what part of the bike will scrape first?

[ostwayne]

okay, I've got an f model with stock exhaust, and here's what happened:

there's a right turn I take coming home from work every day, but really wide and a little sweeping.
It's a clear line of sight all the way through the turn, so I've slowly taken it a bit faster each time.

Today however, I leaned hard and felt at least my boot scrape, possibly something else too.
I nudged the bike a bit and it sorta bounced back up a bit and stabalized back into the turn.
I got home and found a scrape on my boot, a scrape on the exhaust, but no scrapes on the peg. 

so on the faired models, will the exhaust scrape before the peg and is it something to worry about?
and is the "bounce" I described entirely caused by me pushing the bike a bit upright, or is that something to worry about too?

Yes I'm pretty much a noob (1800 miles) and yes, I took a pic:

[Turd Ferguson]

Nice work!  You should deffinately work on "hanging off" to keep from scraping the exhaust.  It brings your body/bike center of mass inwards to help you corner without leaning the bike more.

Do a search here for "hanging off" or even try a google search.

But still...you scraped the exhaust!  Nice work.

-Turd.

[CirclesCenter]

Hey I thought that was for the godly like me!

But no scrapes on the pegs? How? My pegs ground WAY before my exhaust... WTF?

Pics of the corner please?

BTW wear that exhaust scrape with pride.

Do this though, lean off the side, you'll get like an extra 15% of awesomeness....

[ostwayne]

Thanks Turd and CirclesCenter! 

My understanding was also that the pegs would scrape before the exhaust, which makes me wonder if something was really wrong with my form? 
I don't really hang off, I've just kept my body lean angle center with the bike, so we lean the same amount together.
I'll work on increasing the awesomeness (though slowly).

CirclesCenter, I'll try and nab a pic of the corner in the next few days if I'm not itching to get home and relax. 

but the bump I experienced... entirely caused by me and nothing to worry about right? 

[CirclesCenter]

If you're on stock suspension and you're leaning that far you're insane though......

[ostwayne]

Well, I only get that aggressive on two turns, which I take every day right near my house coming home, and because I can see completely through the turn (everywhere else I ride like a granny pretty much).

I rode through it again last night like normal and paid extra attention to my form.
It turns out the turn where I scraped (the second turn), and I actually lean the bike over a bit more than my body. 

I tried to work on leaning my body, but how the hell do you grip the tank still?
The second I tried to shift my butt I found I couldn't grip the tank with both my knees... or do I only put weight on the outside foot/leg?

[ducati_nolan]

I while ago I was riding in front of a friend at night and I took a right turn really fast and felt something hard scrape. He said he saw a bunch of sparks shoot out from under my bike  . It was a little scarey. But I didn't feel my peg hit the ground. Later at home I was looking my bike over trying to see what scraped, and it was the centerstand  . I don't know how that could happen but I know my rear suspension is way to soft for me (I'm 200lb) and it isn't jacked up all the way (it's a pain to get to). I guess if the rear suspension is just about bottomed out the centerstand can scrape  . But when that scrapes, you're soooo close to going down. I better get something a little taller and stiffer for my rear suspension, gsxr maybee.
keep it safe.......nevermind

[Alphamazing]

A lot of stuff can scrape if the suspension isn't set up right. From the factory the suspension is soft, so when you huck it into a turn the suspension compresses a lot and therefore lowers your ground clearance.

On the '04+ models the exhaust can got larger (for looks, I'd imagine) so it could scrape before the pegs/centerstand do like on the older models.

http://www.ducatimeccanica.com/articles/Hanging_off_1.html

Read that for help with hanging off (and proper body positioning).

Get a hold of Nick Ienatsch's book "Proficient Motorcycling" or Keith Code's "A Twist of the Wrist".

[FearedGS500]

i get pretty low on my bike but i'v never  scraped any thing unless there was a slight bumb in the road .. i need to get my some short clips made to put on here so i can show you guys that way your not like .. ohhh god here goes feared again just bumbing his gums

[natedawg120]

The couple times i scraped stuff it was the centerstand and it scared the crap out of me.  That is when i started to practice the hang off a bit tactic.  Depending on how sharp the curve is I hang off more or less, it works great and i havn't scraped since   That link that alpha posted is actually great, read it.

[ostwayne]

Thanks for the input everyone!

