Is motorcycling allowed?

[Hairy]

So after being on the motorbike a few days in a row, then riding the bicycle on the road .... how many of you have (a) reached out for the indicator and (b) glanced down to look the mirrors on the bicycle ... I have certainly done this a couple of times.

[i24]

On 5/20/2022 at 5:03 PM, sawystertrance said:

Hairy and Mazambaan,

For what it's worth, I think you guys are both wrong - depending on how you ride. I think most folk are right handed and it's better to use your dominant hand to activate whichever brake is better for your style of riding. Don't know about you but I  - when I still had the energy to ride MTB - used my back brake far more often than my front and liked having the fine control of my right hand. Also, in an unexpected emergency, my reaction - perhaps due to motorbike riding - was to grab a handful with my right hand. I preferred that to be back brake and I could then follow up with front for more stopping. 

Motorbike was the opposite, with front brake being the brake of choice. That's for road riding, anyway. I find on gravel it's still my reaction to grab the right hand brake and that being front, it does catch me out.   

Comments?

My first bicycle I got 2nd hand when I was 8 had front brake on the right as did my first motorbike (2nd hand Zundapp) when I was 16. Somewhere in the meantime bicycles started getting sold with front brakes on the left, I am not too sure when or why, I was only riding motorbikes at that time. But when I got back into cycling, I swapped my brakes back to the correct arrangement.

What has changed in the meantime, is that now days, both motor bike and bicycle brakes actually work! You didn't need ABS on drum brakes. Although I can recall locking up the twin leading shoe drum on the front of my Yamaha 180 twin smoke, it took quite a lot of adrenaline.

My Guzzi has trademark "Intergral" brakes. The foot brake master cylinder activates the rear Brembo disk as well as one Brembo disk on front wheel. Stand on it and the bike stops very, very quickly! With little tendency to lock anything. The right front leaver operates the other front wheel Brembo disk, but the front leaver ratio is poorly selected and you have to pull it very hard. Guzzi fitted the same setup on the Le Mans but it came in for quite a lot of criticism and they dropped it on later models.

 

 

[WaynejG]

Big guns in the parking this morning.

[Hairy]

Just now, WaynejG said:

Big guns in the parking this morning.

yours looks bigger 🤣

[WaynejG]

3 minutes ago, Hairy said:

yours looks bigger 🤣

That's what she said 🤭😉🤣😂

[sawystertrance]

5 hours ago, Hairy said:

So after being on the motorbike a few days in a row, then riding the bicycle on the road .... how many of you have (a) reached out for the indicator and (b) glanced down to look the mirrors on the bicycle ... I have certainly done this a couple of times.

I've done it a lot I must admit. And I'm curious about what you do when you've been riding your bicycle a lot, then get back on your Harley and have to do an emergency stop.. Do you grab a handful of clutch?

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, sawystertrance said:

I've done it a lot I must admit. And I'm curious about what you do when you've been riding your bicycle a lot, then get back on your Harley and have to do an emergency stop.. Do you grab a handful of clutch?

Instinctively I have used both front and rear brake in an emergency situation before, in the same manner I would when wanting to hammer down and stop the MTB really fast. The "skill" seems to translate well.

Thankfully I have not tried to slow the MTB down by using my right foot 🤣

[mazambaan]

12 hours ago, Hairy said:

Instinctively I have used both front and rear brake in an emergency situation before, in the same manner I would when wanting to hammer down and stop the MTB really fast. The "skill" seems to translate well.

Thankfully I have not tried to slow the MTB down by using my right foot 🤣

Verily I say unto you, one of the greatest thrills of dirt biking is hammering it on a twisty gravel road (Lesotho etc) in imagined speedway style, even better if you are dicing a mate (until thou becomest the latest of the late brakers). You shall quickly learn that thou shalt not stomp on the rear brake in panic as this stalls the engine and locks the wheel until you add a brain function to pull in thy clutch. Verily also thou shalt not over squeeeeeze thy front brake in panic, particularly in the corner, as this can easily initiate the fun ending crash.  Also thou shalt try and fight off the panic that makes thee stand up the bike and go straight because then the earth, thornbushes, rock face or cliff shall verily smite thee and thou shall taste the copper of fear, maybe blood, as well as grass and dust.

Well, until thou encounterest the taxi, bus, lorry or bakkie coming in the opposite direction. This can end in wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[Andymann]

I've made a public album with some pics and vids on Facebook for those who want to have a look.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=andy.robertson.9047&set=a.10159981653041142

Unfortunately the 125 broke down on Day 1 - I'll pull the motor this weekend to see exactly what went wrong but I hope it's not too serious!

The 175 lived up to it's reputation and apart from one 10mm bolt that came loose on the back mudguard, I never touched it once.  Just cruised along with zero problems.

 

[sawystertrance]

Man, that looks fun. I like the Number 1 sticker and the covers you use for your enduro navigation dashboards. What are they really called? I know that's not their real name.

[Andymann]

We're plebs.  We just call them Rally Boxes 🤣

[Hairy]

6 hours ago, mazambaan said:

Verily I say unto you, one of the greatest thrills of dirt biking is hammering it on a twisty gravel road (Lesotho etc) in imagined speedway style, even better if you are dicing a mate (until thou becomest the latest of the late brakers). You shall quickly learn that thou shalt not stomp on the rear brake in panic as this stalls the engine and locks the wheel until you add a brain function to pull in thy clutch. Verily also thou shalt not over squeeeeeze thy front brake in panic, particularly in the corner, as this can easily initiate the fun ending crash.  Also thou shalt try and fight off the panic that makes thee stand up the bike and go straight because then the earth, thornbushes, rock face or cliff shall verily smite thee and thou shall taste the copper of fear, maybe blood, as well as grass and dust.

Well, until thou encounterest the taxi, bus, lorry or bakkie coming in the opposite direction. This can end in wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I hear you .... as you say, the skill lies in braking as hard as possible without locking up ... like a human powered ABS system

[Andrew_Smith]

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Andrew_Smith

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, Andrew_Smith said:

 

that is amazing

[Andrew_Smith]

 

[Headshot]

On 5/20/2022 at 8:27 PM, WaynejG said:

I am the same as you. My MTB brakes are rear on the right and front on the left. When on the MTB my main brake is the rear so my dominant right hand is in control. Same as when on a motorbike. I have gotten so used to it and the muscle memory is so I grained, if I had to swop the brakes on my MTB to match a motorbike, that would totally screw me over.

You guys must both know that same as a moto, your most important brake is your front because the front wheel develops grip as it weights up under braking while the rear loses grip as the front end compresses and weight transfers there. Trail builders must have hated you 🙂