Does your motorcycle feel top heavy?

hey motorman here I've got a quick tip this week I hear so much about this high center of gravity stuff that I felt a need to talk about this now and take a look at these two motorcycles we've got a Harley Davidson Road King we got the lowrider over here which one do you think has the higher center of gravity well it doesn't matter every motorcycle has a high center of gravity meaning if I took these bikes right now off the kickstand and held it off straight and let go they fall down that'll happen on either one of these bikes and they will fall at the exact same speed if I took a bicycle just a normal ten-speed bicycle take it off the kickstand let go of it it's falling down and it'll fall at the same pace as either one of these will that's just science that's really what it is and I'm gonna get on the bike I'm gonna go for ride we're gonna talk a little bit more about this I'm gonna I'm gonna explain to you exactly why the center of gravity your motorcycle means absolutely nothing all right let's go for a ride all right so center of gravity I see so much stuff on the internet about this use these about people saying this bike has a high center gravity that one ended it's a nice especially hear it from people about Sportsters they say a Sportster has a very high center of gravity but that's total bull I'll tell you what a bike that has a high center gravity that would be an adventure Torah like the the BMW 1200 that's a high center gravity you got I think it's an 8 gallon tank and the like sits up I think seat height is like 34 or 35 inches that would be a higher center of gravity now the question is then does it mean anything and why would people that have a Sportster which has like a 24 inch seat height think that that bike has a high center of gravity let me tell you why use these Sportsters are purchased by I think mainly women and usually it's their first bike and they got they went from the the beginners course and then they bought a sports - it says you know it's if there's a lot of choices and beginner bikes I don't really consider - the sports are a beginner bike but it's good in that it's fairly light and very maneuverable but these women who came out of the beginner course and they've yet to master the clutch and throttle they get on a Sportster which probably weighs 200 pounds more than the bike they were learning on and the bike feels like it wants to fall over and they find it very difficult that once it falls past a certain point they can't hold it up they got to drop it yeah that's very typical and the reason that that's happening is because again you haven't mastered the friction zone that is so important I can't stress it enough I don't want to stop here and show you this this is this is not brain surgery folks by the way I'm going to take off my left fingerless glove I where'd the fingerless gloves for two reasons one and probably the main reason it is some reason some way it pisses off the the motorcycle safety PC police they hate that I wear that but I wear it because there's tiny little buttons on this camera and in order to press them I need to have to be able to feel it in addition here I'm going to take this glove off yes I'm gonna risk my life taking it off so that you could better see you exactly what my hand is doing now granted this is not going to help you very much this camera view that you see right here but people think it does the reason I don't think it helps you very much is because my clutch is not going to grab the exact same spot yours is but I'm going to show you that view anyway because people seem to like it whatever I show that so we can put the bike in gear and I'm going to demonstrate the friction zone now I'm gonna feed a little bit of throttle that's 1200 rpm or so and I start to let the clutch out the bike starts to creep forward I've entered the friction zone I'm not very far into it because I'm actually holding the bike back with my feet if I put my feet up the bikes on the start to move that friction zone is about an inch wide on most motorcycles I know a lot of people think it's a they say well my bike is like an on and off switch not really you know every time somebody's come to my class that said there's something wrong my clutch today it has no friction zone it's either on or it's off and I get on their bike and I do all the maneuvers and I say now it's not the motorcycle it's probably the nut behind the handlebars is loose you got to tighten it up meaning the person riding the bike it ain't the bike so we're gonna let this clutch out just a little bit we're gonna feed a little throttle and all I'm doing now is staying in the friction zone I'm not letting it out all the way how hard is that in other words you have to pass through the friction zone every time you take off from a stop by feeding a little gas and letting the clutch out you don't just pop that clutch out if you did you'd have one hell of a all right I mean you'd be popping the clutch out maybe bringing the front wheels up it'd be an awful thing so everybody knows that in order to get the bike moving you have to slip the clutch a bit so all I'm telling you at low speeds when you want to make low speed turns stay in that friction zone it also is helpful to put a little pressure on the rear brake well actually we'll do it right now not brain surgery that little bit of pressure on the rear brake it helps to stabilize the bike when you get really good at coordinating the clutch and throttle you won't need to use the brake when practicing but when you make it a u-turn out on the street I always advise go ahead and use that rear brake to be just a little bit safer make things easier for you so we're going to coordinate the clutch and throttle we can almost bring the bike to a stop without putting the feet down a little bit of brake to practice this and get good at this using the friction zone while going straight shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes I've also showed other things that might ride like a pro video they show you several ways of getting a good handle of exactly where that friction zone is you could even let the clutch out a little bit start get me into the friction zone and duck walk the bike and yeah I don't want you shouldn't have people seeing you do this because it makes you look like a doofus but at least you'll know that if you don't walk the bike you you shouldn't be ready to fall over because the bike is dead straight up and I'm duck walking it we're going probably three four miles an hour but eventually you get over the fear that the bike is gonna fall over as long as you keep that power going to the rear wheel with the collision throttle and you pick up your feet right now I got my feet up I'm not using any brake at all I'm going three miles an hour everybody who rides a motorcycle should be able to do this you never want to hit the front brake with making tight low-speed turns because the bike will fall over really fast so fast you won't know what hit you now I know when I get this question a lot and I probably mentioned it in my ride like a pro video a dozen times people say yeah but I got linked brakes what happens then I know that if I press on the rear brake it also gives me front brake isn't that gonna make me fall isn't that why I've been falling down all the time no that's not why it's if you're pressing so hard on the rear brake that it's actually pulling down that