Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique Why U Need to Be Able to Drag Your Bike in Corners

This article saved my but a couple times by practicing the technique. I got this off of http://motorcyclecruiser.com/

Why You Need to Be Able to Drag Your Motorcycle in Corners
On most motorcycles, those grinding noises are nothing to be afraid of, and you can help yourself escape more important threats to your safety -- if you are comfortable while making them. From the Summer 1996 issue of Motorcycle Cruiser magazine.

If you have nevevr dragged a footpeg or some other part of your motorcycle, you should do it. Cruisers are generally supposed not to lean over very far when cornering. Because of this and the desire to keep centers of gravity and seat heights low, there is a trend to design new cruisers with ever less cornering clearance. The Royal Star is a good example of this. It is easy to drag the replaceable skids on the footboards. This creates something of a contradiction: Because their riders don't lean over very far and are unlikely to drag anything, designers give cruisers less cornering clearance. Because they give them less clearance, they are more likely to drag.

It's likely that you have never dragged anything on your motorcycle, but you should be ready to do so if you need to. How could you need to drag something? If a turn tightens up much more than you expect. If traffic crosses into your lane or some other obstacle requires you to pull it down hard to avoid a collision. Leaning deeper should be a viable escape option, and even if you have never dragged anything, any stock cruiser has the reserve to perform such a maneuver if called upon to do so.

Assuming your bike has quality tires in passable condition and the road surface isn't wet, oil-soaked or sandy, leaning over far enough to drag things poses no particular threat. The tires and suspension are quite capable of handling the forces involved without excitement. However, your reaction to unexpected dragging, especially if it is an unfamiliar experience, can cause problems. The other potential danger lies in what you drag (and we don't mean your shoulder).

The noise of a footboard or sidestand scraping the road surface may startle a rider unused to the experience. More than one rider has reacted to the experience by pulling the bike upright and running off the road or into whatever else he was attempting to avoid. On other bikes, your boot may be the first thing that touches down. Neither the noise nor the sensation of your boot rubbing the ground should distract you from the task of riding the motorcycle safely. If you have never done it, however, the surprise may get you into trouble. Therefore you need to go do it so you are not surprised

Bikes with their footpegs set well forward sometimes position your feet so that your heels drag during hard cornering, which can yank your foot off the peg. I had a similar experience while cornering vigorously on the Road King tested in this issue. My boot was overhanging the edge of the footboard and caught on the ground, pulling it off the board to bump against the passenger footboard. More attention to foot placement was in order, but the experience didn't make me run wide either.

A bigger problem confronts riders of those motorcycles that grind the pavement with solid parts rather than components like folding footboards or footpegs. When a solidly mounted piece touches down, it becomes a fulcrum about which the bike gets levered in you put enough weight on it. The problem is greatest if the part in contact with the ground is located near the centerline of the motorcycle (not usually a problem on cruisers) or far forward, where it can lift the front wheel off the pavement. For example, the 800 Intruder has a footpeg bracket that runs under the pegs fairly far forward on the motorcycle. You can scrape this gently, but if you plant it firmly on the pavement, it lifts the front wheel, which can produce disastrous results. Other bikes have forward-set controls with even more solid mounting arrangements positioned to drag in corners.

It's not a bad idea to learn what drags first on your motorcycle before you actually drag it. One way is by reading road test. We will tell you if something dangerous drags first. You can also do this by leaning it over at a stop, or if it's too heavy for that, using a flat surface like stiff, straight-edged piece of cardboard. Position this with one edge running down the centerline of the motorcycle between the wheels and lift the opposite edge to see what piece of the undercarriage it touches first. Remember that as the suspension compresses under load, the contact point shifts inboard slightly. If the first item to drag is something flexible or rear of the crankshaft, you probably won't have much problem when it drags. On many cruisers it will be a folding footpeg or floorboard, sometimes with an extended "curb feeler" added just to be the first thing that drags.

If your bike seems have a safe contact point, you might want to actually experiment with dragging it during your practice, assuming you can find a smooth, clean place to lean over at moderate speeds. A good way to quickly become comfortable with leaning over farther than you normally do is at one of the racetrack motorcycle safety schools. (For more information or to find a racetrack safety school in your area, see For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the skills schools story in the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com). The point is to become familiar and comfortable both with leaning your bike over that far and with dragging things. This gives you one more evasion technique and the confidence to use it in an emergency.

