New bike - need advice

Hi Guys,

Im a proud owner of a 2001 5th gen in the UK. I purchased the bike about 2 weeks ago and have been on a few rides since covering about 200 miles (crappy uk weather). I have a couple of questions:

firstly im 6ft3 tall and quite long in the body, im finding im taking quite a lot of weight on my wrists compared to other bikes ive ridden or owned, is there anything I could adjust to help this ??

Secondly I had a rather unfortunate static drop the other day when at a junction (I would like to say it was someone elses fault, but I stalled!) There is a small amount of sctatching to the engine case on the right hand side of the bike and a little bit of fairing scratching but nothing major. Any ideas on how to patch this up?? Does any one make crash protectors??

Oh and to give you an idea of the general helpfulness of local road users, four cars went straight past me, a van full of workmen went past and in the end a women with her kids gave me a hand getting the bike back up - this was a major junction.

Also any tips to get my slow speed manovers sorted on the bike in traffic, especially on tight right hand turns from stationary would be really appreciated.

James

 

Only 6'2" but heli bars will help reduce the strain on your wrists. Mind you after riding a bit one does get use to the stock position, traveling at higway speeds helps as i noticed it mainly in town.

there are "sliders" the mount to the side of your bike and should the bike go over these hit rather than the bike. there are number of instals, some mount to the radiators(so if you crash you need a new rad), some mount through them, some you need to cut through the plastic....there are a lot of options. Read around as it comes up a lot since people always have questions on them.


For low speed i recomend a course, most focus on low speed manovers and will also help you ride safe..
other than that i can't comment as i never had much of an issue comming from a cruiser style back ground.

 

Can't help on the 5th gen repairs or crash buttons but......

For slow speed manuvers, especially like tight parking lot turns etc., I like to drag the rear brake and stay in the throttle a little. Keeping some more power on tap keeps me from putting it down if it starts to feel unstable.
When you're moving slow, you don't have a CG shift helping the turn. All you have is steering input. If you're bumping your steering stop without enough momentum, things will get tippy. Quickly getting some momentum by coming off the rear brake works for me. If you try to do it with the throttle alone, it'll be a slower response and more abrupt and may have you picking 'er up off the tarmac.

 

I can help you out with how to drop a VFR but little else.

 

I also just bought a 2001 VFR, and I am also 6'3" tall. My bike has Heli Bars which certainly help in the comfort department. However, I find that when I am riding I need to consciously practice good posture (with no weight on my wrists) while riding it or my back and wrists will hurt. I expect that with time the correct posture will become automatic but for now I have to keep reminding myself about it.

 

Heli bars will help, but not solve it. You have to use your leg and torso muscles to hold your body up rather than your arms. Requires you to "sandwich" the bike with your legs and develop all the corresponding leg and lower back muscles. Added benefit is much better control of the bike in normal and high speed cornering. Slow speed corning is just a matter of balancing and walking the brake and clutch...and sometimes a tight turn radius and slow speed just require you to stop and put your feet down...beats dropping it.

Based on reviews of sliders, best bet are the ones that require a modified coolant reservoir. Doesn't make much sense to sacrifice your radiators to save your plastics.

 

Thanks for the replies, just been out for a ride. Seems im quite tense on the bike, when I start to relax a bit the cornering comes more naturally. My freind who has a vfr 400 says that im not leaning enough, I seem to find left handers a lot easier than right handers for some reason???? As for the tight turning im getting more aware and leaving myself a bit more space which has really helped. I think riding the bike day to day is far removed from what you are taught on your test!

You keep mentioning the correct posture, but I dont know what that is !!! Any pictures to show me??

After today I cant wait to go riding again as soon as possible.

 

Ride the clutch friction zone in low speed situations, keeping the engine spinning to add stability and using only as much power through the clutch as necessary.

Bike clutches, unlike autos, do not suffer much from slippage.

 

Welky,

I went form a cruiser to my VFR just this spring, and my wrists were hurting at first, but I followed the advice I found here to consciously relax my grip and my arms and use my core to hold me up and I have my last few rides have been pain free. And I'm ony 5'9" (though they do call me dusty knuckles for some reason--not). I've taught bicycling for years, and I've seen new cyclists do the same thing that I was doing: holding the grips too tight, elbows too rigid, shoulders in and up. It is amazing what an hour of tense riding will do to your body.

I also remember when I first started riding my cruiser 4 years ago, I had a harder time with right turns. Looking through the turn and trusting the bike to lean/fall a little as you accelerate out and under it helps, espeically as you start your turn from a stop.

Ed

 

Use your clutch to control slow speed instead of the throttle, this allows more control on bars. Keep your eyes up, force yourself to keep your head up,try it in a parking up, doing slow turns with your head held higher and eyes up more then you normally do. Learn to relax your grip on bars,use lower body to support upper body instead of arms. Practice real slow speed manuvers,then out on the street you will be comfortable.

 

I seem to find left handers a lot easier than right handers for some reason????

Hi welky, hoefully i can shed some light on this one for you. as you are from the Uk i am pretty sure you drive on the left hand side of the road ( as we do here in NZ). so what you are feeling here is an aversion to cornering into oncoming traffic(0n the rightside) as oppossed to cornering towards the curb(on the left side). this is your brain telling your subconscious that VEERING TO WARDS THE DIRECTION OF ONCOMING TRAFFIC IS DANGEROUS! and that a modicum of caution is required;IE; take extra care! and reduce lean angle
just as much as it says' safe to corner much harder on this left side,no on coming traffic' for ther left handers.
hope this makes sense as understanding thge problem is often the first art of the solution. good luck on the future right handers, go easy and build up confidence at a rate your comfortable with.

 

Right handers in North America are more a problem then left. Its due to the fact all right handers here at interesctions are a tighter radius then left. They have the same problem on the open road also, just lessor degree. Most drivers don't practice slow speed enough and rely too much on the bikes natural ability to stay balanced that speed gives. We found that it doesn't matter how long you have been driving,most of the bikes dropped on the course were people who rode 20 plus years. Looking down gets more people in trouble then imagined. We have found taking people on roads that give them trouble, by just looking up more was the biggest improved to their riding. Grant it working on proper line, and weight shift,etc also help. But looking up more gave the biggest improvement. And of course practise working on slow as possible in a safe place sure makes busy interestions easier. Yes, and keep you feet on pegs

 

Im certainly getting a bit better now! I can really see what is ment by taking the weight on your torso and not your wrists. My slow speed stuff seems to be ok now.... I think it was just the fact that I stalled on a real slow speed tight right hander that got me worried. The more I get out there the more natural it becomes. Im no speed freak I just like being on two wheels, the vfr is a lot better than an ER5 that I used to ride!!! I feel like im quite off the pace and that cars are really hustling me.....but f**k em we all have to build our confidence at some point.

 

If I'm about to state the obvious, I apologize, but for low-speed turns, which I've had some difficulties with, I find preparing for the turn in advance helps. You want to take the turn as wide as possible so as to leave some space ahead of you to pick up speed befor executing the turn. For a right turn, start off on the far left of your lane and leave some space between you and the car/bike ahead of you (watch out for the person behind you trying to pass on the right, of course). Also, as you're turning, use the weight of your body by pushing down on the foot pedal of the opposite side of the tilt. These along with some getting used to the friction zone on the clutch, and of course, as you mentioned, RELAX (somehow), you'll do fine. Ride safe (and verticle)

 

An internet search for proper riding position should net you more info than you can stomache. Alot of positioning is minute personal adjustments. But basic structure helps you put yourself in the right area to begin with. The more you ride, as you have seen, the more comfortable you will become. Try riding in areas with little to no traffic to practice the maneuvring.

 

I got some R&G crash bungs fitted here in the UK (they aren't cheap about £150 and 1-2 hours labour). Have to replace the coolant reservoir and drill a hole in each side of the fairing (dealership did it with some sort of high precision laser drill thing). The bungs then go on then end of a long steel rod which goes all the way through. Overall I think they look very neat and don't detract from the look particularly.

Whereabouts in the UK are you?