Whats up guys,
I am relativly unexperienced when it comes to motorcycles. I owned a ninja 500ex for 6 months or so, and that is the bike i learned to ride on. My first time on a bike was actually riding that home from the dealership , anyways, i sold that a couple years ago, and just got back on a bike for the first time a few weeks ago. My buddy let me take his CBR f4 out for a ride, and i did fine. But i did notice when i go to turn right, i feel much more unstable than when i turn left.... Dose anyone know why this is? I was also teching my buddy the basics of riding, and he had the same issiue.... We are both right handed if that is realavent. If anyone has faced this problem, or has an idea of what i can do to overcome it i would love to hear from you. Dont get me wrong, its not like i almost dump it when i got to turn right, i just dont feel that confident. thanks in advance for any help

 

It's extremely common. All it means is you have very little experience riding, and need more time in the saddle. If you're left handed this sensation is typically reversed, it's because your dominant hand is on the "under" side of the turn, and typically you use the "top hand" to manipulate the bar. Because you aren't as coordinated with your left hand, it makes it feel weird.

 

Lots of practice to get comfy with right and left turns. An empty parking lot is a good place to try.

Could also be your body position. Since the right hand tries to maintain throttle-position, you tend to keep the right arm stiffer than the left, and that causes a nervous/twitchy feeling in right turns.

 

Cool, thanks for the help guys. Guess ill have to wait till i pick up a bike next month and just ride some more.

 

there are so many issues to your problem it is impossible to diagnose over the Internet. The most important issue is seat time, but not far behind is technique and not far behind that is proper set-up, all these thing need to be in sync. if you can post a few pictures it would be more helpful, but one of the best thing you can do is to learn to counter steer at turn in to help the bike lay over on it's side... if you try and muscle a bike over it will never work and you'll never reach the potential whether it be in performance or feeling comfortable, specially in emergency situations. The classic result of this is what is usually labeled "target fixation", which is not always the truth... sometimes when crashers say "the bike just wouldn't turn!" they are telling the truth... but the reason it wouldn't turn is because they applied the wrong technique. If you try and pull a handlebar right in a right turn all your doing is making the bike stand up, what is needed is you have to push the bar away fro the direction you want to turn... this makes the chassis fall into the corner.

 

I apreciate your help I am reading a book by Keith Code, that is extremley insightfull, but it is tough, sometimes, to translate what you read to how you ride sometimes. What do you mean by countersteering at turn in? I understand that when you turn left, you actually are turning the handel bars right, and vice versa, at least at speeds above a few mph, is that what you are refering to?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NathanielH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I apreciate your help I am reading a book by Keith Code, that is extremley insightfull, but it is tough, sometimes, to translate what you read to how you ride sometimes. What do you mean by countersteering at turn in? I understand that when you turn left, you actually are turning the handel bars right, and vice versa, at least at speeds above a few mph, is that what you are refering to?</TD></TR></TABLE>

In my under a year of riding, one thing ive come to learn is countersteering is probably the solely most important techinique in riding. At speed (above 10MPH), when you push the right (well use right as an example since this is the problem your having) clip on, what is actually happening is the momentum of your ~400 lb motorcycle is still going straight (well say y axis), but the tire is now pointed to the left. this causes the front wheel of the motorcycle to, almost negligibly (spelling?), come out from under the front end of the bike to the left, tipping the bike over to the right. At the point the rear tire takes the effect of a cone. if you roll a cone it goes in a circle. the side of a motorcycle tire is like a cone, once you are tilted it will turn in the direction that the side of the motorcycle is closest to the axle. in this case the right side. it is exactly the same for the left side, naturally.

the long and short of it is, you should never be "steering" your bike at above 10mph. you should only be countersteering. If youre cruising on the highway, you can turn left and right with one hand just by pusing and pulling. try it, its actually kinda neat.

to answer your question about not being comfortable going right, sometimes i have the same problem. the way i get rid of it though is to think about something else and its like it never happened.

 

Thanks for the help, i understood that was the case, but your technical explination behind it was awsome

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by marmaladeboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Lots of practice to get comfy with right and left turns. An empty parking lot is a good place to try.

Could also be your body position. Since the right hand tries to maintain throttle-position, you tend to keep the right arm stiffer than the left, and that causes a nervous/twitchy feeling in right turns.</TD></TR></TABLE>


Right on. I notice that.

 

it could also just be because right hand turns are generally tighter than lefts, so you have to lean into it more and turn sharper, which can be unnerving at lower speeds... but what do i know, it could be any number of the more complicated explanations given above

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NathanielH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Whats up guys,
But i did notice when i go to turn right, i feel much more unstable than when i turn left.... Dose anyone know why this is? I was also teching my buddy the basics of riding, and he had the same issiue.... </TD></TR></TABLE>

When i was taking the msf course, couple of guys including myself had the similar problem, it was just that when we took right turns it felt a little 'wierd' and shaky. we were all right handed. i remember asking the instructor, and he said that since our right side is more domintant we are more cautious when it comes to a situation where there is a chance to hurt it (like falling down and stuff), and when it comes to the left side, our body subconsciously does not really mind pushing the "danger" level of the less dominant side of our body....I dunno if this makes sense, but that is what i heard from the instructor