Ruff or bumpy pavement turns me into a biatch!
 

Ok, we have some roads we ride pretty regularly, one of which is pretty darn rough, my buddy Travis will take these corners just as he would on a smooth as a baby's bottom surface. For the life of me, I have yet to have that type of confidence in a corner on that road or similar surfaces. Two questions:

1) How do I increase my confidence level on ruff/bumpy pavement?

2)Does it affect you the same way? If not how did you get over that hump?:?:

:D

I can understand your pain on that. Ever since I low sided in some gravel, I choke up hard on the handle bars any time I see pebble like debris. I practically lose all focus and worry about the small pebbles on the ground. I tried ridding a couple more times on those roads and ended up getting rear ended by a lady on her cell phone. Now I am just paranoid!

Just take every ounce of weight off the bars, and onto your pegs. Let the suspension do its work instead of fighting it.

I do fight the natural tendency to tense up and will mentally tell myself to stay loose, I think it's a mental roadblock I need to burst though I just unconsciously slow down, not a chop the throttle type of slowing though.

As you would say, but coming from me...

"move north grasshopper"

very rarely does a nice road stay nice around here... salt eats them up and if not the salt, then amish buggy tires.

There is so much gravel around here that it does not bother me really unless it's a broken patch of road that's now gravel-like...

As said previously, good suspension that is properly setup will do wonders for confidence.

You cannot ride faster on a bumpy road vs. a smooth one. You can, however, be slow on both. lol

:iagree: It's like riding dirtbike in the sand. Relax and let the bike do the work. ( as particle man stated, your suspension has to be working WITH you )

One of the best things to do is practice with limited traction situations.


Ride your bike IN GRAVEL. Your tires will slip, but you will get used to the feeling and how to control it.


I ride with a buddy who HATES limited traction situations, rain, gravel, sand, bumpy road surfaces.

I don't mind them because I used to ride dirt bikes. I kind of like the feeling sometimes of breaking the rear loose.

There are plenty of gravel roads in NC. Find one that has a minimal amount of large rocks in it (likely to puncture a tire) and work on it.

http://www.troybaker.com/mz/mz47.jpg





Before I had a motard I was the SAME way....but this thing has SO much travel that bumps and jacked up roads mean nothing any more. SERIOUSLY increased my corner confidence in less than perfect situations

If it's your sportbike raise your butt a tad off the seat when you hit the bumps and keep all your weight on the balls of your feet. Don't get the kungfu grip going, and let the bike literally move around under you. Proper suspension or close enough and you'll glide right over them.

And as always, practice makes perfect! Hit those bumps 5 or 10 times in a row if you're just out riding. Go a little faster each time.

There is a big difference between rough/bumpy and broken/gravelly. As others have said, choppy pavement that requires a lot of suspension movement is best handled by getting up off the seat so that one thing does occur and another does not.

By removing your butt from the seat and flexing your knees, you remove some of the weight that your suspension must deal with, allwing for faster response, keeping your tires contact patch on the road and keeping better traction.

You aslo achieve preventing your upper body from being bounced around, which decreases adrenaline/fear, keeps your vision from becoming blurred by the rapid motion, which in turn decreases fear and increases confidence.

As far as your upper body goes, as both 71 H1 and tyster said, relax your grip (again fear causes the hand spasms which cause us to really want to squeeze those grips) letting the bars kinda float in your hands.

You prolly hold your breath, too. I do when I get tense; so I make myself consciously BREATHE slow big breaths when I find myself in challenging circumstances. I self talk myself "breathe in , breathe out" over and over; it keeps me from tensing up and has the added benefit of keeping my brain and muscles well oxygenated so i'm better able to react when something untoward happens.

Best thing for learning to ride on broken up, gravelly/sandy pavement is to use, beg borrow, steal (or god knows even BUY ) a smaller (100-250cc) dirtbike and do some dirt trail riding. Kenny Roberts used to train GP riders at his school with 100cc Hondas in the dirt. Bikes are light to keep wayward momentum to a manageable minimum, but quick enough to get a real feeling of speed.

Deliberately sliding a 425-500lb high-center-of-gravity streetbike is best put off till you've had a bit of dirtbike experience, IMHO....

But then, what do I know, right?

