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Great pics jasnmar... thanks for sharing.
It's also worth noting that your man-handling of the 'wing was all the more impressive given that nearly our entire trackday was in the rain.
Glad to hear that your wife is no longer head-slapping you!![]()
Ha! Seriously cool. I have to take a closer look at wings...thought they scraped on the sort of handling you'd do on a track.
Yea, some stuff scrapes. As long as I keep it to the footpegs scraping it's fine. When "hard parts" scrape it could become a problem. I actually have upgraded scrapers.
As my body position gets better, that will mean either less scraping, or hopefully no more scraping, but better speeds in the turns.
Here and I thought pegs were considered hard-parts.
There are 2 groups of 'wingers who talk about things in levels like this.
One group is well versed in "parking lot" drills. Low speed sort of stuff, where you're doing full locked turns and trying your damndest to lean the bike over. Doug's video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1r63...e_gdata_player
The other group is a bit more sport oriented. Scraping stuff "at speed". Rick at the Gap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nrMQ...e_gdata_player (rumor has it that he did some racing back in the day at NHIS).
Both groups have come to speak of peg related scrapes in a bit of a different manner than scraping our engine / bag guards. Pegs are hinged. Scraping them isn't doing any real damage (well, other than to the peg) to the bike. The pegs are easy to replace as well as easy to acquire (many use aftermarket pegs of some sort). Scraping pegs is a warning... you are getting close... scraping guards means your are at the limit. There is no more room. I've only scraped guards in parking lot type stuff so far.
We often talk about scraping hard parts as scraping guards. There is no give, so they are hard. Scraping pegs... meh, consumable, like tires or oil.
I was actually going through about 4 acorn nuts per tire change until I found some aftermarket peg scrapes. :/
Bah! Parking lot drills.
Okay, okay. I spent part of my afternoon riding around my cul-de-sac. Been re-reading my copy of Total Control and felt like going out to practice 'looking through the turn' drills. That divulged into tight figure 8's. I lack the throttle and clutch fineness to keep the bike down like that first vid you posted. But I am getting there. Although maybe my 'down' is further down then yours is.
This may be a chickenshit excuse. But I am going to suggest my V-twin is harder to do that on as it isn't as smooth as your 6 is.
And I'm well aware of 'wing pegs. Your factory pegs are considered cushy upgrades for us V-Strom folk. Have spent many an afternoon watching used GL1500 pegs get sniped away from me on fleabay.
We (old guys on 'wings) have a couple of advantages in parking lot drills.
1. The lean angle of our bike is limited. Something like 43 degrees. Even the strom, while not a full on sport bike is capable of more than this. More makes it more scarier.
2. We can completely ignore throttle and clutch control. Put it in 3rd and practice. Don't touch the throttle or clutch. Work on getting comfortable with leaning first. As long as you are applying power it is hard to fall over (not impossible, just hard).
When I first got the 'wing its weight scared me to death. Low speed stuff was terrifying with 1k pound bike. I'm not an expert, but have gotten to comfortable with it.
The one thing I've learned in low speed practice is that the throttle saves you. Leave room, and if you sense a problem throttle up. Power out of whatever you're in. At high lean angles / low speeds brakes and clutches just make you fall (been there as well, even scuffed my knee and ruined a perfectly good pair of pants).
Didn't know about the GL15 pegs thing. Will have to see if they are at all compatible with the GL18.
Yea, not having my wife whap me in the head makes for a much more pleasant exit to the turn
Track day in the rain was certainly interesting. It started out raining, and of course I started out terrified. Noob lap was fine. I think all of us in Red group started slowly learning how sticky stuff was in the rain. Mid-day rain let up for us, and I think most of us started exploring the limits a bit more.
For me it got really interesting near the end of the day, as the rain picked up again. It was great to actually get an understanding of what the tires can hold in the wet, but this is also when I had my big pucker moment.
I was chasing (yes I know it's not a race) a guy on a liter bike, who I'd passed earlier a couple times (and so far I only pass in the NASCAR straight)(this was significantly after the session where i was behind you, when John helped me with my T10 problems).
I'd missed a shift out of 12 (damn skinny boots) so didn't make the pass, but trying to keep tight to him. Got a little aggressive on the throttle out of 2 (paint stripes scare me now) and the rear end started going wide. To make things worse I rolled off too hard. Now I understand what causes a high side. I didn't high side, but I get it. I'm sure that for racers the "wide" I felt was just every day stuff. For me... holy shit.
As an aside I wasn't at all happy with my rear tire. I'd been out of the country the week before and my normal guy didn't have the tire I like in. I was on a tire that has a reputation of being good for doing lots of highway miles rather than being sticky. I can't just walk over to street and comp and get a new one. That's probably an excuse, but sometimes I'll take what I can get![]()
I did not know this. That is cool. I am not aware of any gear/rpm/throttle combo on the strom where you can do that. Honestly the fueling on the V-Strom leaves a little something to be desired now and then. It is not silky smooth, especially at low RPM. I blame that for my tip over last year. Also I tend to gear up as I am reluctant to go screaming around my neighborhood in first. I have this perception that my bike is loud. In reality my neighbors ass-hat dog is probably louder.
But ignoring the throttle and clutch. That's crazy.
I have to keep the left hand ready to slip the clutch and goose the throttle as bogging or stalling is a real issue. I actually stalled it once in my figure 8's yesterday.
No doubt.
I've had moments kinda like that on my old Bandit 1200. Also a few puckers downshifting late into a corner with my foot on the rear brake. The V-Strom doesn't quite seem capable of this though. Way down on power compared to the B12 and nearly the same weight. Although skinnier tires too. Maybe this will bite me one of these days, but I just don't feel like there are many circumstances where I can get myself into trouble with the throttle on my ~60HP wonder.