From: brucer@drutx.ATT.COM (RobinsonB)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Being Good (was Re: Wheelies)
Summary: anecdotal blather
Date: 25 Apr 89 17:43:47 GMT
Organization: AT&T, Denver, CO

[ quoted material from Bill Dorsey deleted. - Steve Garnier ]

I would like to know what *experienced* riders think contributes to 
staying alive.  Bill, what seminal (germinal?) experiences did you have 
as a new rider that instilled in you some riding skill that you're proud of?

How about the rest of you riders, what and where did you learn
how to s[t]ay upright when you sock into some corner going too damn
fast and find yourself rolling over wet leaves or dry sand?

I suppose the MSF course might define "safe" to include not going too fast,
but I always drive too fast, I'm always at the edge, especially on
the twisties.  Flame away, forces of conservatism, but that's the
way it is.  Some people drive too fast; what I want to know is
what learning experiences have those people had which helps them
stay alive.

Anecdote 1:
[ Brucer mentions the tumbling classes taken as a child, and then
  reminicses about tangling his feet in a coat hanger and falling
  off a cliff, only to survive because of his tumbling prowess. ]

Anecdote 2:
[ Brucer mentions the "dumbest thing" he ever did on a motorcycle;
  trying to climb a steep pile of concrete blocks on a 350 Honda.
  He describes the ensuing backflip complete with bike landing on him.
  He attributes his survival to his tumbling skill.  He also discusses
  the physical abuse he obtained during many hours of off-road riding,
  and states that the skills learned off-road have saved his life many
  times. ]

Anecdote 3:
When I was a young teenager I lived in Lemon Grove (just outside
of San Diego CA).  We had a weeping willow tree in our front yard
which I used to climb, practically lived in that tree.  Well, I
developed a stunt where I would hang from one limb of the tree,
then let go and catch the next limb down as I dropped.  Many years
later I was riding my 350 Honda SL in a sand quarry in NJ; there
was a cliff there that I had never been able to climb, I was real
steep and had a lip, kind of a berm that hung out and kicked the
front wheel back when you hit it.  Well, one day I'd had enough of
failure and decided that what this hill needed was a lot more speed,
enough to cause the front forks to really compress when I hit the
berm at the top.  So I sat at the bottom for a while, scared out of
my wits, building nerve enough for the run, then kicked it.  I guess
I was going a little too fast.  The forks compressed alright, but
me and the bike sailed up over the edge of that cliff and about
10 feet in the air, right at a big damn tree.  At about the apex,
just before I was about to be scraped off the bike by the trunk of
the tree, I jumped and grabbed a limb.  After the smoke and dust
and crashing noises settled down, there I was, hanging from a tree
limb about ten feet in the air, looking down at the ruins of my
bike.  I dropped to the ground, picked of the pieces of the bike
and limped home.

    66
     >
     ^   .................... brucer
***********************************************************

[ The stage has been set for the next article.  This thread began as a 
  discussion on how wheelies could be modified by using the front brake,
  and began to digress into how off-ground attitude can be manipulated 
  using brakes and throttle.  (For those of you who are fizzix-inclined,
  this has to do with conservation of angular momentum).  Brucer helps
  define a new Olympic demonstration sport...Motobatics! ]

***********************************************************