How do you ride your Steamers?

[Sin_Tiger]

I' ve never tried this but worth mentioning.

I had a bit of a block about U turns and a friend who is a ROSPA instructor mentioned a technique he used in the past with persistent cases was to take them out as pillions and progressively increase the intensity of the manouver while talking them through it.

Might be worth considering.

[wakdady]

so i rode my FJ all week to work. put the Shinko's on the Tiger and rode it to work this morning.
yup, i still suck  
i was able to be easy on the bars and countersteer mid corner on the FJ.
But on the Tiger i just cant do it. I can start the turn with a countersteer, but after that it's all pulling on the inside bar. very frustrating.

maybe i can get a buddy of mine to film me and post it up.

[Colonel Nikolai]

The other thing, what tyres are you running on? ... With the Anakee 2's, when the tyres are warmed up (and on a good day) I am nearly scraping the pedals on the floor - If I don't move my feet back they get squashed between the road and the bike!

When I first got my steamer, it had 7-year-old Dunlop Trailmaxes on them. They were the consistency of wheel-chock rubber and made the headstock actually wander in tighter turns. Both wheels would lock up when braking only moderately hard. After switching to the Anakee 2's all that went away. I can lean the bike so well and with such confidence, I feel my whole rig runs better than an almost new 2009 Tiger that I rented in California a couple of years ago. Part of this experience was the Sasquatch upgrade of the rear end, but a lot was the Anakee 2's. (The Sasquatch rear suspension upgrade cleaned up the up-and-down experience in ruts bumps and loose stuff mostly.)

When I had my cruiser, switching from the cruiser to the Tiger was odd.  It would take a few miles before I was comfortable with leaning from the extra height the Tiger has to offer.  

Switching between the Steamer and a 2003 Buell Lightning a lot these days I notice the chassis rigidity of the Lightning is so high, the fork rake so aggressive, and the suspension so well tuned, the bike feels like it's connected directly to my neural ganglia when turning. The Tiger by comparison feels like I'm paddling a canoe. Things I want it to do seem to start happening "downstream" a few moments later.

When starting a turn on the Steamer, too, I notice the bike's frame seems like its made of pipe-cleaner. It's sort of seems to "fold" a little, falling over the centerline abruptly. I think this is a combination of its height, the plusher suspension and maybe not really the frame actually bending, but who knows.

[Sin_Tiger]

This might sound a bit daft at first but you might want to try varying your tyre pessures!

I noticed you had just changed to Shinkos.

I know that what works on the Stripples 2CTs is way too high for say Metzlers or Anakees. Just a few psi low on the Stripple and it's noticably harder work to avoid mid corner corrections and a few psi high and the Tiger is a bit flighty at speed and I really have to move around to make quick lane changes.

[NeilD]

are any members local could take the bike round the block and check if theres a problem with the bike?  
mine had stock suspension (probably slightly knackered) and tourances and always found it held a line fine after an initial nudge on the bars to turn it in..

[akendall1966]

So lets agree to disagree on the terminology & get back to the question. The idea of someone videoing his riding style may have some merit. Lets give him the weekend to test these theories out.

Its not  terminology its physics  the man is right standing lowering the c of g is  myth, standing off road does  work though nothing wrong with that as a technique.

Changed the fork springs on mine transformed it, back is still stock and 14 years old squirms a bit if you gas it out of bend but the front feels secure. I am no scratcher though. :roll: