Hello, and welcome to the PowerDrift Podcast. I've done a lot of abstract and long podcasts so I'm
going to keep this simple and I'm going to keep it real. This time, I'm talking about five things
that you can do to your motorcycle, which will dramatically improve your motorcycle experience.
Some of these are free, some of these are cheap, and some of these are expensive changes,
but each of these changes adds up to a much bigger thing than what you think it does.
The first I would like to talk about are quick throttles. Now my introduction
to quick throttles came from the idea that most dirt bikes have quick throttles anyway,
right, but what is it? On most motorcycles when you put your hand on the throttle,
that's, let's call the zero position where the throttle is completely closed, right, now on the
handlebar, since it only works in the horizontal plane, we want our forearms to be as horizontal
as possible so all the effort we are putting into the steering goes into the steering, right. But,
most motorcycles have extremely long throttles, so on my Street Triple, on my Duke 390, for example,
when you open the throttle, you go from zero position here to something like this,
where even your shoulder has started moving by the time you get to full throttle
and that means for those of us who ride fast, those of us who ride at the racetrack, getting
the motorcycle to give all of its performance is a little bit of a physical challenge,
because your body has to move quite a bit to be able to get to that position on the throttle.
Now, the good question to ask here is, if that is so much work, and that is so annoying,
why would manufacturers do it? Now generally, quick throttles go on motorcycles that are fast,
but are assumed to be ridden by skilled riders, because the whole problem of giving more throttle
or less throttle is a problem of control. So, what I'm effectively saying is if you have say
175bhp motorcycle, if this is your zero throttle position, and I give you a quick throttle, your
movement from here, zero throttle to full throttle becomes only this much, let's call this 30 degrees
of movement as the throttle rotates. In 30 degrees, you're being asked to manage 175bhp and
it requires quite a bit of skill to be able to do that so that your riding is smooth, your throttle
control is perfect, and you're able to come out of corners as fast and as nice as you like.
If I go from 30 to 60 degrees, which is a very common amount of throttle travel to give on
motorcycles, I give you more room to modulate the throttle with, so even if your throttle hand moves
around quite a bit and it jerks around quite a bit, the power delivery to the rear wheel is not
that interrupted. So as you get better on your motorcycle, it's worth thinking about changing
your throttle's movement from 60 degrees to something smaller, like 30 degrees or something.
So on my KTM today, I go from zero to full, that's all it takes. That's the same on my Tuono,
it's the same on my R6 and the R6 throttle is actually stock, but the R6 being a super sport,
it implies the idea that you're going to be at the racetrack, you're implying some
amount of skill on the part of the rider and you're implying an environment where even if
the throttle hand is not very smooth, there is time and space to work it out and become smooth.
So the first upgrade I recommend and it's not always an expensive one is to change the cam that
sits inside the switch cube right next to your throttle grip. The bigger the cam, the quicker the
throttle will open, the quicker the throttle will open, the faster you can get to full throttle,
so things like a fast road or a racetrack, you will be able to exploit the performance fully.
We are not implying that you will be flat out in sixth with the throttle rolled to the stop,
but the idea that in the lower gears first, second and third where you might want more
acceleration from your motorcycle, it's capable of it already, it's just the difficulties of
extracting all that acceleration go away because you've made your throttle simple.
The second upgrade I would recommend is, think about how your body is gripping the motorcycle.
I've said this before, but I believe that the belt line decides what happens next.
Below the belt line is all the equipment you need to hold on to the motorcycle and above the belt
line is all the equipment you should be using only and only to control the motorcycle. So your hands,
your shoulders, your head, your eyes, all are part of the control mechanism and your legs,
thighs, knees, calf muscles, ankles, feet are all part of how you hold on to the motorcycle. So pay
attention to how easily or how difficult it is to grip your motorcycle. This is crucial because
the more firmly you hold on to the motorcycle, the more a sense of being in the moment you will get,
the more in control you will feel and the more you will feel like the motorcycle and your body
is one unit which improves your control over the motorcycle, but what does that mean in hardware
terms? So on the KTM Duke 390, for example, my biggest complaint is that their heel plates simply
aren't large enough. Now I ride aggressively and I like to get my feet all the way up so I can push
my knee into the tank and grip the motorcycle firmly. But as soon as I do that on motorcycles
like that, my heels are left in the wind and there's literally nothing to grip against and
to me that is a huge problem because I do use my ankles a lot to hold the motorcycle with.
