Scraping Floor Boards Part 2

[dogdoc]

I agree with dank, why grind down your floorboards so you can buy some more for couple hundred $$, doesn't make sense to me. I'll preserve mine and stop the lean just shy. :-)

[dantama]

[quote:jkhco6si] That sure looks like fun Dan, but I don't think I will ever get that far over on purpose

I agree. Dan's skill as a rider is is admirable and clearly far beyond mine. But nonetheless, the seating posture and suspension of this bike were not designed with sport riding in mind. I think that is evident in the picture. Going hot through the corners is always a thrill, no question, but the price of getting it wrong is just too high, and the margin of error on this bike for that type of riding is very small. (Yep, that thinking confirms it. I've officially become an old fart!)

I haven't scraped mine yet other than at low speed. [/quote:jkhco6si]

I only crash every 17 years, and this last time was on a dirt road, so I wish it didn't count. you ought to get a free pass on dirt roads, that's like crashing on a dirt bike.

But the truth is, I have a defective gene. I find a lot of pleasure in taking things too far. Most everything that I do, I do to the extreme. I have a hard time finding skiing partners, because I like to do black diamonds all day, take my lunch with me and eat it on the lift, and never stop and talk, just ski, ski, ski.

I met a guy here in Colorado that rides a VFR Interceptor through another riding friend. The friend knows that when we ride together, I'm way holding back to ride together. He thought that if I rode with the VFR guy, then I'd get someone who was waiting for me.

I blew the VFR guy away on the Peak to Peak highway here in Colorado (all mountain riding, curves and curves).

I drag the boards in many corners every ride I do in the mountains. On the Speer blvd to I25 northbound on ramp, I scrap right then left most every time I get on (its an S-curve on ramp).

Is it the safest way to get around? Nope.
Is it smart to do? Perhaps not. Actually, for sure not.

With my defective genetics is it what keeps riding fun and entertaining? Yup.

That all said, the nomad floor boards are hinged. You can make a lot of noise before it's a problem. The trick is being able to read the corners well enough to know whether you are just going to make noise, or going to lever the rear wheel off the ground.

The safest way is to not make any noise at all.

Before going back to school I was a heavy equipment operator. One of the things that I did was stack up boulders building rock retaining walls. Using those multiple control sticks to spin a rock around just so, pick it up and put it just how it needed to sit, was right up my alley. I like to make any machine work to it's maximum potential.

Put a multi-million dollar house at the bottom of the slope, so that one wrong move will send the boulder down the hill into it, made it even better.

Motorcycles give me the same sense of satisfaction of taking a machine, and making it perform very well at extremes.

It's not safe, or wise, but if you have defective genetics, your stuck with it.

You're a better man than I..... I crash about every 10 yrs.

[dank]

[/quote]

It's not safe, or wise, but if you have defective genetics, your stuck with it. [/quote]

Are you trying for a Darwin Award? ;)

[dantama]

Here's a youtube video of motorcycle cops showing what you can do if your really good at the slow speed turns.

I love those videos every time I see them... those guys are the best! :)

[naugaman]

Nope, never have scraped my floor boards. I get close but still shy an inch. I will let those with the need to ride hard and fast have all the fun.

[jlamz]

Wolfman, I found out how by stumbling onto a motorcycle cop practicing in a parking lot by himself. I pulled in and watched and was amazed. He was very approachable and taught me how to do tight turns.

I went home to practice, and couldn't drag the floor boards all the way around, I decided it was my bike. Saw him again and told him how it went and he got on my bike and did just fine (I rode his police road king and dumped it, but that's another story).

Once I knew that the bike would do it, it gave me the courage to go further.

The way you do it is a combination of using the friction zone of the clutch to moderate speed, and a little bit of rpm, and perhaps some rear brake. I go through a row of parking lot spaces (two rows that face each other), and I zig zag down it turning on every other line. Essentially a full Uturn using two spots.

As I start to move into the first one I pull in the clutch, rev the engine perhaps double idle rpm, then use the clutch to moderate how fast I go. I lean it way over for each turn and hold it there. The key is this; every time you feel like your going down and have the instinct to jab your foot down to hold you up, let a little more clutch out (throttle is held steady). The little bit of forward drive will pull you back up enough to lose the I'm going down feeling. Do that each time the reflex to jab a foot down happens.

Eventually you can do a whole row of parking lot stalls hitting every other painted line no problem.

I can turn my 1600 Nomad doing a 180 degree turn inside two 17 foot lines. It took me 19 feet on my 1500 nomad, don't know if I got better, or if there is a difference in the bikes.

Sometimes when learning it is a little easier if you drag the rear brake a little, once you learn and are comfortable, it's not needed.

I find being able to do tight turns very useful. For instance, going down a country or canyon road that isn't very wide and wanting to do a uturn. If you do the turn, back up, turn.....you are exposed to a possible car coming around the corner longer. If you can slow down, whip around and be gone all in one motion, you're not exposed to the danger of an oncoming car as long.