-Josh

Taken From Here

Good article, good info

Great article! I remember the first time I scraped the asphalt. Scared the h**l out of me.

I guess that's why the article implies you should scrape before you have to scrape. It is scary the first time.

I guess the first thing to drag on an America would be the footpeg, right?

Excellent post. I freaked out the first time I dragged my footboards. Thankfully it wasn't in an emergency-reaction situation. Now I drag them all the time.

Great article, thanks, seems like the only bike I ever dragged anything with was a lowered 74 HD, didn't take much to drag the pipes..... On the TBA, I assume it would be that little nut on the footpeg, Anyone with experience here?
Warren

Yes the pegs touch down first. If your bike is lowered, you may touch the rear of the pipes as well.

I drag my pipes all the time. i have the long scepters and have lowered the bike with progressive shocks. it looks cool shooting sparks in the air at night. i have had the foot pegs drag on several occasions. if u aint dragin u aint ridin it hard enough!

I ain't ridin' it hard 'nough then...... Have to work on that.... feelin' old again.....
Warren

good stuff to know. thanx for the info

Frank

I drag my pipes quite a bit, but have not dragged the pegs. It pains me to see the damage, but I guess with this info, I am doing ok …… just get them re-chromed each year…… NOT...just live with it…… that’s the ticket for me and my budget.

I don't buy it..... I've dragged my pegs and I've dragged my footboards... It isn't part of normal riding. And, if you drag the left side there's a good chance you will be shifting up a gear whether you want to or not. Yes it's good to know your limits but it's better to avoid these situations in the first place. Try dragging your pegs/boards on a bad road where there are potholes and lumpy patches.... you will come to avoid that sensation at all costs.....

Just my humble opinion....

Excellent post Yoshi,

I agree with the points you've made. Being challenged by placing the basic angles and dangles of geometry into common language, I read the following: If your rear suspension has 6" of travel in the upright position (& say compressed 2" when your butt's in the saddle), it will have 4" remaining to absorb bumps before "bottoming out". At a 30 degree lean, that amount of travel is reduced to 3.3" and at 45 degrees reduced to 2.8".
Not being a pure numbers guy, I translate that to: On a known roadsurface modern tires retain a great deal of traction at greater lean angles than most of us (myself anyway) normally ride around at. Combine that with the greater traction achieved by accelerating through corners, and these bikes behave themselves very well. My take, it's important to know, especially in tight spots caused by the cell-phone wielding minivans drivers or someone's sofa laying in the roadway that you can scrape a part and not loose control.

On the other hand, the pucker factor (again, in my case anyway) goes way up, when entering series of corners at speed, leaned way over and suddenly finding myself in a minefield of potholes. The physics of bounce wants to make the bike go vertical and while the physics of the corner wants to make the bike go straight. Grabbing a handful of brake or putting the bike upright in a corner can be bad juju'.

My humble interpretation, If I know the road surface and have good visibility, "go fast" is a 'trip' as we used to say; If I am uncertain about the surface and don't know what lies around the bend, I tend to back off a bit.

We have one of those nasty decreasing radius corners just up the road from me that eats a couple of bikes every year. I believe if the riders would have trusted the lean factor they would have come through just fine. But most people's panic response is to grab some brake.

john

Hi Grump,

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I don't buy it..... I've dragged my pegs and I've dragged my footboards... It isn't part of normal riding.

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This is not directed to you so much as to all of us, as I wanted to quote you. The point of Josh's post was that we should know both the limits of ourselves and that of our bike(s). Not to make a habit of dragging anything! I purchased a set of Videos from the Motorman back in September of 2003, sort of a continuing educational course at home.

Jerry "Motorman" Palladino

Quote:

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If you can take your motorcycle, turn the handlebars full-lock and scrape a perfect circle in the ground with your pegs or floorboards without dropping your bike or putting a foot down, you're in complete control of your motorcycle. In the real world, you will never have to complete this maneuver, it is simply a control exercise

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Quote:

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The first thing you must master is head and eyes...The second technique you must learn is how to use the friction zone...The third technique is the proper use of the rear or controlling brake.

