Conference csc32::fxrs89::cycles

    
    
    I come back from training and find out that a good friend of mine went
    down.  She is going to be ok.  She had been riding almost a year
    and had never been on a motorcycle before.  She got REAL lucky 
    on several counts.
    
    She was cruising along tailing her hubby, this is in a hilly/curvy
    area.  Anyway she took a curve, and tried to get more leanig into
    the corner, she had done this many times before........BUT this was
    BEFORE the ole' man had put on forward controls.  The controls
    pushed her footpegs out 3+inches, past there normal position.
    The footpeg caught the asphalt and dug in. She slid awhile before
    abruptly stopping into rocks on the otherside of the dirt mound.
    She was in 4th gear and moving right along.
    
    She has a dislocated shoulder, bruises and scrapes.  It could have
    been alot worse.  She said she will ride once the bike is fixed.
    The bike needs a new front end.  No tranny or motor damage.
    
    She does pack her kid from time to time....... or at least did I 
    don't think she is going to anymore.  She also said she wanted a bigger
    helmet, although hers worked fine. 
    
    
    No forward controls for this kid.  It seems to be a big "fad" going
    around here. 
    
    SIS	
    

    Sorry to hear about your friend, SIS.  As bad as it was, glad it wasn't
    worse.  
    
    Some lessons are more painful than others.  
    
    Good for her that she's getting back on.  
    
    -Bill

    Not to be uninformed but what are forward controls??
    
    			Bart

    
    
    	Bart,
    
    		The best way I can explain forward controls: You
    	move the controls that are at your regular footpegs, ie break
    	pedal, to where your "highway pegs" are.  So now all the controls
    	on both sides, for both feet are mounted in-front where the 
    	highways are.  (Sorry I don't explain things well without the
    	being able to show you hand motions)
    
    
    	Anyone else wont to give it a stab.... I think I may have
    	trashed the idea.
    
    	SIS

    ref .620
    
    Sis,
    
      Wow!  I hope your friend is O.K. and will get back on the hoss what
    throwed her. 
    
    I Had the same thing happen to me 4-5 times on twisty Alpine
    switchbacks and in the Green Mountains too.  Twice I was two up with 
    the kid on back and once damn near bought it between a camper I was 
    passing and a semi coming the other.  The peg sparks were shooting out
    3 feet behind me!  My wife watched the whole thing, like one's life 
    passing before them, from her machine about 4 car lengths behind... 
    all she could do was fertilize her shorts.
    
    I don't have 'forwards or 'boards either. Lucky for me the bike was a 
    middle weight semi-sport tourer and not a heavyweigt tourer or cruiser. 
    In those kind of situations you quickly realize the advantages of the 
    sport-handling geometries and on-tap horsepower. Those machines are
    DESIGNED to right themselves fairly easily with the right applications 
    of engine and stopping power. 
    
    Believe it or not, the best thing to do is lighten up slighty on the 
    machine's attack angle, (like steering into a skid on snow), 
    and pick the machine up by applying more throttle instead of hitting the 
    binders.  The brakes will only make the machine squat, drop it's nose, 
    and dig the offending bits into the pavement even harder.  Once that 
    happens, the tires start lifting off the pavement which equals ZERO
    traction. 
    
    The next best thing is to do all the above except apply ONLY REAR
    brakes instead of accelerating.  In general, touching the front brakes
    in any panic HANDLING (not braking) situation is the WORST move you 
    can make.
    
    Granted, this technique does NOT come naturally...braking is MUCH 
    more instinctive, and it's VERY difficult to think and act clearly when 
    the machine's behavior is forcing you to panic.
    
    John

    
    
    	Sorry to hear about your friend.  Shouldn't these forward control
    foot pegs be hinged so they will swivel back if they contact the
    pavement?  While I like the look of a customized cruiser, I have
    to question modifications that limit the bikes ability to corner. 
    Perhaps you just have to learn to adjust your riding style, but I think
    this would limit your options in an emergency.
    
    
    Scott

I'm still puzzling over this.

When I read about this incident I got the impression that the forward
controls dug in sooner than pegs would have. In the case of my bike, it's
just the opposite.

When I installed forward controls on my bike, the fear I had was that I
might lean too much. Installation of the forward controls also removed
the stock pegs. 

Without the forward controls I scraped pegs about once a week. The pegs
were an indicator that I was at the edge (although maybe I wasn't). So,
maybe the problem isn't the forward controls themselves (I love mine), so
much as the loss of that early warning indicator. Now, I think I'll be
down and sliding before any part of the forward controls scrape.

Art

    SIS:
    
    You did a good job of explaining forward controls.  Distance forward is 
    usually dictated by the particular bike.  They do change your riding
    style a bit.  
    
    -Bill

    Hmmm ... sorry to hear that she had such a scary experience.
    
    I have forward controls, but they are hinged. Perhaps it is belabouring
    the obvious, but anytime you start scrapping a peg, you can stop it by
    sliding slightly off the seat towards the turn. This will move the
    center of mass enough that the lean angle required of the machine to
    maintain the same turn rate is less. So, the scrapping stops but the
    turn doesn't. It would pay to practice this in a parking lot before
    atttempting to rely on it in an emergency situation.
    
    Watch the road racing maniacs on TV do this. They slide completely off
    the seat into the turn. Such an extreme posture might not be advised on
    a big twin HD (at least I won't do it on mine!), but you can see how
    the technique works. Usually, just moving my ass over about four inches
    will lift the peg out of the groove it's making in the asphalt and stop
    the shower of sparks display.
    
    Theo  

    Glad to hear your friend is okay.  As someone said earlier, the pegs
    should be "hinged" and installed such that when the peg's touch down
    they fold up. The stock highway pegs on my FXRS are this way and they
    have always worked as they should. I've never seen a set of 
    forward controls that weren't setup the same way.  What brand were
    they? 
    
    Regs,
      Dano'

    
    
    Thanks all who replied about my friend....
    
    As for the hinged pegs, yes they are (were) but they did not pop
    up we still aren't sure why, maybe the angle and the hot asphalt.
    See around here temps have been 105+ lately, this makes the 
    asphalt like putty and not hard.  Also, this taught me a lesson 
    I knew but figured that attitude would take care off  and that is
    size.  She has a Sporty and it has alot of extras making it heavier
    than stock.  She is 5'2" and 105 or so pounds, the bike to body
    ratio and all.  She has only been riding about a year also. 
    
    Well she will mend, the bike will be fixed, and a lesson learned
    by more than one. 
    
    Thanks again.....
    
    SIS

    tsk tsk tsk...  On a good day, Harleys handle like a whale on bad acid 
    anyway, forward controls will definately not help.  The solution? Drive 
    even slower, in respect of the brakes that is not such a bad idea after 
    all!
    
    many many =8-)
    
    Flying Dutchman

    One of my cousins in Maine went down last Friday.  
    He's not sure, but he thinks the front brake caliper 
    locked up.  Luckily he was going slowly, turning a 
    corner. Next thing he knew he was lying on the road 
    with the bike on top of him and gas running out, 
    traffic stopped in three dirctions, and people looking at 
    him.  Finally, somebody was bright enough to come over 
    and lift up the bike so he could move.  Several cracked 
    ribs and a lot of bruises, but he's okay.
    He's been riding since high school and he's 51 now, so
    he has plenty of experience. Accidents just happen.