Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

My friend has one of the bluetooth setups that screw on to the valve stems. Not sure exactly which one it is but seems to work well.

 

Took a trip up and over Pennock Pass, and naturally didn't get any of the really cool shots. I'm very much a noob at the adv bike thing. Experimented with tire pressure today and discovered dropping 7psi front and rear made a huge difference. Brings up the question of how low can I go with a Tubed tire before I have to worry about pinching a tube or ripping a valve stem off.

Stopped for crackers and cheese.

Top of the pass, same spot as the pic of the truck in my sig. Totally burned out from past fires.


The uphill side was in the process of being graded and had a lot of loose dirt and baby head size rocks churned up, and it was kind of fun to rise up. The downhill side was much better.

Why does my throttle hand tend to go completely numb after 20 minutes and my clutch hand stays pretty happy?

 

were you down to 7 psi or dropped 7 psi from your standard pressure?

 

dropped 7psi from street pressure which is 32/28. Started the drop at 5, then went down 2 more after a few miles and that was a pretty sweet spot to be in for me.

 

I typically don't go lower than 25 psi. Normal pressures for me on the F800 are about 36F/40R, if I'm super slapping or have a heavy load I'll go up to about 38/42

 

Your throttle hand is not only gripping the throttle but also twisting it. That twisting action changes your wrist angle which could lead to certain nerve bundles and veins/arteries in the wrist getting pinched off leading to numbness. Vibration can add to the problem. Consider heavier bar end weights to dampen vibration, padded grips, or one of those cramp buster devices that slip over your throttle grip allowing you to just use the heel of your hand to hold the throttle.

 

Oh this PSI discussions reminds me...

for you guys who ride dirt...what would standard PSI be for trail and/or MX-style riding/tires (on trail/MX bikes, not the adv bikes which will undoubtedly be vastly different?) I'm sure it'll differ between both, so i'll take either value.

Asking because I didn't bother to check tire pressures before I went out for that dirt ride. Only checked after when a fellow moto buddy asked me. Front was 5.5PSI, rear was 4.5 PSI. He said it should have been about 10-12 in each tire, but by feel/look the tires didn't seem to be inflated that low...granted I don't have much experience with these tires/pressures so I can't say for sure.

 

Coming down 7 from 32 so 25, isn't far off from what I'd run on the street on my 480lb Honda 919 naked bike if I was out to make people mad and needed the grip on their fancy crotch rockets.

You imo should have no problems at 20psi off road for your bike. Hell I'd imagine guys run your bike down around 15.

4-5 psi with tubes is asking for a pinch flat. Down here in so cal where it's rocky and lots of sharp edged rocks I'll run right at 11psi front 10 rear. That's with UHD tubes, a "fatty" (90/100-21 shinko 216mx) front and a 120/90-18 Kenda trackmaster 2 rear on my 2014 WR450. Keep in mind both of those tires are DOT approved and have slightly stiffer sidewalls... and the fatty has more sidewall vs a standard sized front.

I have never *knocks on all the wood* had a flat on the trail on the dirtbike with the above setup.

 

Hm good to know lol. Yeah I guess I’m lucky nothing worse happened. Tires just seemed so stiff as they were I didn’t think to pump them up at all

 

I got to thinking about wrist angle you mentioned and realized I'm leaning on the bars pretty hard. That combined with the twisting motion might be the problem, don't have that issue on my other bike.
I have padded gloves, the bars have weights. The vibes are high frequency but not that bad imo.
I'm gonna try a set of risers for the bars and see if it's just that I lean too hard/far forward on the bars.

 

For me it’s the angle of my wrist when I rotate the throttle. I have found that rotating the bats forward helps alleviate most of the problems. Having cruise control helps when on the road for long stretches so you can rest your throttle hand on your lap and relax the wrist. Off-road it’s not as bad because you’re pretty rarely holding one throttle position for an extended period.

 

Nerve impingement

 

Oooof this makes me think a chest protector is a good investment for you soon. Or something a little more well rounded like the moose jacket I run under my jersey.

I was thinking this too. Clip ons are just tiny tubes of aluminum lol

Dang you are lucky you didn't get a pinch flat on those! 10-11 front, 9-10 rear here. Got rim locks too?

Yup same here, UHD tubes and similar pressures. Smacked a down tree the other night pretty hard (extra hard cause the impact was enough to turn the key and shut the bike off) and I kept thinking if there would be a time I'd get a pinch flat it would have been then.

 

Yeah, this came up a few months back, look up your ulnar nerve + motorcycle riding and you'll learn quite a bit. Setting up your ergos correctly can have a huge effect.

 

My baseline is 12 psi front/back. I'll fiddle with it depending on soil makeup at each track, but usually only a few psi difference.

 

So after the first day of really practicing on the Grom, I can pop the front up off the ground (which I couldn't even do yesterday) consistently, but 2/3 times out of 10 the wheel will pop up so fast that I'll freak out, chop the throttle and slam the brake and the front end will slam back down (which makes me feel horrible for the Grom...). I think I had one or two wheelies out of the whole day where I felt like I rode it out smoothly without slamming the front down.

Also I may need to make an exception to the ATGATT rule because with my thick riding boots I can't feel the rear brake at all to modulate it.

 

Imo, don't rely on the rear break to modulate. Always keep it as a last resort, but learning the throttle control to control a wheelie is probably the best bet. I can hang a wheelie for a long time on the Grom (especially on a slight uphill) without ever touching the rear brake.

Hell. One of the most epic wheelie I have ever done... easily a half mile long across the dry lake bed @50-60 mph in the middle of king of the hammers shit show was standing up on my dirtbike... times touched the rear brake, zero... but absofuckinlutly my rear foot was ready to grab rear if things went too far.

My ole Chinese z50 I could wheelie damn near the whole mile to my buddies place with no rear brake... but again foot was there covering it for the just in case.

Needless to say. Keep your boots on. As someone who has had two surgeries on their foot cus I "didn't feel like wearing my boots it will just be a quick romp on the dirtbike"... wear your boots.

 

Interesting take, my friend said to keep throttle constant but keep modulating the rear brake vs relying on throttle control alone. Other Youtube videos I've watched say similar but I guess it's whatever feels comfortable.

Right now I need to just work on getting more consistent with getting the front wheel up and being more comfortable when it pops up quickly.

 

im not good at wheelies either lol sometimes i get it up but put it down quickly haha i can never get it right sadly...

 

Clutch control too, that can help smooth the power out.