Following on from the video link I posted, you may be interested in a 'training' context where similar techniques are used (albeit without the mobile phone, with the helmet on correctly, and not on a public road) in an identical way (ahem . . . ).
During the FIM Congress on post-test rider training I attended, there were various riding demonstrations, including by the US organisation MSF (for which I did the riding demo as the MSF instructor had flown in from Oregon and didn't have a bike), and another by the KNMV.
KNMV is the Royal Dutch Motorcycle Club, and they run not just training, but track sessions, and touring events.
However . . . during their rider training sessions they demonstrate how stable a bike is by riding like you see in the picture!
There's a sub-plot to this demo - that body position, and any amount of wiggling or waving (which they do, you'll have to just imagine three Pan Europeans, riders laying back on the seat and waving their arms and legs about . . . ) will hardly influence the bike's stability - let alone initiate a turn.
See where this is going? :)
Next, they rode along, sat up straight, hands off the bars (using the choke to keep the revs up) and half-way along the test track, one after the other, they steered left.
How? Because they had a luggage tie-down strap tied around the right handgrip and the other end held in their right hand. A swift tug and the bike turns left!
Until rider three . . . who'd tied the strap in such a way that when he tugged it also opened the throttle! So the bike not only turned left - it also accelerated!
Not too much of a problem as the rider was able to get back to the bars fairly quickly - except that the bike was now heading towards a 15ft high earth bank - at the top of which was another training area with about 100 people watching the demo.
Instead of panicking, he stood up, looked up at the top of the bank, and accelerated.
You might not believe a Pan could go dirt-tracking, but it did, and he kept it upright and under control!
So not just a steering demo, but also a great demo of not giving up to panic in an emergency, such as grabbing the brakes.
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I've been on a course in Yorkshire where they introduce stability in a similar manner. The instructor demonstrated on his R1, then we all had a go on our own bikes. It was then I discovered first hand that R11 boxers pull to the right.
ReplyDeleteCool to stand up on the pegs and go over potholes with no hands.
Another exercise was powering over a plank to illustrate stability.