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I cant...stop.


smutpeddler

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I'm losing my mind. I have the stupidest problem in the world. I can't for the life of me, come to a smooth stop consistently. I ease to a stop, and at the last second, for some god forsaken reason. I either lose my balance start to tip to the right, putting my right food down fast to "catch" myself, or I time it wrong with the left foot, and it just looks rough and sudden. It's really embarrassing, and I've tried working on it in parking lots. But it never fails when I'm on the street it happens. Help? 

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Your attention is becoming focused on too small of a situational bubble. It's common/easy to let our focus shrink down to the controls of the motorbIke as we get busy dealing with a stressful or new or uneasy situation. Try scanning your surroundings as you come to a stop/slow down. You'll be amazed how much smoother you'll be operating the controls by feel, not sight. When you open up your awareness you'll see and have time to make those subconscious adjustments that you are responding to too late now. 

 

I would also add to make sure your front wheel is straight as you stop. Turning the handle bars will upset you balance. 

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Do you feel like you have sub-par balance in general? In a parking lot, try letting the bike drive itself in 1st gear using just idle. If you can't do that, it might be worthwhile to have your inner ear checked out or just keep working on it. 

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Buy a unicycle, you will thank me later

 

For what it is worth, I find the FZ very unpredictable as you stated.  I can as example on my R1 sit at stop lights balanced for some time, other times not so, but the FZ is different, I blame the rake a tad but I blame myself for not feeling the balance.  Certainly got better with more seat time, but I also contribute this to the shet suspension

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria

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Not as silly as it sounds.

Caster steering inline two wheel vehicles SWAP steering input as they slow down at a speed determined by a few things ( ie isn't monocausal).

Once above the gyroscopic speed ( wheels AND engine)  the bike is pretty much self stable. Below that YOU have to balance. That plus counter steering now is changed because the caster rise is more dominant in stablizing the bike.

Try riding around VERY slowly, slipping the clutch and driving against the BACK brake only, slipping both against each other to control your speed. LEAVE THE FRONT BRAKE ALONE UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETELY STOPPED. At slow speed the front brake has several effects on your stability from caster variation to CoG drive through. ie it makes you more unstable. Reving the engine a bit increases the engines gyro input to help your stability ( don't go silly). A constant slow-medium revs will do . That will avoid a stall and lack of variation will make the gyro more predictable.

Worth a try.

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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That happens to me sometimes and it's always to the right if I apply too much front brake to stop quickly or if I'm looking down at the front of the bike and not ahead.  I have found if I smoothly apply both front and back brakes at the same time that the actual stop is much better/smoother. Always look ahead and not down, that's what they teach in the MSF classes. Find an empty parking lot someplace and practice your stops and your very slow speed maneuvering, it'll help a lot and make you feel more comfortable at slow speeds.

Anthony

"Send lawyers, guns, and money."  W. Zevon

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Like gregjet said, use the rear brake in these situations. 

 

Go to parking lot like cyow5 mentioned, and practice slow speed riding with the front brake, then do it with the rear brake. You will see that using the rear brake is much smoother and easier to handle at low speeds.

 

Good luck. 

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Just to confirm above and perhaps add a little.  For "at speed" stopping make sure you hold (front) braking until your foot is down before releasing the brake.  Releasing the front brake (for me) unloads the suspension and could catch you off guard.  Also use both brakes for all "at speed" stopping.  For stop and go traffic I hold throttle and apply rear brake to "drag" and control speed with clutch only.  You have to get a little practice for this and know that you will stall the bike at some point so don't panic when it happens.  Also any rider safety course would help.  The MSF basic rider 2 course was great for me as it was all basically low speed maneuvers for an entire day.  Really gets you comfortable with the controls and operating with your eyes up.

 

Best of luck. 

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bornagainbiker
On 11/28/2017 at 10:52 PM, mossrider said:

Your attention is becoming focused on too small of a situational bubble. It's common/easy to let our focus shrink down to the controls of the motorbIke as we get busy dealing with a stressful or new or uneasy situation. Try scanning your surroundings as you come to a stop/slow down. You'll be amazed how much smoother you'll be operating the controls by feel, not sight. When you open up your awareness you'll see and have time to make those subconscious adjustments that you are responding to too late now. 

 

I would also add to make sure your front wheel is straight as you stop. Turning the handle bars will upset you balance. 

I agree with mossrider on this one.  Some of my clunkiest stops happen when I focus too much on the process--just stay loose and enjoy the ride.

 

 

Give Respect To Get Respect   https://jeff-galbraith.pixels.com/

 

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It's basically all be said above. Smooth, slow stops - use the rear brake only when the speed is near full stop. Hard stops - stay on the front brake until you are stopped. Practice balance is always clever.

