Thread Drift

[OakLeaf]

How could a motorcycle be hard on your knees? You're not pedaling.

You steer by shifting your weight from side to side. So you're basically in a squat with most of your weight in your quads, and the bike dictates the alignment of your feet and knees - which changes as you go from left to right. It can be hard on iffy knees.

[spokewench]

It was both; two vehicles (car and truck), two motorcycles, two scooters, and four bicycles. We got rid of three bicycles... but that may change. muahhaaaa

We have 22 wheelsin the garage. 2 motorcycles, 1 scooter, a car, a small truck and 4 bicycles.

[spokewench]

Dang - it snowed last night - got up and there are at least 4-5 inches with more snow coming! We are in for it today. The whole state is covered in clouds!

Kitty is sitting in my lap as I type. He is soooo warm! He'll probably get mad when I get up.

[OakLeaf]

Are we only counting the wheels of vehicles that are actually running/operational? And does the garden tractor count?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

You steer by shifting your weight from side to side. So you're basically in a squat with most of your weight in your quads, and the bike dictates the alignment of your feet and knees - which changes as you go from left to right. It can be hard on iffy knees.

Same as when you ride a horse- you use your knees a lot.

[spokewench]

Well, a few hours later and we have a foot plus of snow! It looks pretty. I'm being lazy though, haven't been out to shovel at all. I'll wait till later I guess. I think I'll watch tennis on TV.

[Pax]

Well, a few hours later and we have a foot plus of snow! It looks pretty. I'm being lazy though, haven't been out to shovel at all. I'll wait till later I guess. I think I'll watch tennis on TV.

I think if I saw snow at this point in the spring I would curl in a ball and weep.

[Trek420]

You steer by shifting your weight from side to side. So you're basically in a squat with most of your weight in your quads, and the bike dictates the alignment of your feet and knees - which changes as you go from left to right. It can be hard on iffy knees.

Thanks for the explanation. Is there such a thing as WSD motorcycles?

This one looks fast parked by the farm market

[OakLeaf]

Is there such a thing as WSD motorcycles?

Nope, just smaller ones. Narrow in the seat area helps too (single and twin-cylinder), since the more your legs are bowed out, the lower you need the seat height to be, to be able to touch the ground and support your weight and part of the bike's when you come to a stop.

Some women use aftermarket shock linkages and drop the forks in their bracket (called a triple tree) to lower the seat height ... but if you don't know what you're doing, that can really mess up the handling.

Then there's my nice light and low Honda 230 - overall very friendly to a small rider - which comes from the factory with a brake lever so far from the handlebar that Beowulf would have trouble with it. Luckily I was able to track down a very nice adjustable lever on the aftermarket, but I had to scour Japanese sites, make an educated guess about model names, and telephone the US distributor, who didn't list that part number on their site, to actually get one.

[Trek420]

Somebody here needs to become the Georgina Terry of motorcycles

[Pax]

Somebody here needs to become the Georgina Terry of motorcycles

Her name would be Karen Davidson (of Harley Davidson), not as concerned with the best fit of a motorcycle for women, but very involved in getting women into the sport.

It took me about four months and a $800 to get my SO's bike to fit her.

[Kitsune06]

+1, Pax. My 650 got shorty shocks put on it so I could flat-foot it, lowering the rear 2". Front went about 1/4" up through the tripletrees, which makes it super stable on straightaways and a little slow to corner, but that's ok. I'm no rocketeer. Changing out my fork springs was actually the greatest handling improvement.

X's harley got shorty shocks and I think we lowered the front, too, but I don't remember offhand.

[Xrayted]

You steer by shifting your weight from side to side. So you're basically in a squat with most of your weight in your quads, and the bike dictates the alignment of your feet and knees - which changes as you go from left to right. It can be hard on iffy knees.

Might I suggest counter steering instead of leaning for steering? If you learn this technique, you have much greater control over your bike, keep your balance centered over the midline of bike where it should be, much faster response to obstacles at speed and, together, that can save your life.


Kit's bike is a 1972 Honda CL350 Scrambler. It's a ton of fun.

Was at a radiology conference for the last 2 days. Very informative speakers. Especially the panel of women with disabilities. They are trying to educate health care workers to be able to deal with their individual needs in a caring, non-condescending manner. I was crying in much of it. Fantastic. I followed up with the lady who introduced them all. She works at my hospital. I'd love to have them present directly to our whole radiology dept sometime. We have such a high rate of pts with disabilities of all kinds that we work with and as much as we've learned, there's always more and better ways to handle situations. Sometimes, techs can get too wrapped up in getting the exam done within a certain amount of time that they forget there is a person involved.

[crazycanuck]

Awesome day at our 4hr today Funkily fun time all round ya!!!

Pics to come.

[OakLeaf]

Might I suggest counter steering instead of leaning for steering? If you learn this technique, you have much greater control over your bike, keep your balance centered over the midline of bike where it should be, much faster response to obstacles at speed and, together, that can save your life.

I do both of course, and definitely steering with the bars is quicker, but deep into a turn, the more you can shift your weight, the more your bike stays upright, the more grip your tires have, and (psychologically very helpful) the more your eyes and face are pointing in a direction that makes sense to your brain gravitationally.

Obviously on a bike like the 230 I mentioned, I'm countersteering a whole lot more than on the 600 or the 650 ... riding position has a lot to do with that, too. But even on the Sportster I learned on - maybe especially because the thing was so heavy - there's a point where you just have to move your body.