On my other motorcycles and most of the test motorcycles today, it's not really a problem
because the heel plates are big and the place where motorcycles have feet forward positions
or feet under your knees positions, your swing arm pivot plate sits right there and you can brace
against it. But, if your heels are free, figure out a way to put a metal plate or something in
there and make a heel plate that is the right size for your feet so that you can brace against it.
If you're wearing boots, which have screws on the inside, and a lot of motorcycle boots,
unfortunately do, you will also prevent scratching the motorcycle because the scratches that will
accumulate will go on to that metal plate and if you can get it made or source one, you can always
source another one when the scratches become too unsightly for you to bear. Personally, I love the
fact that my heel plates are super scratched up because it reminds me of how hard I've ridden
that motorcycle, how well I've gone on that motorcycle and how much work has gone into it.
So much so that I have R15 heel plates bolted, sort of like a hack to my 390, they used to be
vertical when we mounted them, and today they're bent inward from the amount of force that they've
had to absorb. So first upgrade, quick throttle, second grade, heel plate. So the third grade is a
usability upgrade. Now a lot of motorcycles today come with upside down forks, and they are far
superior in function to right side up, forks and if you want to know why, we have a video on that
in the Simplified series, please go see that it's one of the earliest Simplifieds we did,
but the reason why they have a problem is because the fluid is suspended above the seals and if the
seals leak for any reason the fluid runs out and then you have an actual problem where it
is a situation where your front suspension isn't working, and you will have difficulties getting
home. One of the ways I find which is extremely effective is, when your motorcycle is new, the
stanchions, the silver part is completely fresh, there's no dirt on it, there's no scratches on it,
at that point, get a nice set of fork seal covers and just wrap the thing up. Now in construction,
there is the fork seal, under that is a dust cap and the dust cap's job is to prevent all of this
filth from going through and cutting the seal. But India is a far filthier place than where these
motorcycles generally come from and therefore giving it an added measure of protection is
always a good idea. So I personally use Kriega's fork seal covers, they're about 1700 bucks from
LazyAssBikers, but find whatever fork seal covers you think work, most of them are made of neoprene,
they wrap around that part of the shock and just close that off and remember, when you sit down on
the motorcycle, when your weight arrives, the fork will compress further, which means the amount of
travel exposed is a lot less and since neoprene is elastic, it'll actually grip the leg quite
tightly, which means if there's loose dirt and stuff, the neoprene will usually just shave that
off the stanchion leaving it clean and allowing your fork seals to run for a really long time.
I'm not proud of it, but I've had fork seals that have lasted seven, eight years, my Ducati's fork
seals, I think were changed at a recent service at something like 52,000 kilometres. I know that
the quality of the fork seal was not poor, but I know that the fork seals did contribute to
the longevity of those fork seals, it's an easy upgrade to make, it costs absolutely nothing, they
look great and I think in the long run, they will protect your seals longer than just the dust cap
itself. Then next upgrade I'd like to talk about is get your motorcycle to fit your body. Now this
is important because manufacturers will design your motorcycle to fit as many people as possible,
within reason, right, so if, for example, the TVS RTR 200 was designed and they decided that the
average Indian was say five feet seven inches tall, about 70 kilos in weight with a certain
inseam and all of that, that describes somebody like you, but it may not describe exactly you.
