I can't believe I did that.....

[yambabe]

I have reached a milestone in my riding today!

As it was nice, I decided to take the bike to work this morning. It's only about 2 miles, barely far enough to get the engine warm, and it's all urban start-stop at lights and try to miss the school-runners.

There are 6 sets of lights between me and the office! And this morning the last 3 of them were on green as I went through so I was going quite well and smoothly.

The point of this post? I scraped a peg turning right at the second-last set. I've NEVER done that before, never thought I would be confident enough on a bike to do it, especially my bike which really isn't built for it.

Still can't decide if I am pleased with myself or I have scared myself witless!
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[mrchips]

Well done. I remember the first time I got a peg down it was a cross between "Wooo happy days move over Valentino Rossi" with "Was that it?".

[Keith]

I thought the same when I managed to get my boot down on a roundabout, a few days after buying the RS125. (Quite an achievement after riding a 50cc supermoto for over a year.)

I was well impressed but havent done it since.

[G]

So, can you get rearsets for cruisers?

[mchaggis]

When I first got a peg down, (remember on a CG125 engine they're bolted rigidly to it...) it went something like this:

"Oh shit, I'm going too fast, shit shit, I can't steer that much, sskkkerrrrape!. WTF was that?! Ooh, I made it round the corner!"

It certainly got the juices flowing, having gone into the roundabout far too fast and in too high a gear so having no engine braking. Getting pegs down is not something I've got a mind to not repeat very often though..
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I must not be a troll...
Mmmm, Guinness
Discovering the delights of Hammerite and a 3/4" brush.

[TheShaggyDA]

Definately something to be pleased with. It means you've pushed the bike just that little bit further than you have before, and your bike's responded by taking the corner. Now you know that both you and your bike can lean over that far, you've got the point of reference that "well, I'm not scraping my peg yet, so I'm ok"

Just remember what the road conditions were like - any wetter or more leaves and you might hit the point at which the tyres decide enough is enough.

Do your pegs fold, or are they fixed? If fixed, is there a replacement option?
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Current: CB500 Previous: CB100N, CB250RS, XJ900F, GT550, GPZ750R/1000RX, AJS M16, R100RT, Enfield Bullet

[i:6e3bfc7581]But still I fear and still I dare not laugh at the madman...[/i:6e3bfc7581]

[NickD]

Time for stage 2 then Yam?.................

I'll bring you some knee sliders up to Fren's this weekend.
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I was only doing what it said on my licence officer....
Tear along the dotted line!

[Villers]

On the RS scraping pegs and feet was par for the course, especially going right on roundabouts. Always left me thinking what technique I needed to adopt to go from peg to knee, especially as it was scraping turning into junction.

These are situations where toe sliders on a decent set of boots come in handy, last thing you want is for your trainer to bounce of the tarmac and drag your foot into the chain!

[THCi]

Pretty hard for me NOT to do it on my GZ. If its nice and dry, pegs scraping the floor without a doubt. I do try not to do it too much on the right hand side though, its too close to the tyres saying "we aint having this", then it would be time for a new exhaust!
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Past: GZ 125 K4 Marauder, VL 125 LC Intruder, FZS 600 Fazer. Present: GSF 600 N K3 Bandit, GSX-R 600 X(soon)
"We're not gonna die. We can't die, Bendis. You know why? Because we are so...very...pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die."

[CBRPETER]

It is definetly a good thing, but if you broke the peg than it's good but your paying the price for it. Therefore no matter what it's all good.
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Shes my life, shes so rad and shes the best ride i ever had!!

[yambabe]

Thanks for the comments!

I have decided to take the line that on the whole it was a good and useful experience which I shall try not to repeat too often!

Incidentally, my pegs fold up so no damage done....

Oh, and G, !!!!!
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[G]

Being slighty serious here ....
I don't know how it works on a cruiser, but you could also try 'hanging off'. I've had pegs down on various bikes before, but it's usually cured by hanging off more.

(But then I'm guessing you're not to bothered by going round corners faster if you've got a cruiser ).

[yambabe]

"Hanging off?"

Does that work like it sounds then?

Cos having a large arse there is already quite a lot of me hanging over..........

I have to admit I'm not that fussed about going round corners "fast", but I would like to try to improve my smoothness sometimes if that makes sense?
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[Laura]

All you need to do is shift youre rear end of the seat a few more inches and it will make the bike lean more so you will go round the corners smoother and in the long run make the corners faster as well.
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Good girls ride motorcycles bad girls thrash them.

[Fallen Angel]

Cool Jo!

Definitely be pleased with yourself!!!
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[Gracie Jones]

Have I got the wrong end of the stick Laura?

If you hang off, isn't the whole point that you allow the bike to stay more upright, meaning a fatter cross section of tyre is on the road, which in turn means you are less likely to low-side. Another advantage being that if you hang off it is easier to get your knee down.

Is that right or wrong?

[Laura]

The idea is if you hang of the less likely it is to slip out from under you and yes get your knee down is another advantage.

But on a less sporty bike it will also help it to lean slightly more making conering smoother and quicker you are also less likley to have pegs etc decking out which can cause even worse problems.
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Good girls ride motorcycles bad girls thrash them.

[G]

I shan't bring out my elbow down pic ... but have a look at some GP riders hanging off. Ok, I don't expect you'll be going quite as fast, but the technique should be similar.

I often hang off when nowhere near the speed that would require it. Seems to have 'worked' as I never had any problems hanging off on track, while others don't feel so comfortable doing it.

[DM]

Shifting your weight to the inside allows you to turn as sharply as scraping the pegs allows, but without leaning the bike as far.

[G]