Safe Speed Forums

This is hardly a "wild idea", it's more of a pathetic grumble, but this still seems like the right forum:

Just got motorbike roadcraft - and about 95% of it is identical to the car one, which basically means it was a waste of money (although at least in the bike one there's no silly unsubstantiated questionaire at the beginning, as has been highlighted here before). I was hoping for a lot of techniques specific to bikes, e.g. more than around half a page on filtering...

So why is this in brainstorming?

Basically, I think that they should combine the motorbike version with the car version. This would have two advantages:

* Price - no reason to get both books (If anything, the bike one is more useful: I was brought up with cars, and so could probably have naturally caught a mild skid even before I'd been on the road. On the other hand, before reading this I'd never even heard of 'wobble'+)
* Allow car drivers to appreciate what motorcyclists may be thinking more. This is probably more important. (I don't think it's very likely there will be a significant number of bikers reading roadcraft without car licences)

+Can any bikers give me a relatively safe way of provoking - and then correcting - what roadcraft calls mid-speed wobble so I can get a feeling of what it means?

I'm not entirely sure what they mean by wobble that occurs at around 35mph. I think the world of motorcycle geometry, construction and tyre technology has moved on somewhat since that book was written.

However, all motorcyles (and cycles) have a speed range (actual speed depends on geometry and gryroscopic mass) at which they transition from slow-speed turn the bars in the direction you want to go steering to higher speed gyroscopic countersteering. The transition area could be perceived as wobble I suppose if you hang around in it for long enough, but it's your overcompensating steering input that's causing it and I would guestimate the effect of this to be somewhere around 15-20mph rather than 35.

If this isn't what they are talking about, maybe you need to load a Honda Pan Euro with 400kg of assorted police accessories in order to experience this.

My bike has never wobbled at 35mph and I doubt it ever will.

spankthecrumpet I'm with you have never ridden a motorcycle (am a cyclist) but felt that it would be of interest to know, have an electronic copy of the towing handcraft !!

Rather suspect it's a money thing.

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Can you point us to the page no or section?