Front end confidence
 

So recently I have had a few scares that have kind of shaken my confidence a bit. The other night I was leaving a friend's house to go grab some late dinner with some other friends. Her street has 2 left handers that are almost 90*, and it was about 10:45. I went through the first, and arrived at the second one. I was half way through the bend when I realized there was a huge patch of sand in the middle of the road, right where I was tracked to go. There was no correcting or I would have most definitely gone down. I rolled off the throttle gently and decreased my lean angle slightly and prayed as I hit it. :lol: The front let go for what seemed like a foot (most likely a few inches) and caught solid pavement. I caught my breath and decided if I needed to change my underwear, but I was all good. Dodged that one...

Today I was off work, so I decided to get out in this gorgeous weather and just get lost... find some new favorite roads type of ride. And I definitely accomplished that. Found a great new circuit with some empty country roads that snaked around. Half way through the ride I was out in BFN and had no idea where I was. I caught this awesome long left hander that led to a one lane bridge over this scenic creek, and into this awesome sequence of elevation and winding turns. I hit this almost double apex type of turn that was winding right and climbing uphill pretty rapidly. Half way inbetween the two apexes.... the front suddenly let go. Scared the shit out of me, because unlike before, there was no warning. Warm tires, dry pavement, sunny weather, moderate tree cover, no sand or gravel, my pace wasn't overly fast, and my lean angle wasn't super low by any means. And it wasn't like the double apex scared me into over-correcting. Could tree pollen make the road slick?

Anyway, after that it just ruined the rest of my ride. I hit quite a few other awesome winding sections, but my confidence had been hit. It's not like my tires are shot either. It only has 3,600 miles on the set, and there is TONS of tread left on the front. I'm just kind of confuzzled....

Were you heavy on the front end, weighting the front with your upper body on the controls? I had a similar experience at the gap, shook me a little but at the name time taught me a lot.

I thought weight on the front was good? I don't think I had a huge amount of weight over the front, I can't think about how I ride when I'm off the bike. But I may have to reevaluate that as I'm riding tomorrow.

No. Not good at all. Your hands should only ever be resting lightly on the clip-ons.

Use your core/back strenght to hold up your body weight when you're sitting upright and use your leg planted against the tank to support your weight while cornering. It takes some getting used to, but you will not believe how much stability it adds to your bike throughout cornering.

1000%

Hold your bars no tighter than you'd hold an empty bottle of water without hearing it crinkle or a tube of toothpaste without squeezing anything out of it.

Something still seemed up today. I really need to look at my tires...

Going up a steep hill, the front end is already light. Sitting away from the gas tank, and too much throttle in low gear can easily take all the weight off the front wheel. When I ride uphill, I like to sit near the gas tank. And if I'm following a fast rider uphill, I'll apply some rear brake around the corner to steady the chassis and keep weight on the front. While I have the gas on. That's what I did on this video. You can really see it between 1:50 and 2:05. http://www.twowheelfix.com/showthread.php?t=22239

What kind of tires are you running?

Where you want to weight is on the outside rearset, which will help get you more grip front and back. Use your body position on the tank to do that as well as No Worries suggests. Don't be all over the your clip ons though, should be relaxed there.

That was going to be my question too. Could be a grip issue, in combination with how you're weighting the bike.

I'm almost certain Pirelli Angels. I'll have to check that though. But the only other option from factory would be BT 016's.

No clip-ons. But I understand what you are saying.