Front end sliding round corners

[booboos]

As i am sure many of u are aware, this is not ideal and certainly not fun. I own a standard 03 gsxr 600 with BT 014s tyres. The bike's suspension is set to the factory settings, as is the pressure of both tyres. both front and rear tyres are quite new (600 miles). i have been pushing the bike more and more recently (i would place myself as a fast social rider but slower than an intermediate track day rider) and twice over the weekend, the front end slid whilst cornering hard. i havent had this before and wondered why it might be happening and importantly, what i could adjust to prevent it from happening again - i assume the only things that will affect this are tyres, tyre pressure and the various suspension adjustments that can be made (which i have to confess i dont understand so if someone could also help me out here that would be good). i didnt notice any signifiicant bumps in the road when the sliding happened, but i guess the faster your going the less bump you need to create this sliding feel??

any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, Jon

[Bendy]

Are you positive the suspension's on default settings, or are you assuming it cos you never changed them?

Have you ever had another kind of tyres on it? Did it happen then?

Anything different about the road surface at all?

[mr.z]

Theres apparently a few places that will set your suspension up perfectly for each rider, a bit pricey but apparenly very worth the money if youu plan on giveing your bike a spanking reguarly...
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>RidingSkills<->Tech Tips<->MyBikes<

[UrbanRacer]

cold tyres maybe?

[Teaman]

tyres with the wrong pressure in them will cause the bike to wallow and slide as the tyre flexes,
have you checked the pressures since having them fitted? I lost about 5psi in both after mine were done, enough to knock the handling out of whack

[booboos]

tyre pressures and temperature were fine as i had been out for over 45 mins when it happened. default settings have been checked are as per factory settings yes. i agree re race settings in that u cant really do it for the road. although thanks for he advice guys. any other bright ideas out there?

[Dark]

Can you remember if there was anything in common with the two incidents? Did they slide on entry to the corner? at the apex? Were you on closed, neutral or open throttle? Were you weighting the pegs any differently?

I think its imperative that you set your suspension sag to match your weight. This is fairly easily done and improves the bikes handling no end.

I normally back the compression damping right off and the rebound damping to mid way and adjust them up gradually until the bike is handling sweet.
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My Bikes in order:- Yamaha RXS100 / Suzuki X7 250 / Yamaha RD350LC / Kawasaki
KR1S 250 / Kawasaki ZXR750 H2 / Honda C50 / Kawasaki ZX7R P5 / Kawasaki ZX10R / Suzuki GSXR 400 / Honda CBR1100 Blackbird & Yamaha FZR 600

[booboos]

thinking about it, the slide was between the apex and exit so maybe im getting on the gas too early!?

i am always on neutral throttle during the entire corner - is this right?

re changing the suspension seetings, i am a complete muppet when it comes to this level of knowledge. any chance u could elabourate for the layman?

[Dark]

Hmmm that sounds like your forks are too hard. With decent tyres and well setup suspension you should be safe to wind the throttle pretty aggressively just past the apex with no slides (taking road surface conditions out of the equation that is).

Being on neutral throttle is fine mate.

Theres not a lot to it actually. if you take measurements from your suspension when its fully extended and then measure the suspension in the exact same manor with you sat on it, then take the smaller measurement from the larger one, you get your current sag.

I get someone i trust to measure while i lift the wheels off the ground one at a time and whilst i sit on the bike in all my gear.

For the rear suspension, choose a fixed position like a grab rail or an indicator and measure from that too the somewhere around the rear axle. For the front, on mine i have USD forks, so measure the length of the exposed inner fork tube.

Your preload adjustors should be easily found once you've double checked in your owners manual.

A good rule of thumb for the roads is to have somewhere between 25mm and 35mm of sag. I'm running 30mm on my ZX10R and it feels pretty good.
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My Bikes in order:- Yamaha RXS100 / Suzuki X7 250 / Yamaha RD350LC / Kawasaki
KR1S 250 / Kawasaki ZXR750 H2 / Honda C50 / Kawasaki ZX7R P5 / Kawasaki ZX10R / Suzuki GSXR 400 / Honda CBR1100 Blackbird & Yamaha FZR 600

[colin1]

i know how to control a rear wheel slide, but how do you control a front wheel slide ?

I think if that happened with me I'd low side.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[ZRX61]

[Dark]

Theres not really a lot you can do. If you right over you can open the throttle slightly to transfer some weight to the rear wheel and if you've got your knee down you can dig in a bit with that to help the front out.

Praying usually helps too
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My Bikes in order:- Yamaha RXS100 / Suzuki X7 250 / Yamaha RD350LC / Kawasaki
KR1S 250 / Kawasaki ZXR750 H2 / Honda C50 / Kawasaki ZX7R P5 / Kawasaki ZX10R / Suzuki GSXR 400 / Honda CBR1100 Blackbird & Yamaha FZR 600

[Skub]

If your steering head bearings are worn it will make the bike feel like it is tucking on slower bends.

A lot of suspension problems that are considered to be front end actually come from the rear.

For example: If the rear preload is not giving the correct sag dimension,then the rear will squat too much coming out of the corner,and the front will lose grip.

Before making any damping adjustments check all bearings (wheels/steering head/swingarm) then set your front and rear sag.
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https://www.bikersoracle.com/zx9/forum/index.php?referrerid=401
https://www.visordown.com/forums/index.php?referrerid=23988

[Dark]

[Dark]

Ah ha.... found it. A pic to prove i could stay with a CBR400 round the tight twisties on my old ZX7R
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My Bikes in order:- Yamaha RXS100 / Suzuki X7 250 / Yamaha RD350LC / Kawasaki
KR1S 250 / Kawasaki ZXR750 H2 / Honda C50 / Kawasaki ZX7R P5 / Kawasaki ZX10R / Suzuki GSXR 400 / Honda CBR1100 Blackbird & Yamaha FZR 600

[colin1]

i think you meant to put that in the thread where killa was asking about the zx7r
good to see tho
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Fruit'n'nut]

[Dark]

[Barry_M2]