Posture

The shoulders-down method from the end of this post is working so far. I find physically keeping shoulders down a little bit difficult, considering the position of the rider on a sports bike, but consciously relaxing the muscles does wonders. Its effect is felt most significantly in cornering.

I may have mentioned before that this bike, with its lower center of gravity/weight placement, corners a helluva lot more naturally¹ than the dirt bike i learnt on. Leaning into a corner is a truly excellent feeling, but doing it with confidence, nice and evenly, relaxed in the full knowlege that you're going to sweep back up and out of a turn, is just... ineffably wonderful.

I am hardly cornering like a pro, you understand. I probably look pretty ridiculous to most other people on the road (nevermind other motorcyclists), but i feel a lot better doing it now than i did before, as mentioned somewhere in this post. Gaining more confidence, losing the hesitation bit by bit.

My body is really getting acquainted with my bike.

*

Some of the guys at work are organising a ride to one of the outlying towns down the track, and i'm being recruited by one of them who is going with an even newer Gt250R than mine. I'd initially declined outright, as all the other guys have big bikes, and i'm riding my little beast like a bloody girl, but now that there's a few of us running our bikes in, and someone else to eat big-bike-dust with me, i'm very tempted.

We'll see how much practice i get in between. Talk about having to keep up!


1. by this i mean, being able to lean in most basic situations without worrying about falling