How do you ride a crotch rocket?

riverroad wrote:

"If you're putting weight on your wrists and locking your elbows you're asking for trouble to begin with. Try squeezing the tank with your legs and use your back and abs to hold you up. If you lock your elbows then all your body movements are going to be transferred into the bars."

WHOA!! Doug,
I may be learning something here!
Ok, in my other post (about crotch rockets) I'd mentioned that I didn't notice any difference in the handling between my KZ1000LTD, and my friend's son's GSX600.
Could it be because I just don't know how to ride a crotch rocket? When I do a high speed turn on my KZ, I'll slide off the seat and hang my knee out.
I take it, this is wrong for a Gixxer? I can find faster turns by tucking in and squeezing the tank?
OK, I wanna try it again.
I do recall noticing how form fitting the tank was to my knees, but like some of these other guys, trying to ride it without looking like a jellyfish laying over a log, is difficult.:whistle:

maybe its just that you are like me and with a little tweaking and a good swingarm an old kz with a good motor is more than capable handling any situation you put it into,im too old and too fat to try and strap myself on a sportbike that can never be used to its full potential on the few curves we have around here that dont have stop signs on them! now if they want to bash em off from stoplight to stoplight id be more than happy to demonstrate what ive picked up in the last 30 years,if they want to haul ass around corners i will arrange a little trip on the water at 100 plus and demonstrate the proper technique for spinning a flat bottem boat around in the oppisite direction faster than any sportbike could possibly hope for!:evil:

Streefighter, I sure hope you carve a better line with your bike than you do with Paintbrush. :laugh: I love those cloverleafs. 80mph around 'em is definately knee draggin territory.
Plummen, I was just watching the Speed Channel the other day and they were talkin about cuttin around a corner with a tunnel hull boat, where the technique is to power down right when you enter a corner (so as to get the bow down in the water), then slam the throttle open just as you come out of the corner. Not doing so usually means flipping the boat. I used to have a Yamaha 1200XLT I'd play around in the Mississippi river with. It only did 64mph, but it did great power slides that would get pretty hairy in the chop. Flew off of it a few times. Fun stuff!

back out my ass,cut the wheel and punch it! flatbottem with a little itty bitty drag fin underneath and cavitation plate to hold it down!it really freaks people out when you can come back into your own wake at 100,ya just need a lot of motor to pull through it!:evil:

Post edited by: PLUMMEN, at: 2007/09/05 14:05

Nice boat!
My dad has the clubhouse on the Mississippi river and he had this neighbor next door. This neighbor, who has more money than brains, shows up one day with a boat very similar to that. All I remember is, big block Chevy, zoomies, tunnel rams, and duel Holleys. He put it in the water and proceded to crank on it. It wouldn't fire. He knew I was a gearhead, came over and said, "if you can get it started, you can have it for the rest of the afternoon."
Mind you, I'm very familiar with Chevy engines, but I don't know jack about high speed boats. Well a little playing around and I realized he had no spark. I took the distributor cap off and found a duel point distributor, and one of the leads was grounded. Piece of cake. I moved it up off of the plate, put the cap back on and said, "untie me". He says, "you're that sure of yourself huh?". I said "oh yeah.
It fired right up. I gently backed it out, put it in foward, and realized it had a aluminum barefoot gas pedal instead of the usual hand throttle. OK, so I nailed it. That sucker stood straight up on me, and somehow I knew I'd be in deep trouble if I just let go of the gas, so I kept the gas on let it fall foward until I was sure the front end would come back down instead of slipping backwards under the water. So then I figured I had to ease into it on the take off. Once I got it up on plane I could nail it again. That was frickin AWESOME. I have no idea how fast, but it was without a doubt, the fastest I'd ever been on the water. Good thing the water was fairly smooth, or I would've killed myself. I never even tried any high speed turns with it. I was having a blast just doing straight runs in it.
Still haven't figured out how them drag boats keep from standing straight up.

riverroad wrote:

Streefighter, I sure hope you carve a better line with your bike than you do with Paintbrush. :laugh: I love those cloverleafs. 80mph around 'em is definately knee draggin territory.
quote]

I hate paint but its quick and dirty and does what I need minus some smoothness of course. :blink:

Later, Doug

Doug,
Which ramp is that? I haven't been up that way in a while, last visited Summit Racing in April, I think. There are some nice highway stretches up there, but Ohio Patrol is everywhere.

