Sportbikes are not beginner bikes

[ceo012384]

Originally Posted by Mistress Maygin

It wasn't the height so much as the width of it. I have to spread my legs further to fit

Funny, I've had so many girls say this to me.

Originally Posted by NeonspeedRT

Ummm, have you ever taken an MSF class? Have you ever done any reading on Motorcycle basics or physics? If not, I encourage you to do both asap. When cornering on a motorcycle traction is reduced. Depending on the amount of lean angle, you have a smaller contact patch on the road. Have you ever watched any motorcycle racing? When they are leaned over in a corner, they are using maybe a fraction of the tires contact patch.

In a car, you have more contact path because the tires are turned. You don't turn on a motorcycle. You countersteer. A motorcycle turns nothing like a car.

Please do some research before you start giving people the wrong information.

Man, if you're going to speak in such a haughty fashion, you should at least be right. You're not. This post is ridden with inaccuracies.

Have YOU done any reading on motorcycle physics?

- The contact patch doesn't get much smaller when the bike is leaned over with the profile of today's tires... the traction is not decreased.

- Contact patch size depends on tire profile, lean angle, and how hard you are on the gas. And with today's tire profiles, at full lean there is still a very large contact patch.

- The reason turns are a problem is because the centripetal forces of cornering are trying to 'shear' the tire. When accelerating in a straight line, the forces of acceleration as well as gravity squat the tire onto the ground and there is TONS of friction. When in a turn you just have gravity and a very slight acceleration, and then the cornering forces are ripping at the tire in a sideways fashion. I.e. in layman's terms, you're close to sliding. Think about it, if a carboard box were coming toward you on the ground, would it be easier to stop it by pushing against it, or by moving out of the way and pushing against the side of the box to try to stop is via friction between your hands and the surface?

- In racing, how are they only using a 'portion of the contact patch'? The contact patch is the portion of the tire in contact with the ground. They're using 100% of it. This is true for normal riding too, not just racing.

- In a car, you don't have more contact patch because the tires are turned. You have more contact patch because the tires are wider and they are flat, and the cornering forces act to load those tires far more in the vertical direction than with a motorcycle, yielding large rectangular contact patches.

Hope this clears things up.