Have you ever lost confidence in a bike?

[Gazdaman]

I find, that if I'm worried (mechanically) about something on my bike I'll get very very tense whilst riding it.

And if it's a heap of crap (or worse; of unknown quality) I sometimes feel very apprehensive.

i.e if I pull this brake lever, is the front wheel just going to twist and throw me off.

I hasn't happened to me completely, but my MZ used to just randomly cut out (turned out to be a dodgy float valve) and it really made me not trust the bike.

I find the thing that shits me up the most is it you know your chain is in bad condition, every time it makes a noise or judders slightly I flinch.

Gaz

[Barry_M2]

I never really lose confidence on the road, but, my last track day I found myself trusting the bike less and less after about 3 sessions. It was all totally in my mind and I just needed to give myself a kick up the backside!
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[T1z3R]

yep started to get that way with my YZF...felt something else was going to break every time i rode it.

still do to an extent
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[yambabe]

Yeah, I had that with the Eliminator.

Whilst I never felt that it was dangerous as such the daft niggly problems that kept cropping up spoiled my enjoyment of riding it cos I was always tense thinking "if I slow down here will it cut out again" or "Did the fan just come on? Is it going to boil off?" or "Oooh that squeak's back, wonder what it is". So all the time when I should have been improving my riding and handling as I got more used to the bike it was always in the back of my mind that it could fail on me at any minute and I felt like that was holding me back.

In the end the stupid little things one after another prompted me to get the Zephyr. I still like the Eliminator, but I don't trust it if that makes sense? The Zeph isn't as good a bike as the Eliminator could be, but I prefer it at the moment cos I feel like I can trust it not to fail on me over daft things so I can concentrate more on the ride.
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[akaDAVE]

I've found riding a bike is very psychological and the tricky thing is that the more tense you get the harder and more unpleasant it is to ride.
The biggest lesson I've learnt is that the tyres are critical. I'll know if my tyre pressures aren't right not because I can feel the difference in my hands but I'll just feel generally tense and unconfident. I've ridden on tyres that had developed a flat spot and the difference once they were changed was incredible.

Some days I can go out and just get it into my head that the roads are slippery as ice and just bottle it completely.
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GSXR600

[st3v3]

My only problem in this area, is if I suspect a fault, or on develops, I can carry on with it in my mind, but then forget when i blip the throttle, then realize when i calm down what might have happened and take it easy so tend to think ''easy is nice, better get there late than not to'' go for most situations as a posed to whether or not the bike couldn't 'perform' so on the topic of the thread, be relaxed, go easy an all should be well.
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Only thing ever worried me about my bike is when it cuts out at lights occasionally. It's anyway just before they go green too. It think my bike has a curse on it. Anyone want it??
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[Arfdog]

I still tiptoe around corners after dropping the bike a coupla weeks ago.

As far as the engine goes though, if mistrust creaps into my mind, I open it up and measure and check and confirm that all is as it should be, I think the only way to trust your vehicle is to know it intimately.

I get psyched out by imagining scenarios like the front brake locking for some reason, or hitting a bump and the forks snapping off, but then realise that all of this is highly improbable to happen. And then when I am actually on the bike, I have no worries anymore (except round roundabout, where in my mind every roundabout is liberally coated with 70 gallons of diesel).
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