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Thanks for all the replies guys. I've spent the last couple days in parking lots and neighborhoods with lots of stop signs. I've started using both brakes to start slowing down but finishing with just the rear, and using only rear under 8-10 mph. It has helped a ton. I have pretty good balance in general, skateboarded as a kid, rode dirt bikes, bicycles etc, so I don't think that's it. In fact the weird part is I don't even remember struggling with this on dirt bikes or even after I first got the bike, it's been more recently (I'm at 2K miles now, started noticing it at like 1K) so I'm convinced a lot of it is mental, or I developed a bad habit somewhere. For now I'll keep trying to rear brake to finish stopping method. 

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All I can say is don't ever get on a supersport (or any motorcycle with clipons) if that is the case.  The irony is that the FZ07 as well as most naked bikes with proper handlebars have great low speed maneuvering as well as stop balancing.

 

Anyway, to actually add to the post- time and experience will be the main thing that will give you balance.  So don't worry about it.

Engaging with people that have personality disorders on a message board is like arguing with a rock.

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Buy a Unicycle

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria

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29 minutes ago, smutpeddler said:

I might do that just for the hell of it lol 

Actually it helped me with balance, they are also a heck of a lot of fun.  Your wheelies will be far more confident as well.

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria

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12 hours ago, faffi said:

I don't think there is enough padding in the world to keep me from injuries should I jump on a unicycle.

Maybe it will help with the OCD :)

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria

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On 11/28/2017 at 9:34 PM, smutpeddler said:

I'm losing my mind. I have the stupidest problem in the world. I can't for the life of me, come to a smooth stop consistently. I ease to a stop, and at the last second, for some god forsaken reason. I either lose my balance start to tip to the right, putting my right food down fast to "catch" myself, or I time it wrong with the left foot, and it just looks rough and sudden. It's really embarrassing, and I've tried working on it in parking lots. But it never fails when I'm on the street it happens. Help? 

This thread crossed my mind yesterday. 

 

Curious how tall you are. Reason I ask, the stock bars are pretty short, narrow and low for taller riders, making it very easy to lean forward and put a lot of weight on the bars. If you are doing this, along with the floppy rubber isolators the bars are mounted in, it can make it pretty difficult to control the bike well in slow speed maneuvers. I know I had some trouble with this on my stock setup, which is why I went to higher, solidly mounted bars. 

 

Just a thought. Try and keep your weight off the bars as much as possible.

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These guys dont seem to have a problem with 600lbs and floppy bars
 

Cops.jpg

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria

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I find that when I'm in slow traffic and the handlebars want to go left and right I immediately scoot forward on the seat and get right up against the tank for better balance and aggression for better control and I start slipping the clutch and slightly blipping the throttle to maintain a controllable speed  (feet still on pegs).

When not in slow traffic and just slowing down > E.G. I control how fast I am slowing down so that I'm not letting the bike get to the point of wobbling/turning left to right on it's own like how it wants to do on it's own in slow traffic.

 

I keep the speed up so that it stays pointing straight ahead and just a fraction before I know the bike is going to come to a complete stop I sometimes take a foot off the peg and hold it up off the peg, leg slightly straight and over the pavement in anticipation. I time it and plant that foot on the ground just as the bike stops, giving the bike no chance to fall to either side. When you do it that way you are controlling what the bike does. Just try to remember to always be in control of the bike instead of letting it control you. I think that's what's happening with you. Don't let it get to you too much, even seasoned riders bobble here and there. You can only do your best.

 

One other thing, in slow traffic you can always just walk the bike to avoid trying to balance with feet on the pegs and when you get good with walking the bike you can practice going into a walk from uber low speed. GL!

 

 

Beemer

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bornagainbiker
6 hours ago, r1limited said:

These guys dont seem to have a problem with 600lbs and floppy bars
 

Cops.jpg

This guy must have slow speed maneuvers down to a science--looks like he's about a millimeter away from grounding the running board.  

Give Respect To Get Respect   https://jeff-galbraith.pixels.com/

 

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4 hours ago, bornagainbiker said:

This guy must have slow speed maneuvers down to a science--looks like he's about a millimeter away from grounding the running board.  

A friend of mine an ex PD, had a motocop freind who came by from time to time, this guy was part of the exhibition team and was amazing.  Many championships to his name the gu would turn his patrol HD on a time.  The pic above is a perfect exampe of balance body position and looking ahead.  No matter what anyone says here these are the aliens of balance like the Rossies of MotoGP.  Its called SKILL and no matter what donky fodder is typed it boils down to skills

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria

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