Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > First ride out, Helmsley and counter steering!

[Iconic944ss]

Hi all,

I had my first ride out today, finally!!! I damaged a ‘well nut’ on a fairing mount on Tuesday when I really wanted to go out but, spent the morning finding a cure for the problem. Never mind, it’s fixed now and at least I had no worries about going out.

I have a quite good route from Billingham now, A19 and along the A174 parkway to the Coulby Newham turn off, then straight up the B1365 and keep on going through Tanton, skirting around Stokesley (if you can avoid the good MTB / pedal bike shops in the area), then picking up the A172 for a little while, only to take you to the lovely B1257 sign posted ‘Great Broughton’ and ultimately, Helmsley..

Clay Bank car park is a nice first place for a rest if needed on the first serious climb. The views are good and sometimes there is a ‘tea-van’ there as well, usually I’m afraid it’s non-stop for me as I’m starting to get in the groove by now.
Its good fun all the way to the Rievaulx area when by then, its time to calm down to re-entry speed before going into the little market town.

I don’t think there is anywhere that is a problem, unless your speed is obviously too high. There is a nice pub whose name escapes, on the left side at around mid distance and for some reason I’ve had my bike ‘shake her head’ twice there already. Its about time I got my steering damper fitted I think.

Today there were another two guys both from my teeny weenie town of Billingham who had both come out for a ride; small world. There were about a dozen bikes at one time, including a banana coloured 748 with nice dymags.
There is NO free parking in the open market area anymore, sadly

After a cuppa and a sarnie I decided to take the moor run back home again – A170 approx 13 miles of fairly uninspiring road to Pickering, then a left turn onto the A169 ‘flyingdales’ road. This is more like it!!! Generally good visibility roads but, it pays to be patient with slow moving traffic as there are one or two nasty blind spots about and the road markings really are there for a reason. There are some good bomb-hole dips to get some good ‘drive’ into and back out of again.

20 miles later and most of the fun is over as the easy way back home for me again is via A171 ‘Guisborough’ road which just has too much traffic these days to be able to ride “briskly”. This road takes me all the way back to A19 and then home again after around 105 miles covered.
*A nice alternative is to run into Whitby for the great biker café of the Whistle Stop, I think it’s called. It’s only some 3 or 4 miles from the A171 turning.

I was very pleased as well there was NO sign of any police activity anywhere along the whole of the route, apart from getting stuck behind a police car doing exactly 60mph most of the way along the A171 moor road

So, a few questions!

Recently I’ve been reading a few books and after seeing Guido's excellent video of the Mallory Park track day that also contained some words of wisdom from Andy Ibbott of the California Superbike School. To this end I’ve been making a conscious effort to relax as much as possible on the bike, as I know I’ve been much too tense previously in my upper body. That’s all coming along slowly but, my questions relate to counter-steering;

I’ve always believed and obviously used this technique mostly, without even knowing about it. But now I’m making a determined effort to think more about it.

One hand or two?
I always used to push against one bar only however, I’m starting to find it more comfortable to also ‘pull’ on the other bar at the same time. So that I’m using a push-pull combination rather than just pushing. Is this OK? Or is it really just a case of find out what works for me???

Next: How long for?
When setting up for a corner using counter-steer should we be only applying enough pressure to set the bike up on the desired line and then reduce/release the bar pressure OR should pressure be maintained right the way through the corner….I’m still a bit unsure about this one and have tried both with mixed success.

My Duke:
One problem that I had today was a bit of an odd-ball.
On an almost closed throttle going down a steep incline it suddenly felt like the bike was running out of gas. I had at least a third of a tank remaining and she almost went onto one cylinder. Sure enough as soon as I pulled the clutch in, the engine died.
I thought for a dreadful second that the fuel pump had cried enough but nope, once stopped the engine fired up straight away felt rough for a little while and then came good. I did take the stale almost four month old half tank of gas up to full just after setting off, so I’m hoping it was just a slug of bad gas or maybe some water?
Suggestions on a post card please.

Here's hoping for the start of a good summer!!!

[rockhopper]

I'm no kind of expert but i thought that you would use counter steering to get the bike to turn. Once its turning ie on its side then it should stay like that until you do something else to influence it. You can then counter steer more to get the bike to tighten its line.

[DAVE HARRIS]

As I understand it you are supposed to smoothly and firmly push on the inner bar to initiate the turn then relax as the bike settles into the turn, the mantra is push and relax . I found that when I started countersteering at the CSS I felt the that the front of the bike was 'folding ' into the turn and spoke to the instuctor who suggested I was maintaining the push too long or pushing too hard. The reason it is reccomended to push the inner bar and not pull the outer bar is that you will be gripping the outer bar to pull on it leaving your arm tensed and making the front end feel dodgy ( and can cause the front to wash out if you are near the limit) whereas the push can be attained with a rexaxed grip or even a with the palm of your hand leaving your arms loose after the turn is initiated
hope this is clear enough and helps

dave

[Iconic944ss]

Thanks guys,

I thought using push-pull might have been less tiring as both arms are used to 'halve' the effort instead of one?

I have to post a reply from a racing buddy sometime who essentially says the same thing. Set up for the turn, then no or little input until its time to pull the bike up vertical again.....

He uses his feet he says (of course), as the front wheel is usually OFF THE GROUND.....gulp.....lets not even go there !!!!

Thanks again.

[Edited on 2-4-2004 by Iconic944ss]