Relax, and get yer butt off the seat and lose the deathgrip on the bars; you'll be OK.

That's the answer right there.

Most instruction on a trackday is trying to get people to move where they *hold on* to a bike. Well, that and getting people to breathe rather than taking that quick draw of breath and holding it like they just stubbed their toe.

Breathe

Relax

Loosen that death grip on the bars...

For me there is one corner that has a pretty nasty bump right in my line. One time I went over it, had no idea it was there and my handlebars did a mini tank slapper. Nothing happened, fortunately. Since then I tip toe through there, until earlier this year... I stayed on the throttle instead of backing off and viola, nothing too bad. I have to wonder if a steering damper would have helped in that situation?

when I picked up my very first brand new bike (HD Sportster) many years ago. I told the guy (this was when harley shops weren't boutiques) it had been awhile since I rode, was there somewhere I could practice a little. He said sure go dow that road in the back and when you get back here you'll be ready to go.
I turned onto the road, 1/2 block later it turned into all sand, turned around in that crap and went back to cuss him out. when I got there he looked at me and said well you kept it up in that crap you're ready to go.

lesson learned, just drive through it. i used to go out in the rain as a teen and intentionally slide around to get used to it.

What bumps? I dont feel no bumps?

There's a bumpy corner in my favorite road. I don't feel anything when I'm going uphill, because the fork is extended and can soak up the bumps. Coming downhill, the fork is compressed. I can feel the bumps in my hands, but I roar right through.

I know the bumps are there when I'm going down to this curve, but I'm confident because I've been trained by the best, and I've practiced on a zillion curves. I set up for the curve just like all the other ones. Even when I'm in the bumps, I don't think about it because I'm looking ahead and setting up in my mind for the next curve.

My front fork isn't adjustable, but if your suspension is adjustable, Sportrider Magazine has their suspension recommendations for every bike they've tested since 1997: http://www.sportrider.com/tech/tires...ngs/index.html

Perhaps I should confess, I am not speaking of low speeds and bumps, it's more when the pace is "spirited" and we hit a bumpy section of road in a curve. Even once I slow down I'm still nothing even close to the speed limit:whistle:

That wouldn't change the suspension answers above.

Are you looking for advice how to improve your bikes handling in bumpy switchbacks or in getting over the mental hurdles making you roll off the throttle?

Bingo! It's the mental hurdles making me roll off the throttle that I need help with me, where's Dr. Phil???

Sounds like a fear of low or reduced traction situations.

I could concur with that assessment

Could you try thinking that if your friend can go over them with no issues that you should be able to as well? Maybe just increase your speed incrementally each time.

I do that all the time with Erik... if he can hit a corner at a certain way, then surely I can get through it will little issue at my speed or a little more (baby steps). It's kind of mind over matter thought process.

I also agree that suspension settings play a huge part, something that would make my bike MUCH easier to handle if I'd change them to fit me.

I do that in my head all the time then bitch out as I notice my speed has gently decreased:td:

Have you tried adjusting your suspension as everyone else suggested?

No, but I do plan to have Wheeler setup my bike for me. BUT It's a mental issue, it's not the bike.

I understand it's mental but maybe by adjusting something on the bike it will help you "think" that something is different and therefore allow you to overcome it. :shrug:

If you ride like me, you rarely hit the same bumpy turns... always taking new roads and being caught off guard by unexpected bumps. That makes it hard to figure out exactly what's making you uncomfortable. And damn near impossible to work on.

Is there a bumpy turn nearby that you could hit repeatedly? Try adjusting your body position to find where the bumps are least noticeable to you. Or getting into position earlier so you're not moving while the bikes less stable?

I've decided to use the same corner and work on this for sure

Try a little trick on the sections that are stumping you:

Take some masking tape and cover the speedo and tach. Now go ride the area that bothers you and stop worrying about the numbers. Go relax and ride the sections multiple times, varying line and entrance exits. Let the bike move around under you without consciously trying to increase speed.

Like anything else in this game, speed is a function of comfort, familiarity and technical variance, that comes as a result of practice, a willingness to learn and seat time. Go direct some seat time at the ares bothering you, but do it slowly.....speed, smoothness and comfort will be the natural result.....pushing speed only usually results in crashing..................