That sounds different.

 

If it had pegs they might not scrape. The floorboards stick out and hang back farther than pegs would.

I was at Mardi Gras last weekend in Mobile and the police bikes were doing donuts and figure eights in the road scraping their floorboards like crazy. This is because they sit up straight all the time. This way you can change direction faster.


I know several people who have never scraped theirs. Most of them believe that they are not steering the bike around curves. They believe that they are controlling the bike by leaning into a curve. Actually when they lean over they unconsciously steer the handlebars the opposite direction because of their stretched arms. It's actually unavoidable. Otherwise they will one day go off the road in a bad curve. Many do just that.

Anyway, by leaning over the center of gravity is shifted and the bike stays more vertical. I commonly just sit up straight and that's normally when I scrap a floorboard.

The last time I can recall I scrapped both floorboards avoiding a situation and probably could not have shifted my weight fast enough to make the turns by leaning anyway.

 

yea..... that was nice ...yawn

how about some forward controls

 

IrinHeadDave - lets just be accurate here. Regardless of whether you lean your body into a turn or sit upright, to initiate a turn you always turn the opposite direction. The only exception is at very slow speeds (ie: walking speeds) where you turn the handlebars and the bike acts like a tricycle.

 

I lean as little as possible. If I wanted to lean, I'd have bought one of those horrible sports bikes.

 

Yea, that's right. The front wheel leans at 90% from the axle positioning off of center in the opposite direction due to forward momentum of the rolling wheel and it is what makes the bike lean over into a curve.

Leaning off the bike to the inside will make the bike stand up proportional to the change of COG preventing scraping.

What I'm saying is that I have been observing for the last few years is that about half or more of the people that I have talked to proclaim that they do not steer their bike. They say that they are just leaning. Since you can't steer a bike without the handlebars turning they are doing it unconsciously or relying on the slope of the road to keep the bike on the road. In example, on most roads you can take your hands off the handlebars with the right speed and the bike will steer itself around some really impressive curves due to the drag on the outside edge of the tire against the sloped roadway turning the front wheel to the outside of the curve without any rider input at all. If you are going the right speed you can travel forever down a very curvy road while sitting in the back seat or just sitting there.

Whereas a lot of people simply run off of the road and don't know why.

If you just happen to get a chance start asking a few people about steering a motorcycle and you will get varied response. There are those that will say they steer their bike. There are those that say they do not steer their bike at all. And there are even those who when asked directly which way to turn the handles to make a left turn will say left.

Just ask and you will see.

Based on the response I have had over the years I would say that at least half the people that will read this post will think that turning the handlebars right will turn them right or either they will say they do not steer at all.

It may be hard for some people to believe because this is just not something people talk about. However it's easy enough to see this for yourself and then you don't have to take my word for it.

I talked to some guys that were doing wheelies at 70 mph across the Bayway and they both said that their kind of bikes did not steer that way.

 

I'm not sure how much farther you can put em on an FL

 

Here are a few more examples to show how serious this is(to me).

A friend of mine who started riding bikes 40 years ago bought his wife a Sportster.
She drove this Sportster 67 miles and was behind him when they went around a flat curve. She went straight in the curve and totalled the Sportster and broke her collar bone. She was extremely lucky.

When I asked him what he thought caused the accident he said she did not know how to make the curve. He said "She thought you had to steer the bike around the curve". I said "you do". He said "I don't". Now she has an Ultra Trike.


A guy I used to work with bought a new bike and ran off the road. He was not badly hurt but died a few days later from a blood clot.



Here is another recent example..

On the trip we took to Alaska last summer I was cruising along the coast highway in California and came around a 35 mph curve doing about 45 mph. I was watching in my mirror when Ronnie came around the curve I could see he went very wide and I could see the whole side of his bike as it spun around and flipped over on the side of the road.

I asked him what happened and he said it had happened to him before. Just could not make the curve because he was going too fast.

I specifically asked him how he steers the bike and he said he just sets up for the curve and leans into it.

I explained how it works. It seemed like he did not believe me but said he would try it. He had no more trouble after that.



A few years back I was watching a couple on a bike get off of the interstate and what I saw that made me know they were crashing was the bike was not leaning and the guy put his left foot down on a right curve. I thought they are crashing. And they did. I could not see it because of the trees but when I came back through there a few minutes later on my bike the ambulances were there.

 

they're too low, and you don't have to do speed racer leans everytime you go in a curve. that's just you I guess. I guessing you'll spend a lot of money on pegs!

 

That's not really the point but thanks, that's funny.

I don't even have pegs. Yes your right the slower you go the less it will lean, the weight of the wheel and how fast it is turning gives it even more power to lean the bike over as you turn the handlebars. Sometimes you have to turn the bike when you were not planning to turn.

I don't scrape the floorboards normally and in 61,000 miles I have not had to change them on the 05 Road King. Just the occasional accident avoidance maneuver.




My actual point is..

Before you run off the road or hit something I want to see some sparks flying. I'm tired of hearing bad news about people having accidents that could have easily been avoided.