount armour inside.

I really like having the armour attached firm to my body. Feels a little uncomfortable at first, but way less distracting than loose sleeves flapping about.

For road wear then you should take a look at the Knox urbane 2, AA rated snug mesh under layer which you can wear any hipster shit over the top of for maximum style points. Wore mine under one of my floral Liberty shirts today, we’ll ‘ard.

Loving the spelling of urbane, much sophisticated. The Acerbis thing I've bought for offroad looks like it's pretty much 80% mesh which is exactly what I wanted to keep cool. Also having flexibility about things to wear ontop is great as you say, hoping to live out my Ryan Gosling flannel shirt scrambler dreams.

If you bought the one I have (or at least, the newer version) it’s all mesh with ‘soft’ armour. By soft, it’s hard-soft not soft-soft.

I bought the leggings after having the first iteration of the jacket for a few years and liking it.

The Acerbis thing

Can you point out the one you went with?

Here you go.

That’s the badger.

Bear in mind I’ve crashed up to 30mph (at least) on green lanes and never noticed injuries where the armour sits. It would be very difficult to say the armour didn’t work.

Talking of armour, I normally wear Richa armoured gloves on the bike. The only time I don’t is on the trials bike.

During the ABR, the armoured knuckles deflected some very heavy stones in the roost from in front, and have certainly protected me in those aforementioned bike drops.

Of course, thanks to trials practice, I now have scars exactly where knuckle protection could be. Mainly thanks to punching trees as the bike decides to use my fist to park.

Looking for replacement levers, following my idiocy.
Are chinesium ones a false economy?

RE fitting, being hydraulic, not sure if it is simpler or more difficult that cable ones?
Currently still functional so not changing for a few weeks as I have a long journey next week and can't be without a functional bike (I am notorious for fucking things up and leaving it for time until I resolve)

I have used Chinesium on every bike except the trials bike.

On the GN125, XJ600, CBR600F3, and DR350 all cable clutch I believe… no issues. The only thing to beware of on adjustable levers is nuts loosening themselves through lack of threadlock. Same thing happened on every clutch lever. Can’t remember what levers were on the blackbird.

The ultra-cheap ones, they will snap in a drop, but they are so cheap you can carry spares.

Edit: fitting is easier. So long as you have the free-play to the piston, you know you’re golden.

The posh adjustable ones rizoma copies seem fine.

as a beginning rider, i find the tendency of the motorcycle to want to straighten out when accelerating out of low to moderate speed turns (city riding) hard to control. I feel i just have to back off the throttle and let the bike fall back into the turn. I'm not riding fast or anything.

advice? i mean i guess the answer is just more lean angle, but it feels aggressive to me.

#realtalk

I'm not an experienced rider but I did find this with my Kawasaki which always wanted to stand up mid corner whereas I had a Suzuki GSR which just went where you wanted, almost steering by itself telepathically. So it may be to do with the geometry of the bike you're on too.

I had this with a triumph I had, turned out the tyres were just badly squared off

I find turning your head into a corner a big help in keep the bike in check.

Look where you want to go.

I recall from your previous comments that this may be your first off road day? Correct me if I am wrong though.
Just something to consider when you are riding is that having a range of movement will help you massively with regards to feeling more confident on the bike off road I think. I'm not saying ditch all the safety gear by any means, I'm just saying don't bulk loads of stuff up. I race in a set of MX trousers and a jersey. I then have my roost vest, helmet, boots and gloves that's all. I feel comfortable, I can move around easily. I am more likely to crash if I have stuff on restricting me. If you aren't going to go balls to the wall straight away it would be worth considering. I wear trials boots instead of MX boots, as there is more feel and its easier for me to brake and change gear as the feeling is there. Enduro boots now are a good combo of MX and trials boots. Thin MX gloves are much nicer with regards to the offroad/road version. You don't need leather and loads of padding if you are just riding off road.
Just my opinion but might help. You can always take stuff like two pairs of gloves and stuff with you anyway.

Yep, this is my first official off-road 'event' so will be a new experience other than dicking around on green lanes. I don't own a van, so will need my bike and limbs in working order to get home. But feel free to quote me on this when things get out of hand. The backpack will consist of petrol and sandwiches.

The plan is to build up pace slowly working on body position and technique. Things like berms, whoops(?) and jumps don't really exist on green lanes so looking forward to learning how to navigate these. The farm also has a motocross track, so plenty to tire myself out on.

With regards to clothing the Acerbis under armour turned up in the post and feels great on. Doesn't feel restrictive and the padding is firm without feeling heavy or uncomfortable. Glad I avoided cheap and cheerful armour as no doubt I'd just buy something more expensive soon after. I have Sidi enduro boots which I'm used to now and hopefully a good middle ground as you say. Will report back how I get on.

To use an old forum trope, don’t lean. Or rather, don’t lean the bike as much.

Starting at the top
Look where you want to go
Slightly bend the inside arm, this will bring your upper body weight to the inside allowing the bike to stay more upright.
Put your weight on your inside butt cheek, if you’re doing track stuff feel free to bring your arse over so the inside butt cheek is hanging off the saddle but for road just put the weight on the inner cheek and stay centred on the saddle.
Have your inside ball of your foot on the pegs and move the outer foot forward so the arch is on the peg
Keep your knees and toes in

This is different to low speed stuff you learn for mod 1 where you pivot turn by shifting your body weight to the outside butt cheek and lean the bike over more, you only do those turns in 1st gear.

Finally, you could be accelerating too early, at the beginning you should be almost lined up for the straight before giving it the beans. Then over time you can try earlier and earlier pulls out of the bends.

This is different to low speed stuff you learn for mod 1 where you pivot turn by shifting your body weight to the outside butt cheek and lean the bike over more, you only do those turns in 1st gear.

Not strictly true, counter-leaning can be done at higher speeds like the police do. Pretty sure FortNine did a video on it too.

Also, pivot turn, did lol thinking about being on mod-1 with front wheel in the air at 12o’clock

Yes, but the police are a bit above beginner level and I’m just trying to give a starting point to develop from.

I've never been entirely sure why you'd want to do that unless you're on a motard or something.
I had to take my poor mate through some mountain twisties on the VFR after his bike broke down last weekend and we scraped a lot of undercarriage. Partly from the extra weight but mostly because it's tricky to get off the inside of the bike with a pillion.

Anyways @bright - ALWAYS look where you want to go and keep some positive pressure on the inside bar to keep the bike settled on the gas. Push right, turn right, push left, turn left. you should naturally be weighting the opposite foot and knee on the tank. If you just think about looking where you want to go and consciously countersteering, it'll become second nature - everything after that is fine tuning I reckon.