This is sobering..but good ending

[Offroad]

One thing that seems counter-intuitive, in a car if you go into a turn too fast, hitting the brakes will probably make it worse....on the CB doesn't seem to do that, actually tends to make you lean more with helps you turn more or am I imagining things?

[the Ferret]

Generally on a motorcycle the wheels are big gyroscopes. Hitting the brakes usually makes the bike stand up straight and the gyroscopes make it go straight.

some bikes it is more noticable on than others. I have ridden bikes that were impossible to turn on the brakes. THe CB is pretty good in that regards, but if you are steering a tighter arc on the brakes, it's because you are instinctively putting more pressure on the inside side of the handlebar, and keeping your focus on where you want to go.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Generally on a motorcycle the wheels are big gyroscopes. Hitting the brakes usually makes the bike stand up straight and the gyroscopes make it go straight.

some bikes it is more noticable on than others. I have ridden bikes that were impossible to turn on the brakes. THe CB is pretty good in that regards, but if you are steering a tighter arc on the brakes, it's because you are instinctively putting more pressure on the inside side of the handlebar, and keeping your focus on where you want to go.

Yes, every bike is different. It's both frame geometry and tire width. The wide tires we use today on modern bikes just want to stand up, it can't all be dialed out. So we had to learn to adapt to it, same as with the fueling, never ridden an EFI bike that could be picked up all the way at the bottom of a turn, max lean, the way a good CV-carbureted bike could. Some EFI bikes are pretty good but it's a different technique.

But the narrow wheels on the CB1100 and long wheelbase make it very neutral which is likely why it feels like it's getting some help. The CB1100 is great on the brakes.

[emptysea]

A couple of comments....

129 is not a dangerous road, it's a perfectly fine road that has dangerous drivers/riders on it from time to time. I-94 in Chicago is the same, just not as pretty.

Statistics show that most of the motorcycle accidents on The Dragon are single-vehicle crashes, which tells you more about the riders involved than it does about the road. The crash described in the referenced link involved two vehicles which were traveling too closely together, which tells you more about the riders involved than it does about crowds or group riding. (Although, I've witnessed the phenomena Ride4Now describes and had a heart-to-heart with a rider in my group once about riding her own ride--not my wife, btw).

There was a rider around Chicago (in the suburbs) who rode his motorcycle into a ditch and neither he nor his bike were spotted for several days. It can happen anywhere.

I have ridden this section of US129 a total of 6 times. Not as much as some, but more than many. Riding The Dragon is a test and it should be, but to me, every ride is a test. Tracks and parking lots are the only places that come close to being practice venues. Everything else is a test. The Dragon is a more stressful test, at least for me, and that is one reason that I preferred Cherohala.

Of the 6 times I rode there, twice it what I considered "crowded" and both of those times it was crowded due to Minis on the Mountain. Most of the bikes (most cars, too) I encountered either pulled over for me to pass or waited for me to pull over before they passed. I was passed by three riders at different times who I predict will all be statistics in the future...crossed the center line to pass me and all crossed the center line on the next turn.

When we rode The Dragon as a group, we made a deliberate effort to spread out so that we could easily let other, faster, riders pass us safely and individually and so we wouldn't trip over one another. If you see the pictures in my ride report about that trip, you can see that Cheryl is a full corner behind me--probably a 4-5 second gap--at speeds that never exceeded umm 40mph maybe.

I enjoyed riding US129 and I hope to do so again. It's not my favorite road in that area and I'm not a huge fan of being a float in a Mini Cooper parade, but it is fun in its own way.

The area around The Dragon is amazingly beautiful and, crowded or not, it's a wonderful place to take your tests.

Be safe.

MTC