How can I get my bike to corner better? 82' 1000

Yes indeed. And some of them handle exceptionally well!

Shabba wrote: I'll echo all these sentiments and tell you that the first step needs to be knowing what is under you. Make sure that your components are not worn and/or shit. Get a good set of tires, sport tires, not cruisers. Finally, a good weekend of a riding/racing school. I got my race license in 2003 and raced a season in CCS. Know what made me faster than any equipment? Ed Bargy's race school a second time. The first time got me my license, the second time got me my balls. You can never learn too much.

Just to quote a page back, I cannot encourage these two points enough. 1) Educated and improve your own riding skills via a school in a proper safe setting. The other is 2) Check for quality of your current components. These bikes are over 30+ years old, until you put a wrench on every single nut and bolt you are simply making an assumption that everything is torqued correctly, lubed correctly etc. Upgrading tires and suspension is huge and I agree totally, but don't forget about something as simple as making sure that all of your bolts and nuts are set to proper torque (especially for suspension and linkage stuff), general tune up, lubed, bearings in good shape etc. If you are trying to get better steering that normally implies that as a rider you are starting to push your own limits and/or the bikes. Before you do that, especially at speed you should do yourself a favor and personally verify the integrity of the components. Loose bolts on swinger or brakes or forks etc could cause some serious danger and scary conditions... what happens if it lets go at the apex of a turn when you are hard into it? Answer = become a statistic

Checking your drive chain is another must, and would also encourage you to check on wheel and drive chain alignment, if you have air assist shocks then properly checking and setting the air pressure (not as simple as hooking up a tire gauge, that is inaccurate for this measurement). The long and short of it is that until you personally check and verify these things yourself then you are relying on the grace of whatever is out there that it holds together when you most need it, personally I have too many responsibilities and family relying on me that I can't take that chance

Very best of luck and congrats on the new ride, you should have a blast and really enjoy the hell outta it

Thanks,
Brett

EDIT: At the end of the day I am still newer to riding myself as well, but I am not new to high performance vehicles and racing. This is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions they are identical to A-holes, everyone has them and they all stink :evil:

650ed wrote: Yes indeed. And some of them handle exceptionally well!

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Really neat pic Ed thanks for sharing!

Brett

Irish-Kawi wrote:

650ed wrote: Yes indeed. And some of them handle exceptionally well!

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Really neat pic Ed thanks for sharing!

Brett

Great picture!!! Wow look and the mods on that thing....
Hardly a stock, off the showroom floor street bike! LOL!!

Agree! Definitely the best of the best racing machine at the time and built with a very big budget. Wish I had one in my garage - oh, and Eddie's skills so I could ride that puppy!! Ed