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Scraping floorboards got me spooked

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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 10:53 AM
  #21  
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ILTim
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Originally Posted by Joe Diver
The first few times I did it, it startled me....so I went to a shopping mall parking lot late at night, and did figure 8's...big sweeping ones....and got to dragging the boards....and got used to it....so it doesn't bother me anymore.
It stopped bothering me a while ago.... then two things happened. First, I lifted the rear wheel off the ground and drifted out to within six inches of the median-curb while exiting my neighborhood going stupid-fast. Second, I noticed that its not just the outer edge of the floorboard wearing down, but all kinds of bracketry underneath and its getting a bit close to the cast-iron frame bracket.

On a frisky day I start dragging boards in the driveway, and I think they warm up before the motor.

BUT, I noticed that I can affect the lean angle nearly ą10° on demand. Sometimes I push the bike down just to hear the scrape, other times I'm tryin like hell to keep hard parts off the tarmac. If I had more clearance, I might ride a little more aggressive, for better or worse.
 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 11:01 AM
  #22  
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ever thought of slowing down and not leaning so far?

sorry couldn't resist being a smart *** hahaha
 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 12:11 PM
  #23  
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Gotta get a pic of my cousin license plate.. Says "SCRAPEM"... nice plate... we all do it and all have fun with it... Shoot my bike is low as hell and I always scrape my pegs... Scared me one or two times but what the hell... Ride it like you stole it... Good times....

 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 12:17 PM
  #24  
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Gliden
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I'm still scraping my left board....the rear side left part of the board is pretty ridiculasly scraped down but Im still scraping it....?????

My tripod a a ding or two but I think thats from the day I came home and forgot to put the kickstand down and she tipped over on the engine guard and I think the tripod.....

Right side....practically never....
 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 12:20 PM
  #25  
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No big deal! scrapen the boards is the best way to get a smile on your face. it won't tripod, in my neighbor hood they put these round-a-bout things in. a big freaken island in the middle of a 4 way stop sign and installed yeild signs. too many people were doing donuts in their cars I guess. but now me and I know one other rider around here do the same thing, we scrape the floor boards going all the way around the round-a-bouts, Ive gone around 3 laps scrappen the boards the whole way before exiting and going on and I've never felt like I was about to tripod, at night is the best, a little spark is fun to watch.


Tired_Bird
 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 12:43 PM
  #26  
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Have had several sport bikes and enjoy ripping through the turns as well. But, you need to remember, you're not a sport bike.
 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 01:31 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Tired_bird
No big deal! scrapen the boards is the best way to get a smile on your face. it won't tripod, in my neighbor hood they put these round-a-bout things in. a big freaken island in the middle of a 4 way stop sign and installed yeild signs. too many people were doing donuts in their cars I guess. but now me and I know one other rider around here do the same thing, we scrape the floor boards going all the way around the round-a-bouts, Ive gone around 3 laps scrappen the boards the whole way before exiting and going on and I've never felt like I was about to tripod, at night is the best, a little spark is fun to watch.


Tired_Bird
In the town I live there are 300 of these roundabout things, if you include mini-roundabouts it goes up to over 1000 (Population circa 300,000)

Yet I only scraped a few times on my bones. I will let you know if it changes after my HG extensions are on
 
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Old Sep 14, 2010 | 02:37 PM
  #28  
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As someone who raced as well before, here is my take.
Think of the floorboards as your knee bucks, when you hear that highly addictive "wuooshhh" buzz coming throw your knee on the track you know sorta, how far you are leaned, same thing, the floorboard is telling you "hey.. this is cool".. you can fold it a bit too (specially on the left side).
BUT.. just like the track ( i remember once not knowing I crashed being surprised why there are sparks off my handlebars LOL ).. dragging hard parts could jolt you really hard.

I have an FXST but lowered the rear 2", and once on a right turn I was really tight and happy, a small pump hit the lower front pipe really hard, the bike pivoted on it I swear I felt the rear jumped what felt like a mile under me ! .

Could have been worse, the interesting thing is when I lowered the front of the bike, I never touched the rear pipe again, maybe since the pipe is more horizontal now, or maybe because my brain developed a welcome 'stop' for leaning.

At any rate.. enjoy.

oh p.s. if you like sparks, I wonder how come nobody came with a magnisium add-on plate for the floorboards to create one heck of spark show .. maybe they did not want to mix those with bikes that could leak gas well ! .
 
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Old May 14, 2012 | 11:22 AM
  #29  
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There should be an answer for this problem (Other than just slowing down) I ride on a really twisty highway with lots of sharp curves. I hate scraping my floor boards...
What about some kind of small tilt/lean indicator? With something like that installed we could keep an eye on just how much we're able to lean into a corner without scraping the crap outta our expensive chrome floor boards!
 
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Old May 14, 2012 | 12:16 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by BadBilly49
There should be an answer for this problem (Other than just slowing down) I ride on a really twisty highway with lots of sharp curves. I hate scraping my floor boards...
What about some kind of small tilt/lean indicator? With something like that installed we could keep an eye on just how much we're able to lean into a corner without scraping the crap outta our expensive chrome floor boards!
We all have "tilt/lean indicator". AKA - bottom of your shoe.

Several threads about improving lean angle with cheap mods, expensive mods and ride style changes.

This helped along with a little heavier fork oil. Maxima 15w.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/7284069-post440.html


.
 

Last edited by KumaRide; May 14, 2012 at 12:23 PM.
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