油井緋色;2315076 said:
If you're on the street, being faster than you were yesterday does not mean knee dragging with zero room for error and no run off because if something goes wrong, you get seriously injured or die. It means increasing your comfort and tolerance level by working at the lowest range possible that still stimulates improvement. For experienced riders, this could be 40% of their full retard mode. For slower/newer riders, this could be 70%. All riders, if following this, will hit a point where it is no longer safe to increase speed on street corners...then you hit the track; but this is a new riders topic.
You know what's a great way to increase your risk of crashing or dying? By staying ignorant to what you or your motorcycle are capable of.
Finding limits on the street is the fastest way to risk crashing and dying, and that is the inevitable outcome of someone following your "being faster than you were yesterday" "advice".
Almost half of fatal crashes on Ontario highways involve only the rider. Of the rest, half again are rider-at-fault. How many of them were out trying to "be faster than they were yesterday"?
The street should never be a place to find your limits. Do that on the track, period. So yes, your advice is stupid.
To any new rider, there is a lot of good advice here, particularly regarding being aware of your surroundings, road surface, and other traffic. It's also more important to be smooth and predictable rather than fast. Smooth to help keep your bike stable and firmly planted on the road, and predictable to help other road users to be able to anticipate your movement on the road among them
Smooth is key. Smooth will help the fast part, but the main goal is to be smooth, not fast. Improvement is good, but pushing limits to promote improvement should not be done on the street. Do that at the track or at an accredited riding school.
Remember that the street is not a race track and it is not a video game. Sure, everyone wants to have fun on a bike, but the street is still a shared resource that is also shared by other users on foot and on wheels.
You will make mistakes. They will make mistakes. You and them will often make mistakes at the same time and in close proximity to each other. This is where you need to be riding well within the limits of your skills and your bike's capabilities, so you have ample margin to mitigate and correct against your mistakes, others' mistakes, and the unexpected.
Trying to go faster than you did the day before takes away from that ample margin and will quickly put you in a place where you cannot recover. You do not want this when riding on the street, and your family and loved ones certainly will not.
So often after a rider dies from self-inflicted stupidity on a "spirited ride" you will hear other riders say "but he died doing what he loved". Yeah, maybe so, but he died nonetheless, and that means in future he won't be doing any of the other things he enjoyed doing, including maybe less-than-spirited rides.
Think about that when you're riding. You want to be able to keep riding. You can't do that when pushing your limits puts you in a hospital gurney or in the ground.
Hahaha, sorry had to say it.
