UnHooiked on Marbles and Arrowheads, Marbles and Arrowheads, Marbles and Arrowheads, Marbles and Arrowheads, Marbles and Arrowheads...
I abhor drifts and slides as tire traction time waster by exploring enough of it to classify its variations as applies to me after THE Gravel forced it.
Anyone that can counter steer a motorcycle while giving good throttle and lean in a sweeper can easy transition into a slide though most street bikes can't turn forks enough to do it as dramatically as flat trackers. I don't ride with a steel shoe so quickly got past any reflex to put a foot down or risk it sticking & dragged under bike twisted off at odd angles. To learn what Ms Peel is made to do I may duct tape major joints to hold pieces in place better than just boots and jacket. Fractures unless sticking out skin or over lapped don't really hinder me until some hours later when nerve reaction, swelling and toxic shock reaction hits but I slap-wrap-tape rubbery magnets on local injury sites and so usually down in a day or so to gimp about work pretty well - no throbs or pain, w/o drugs, unless too stupid or active I re-tear re-separate bone for a pain spike a second or so to remind me don't move that way, then gimp back off like Festus to avoid what everyone expects it to be like but me. By the 3rd day summer of '99 after asking the big twin tatoo and leather guys how they got across the you know what, silence looking at foot lightly draging back and forth on the ground looked up in union said Trailer It. Ugh, is it crazy or yogic to know you must crash some more or just stop the injury to cycle and flesh now but do it any way. I guess sliding feels so much like crashing to me I'm scared of it deep down, but if I ride I know what's next.
Least of deer strike injury on Trixie '06. notch below R knee, chain saw touch sliding off bluff, crater area on shin, momma Fiddle Back spider '01.
Basically just begin a turn and power up, if that don't break free then lean more, it that don't do it counter steer sharper, it that don' t do on pavement for ya then ya are just in the Hooked Up Phases of Ms Peel. If ya just hold same lean steer and power setting bike hits a balance point and drift on its CoG out at the tangent. If ya really spin up tire rear will slip out past hip so just reflexly steer into the slide till balance felt then keep rear spun up and kind of ski it on around till easing up steering so tires snap back in line with slight hi side action and rooster tail into the open. This style gets tires farthest apart but dramatically widens turn and tire may last on dirt doing it but not on THE Grit. It don't deliver the G forces I crave so counter productive all around to me. BY FAR dry smooth pavement is easiest of all surfaces but ya have to go faster or have more power than dirt trackers doing it. Its easiest because there is nil doubt about when the slide will stop on your command and pick up to carry on.
Trickier is not intending a drift of slide but front goes L down a berm while rear goes R up a berm but bike still going on same line of CoG as prior with tires in line. Three ways to deal with it, hope its self correcting by keepping good rear thrust and momentum, snap forks further into flat tracker counter steering ie: pointing front away from lean direction till front actually road following at same time spinning rear enough not to hook up till both tire almost lined back up on path or go bizerk spinning rear w/o leaning much, gorilla grip bars to force but into seat and use whole trunk power to swing loosened rear back in line with front and let off some to carry on. This don't work out immediately well as on Marbles a pendulum action sets on the vertical CoG in that slightly over shoots inline tires so must dampen the oscillations some too far out cutting throttle would hook and hi side plus too much lack of power will not keep front floating on top of the Arrowheads and it plows into Gravel to rudder shudder over powering the rear steering authority.
Both tires sliding opposite ways yet travel is still pretty smoothalone line of vertical mid line CoG. In the Commando this pivot area seems to be just behind engine but on my SuVee650 its more forward. This translates are longer lever or longer string swinging rock over head. After a while of the non flat tracker slides one gets sense of ballerina holding arms in or out. Commando is more responsive to get out of line or back in line than the few other cycles I've tried and gave up on. The lean or horizontal CoG feel about seat level on Commando but about waist level on sportsbike. If I hang out too far or any at all at times on SuVee it tends to lift tires off surface pivoting on such hi CoG which low sides out the tangent and also slows the vertical CoG turn rate too much to get back in line in time.
Then there's crabbed-skewed sliding going in essentially straight line but counter steering away from the lean exactly like a flat tracker but feet on pegs or me standing on pegs. I only get to do this one on Ms Peel and so far only on loose steep climbs a few hundred yds long sweeper around a ridge so whole road tipped off bank angle. When rushing up ya give more and more power till rear looses grip and swings to one side but as must always stay mostly upright it presents a diagonal patch to THE Nimbles & Bits for more grip more power rush up but also is aiming us off the edge by low side which I counter like flat tracker steering front where he wants to drift to go. Peel gets about 5-6 inch spread then becomes more balanced stable hard to upset so I can actually relax like spreading feet some on rocking boat deck holding a railing. This type slide self corrects no probliemo.
The most common slide/drift I do on both SuVee and Peel is phase 3-ing it usually up a nicely banked rising turn, [p3 is allowing/making bike fall over on its own w/o need of fork help counter steering so fork snap into straight steer turn road following hook up] ie: I go in hot enough speed I know rear or front will slip out on any extra lean and steering so I over lean and steer ahead of time, which if not over doing it and sticking like normal would turn before the road did smacking what ever, but getting crossed up like 1st that bike slide sideways long enough and bleed speed w/o brakes it just hooks up nicely and finished the turrn pretty as ya please do fear of loosing front end or rear in loose sharp turn as I already beat THE Slutty Shitty Stuff to the punch! Its very similar to the racers leaving black marks all the way through a wide turn, but they end up wider while I end up on inside of turn cutting many yd off the lenght of the turn, so not wasting time tire and traction.
