RE: Tips for RS riding. - 4

Zitat von basskleff im Beitrag #44

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The RS is a great bike holding its weight well, it's quick, maneuverable, responsive. It's still a lot of bike sitting up fairly high, so real slow turning, especially on inclined driveways, roads, ramps etc. and with added pitch or tilt or canting in the road surface to one side, can be challenging at times. Might be it's only weak point. It seems at times you can want to pussy-foot it slowly, backup and chisel at the tight turn in such situations. With practice, you can get a feel to allow it to dip-lean sharply and feather the clutch and throttle to pull out.

Keep practicing like it's a 250 in such slow turn situations. I know I need to! One will be the king after that.

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Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #45

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Keith Code's "Twist of the Wrist II" which is available on Youtube.

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I would turn off the gear shift indicator, why would you ever want to follow such “ advice”. I have never seen it on my display and certainly wouldn’t want to as I know it would annoy me, my wife’s Fiat 500 has a similar indicator and that’s totally useless as well.

I'd love to turn it off! I'll look in the manual. It's a Euro emissions measure I think. It's terrible, and I can't help think it's mechanically bad for the bike to be labouring at low revs.

Ah, the old "NO BS" bike! The later versions also had articulating padded frame work that would pivot down to hold your torso from moving side to side, as well. Used to see these every year, at VIR. California Superbike school would have their 2 day classes (on Monday & Tuesday) following the AMA/MotoAmerica race weekend...when you could still attend races :-(

Zitat von Boxerboy im Beitrag #48

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I would turn off the gear shift indicator, why would you ever want to follow such “ advice”. I have never seen it on my display and certainly wouldn’t want to as I know it would annoy me, my wife’s Fiat 500 has a similar indicator and that’s totally useless as well.

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My 1965 Impala had a factory vacuum gauge. Comically entertaining to a 16 year old. "Let's make it stay in the red all the time!"

Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #49

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I'd love to turn it off! I'll look in the manual. It's a Euro emissions measure I think. It's terrible, and I can't help think it's mechanically bad for the bike to be labouring at low revs.

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Zitat von Ray B im Beitrag #5

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Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #1

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With that in mind, do any other owners have any tips and experiences from riding the bike that might be useful for recent converts to the church of RS? Less general riding technique, but more bike-specific suggestions to address any peccadillos or characteristics of the machine...

Disclaimer to be applied to any comments on this thread - we're all responsible for riding our own ride and staying within our own safety envelope!

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On this forum - we're timid as church mice. No one's going to offer an opinion.

As I've noted elsewhere, once broken in, this bike loves high RPMs, engine braking, clutchless downshifts, and throttle-on in turns (i.e., in general, get the braking done before flipping into the turn and on the gas).

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Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #47

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Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #45

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Keith Code's "Twist of the Wrist II" which is available on Youtube.

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I've just checked back on the Youtube video. Keith Code himself has pointed out in the comments that there's an app which lets you buy the film for £9.99. Search "Twist of the Wrist" in the app store.

I though Code's reaction was astonishingly measured given he'd found someone on Youtube undoubtedly breaching his copyright...

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Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #45

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I've just checked back in on this thread I kicked off and caught up on an interesting debate. Thanks of course to everyone for their comments.

I was taught countersteering on my direct access course and we were schooled that at basically anything above 15mph the gyroscopic effect of the wheel forces you to countersteer. The school had a training aid which was a wheel rotating on an axis with a couple of grips, and once they'd spun the wheel up you couldn't turn the wheel left by pushing right (as you would on a push bike); it would only lean left if you pushed left. I've since read Lee Parks' "Total Control" (Chapter 2 of which goes into lots of detail on this) and watched Keith Code's "Twist of the Wrist II" which is available on Youtube. Hammy acting and weird hair aside, it's an interesting watch on the countersteering topic - they have a bike with secondary fixed handlebars that mean the rider can only steer the bike by leaning and/or putting weight on the foot pedal, and it was far less effective. From that research, and watching YouTubers like MotoJitsu, it seems pretty clear to me that countersteering is the only effective way to steer a motorcycle. You have to make sure you push forward rather than down though...

Now that I've covered around 500 miles on the RS, I'll have a try at answering my own question. Compared to the Honda, I find the RS responds really well to the "kiss the mirror" technique - getting your upper body to the inside of the turn by moving your chin and upper body towards the inside mirror just before applying steering input. I didn't need it so much on the Honda because that needed no encouragement to tip in, but I'm guessing that with so much weight low down, shifting higher-up mass to the inside just helps get the Beemer start the turn. The books say that is also a good thing because it reduces your lean angle, increasing available traction and the effectiveness of your suspension; I just feel a bit of active upper body weight shift makes the bike turn more smoothly. I've also learnt to completely ignore BMW's gear shift indicator, which tells you to shift up at about 1500 rpm to save fuel. Utter bollocks, positively dangerous at lower speeds, and ruins the riding experience.

I have my running in service on 11 June, after which I can start pushing up the rev range (the manual recommends staying below 5,500 for the first 600 miles, which I've mainly stuck to). Lots more learning to look forward to in the course of exploring the engine's capabilities.

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I guess it depends how fast you are going lol.

I bet coppers would also ride diferently if they were on the track no matter how fast they go.

Personally I find this bike very easy to hang off compared to my old naked BKING .....and it corners very well indeed without much effort and needs less countersteer effort. I do however always countersteer unless travelling at low speed.

Having said that I have never ridden an R so my comparison level is limited.

Zitat von andygriff im Beitrag #57

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" kissing the mirror " All very interesting but completely unnecessary. You won't see any police riders kissing anything and they are rapid and safe . I think you're over thinking it.

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Zitat von andygriff im Beitrag #57

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" kissing the mirror " All very interesting but completely unnecessary. You won't see any police riders kissing anything and they are rapid and safe . I think you're over thinking it.

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