Suzuki V-Strom (VStrom) Owners Club DL250, DL650, DL1000 & DL1050
Gallery => Video Clips => Topic started by: MisterDavey on August 03, 2025, 19:39:42
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I have issues on flat roads, so I think I'll give it a miss......
https://youtube.com/shorts/HxM45nVNCFU?si=V59BmkbqaxT8N-14 (https://youtube.com/shorts/HxM45nVNCFU?si=V59BmkbqaxT8N-14)
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One of the reasons we must practice riding slow as well as fast. Strange how they seemed to go into the bend without thinking about it first? :thumb:
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Nearly all of those tops were from hitting the front brake.
One had the right idea of acceleration, but it was wet.
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I've been up & down the Stelvio Pass quite a few times and I've seen a few people topple over. Usually people forget that at altitude your bike will not respond as quickly or as well as it would do at sea level. You need to use a lot more throttle than you think, oh and actually look around the corner... Here's me back in 2014 on my S10 Yam' with my mate Davey following on his S10.
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It's not the best pass, probably best one up on a suitable bike.
Two up, loaded and topping 500 kg? I lost the back brake on this descent.
I've never ridden it without seeing carnage.
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Nice view down the pass.
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I much prefer the Dolomite triangle, it's still got nadgery bits but also fast flowing curves too. Maybe next year.
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Great pictures chaps.
I'd love to do it, I hope I will one day.
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Everyone wants powerful, sharp, bitey front brakes, right up until they have to do anything at slow speed. Some don't know the rear brake exists.
I treat all steep haripins as if they were box junctions, don't enter the corner up someone's chuff and try to see if the apex/exit are clear.
Also, don't buy a bike so stupidly big that you can't get a toe down unless the surface is as flat as a pancake :)
All easy to say when you're tall, have apparently 'crap' front brakes and live somewhere with access to hairpin practice though I guess :smirk:
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I have a 32" inseam, and I still struggle with my Strom if I hit the front brake at the wrong point. I use the back brake a lot at slow speed, I guess it's training the mind to panic to the back brake at slow speed.
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To be fair, I had the reverse issue when new to riding. I was terrified of the front brake and panicked to the rear all the time, I had 1 crash and 1 half crash before I got some extra training and learnt that the front brake just does what you tell it to, it's me that was the problem.
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To be fair to some of the riders on the clip some of them corners are tricky, not Lake District or Northumberland tricky, but tricky dicky tricky. That's tricky then.
Upt.
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Yes indeed, those apexes just dip away.
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Braking from speed I use both brakes but almost all the work is done by the front. My front brake pads don't last anywhere near as long as the rear. Sometimes though I use just the back brake, very slow speeds or loosing a little bit of speed into a corner in the wet. I don't do it consciously it's just something I've noticed. Braking into a fast corner is something I often do when it's dry then accelerate out, it's all good fun but going out for a ride on some very twisty roads, making best progress but trying not to use the brakes at all except when coming to a stand still makes a good ride too.
Braking is something you can read about then mimic but there is nothing like real time practice. Most of my practice was done growing up on pedal bikes, I would spend hours on the beach at Seaforth (Liverpool) when the tide had just gone out and the sand was hard. I was amazed as to what my mate and me could do on or bikes. We could have put on a show with our skidding tricks, sadly the day's before camera phones.
I think that practice has helped me through into motorcycling. I'm not saying that I have never got it wrong and lay my motorbike down though, that was a learning curve but another boring story, sorry. Anyway, it's 2:15pm, the sun has just come out and I'm not even in my bike kit yet, got to go. :thumb:
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Well, I did get out for a ride, oly about 120 miles. I road across Dartmoor (again) to Plymouth
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Being short is no excuse ( said the bloke with a 35" inside leg ) :grin:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kZh-8Eorfas
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Reminds me of when I was a kid riding my Dad's bikes. :thumb: