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What did you do to your R18 today?

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This weekend, I played around with installing a beverage Holder for my Model B; I installed the RAM mirror mount on the bottom of the left mirror, where the swivel beverage holder can be placed just to the right of the left hand controls.

I'm not crazy about the overall look; so, I wanted something that I can easily remove and install when a long riding day is planned..

The mirror mounting ball will stay in place and basically out-of-sight when the beverage holder isn't being used.

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widu13 said:
I've been riding linked braked bikes for at least a decade, but I still manually use the combination of levers 70/30 in normal braking and rear only for slow manoeuvres. I have raised the height of the standard foot lever, which I found very useful.
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Yes of course. One should not be using the front brake while turning. Isn’t this basic 101 of how to ride a motorcycle?
 
Gr8adv said:
Yes of course. One should not be using the front brake while turning. Isn’t this basic 101 of how to ride a motorcycle?
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Really... I always go to the front brake (feather it) when going into a sharp turn, I find it compresses the front shocks, which for me (mentally at least) puts more grip on the front tire and slightly changes the geometry of the bike.

I feel as though I'm dipping into the turn with more confidence, and I think slightly faster than my riding buddies...

Thoughts...
 
Star-Lord said:
Really... I always go to the front brake (feather it) when going into a sharp turn, I find it compresses the front shocks, which for me (mentally at least) puts more grip on the front tire and slightly changes the geometry of the bike.

I feel as though I'm dipping into the turn with more confidence, and I think slightly faster than my riding buddies...

Thoughts...
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There is a lot more info online and worthy of research. Spending a day on the track is enlightening.

If you are good enough to trail brake properly and to feather the front brake so as to slowly load the front tire, go for it. Risky business for most. Especially off the track where dirt, sand, and other traction devouring detritus is common.

For 95% of us we should be getting all our braking done while the bike is in a straight line. It is just physics. The front tire has a limited amount of grip. If you use some of the friction for braking you lose that for cornering grip.

The brief moment the front tire loses corning traction on a highway there is no recovery.
 
Gr8adv said:
There is a lot more info online and worthy of research. Spending a day on the track is enlightening.

If you are good enough to trail brake properly and to feather the front brake so as to slowly load the front tire, go for it. Risky business for most. Especially off the track where dirt, sand, and other traction devouring detritus is common.

For 95% of us we should be getting all our braking done while the bike is in a straight line. It is just physics. The front tire has a limited amount of grip. If you use some of the friction for braking you lose that for cornering grip.

The brief moment the front tire loses corning traction on a highway there is no recovery.
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I'm probably thinking too much into it... a lot of my riding is poor muscle memory at this point, I'm probably braking while the bike is straight and inline with the rear wheel, just prior to execution of dipping into a sharp turn..

Anyway.. since adding the larger foot pedal, I do see an increase in my rear brake usage..
 
Star-Lord said:
I'm probably thinking too much into it... a lot of my riding is poor muscle memory at this point, I'm probably braking while the bike is straight and inline with the rear wheel, just prior to execution of dipping into a sharp turn..

Anyway.. since adding the larger foot pedal, I do see an increase in my rear brake usage..
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For 95% of riding outside of a parking lot, the front linked brakes on a bmw provide the natural, and some would argue best, street distribution of 70/30. For parking lot maneuvers the rear is your only friend.

Regardless of the idea of it being beneficial or not, I am not following how a larger brake pedal would increase the use of the brake.
 
Gr8adv said:
For 95% of riding outside of a parking lot, the front linked brakes on a bmw provide the natural, and some would argue best, street distribution of 70/30. For parking lot maneuvers the rear is your only friend.

Regardless of the idea of it being beneficial or not, I am not following how a larger brake pedal would increase the use of the brake.
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I agree 100% in making a U-Turn in a tight stretch of roadway; the rear brake and clutch is my friend...

I had posted earlier on the forum, probably as scottsemone, or deleted member 1618... .that I hardly EVER use my foot brake, and was solely relying on the distributed hand brake system for the majority of my braking..

I guess the smaller lever was basically out-of-reach, and out-of-mind... Now, I guess I'm finding the foot brake a little easier, which has increased my usage a little more..

The R18 was my first real introduction of the heel shifter; it took me all of an hour to fully adopt it, and now love it..
 
I took mine to town for it's 1st year birthday service... $430 aussie..... and a day lost... just motor oil/filter and final drive oil. Bike is a 3/21 manufacture ao I asked them to do the gearbox oil as well.... but somehow that didn't happen.

I really only wanted the book stamped for warranty purposes so will do the gearbox oil myself, valve check, brake bleed anyhow. In the final drive they just used a castrol 75/90...

I did get some time to look at flash new bikes, they had a pretty blue TC there that I got to sit on.... and one of those big 1300cc enduro bikes for bigfoot's decendants.
 
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I used GS-911 to switch off the top case brake light which was throwing an error code on my TC that I have turned into a bagger. It's in - coding - braking - additional brake light - uncheck the checked box, that's it job done.

I also noticed that under additional brake light, that the check box option for - act as running light was NOT checked. I never checked my top case to verify that it did operate as a running like but it seems unlikely it was, so if you have access to a GS-911 you can now do this too.
 
widu13 said:
I used GS-911 to switch off the top case brake light which was throwing an error code on my TC that I have turned into a bagger. It's in - coding - braking - additional brake light - uncheck the checked box, that's it job done.

I also noticed that under additional brake light, that the check box option for - act as running light was NOT checked. I never checked my top case to verify that it did operate as a running like but it seems unlikely it was, so if you have access to a GS-911 you can now do this too.
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Can you set your front turn signals to always on the they will still blink if you activate the blinker. In short, set them as “DRL”
 
ad78 said:
Can you set your front turn signals to always on the they will still blink if you activate the blinker. In short, set them as “DRL”
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There is a aux or driving light option on there that will turn on and keep the center lights of your head light on anytime the switch is on as a DRL
 
ad78 said:
Can you set your front turn signals to always on the they will still blink if you activate the blinker. In short, set them as “DRL”
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Yes you can. They are on a reduced percentage of brightness and blink at 100% brightness when activated.
 
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