Fear of falling

[Horizontally opposed]

Suggestions (polite) please.
After 18 months on a good R1100s I have a crisis of confidence.
Up to now I had no fear, and pitched into corners happily.
Suddenly I feel as though the font end is sliding on many corners. (':shock:')
Tyres are Michelin PS3. Lots of tread on the front, and plenty, on the sides anyway, at the rear.
Roads dry. Pressures 36/40. (very exact ) I did use 42 at rear but can't see why reducing the rear a bit would cause the front to slide.
Now I have a grip of terror when I pitch in, waiting for a big lose. I have even lightly sanded the edges front and back to make sure no oil from anywhere.
If I tighten the front shock knob should I expect to feel a difference, other than stiffer? (':oops:')
How do I get my mojo back? Thoughts gratefully considered.

Sorry to interrupt your Olympic viewing.

[Kaze]

This might sound a bit odd, but I find wet weather riding improves my confidence in cornering, for both wet and dry riding. At first I found the telelever front end a little vague in terms of feedback, however I've built up my confidence by gradually pushing further and further and having now covered just over 3k miles on my 11S I've got more confidence than I've ever had with any other bike I've owned. With conti road attack on the front, wet or dry it's been superb, not once has the front let go.

Mind you, looking at your location you may have to come over to blighty for a bit of the wet stuff

How about we get in touch with the weather gods and arrange an exchange, some Ozzy sunshine would be just the ticket over here, I'm not saying that we've had a lot of rain lately but all Arc building kits have well sold out

[Dai wiskers]

From what you said about plenty of tread on the sides of the rear it sounds like the tyres have squared off causing your problem

Hope this helps dai

Edit i am also running road attack's front and rear 36/42

[slparry]

This might sound a bit odd, but I find wet weather riding improves my confidence in cornering, for both wet and dry riding. At first I found the telelever front end a little vague in terms of feedback, however I've built up my confidence by gradually pushing further and further and having now covered just over 3k miles on my 11S I've got more confidence than I've ever had with any other bike I've owned. With conti road attack on the front, wet or dry it's been superb, not once has the front let go.

Mind you, looking at your location you may have to come over to blighty for a bit of the wet stuff

How about we get in touch with the weather gods and arrange an exchange, some Ozzy sunshine would be just the ticket over here, I'm not saying that we've had a lot of rain lately but all Arc building kits have well sold out

As does regular off road riding, preferably NOT on an R1100S

I find green laning on my F650 or previously on my DRZ400 regularly makes twitches and slides less scary as they're a minute by minute thing off road. Agree about riding in the rain too, I love it as it builds a whole new skill set, gives the chance to clean the bike and give it a good look over while doing so and often rainy days mean less tourists and power rangers out on the roads .... which usually means less trafpol too

[SAS Tom]

This might sound a bit odd, but I find wet weather riding improves my confidence in cornering, for both wet and dry riding. At first I found the telelever front end a little vague in terms of feedback, however I've built up my confidence by gradually pushing further and further and having now covered just over 3k miles on my 11S I've got more confidence than I've ever had with any other bike I've owned. With conti road attack on the front, wet or dry it's been superb, not once has the front let go.

Mind you, looking at your location you may have to come over to blighty for a bit of the wet stuff

How about we get in touch with the weather gods and arrange an exchange, some Ozzy sunshine would be just the ticket over here, I'm not saying that we've had a lot of rain lately but all Arc building kits have well sold out

As does regular off road riding, preferably NOT on an R1100S

I find green laning on my F650 or previously on my DRZ400 regularly makes twitches and slides less scary as they're a minute by minute thing off road. Agree about riding in the rain too, I love it as it builds a whole new skill set, gives the chance to clean the bike and give it a good look over while doing so and often rainy days mean less tourists and power rangers out on the roads .... which usually means less trafpol too

What do you mean not on the S?