The one thing Ive noticed about that area is that the roads are beautiful, until you actually get to akron, and then they aren't as good, and onc you go past akron, the roads smooth out again. I was up near Oberlin a few years ago in a truck, and the road (20 I think?) was so bad that there were actual chunks of concrete laying outside of potholes and just general craptastic conditions for anyone on 2 wheels.

riverroad wrote:

Nice boat!
My dad has the clubhouse on the Mississippi river and he had this neighbor next door. This neighbor, who has more money than brains, shows up one day with a boat very similar to that. All I remember is, big block Chevy, zoomies, tunnel rams, and duel Holleys. He put it in the water and proceded to crank on it. It wouldn't fire. He knew I was a gearhead, came over and said, "if you can get it started, you can have it for the rest of the afternoon."
Mind you, I'm very familiar with Chevy engines, but I don't know jack about high speed boats. Well a little playing around and I realized he had no spark. I took the distributor cap off and found a duel point distributor, and one of the leads was grounded. Piece of cake. I moved it up off of the plate, put the cap back on and said, "untie me". He says, "you're that sure of yourself huh?". I said "oh yeah.
It fired right up. I gently backed it out, put it in foward, and realized it had a aluminum barefoot gas pedal instead of the usual hand throttle. OK, so I nailed it. That sucker stood straight up on me, and somehow I knew I'd be in deep trouble if I just let go of the gas, so I kept the gas on let it fall foward until I was sure the front end would come back down instead of slipping backwards under the water. So then I figured I had to ease into it on the take off. Once I got it up on plane I could nail it again. That was frickin AWESOME. I have no idea how fast, but it was without a doubt, the fastest I'd ever been on the water. Good thing the water was fairly smooth, or I would've killed myself. I never even tried any high speed turns with it. I was having a blast just doing straight runs in it.
Still haven't figured out how them drag boats keep from standing straight up.

that lever on the stringer next to your leg is for the cavitation plate on rear of boat:evil: 540" of poked and stroked LS-7 on steroids there,my old black one was good for around 115-120 the white one weighs about 700 lbs less total and has about 300hp on it.

John68,

That's the ramp from 224E/76E to 277N. ODOT just repaved it about 2 months ago. It's really nice pavement until winter comes and beats it up.

Later, Doug

I'm 6'4" and weigh about 245lbs. I've put clip-ons and rearsets on my KZ and I love them! It has forced me to work my back and abs a bit more so that I can preserve my wrists, but to me it's worth it. I've forced myself to become more active and try to get rid of my excess flab, and so far it's working (I was up over 260lbs a few months ago...:blush:)

IT'S SO MUCH MORE FUN NOW!!!

It's like a sports car: not supposed to be comfortable. A true sports car isn't going to ride like a Cadillac Fleetwood, but more like a go-kart on steroids. I've had three Mazda Rx-7s, and they were all a blast to drive, but the ride was a bit on the harsh side...

The enhanced capabilities are worth the potential loss of comfort, depending on your priorities. If it's not comfortable because you have a big gut, that just gives you a good reason to get in shape (which you should do anyway!)

I have a 2003 SV1000, note the lack of "S" on the end. It is upright. I even put slightly higher bars and it's more upright still. The performance compared to a KZ is beyond belief. I love my KZ, but if I really want to fly on a twisty road the SV runs in a different universe.

If you want the project, I 'm pretty sure oem parts from the 03 model could bolt on to the S. Mainly the top triple clamp and bars. Unfortunately the non S model was only made in 03. all the others are S. You'll probably need longer cables, lines, diff mirrors, etc. Maybe not worth the trouble. I think the pegs may be lower on mine than the S but not sure.

There's tons of SV stuff online. including how to convert to streetfighter (upright) mode. just search!

I'd love to have that SV as a go fast toy. I was perfectly happy with the old school UJMs. Then I got the B12 a few years ago and met another old codger that liked to go fast. This year, I made a few mods and took it to the track. There are a bunch of older guys out there and it's more fun and educational than you can imagine. There are several tracks in the PA area. If you want to have a blast and learn how to ride that SV like a pro, try a few track days in your area. It's not a bunch of go fast kids. There's a bunch of us over the hill guy's out there !!

It's real fun when you drag a knee for the first time on the track and that SV was born to do that.

I've been having a blast riding my Ninja. I found out it is more responsive to steering input if the air pressure in the front tire is correct.:blink:
I have been working on wheelies latley. If i slip the clutch just a tad @ 3800 rpms and gouge it the bike will come back all the way over if you don't let off.(that's got to be bad on seals)If i slip the clutch @ 4200 rpm and gouge it the bike will pull a nice smooth wheelie. Still working on technique.
I like the way the bike likes to upright it self coming out of corners. It took me a while to learn to get it into corners.
And the preavious thread about slow speed handling is correct as pertaining to the Ninja. My Venture Royale is more nimble in the drive.

Roy