I read the article, now to put it to practice   

The road isn't completely smooth, so that might have been it, I hit a bump.
And on whim, I chekced, it was the centerstand that also scraped! 
I'm at work, and no way to upload pics, but I'll try to snag one tonight.

Hopefully this wont happen anymore and I'll improve my form. 

[RVertigo]

Riding 2up with stock suspension, my center-stand hit long before anything else.

With gear, I'm about 185 and the wife is about 110...  So, I imagine the bigger guys out there might have the center-stand hit first as well.

One time, I swear I scraped my pipe before anything else hit...  But, I had no way to prove it to myself, since the can was already scraped up when I bought it.  The mark on the can that seemed new looked exactly like the one in your pic...  But, like I said... I don't really know if it was new. 

The right-hand corner was heavily banked the wrong way...  The inside of the turn was higher....   So, I was leaned WAY-THE-HELL over when compared to the road...  I've also scraped my peg and my center-stand (when 2up) on that corner...  You'd think I'd learn.

[Alphamazing]

Personally, I don't like scraping hard parts. When you're scraping hard parts it means you're on the limits of how far the bike can go, and since you're scraping solid mass on your bike it is transfering force from the tires (traction) to the various scraping parts. That basically means you are on the border of leveraging your bike off the road and lowsiding.

Personally, I don't believe you should be scraping hard parts EVER on the street. If you are, you're going too fast. Period.

[ostwayne]

Despite the super cool factor of the scrapes, I definitely don't like the feeling or even the idea of scraping part of my bike on the ground.

Thanks for the link to the article Alpha, I imagine once I start hanging off I won't be scraping parts anymore. 

[Alphamazing]

Despite the super cool factor of the scrapes, I definitely don't like the feeling or even the idea of scraping part of my bike on the ground.

Thanks for the link to the article Alpha, I imagine once I start hanging off I won't be scraping parts anymore. 

If you've got the time and money and want to increase your riding skill, try and find a local group that does traack days/riding schools. There are two groups here in Texas that have track days accomponied by a riding school. Also, if you want to learn more about riding (not just hanging off) check out the two books I mentioned.

[mike_mike]

i've scraped the pegs, can and centrestand on my gs500f  a mix of going too fast.. and or not hanging off enough. my poor 500 has been ridden harder than the prom queen.

[RVertigo]

Personally, I don't believe you should be scraping hard parts EVER on the street. If you are, you're going too fast. Period.

++

Every time I've done it I:

1)  Screwed up the corner
2)  Was going too fast
3)  Wasn't hanging off at all (and a few times in the beginning, I was

counter-leaning).[/list]


I try not to take corners so fast that I HAVE to hang off...  'cause I ride on the street...  And that's just too damn fast to be safe.

[ostwayne]

time? kinda got it...
money? nope! though I do have enough to go buy that book, which I might just do tonight. 

I started working on hanging off just a bit, but I have a question now:
how in the world do I still pinch the tank with my outside knee?
when I shift my weight and hang off, my knee moves away from the tank, so I'm sort of using my outside shin/calf and thigh to grip.
Sound normal? 

I know I don't have to hang off in the corners I do take, but with winter coming up I'd rather learn now than when it's wet...

[Alphamazing]

time? kinda got it...
money? nope! though I do have enough to go buy that book, which I might just do tonight. 

I started working on hanging off just a bit, but I have a question now:
how in the world do I still pinch the tank with my outside knee?
when I shift my weight and hang off, my knee moves away from the tank, so I'm sort of using my outside shin/calf and thigh to grip.
Sound normal? 

I know I don't have to hang off in the corners I do take, but with winter coming up I'd rather learn now than when it's wet...

You're not pinching the tank anymore when you're hanging off, you're just using your leg and abs to support yourself. The tank has those conveniant little cutouts for a reason.

If you have time, find a local track day group that will exchange your time cornerworking for time on the track. That's how I get all my track days. Spend a whole day cornerworking and get a credit for a free track day. Or you can cornerwork half the day and then ride the other half. Pretty cool.

[ducati_nolan]

To find out what will scrape next, just cover the scrapes with tape and scrape the tape off    But seriously, One solution  for the dragging center stand would be just to remove it. Then use a race stand or put your centerstand back on when you need to work on it. A pain in the ass but worth it if it keeps you from crashing. Plus you can then use the rest of your tire.