How hard do you push it....

On the road guys, keep it clean

How hard do you go on the road, depending on location, conditions, feel, etc.

Id have to say on a nice clean surface, free of traffic with clean light and a fresh 5 knot N/W, id give it about 80% of my limit. Allowing 20% for any unseen error.

Please dont see this as a pissing contest or to rip on others personal choices, but to swap some personal experience, etc. :thumbsup:

 

Not very; Particularly on Public roads. I could go considerably faster than I generally do (even on the stock-suspended VFR), but tend not to as:
1) It's too easy to lose a licence nowadays and, even though I don't use them, I appreciate the "HC" and "R" endorsements on the licence (and especially how hard it is to get either back if you have to start again! :shock: )

2) The more "evasion" time and space I give myself, the more time I have to react to changing road conditions, mobile hazards (wildlife etc), decreasing-radius bends, and other "mobile hazards" (other road users).

It's all part of the reason I bought the YZF. I can "rip it up" at the track in a controlled environment, with no fear of on-coming traffic. or revenue-generating, radar-toting Coppers hiding in the grass...

I've ridden with some blokes who travel "at pace" (and with VERY few accidents in a lot of combined years of experience). Still, I'm always hearing about the latest fine and accumulated "bonus points" from their trips away :

Maybe I'm just getting old??? :cry:

 

As a general rule I try to keep it to 80%, but sometimes I just get the 'red mist' and end up at 100%. That's all well and good when everything goes to plan, but you just need one little imperfection (either in or out of your control) and it's crash time... as I found out the other day

EDIT - Seeing as people are mentioning the track - I take it easy on the first session, then ride at 114% and nearly crash on every lap :

 

Yeah, thats about it for me... nowdays... I mean.. as the saying goes.. "The older I get, the faster I was...."

EDIT: I have very spirited moments on occasion.. but nowdays I find I am very reserved 80% of the time on the road by comparison to what I used to be like on the road and certainly what I believe is my ability. but hey, on the track - different story - your not there for a hair cut..

 

the experts all say you should always have that 20% margin
How do you know what 100% is if you do keep on pushing your limit????
crash and back off 20% I guess
seriously though I ride at a level i feel comfortable with, we have all experienced those on days when things feel great and you just can ride fast and feel very safe and the those off days when the same road at those same speeds scares the mojo out of you..
Smart riders know not to push it on those OFF days and ride within your limits all part of experience

 

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Good call Mike, everyones limit is going to be different, as far as experience and confidence is concerned. I havent done any track days yet, but would like to see how well i can get into a groove and push it within my limits. I guess the point of the track day is to find a limit where your comfortable.
For myself it would be once you go past that and dont feel confident anymore in your own riding ability to control the situation. But again i'll wait till i can get on the track in a controlled environment.
On the same token, i do enjoy getting into a nice groove on the road (uncrowded roads, good conditions, etc) gives me warm fuzzies :thumbsup:

 

ditto

personally unable to gauage on a specific riding level, varies day to day

 

Generally I Don't push my skills or limits that much. Sadly, at the moment 90% of my riding is in peak hour :cry:

But then again, it does take a bit of skill to keep away from the tin tops......

There only time I've pushed my bike for speed was not so long ago, but really, the Skyline GTR was trying to drag off a ZZR-1100. He HAD to be shown a lesson

Normally though, the ZZR stays under 5 thou revs, so not a lot of skill involved apart from staying away from the above tin tops.

 

70% for me, i haven't gone to my full potential yet, mainly because that would equal injury or death on a public road. Which is why i'm gonna get a track hack and go to wakefield or phillip island :thumbsup:

 

I ride like a girl.

Seriously. I don't ride to percentages, I ride according to my mood.

If I'm in the zone I'll go fast, you know those days when everything just clicks?. If i'm not I'll cruise. Sometimes I just feel like cruising so I will. Sometimes I like to see the scenery, some days I don't care about the scenery, just the road.

If I had to put it into a percentage though, I'd say on a day when I was in the zone I'd be at about 80 - 90%. I don't like to scare myself so I don't and I don't really push my limits, in fact I probably haven't seen my limits in nearly a year.

 

Round town I generally don't push it at all. I don't see the need to prove to somebody how quickly I can crash round a roundabout.

On the twisties I would say I ride at about 70%, but that translates to about 90% of the bikes limits, with its (currently) soggy suspension and mildy flexible frame.

The one thing I would say in my bikes defence, is that you are pushing your skills and the bikes capabilities on the twisties, but are still riding at a reasonable speed. With the superior handling of a sports bike, I think you need to go much faster to achieve the same result.

With regards to mood, I often kick back and ride to enjoy the scenery if I don't feel 'right'.

 

It depends on how fast you think you are compared to actual speed........and your bike )

I think, after riding many years at the track, that you get to a point where you just CAN'T push THAT hard on the road.......and trying becomes exponetially dangerous. After being able to ride all out at the track, anything less feels way to slow and the road just does not give you the extra confidence you need to that bit quicker > and if you're trying to you might regret it later. If you feel you need to push at 100% on the road, take it to the track cause:
A) you could end up dead or worse > in a wheel chair
B) you won't get busted by the Po Po at the track and lose your bike/license with the new anti hooning/street racing laws
C) You'll ultimately be a faster, better rider with track time.
D) riding fast on the road loses all appeal for the most part cause once you've tasted EC or The Island at pace, everything else in life is DULL.......esp getting pulled over for doing 15 over the limit!

I could go on and on but I won't bother and would be a hypocrite cause I've been busted that many times I am not one to preach!

 

someone should explain that one to johno :laugh:

 

At the track you get into your zone, your mind adjusts to the higher speeds and steeper lean angles. You usually have a reserve card up your sleeve if the shit hits the fan and you fug it up, you can often run wide, turn in later, go cross country etc.

When I get back into the twisties, if Im still dialled into track mode, I have to tone it down. I find my judgment has adjusted to higher speed, smooth grippy surfaces, and huge amounts of road space. On the road you generally get single lane, shit surface, loads of bumps and/or gravel, and cars. On the road you sort of need to have a reserve for those conditions, that reserve really depends on the skill and experience of the rider and how familiar they are with the road they are on eg. with more experience for a particular stretch of road you may know where every bump is and can ride a lot faster as a result and still have plenty in reserve. You could probably ride at 50% on your favorite stretch of twisties where as another rider who is not familiar with the road may be at 105% for the same pace. Also speed will change the conditions of a road, 100kph you may find a stretch that is fairly smooth, 200kph that same stretch may have you bouncing all over the shop.

So for me if im riding on unfamiliar roads I would think that im at 60-80 depending on conditions, if im on a road that i know like the back of my hand and want to tear it up im probably at 80-100. When I do ride at 80-100, I will usually give the road a recky run first just to check conditions.

 

You may also suddenly realise that a road that was straight at 100kph, has corners at 200kph...

 

To true....

I mean I didnt know that :

 

Don't know what my 100% is, don't really want to find out either. Haven't had track time yet, though I'd love to have a crack at Oran Park before it goes away, especially after watching in-car footage from a mate's IPRA racecar. Probably 60-70%, 95% of the time. It doesn't just help avoid crashes, it saves fuel and tyres too

When I was still driving my cage I'd feel a lot more comfortable at 90-95% than I do on the bike, so I'd have a red hot blast at the Coppins Crossing road pretty frequently, especially the uphill sections (regardless of which way I was going).

 

Well put Datsun :thumbsup: