At 00:01 30/10/02 -0500, you wrote:
Being a 11 stone (sorry 154 lbs) wimp, I have got to admit it's more in charge of me at times than I am of it, and I am having difficulty getting it to go round corners. It seems to physically object to changing direction. No doubt it's my ancient style of riding and body lean may not be the way to crank it over quick enough.
Tom,
That all sounds pretty familiar from my early days on the GTS. As a 'big touring' bike one is hoping that it will turn out to be effortless to ride but that isn't so, especially with standard bars and tyres. If your front tyre is down on pressure, and/or if you've made an unlucky tyre choice, the GTS can really need man-handling into a bend. Once you've got the beast down, though, it stays relatively stable when cranked over. In a straighter line I've been up to 120mph on the clock and it's still imperturbable. My guess is that Yamaha went conservative with the front suspension and steering geometry, not wanting to stray far from accepted telescopic fork norms for fear of litigation should anyone have got a "tank-slapper", etc. They probably could have reduced the trail by 20mm and reduced the rake to 0 deg., and it still would have been rock steady. They didn't really maximise the advantages of the hub-centre layout IMO. After a time you will probably adapt, and it will become semi-subconscious. I think my style has now evolved into something like: 1) Initiate turn by positive counter-steering (if you've ever taken a corner on a motorbike at more than about 15 mph, you *have* counter-steered, it's just that it took so little effort or movement that you probably didn't notice). 2) Shift body weight to inside of turn by about one buttock's-width for subjectively improved comfort and stability. 3) Steer with the hips for minor corrections to line. The faster you go, the more like other bikes it becomes, it's the lower speed handling that takes getting used to. I've been running a 120/60 on the front for a while now and the rounder profile definitely helps for easy direction changes. The GTS is *very* sensitive to tyre choice, see "The dreaded tyre [tire] thread" which pops up on this list about every five minutes. A few additional PSI in the front is helpful in my experience, too. Higher / wider bars ought to make initiation easier, as would jacking up the rear a bit, but I've not done either on the GTS. I know I'd be really interested to ride someone else's GTS just to know that mine is typical, and I'd say that's what you should do too. Anyone else in the London area??? David Thurgate http://www.uranus.co.uk/M_cycles.htm =================================================== Kawasaki ZX750-A1 in Tony Foale FFE frame Current status: Dismantled ;-( Yamaha GTS1000a in Yamaha FFE frame Current status: In everyday use :-)