I was once watching some blokes in land rovers trying to get up a muddy/rocky hill that didn't look that steep. They were struggling and I didn't really see why so I tried it myself. Straight up no bother! The land rover guys didn't look best pleased...

[slparry]

lol excellent, mind you there's very little difference under the skin between an S and a GS but I'd be loathe to point my belly pan at anything rocky

[SAS Tom]

I don't have a belly pan to worry about!

Got to agree about off road riding though, I've been motocrossing a few times and getting used to the bike sliding around builds loads of confidence.

[Dai wiskers]

I used to do schoolboy trials[a long long time ago] and as others have said off roading realy helps

But as i said i still think your rear tyre has squared off causing the bike to drop into corners

[Horizontally opposed]

Many thanks to all members of the Brains Trust.

I agree about training off-road, but I can't justify a second bike, and anyway that would just help me cope with the twitches, but I would rather solve why.

Thanks to Dai and SAS Tom, I will have to have a really close look at my back tyre. It doesnt look square, but then it might be really subtle.

Got to get back over to have another look at your castle Dai. Not much excuse needed as I have relos near Symonds Yat, look you.

As for rain, Kaze is right. When it rains I reach for a good book even though once upon a time I used to deliberately go out in the wet. but at that time I was immortal, now I'm not so sure.

Thanks guys.

[slparry]

also check the paralever bearings, if they need adjustment or replacement it makes the handling unpleasant

[Horizontally opposed]

D'accord

[Dai wiskers]

Many thanks to all members of the Brains Trust.

I agree about training off-road, but I can't justify a second bike, and anyway that would just help me cope with the twitches, but I would rather solve why.

Thanks to Dai and SAS Tom, I will have to have a really close look at my back tyre. It doesnt look square, but then it might be really subtle.

Got to get back over to have another look at your castle Dai. Not much excuse needed as I have relos near Symonds Yat, look you.

As for rain, Kaze is right. When it rains I reach for a good book even though once upon a time I used to deliberately go out in the wet. but at that time I was immortal, now I'm not so sure.

Thanks guys.

When your over we will have to get together if you fancy it.
Just met a relative [i think uncles brother's son] from adalade[excuse spelling he's a bike cop [his words]
There used to be a good rally at Symonds yat i was a regular there [infact i was rescued from the bonfire once]

Caerphilly castle, my brother in law [again i think! i'm wed to his wifes little sister] was married there i believe it was the first wedding there in recent history
Hank national pres of the chopper club UK was also married there

Cheers Dai

[Horizontally opposed]

A Welsh wedding and a chopper club wedding at Caerphilly Castle.

Now we know why that bastion is leaning at 30 degrees.

It was wild knees-up.(':lol:')

[70tno]

Try new shock on front and change the rear while you are at it. Standard shocks are rubbish anyway! Bought a set of Wilbers off one of the guys on the forum and it transformed my bike.

[Dai wiskers]

also check the paralever bearings, if they need adjustment or replacement it makes the handling unpleasant

Good call Steve

70tno

New shock's lots of money you may not need to spend our bikes handle pretty well on knackered shocks [mine did i didnt notice the front shoc had gone untill i went to put the side stand down and had to lean the bike over to the right to do so then noticed oil over the front of the bike] I should point out i had a topbox on at the time and put the slightly off handling down to that i am running a nitron on rear and have a hagon coming for the front


But i do think the back tyre is causing the problem as the back tyre wear's it almost feels like the bike is on tippy toes as you start to corner when you get it layed[spellin easy words are the hardest] over it's fine but it's getting it over thats the problem it feels on edge!!! as it comes off the squared part onto the side if very worn the tyre can also flex giving a wierd feeling
from what you have said about the rear having plenty of tread on the sides it sounds like the centre is worn and the bike needs a new set anyway!
Minimum tread depth recomended by BMW is 2mm on the front and 3mm for the rear measured at the centre of the tread [i would say thats a bit conservative and change mine at about 1mm front [legal limet over here] and 2mm for the back]

Hope i have explaned this ok Dai