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...riding a motorcycle is not instinct. Most of the time the proper technique is actually the opposite of your instincts...

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Not to push his tapes, but to provide the opportunity his instruction may provide to others I'll give a link to his website: Ride Like a Pro


Grump, thanks for bearing with me on this.

Moe,

Like I had a choice?? heheheh..

Just like being able to stand on your toes doesn't make you a ballerina, being able to scrape anything on the bike doesn't mean you're in control.

" If you can take your motorcycle, turn the handlebars full-lock and scrape a perfect circle in the ground with your pegs or floorboards without dropping your bike or putting a foot down, you're in complete control of your motorcycle. In the real world, you will never have to complete this maneuver, it is simply a control exercise. "

I would need a lot of spare parts available before I would try to master that one.....

Scrape if you must, but to me that noise is a signal that I am nearing deep doo-doo land........

Grump, Fair enough!

After blathering about leans and corners et al above, I agree with Grump in that dragging parts isn't part of my daily routine. Dragging stuff on the Bonneville wasn't uncommon, but I was 22 then. When you turn 25, reflexes change. I mostly putter down to the post office and back. Heck, I don't think I've was out of 3rd gear this past year, except once or twice. OK, so I fibbed about the last comment.

Experience, road conditions, bike set up all vary, so you end up with a bunch of answers; and they're all correct. Ride Safe.

jh

Sure freaked me out the first time i draged the pegs on the TBA, mainly because it was about 15 years since i owend my last ride.( The side stand also drags )

keep draggin it's good for the soul

Phil

blewey,
Yeah, I will admit dragging the pegs brings back macho memories, and it is good to know just how far you can lean these babes over... But one "DOH" moment and reality sets back in mighty quick.

Your results may vary...

Ride safe...

Ok grump ya got me,i guess i was being a bit macho .
Ya got a fair comment there, I ride every day to work ( even in winter ,sorry you guys that can't but we have beutiful winters here), and in my line of work i am not in one location for too long so i see alot of different road surfaces and conditions,some i would never attempt to lean her over far enough to scrape anything. But when i get on a road with good conditions and great corners it does happen a fair bit ( only if i know the road well of coarse)and yes there is always the unforseen that can happen so i understand where your comming from. then again we can step off the curb and get hit by a bus

ride safe , i think
phil

I remember a few times in the Gorman CA area when the wind was blowing so hard I was dragging the pegs to go straight ahead. As a little background for those not familiar with that area, one day the wind stopped for a few. 4 buildings, 8 cows and 6 people fell over.

"The noise of a footboard or sidestand scraping the road surface may startle a rider unused to the experience. More than one rider has reacted to the experience by pulling the bike upright and running off the road or into whatever else he was attempting to avoid. On other bikes, your boot may be the first thing that touches down. Neither the noise nor the sensation of your boot rubbing the ground should distract you from the task of riding the motorcycle safely. If you have never done it, however, the surprise may get you into trouble. Therefore you need to go do it so you are not surprised"


That's what happened to me last year at the GA rally. Started scraping my peg in a reducing radius curve and got a little spooked. I didn't want to grind my peg it so I brought the bike up a little bit but then realized that I had to yank it back down to get through the curve. Lost my vector, got too close to the outside and went down in the mud. I haven't had my bike low enough to scrape the pegs again but I'm glad that I've done it so I know what it feels like.

-Greg

I don't buy it either. If you are dragging any part of your bike you already screwed up. You need to know your limits, but it shouldn't require you going out and purposely dragging the bike. That would be like saying you need to go out and lay your bike down so you can practice ejecting yourself from it prior to hitting the ground, just in case it does happen. I don't think so..

Most motorcycle police offices get training on dragging the bike and what to do when they have to lay the bike down, but they don't actually go out and do it.

The best think is to get experience with the bike and slowly discover the limits of the bike and yourself. When entering a turn all required braking should be performed prior to initiating the turn. Your speed at the start of the turn should be slower than when you exit the turn. Always look throught the turn (not where you are at but where you are going).

I have dragged my bike, but never on purpose. I screwed up and it was a little disconcerting but I knew the tires had good contact on the road and I stayed within myself and finished the turn. Lessons learned basically.

Sorry about the rambling....

Tom