front wheel your present way too hard it's very light pressure I can't tell you how much pressure because you don't have a pressure gauge on your foot so if I said it was two point five pounds of pressure how would you know when you got to two point five pounds it's just something you got to figure out through repetition if you're having a real hard time with that figuring out the friction zone notice right ahead here we have a curb so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put my front tire against this curb but I also show this and as well as other things on the right like a pro video I'm gonna get my front tire right up against it now I'm gonna let the clutch out a little bit I'm gonna feed a little throttle but I'm not gonna let it climb up onto that curb if I let the clutch out too far and give it too much gas yeah it's possibly it could climb right up there but that's not what you want to do you want to get it to where you could feel the curb is holding you back maybe do this for the counter three or four stop let the bike the clutch cool down for three or four seconds but do this until you can do this every time up against a curve without the motorcycle stalling if the bike stalls yeah you don't have a good handle on it so don't do that takes maybe 10 minutes of practice doing that that you should be able to and once once you get this down man you could take off from a stop full lock dip right into that u-turn nothing to it but you got to have confidence in your ability to use that friction zone it is the key to everything once you do that it doesn't matter how high the bike is if you've ever watched the police rodeo they're sitting on Harley Davidsons with the police seat with six up sits it's about six inches above the frame and you got the rider it especially if a guy six foot four and weighs 250 pounds all that the center of gravity is way up there but yet they handle in the bike like a toy why because they know how to use this friction zone and the rear brake it is so important makes things so much easier when you could do that confidently turn that motorcycle there's nothing to it when you use clutch throttle a little bit of rear brake and of course most important your head and eyes I want to make this turn an 18 feet here I just turned the bars turn my head around comes the motorcycle if I put a little dip in there to start that turn it makes it easier but I can do it just by pulling straight on in there turning my head knives and less than 18-feet the bike will make this turn every time so center gravity means nothing I'm going to show you a clip with at our class we had a guy with a an adventure tour I think it's 1250 1,250 cc like I said 8 or 9 gallon gas tank the bikes it's 34 inches above the ground yet the guy who's doing fantastic on the bike why because he doesn't care about the center of gravity who cares where it is if you know how to use that clutch and throttle and it just takes I mean put in a half hour doing this stuff just in a straight line and I have to tell you before I ever went to motor school I figured out that if you slip the clutch a bit slipping meaning use the frictions don't put a little pressure on the rear brake you could turn that motorcycle make a u-turn no problem what I didn't figure out was that if I turn my head and eyes I could lift that bike lean over until you hear that scraping sound I didn't know that they taught me that a motor school but I had figured out that if you want good control the motorcycle at low speeds you gotta use the friction zone once you let the clutch out all the way it's out all the way right now if I give it a little throttle look what happens now if I'm trying to turn and do that it's gonna make the bike go straight and I could smash into these cars over here so I want to use the friction zone so that I mean complete total control of the motorcycle so in closing center gravity means absolutely nothing unless you're a complete doofus with the clutch in throttle or a complete beginner but I know guys have been riding for many years and still haven't figured out what that friction zone does for them I know because they come to my class all the time and I'm amazed I've even get truck drivers that come to my class and I say to them you know when you're backing up your 18-wheeler do you pop the clutch out all the way and just hit the gas and they say no I said well what do you do what you have to you know you slip the clutch I said exactly if you could slip the clutch with your feet I guarantee you got more dexterity in your hands than you do in your feet and pretty soon they get the idea of it we always start our classes and by the way we've got classes all over the country if you go to my website write like a procom click on training locations we'll show you all our classes we got 22 of them around the country we were about to get one in California as well probably within the next month or so now if you want to class with me here at New Port Richey Florida you click on classes with motorman but in the class the first thing we do is start with the slow race because we want to make sure that people have at least an idea of how to use that friction zone the clutch this rattle and the rear brake when going straight you hardly need any pressure at all on the rear brake but when you start making turns you need a bit more pressure as I said I can't tell you exactly how much pressure because you don't have a pressure gauge on your foot so it wouldn't matter it's something you have to do work through repetition and a little bit of practice when I subtract the sum I'm saying you should have the slow race down in a straight line in 20 minutes 30 minutes at the most if you absolutely can't get it well there's a clutch called a Rekluse clutch which allows you to keep the clutch completely out and give it a little gas and then just use a little bit of throttle against the rear brake and you don't have to worry about coordinating the clutch if you have an automatic transmission this people are always asking me about this what about the new DCT clutch where your transmission you don't have a clutch what are you gonna do it'd be impossible than right no or you got to do is coordinate the throttle against the rear brake I've seen some guys with the DCT transmissions who have really doing some wonderful maneuvers with a gold wing with the DCT 18 foot turns and all the fact is though the specialist the guy I've been watching on YouTube doing that he's he was very good with the collision throttle to begin with he was making 18-foot turns with the collection throttle wing and then he got the DCT and he said it took him a few hours to get the hang of it but it's and I think it's a little more difficult to find that sweet spot between enough pressure on the rear brake and enough throttle on a goal wing and you probably want to use the rain mode because it makes the throttle less sensitive but it can be done so if you like these videos like I keep putting out for you I hope you learn something by them I hope you subscribe give me a thumbs up and until next time keep the shiny side up you

Channel: Ride Like a Pro Jerry Palladino

Views: 123,476

Rating: 4.9402266 out of 5

Keywords: unboxing, top heavy, motorcycles, ride like a pro, never lower your bike, lower the center of gravity of your motorcycle, uturns, how to ride a motorcycle

Id: MgXmiVC5k3Y

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2020