I have been practicing slow turns etc with the handle bars locked right then left, but I was told at a class I attended to apply a steady pressure to the brake while using a steady throttle and feathering the clutch. Is your method easier?

[Yellow Jacket]

I agree with dank, why grind down your floorboards so you can buy some more for couple hundred $$, doesn't make sense to me. I'll preserve mine and stop the lean just shy. :-)

You don't have to worry about having to replace the floorboards. Each floorboard (except the passenger) has a replaceable wear pad installed on the bottom rear. Each pad has a protuding tab at each end. The tab on the rear is the one that contacts the surface. The neat part of this is that when the rear tab gets worn down you merely swap the pads to the other side and you now have an unworn tab at the rear. Eventually, if you drag the board a lot you will have to replace the pads. The part number is 21176. See the diagram below. I got this off Ma Kaw's website.



P.S. So far the only times I have scraped the boards is in low speed turns. I'm not anywhere near Dan's skill level.

[naugaman]

I came across this great video of some Goldwing riders out having fun scraping their floor boards.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30...ldwing_extreme

[naugaman]

Here is the same road but from a different perspective. Much different results. I guess this is called the Dragons tail.

http://www.twistedlimit.com/cbr/Twistedlimit317.WMV

[quote:epdez4xs]I agree with dank, why grind down your floorboards so you can buy some more for couple hundred $$, doesn't make sense to me. I'll preserve mine and stop the lean just shy. :-)

You don't have to worry about having to replace the floorboards. Each floorboard (except the passenger) has a replaceable wear pad installed on the bottom rear. Each pad has a protuding tab at each end. The tab on the rear is the one that contacts the surface. The neat part of this is that when the rear tab gets worn down you merely swap the pads to the other side and you now have an unworn tab at the rear. Eventually, if you drag the board a lot you will have to replace the pads. The part number is 21176. See the diagram below. I got this off Ma Kaw's website.



P.S. So far the only times I have scraped the boards is in low speed turns. I'm not anywhere near Dan's skill level.[/quote:epdez4xs]

[socwkbiker]

Nico, that's called a part diagram. Now I know that last word is a little big for you, so let's call it a picture. Can you say picture?

Dan, I understand and respect your genetic predisposition for lunacy and hope that you have all the fun rides you can get in your life. Enjoy our crazy brotha!

[dantama]

[quote:7wfxvead]Wolfman, I found out how by stumbling onto a motorcycle cop practicing in a parking lot by himself. I pulled in and watched and was amazed. He was very approachable and taught me how to do tight turns.

I went home to practice, and couldn't drag the floor boards all the way around, I decided it was my bike. Saw him again and told him how it went and he got on my bike and did just fine (I rode his police road king and dumped it, but that's another story).

Once I knew that the bike would do it, it gave me the courage to go further.

The way you do it is a combination of using the friction zone of the clutch to moderate speed, and a little bit of rpm, and perhaps some rear brake. I go through a row of parking lot spaces (two rows that face each other), and I zig zag down it turning on every other line. Essentially a full Uturn using two spots.

As I start to move into the first one I pull in the clutch, rev the engine perhaps double idle rpm, then use the clutch to moderate how fast I go. I lean it way over for each turn and hold it there. The key is this; every time you feel like your going down and have the instinct to jab your foot down to hold you up, let a little more clutch out (throttle is held steady). The little bit of forward drive will pull you back up enough to lose the I'm going down feeling. Do that each time the reflex to jab a foot down happens.

Eventually you can do a whole row of parking lot stalls hitting every other painted line no problem.

I can turn my 1600 Nomad doing a 180 degree turn inside two 17 foot lines. It took me 19 feet on my 1500 nomad, don't know if I got better, or if there is a difference in the bikes.

Sometimes when learning it is a little easier if you drag the rear brake a little, once you learn and are comfortable, it's not needed.

I find being able to do tight turns very useful. For instance, going down a country or canyon road that isn't very wide and wanting to do a u turn. If you do the turn, back up, turn.....you are exposed to a possible car coming around the corner longer. If you can slow down, whip around and be gone all in one motion, you're not exposed to the danger of an oncoming car as long.

I have been practicing slow turns etc with the handle bars locked right then left, but I was told at a class I attended to apply a steady pressure to the brake while using a steady throttle and feathering the clutch. Is your method easier?[/quote:7wfxvead]


Of course you mean the rear brake, and dragging the rear brake makes it a little easier to learn, but once you do learn you can do with out dragging the brake just fine.

I think dragging the brake allows you to be a little more ham fisted with the feathering of the clutch, and get away with it.

Once you get used to being leaned over and at full lock, you can largely do away with dragging the rear brake. One place in everyday driving where the skill becomes useful during any U-turn on a narrow street, but once you have that down you may look for other opportunities.

For example, if I'm in a left turn lane, wanting to do a U-turn, I try to Finnish it in the first oncoming lane, not in the next one over. Being able to do it sure makes flipping around up in the mountains to go back for a good picture easier.