And what I'm saying is, your motorcycle has quite a lot of adjustability built-in where you can
make adjustments to make it fit you precisely. That means moving the levers up and down, brake
and clutch, that means moving the pedals up and down, gear lever and brake pedal where possible,
changing the seat's shape, form, height, whatever it takes, moving the handlebar
forward and backward until you find a position which is natural to how you sit on the motorcycle.
There's no real right or wrong to this. If this is what you think is a comfortable body position,
go for it. The idea is five hours into a ride, you shouldn't have to think about how your body
is operating the motorcycle, that's a variable and a distraction that you don't need in your life.
When you place your hand it should be where the handlebar already is
and yes, human beings do adapt so you can have an extremely uncomfortable motorcycle
that you get used to, it is possible to do it but I'm saying spare yourself with the pain
and get the motorcycle to adjust to you, it's a lot faster, it's a lot cheaper and
in the long run, it's a lot more effective. Okay, so I've always said I love hard seats,
my KTM 390 Duke's seat is rock hard and after 27,000 kilometres on that seat, the one thing I do
not want change on that motorcycle is the foam on that seat because it fits me absolutely perfectly.
In fact, what I realised about 5000 kilometres ago is that I started sliding forward and
backward on the motorcycle as I accelerated and braked and I couldn't figure out why.
I'd got these Klim pants on test around that time, so first I thought it was the Klim material and
then somebody pointed out that unlike most KTMs they've seen my seat look shiny. What I'd managed
to do was wear the seat out and so I went to a seat guy and replaced the seat material again,
and just changing the seat material to something fresh and grippy changed my riding experience
completely. So handlebars, absolutely free to move forward and backward, just remember to torque the
bolts correctly once you're done, changing the handlebar, not an expensive proposition. If you
need to change the levers, go for it, but moving your steel lever to an aluminium lever with a
fancy anodized coating on it, it's not going to make a big dent in how the motorcycle goes, it
might change how you feel about how the motorcycle looks, so decide if that money is worth it.
But, if the levers are not comfortable on your fingers certainly change the levers to something
that you're happier about. So levers, handlebars, cheap mods, foot pegs, generally not as cheap as
levers but if you need to move your foot pegs to a position that is happier for you, absolutely go
ahead and do it because once the motorcycle fits you correctly, it will stay like that for a very
long time and it'll always feel comfortable riding it because your body and the motorcycle
are working as one. The final thing I'd like to talk about is part of how you grip the motorcycle
and that is the space between your knees. Now a lot of us grip the tank firmly or not, but to me,
it's not an optional activity. I've seen a lot of guys on Enfields with their knees played out into
the wind, I've seen a lot of cruiser riders do that and if that's what you're comfortable with,
that's fine. But inside the knees, holding the tank is one of the most critical holding positions
because it produces a lot of force potentially if you put in a little bit of work. At the school,
which I teach at, I'll leave a link in the description, we tell the students to put their
knees into the tank and not just rest against the surface of the tank, actively hold the tank for
the duration of the ride. The first couple of days like this will be strenuous on your thighs because
you are actively pushing your knees inward for quite a long time, but once you get used to it,
you no longer have to think about it, you brace your core a little bit, your knees go in, but
your sense of being locked into the motorcycle and feeling what it's doing is a much stronger thing.
But the problem is, that most tanks are coated in paint, and paint is usually coated in polish
and polish, fabric, when they slide against each other, there's not a lot of friction going on,
so the grip levels are low. I'm saying, that's an important place to figure out a solution.
On my KTM, I've used bathroom tape which is dirt cheap, you buy it off Amazon, it's the tape that
you'd put on the floor of a shower or something like that, put that tape, make a nice pattern,
what I've learnt about shower tape is the adhesive at the back of this tape and the tape itself don't
expand at the same rate as they heat up, so don't cut long strips, because they'll start peeling
off at the edges, cut small strips, make an interesting pattern and you'll immediately notice
that the bike feels better between your legs. If you want to go the whole hog, there are brands
like Stompgrip and TechSpec, and all of these guys who make actual grip pads whose job is to improve
how you grip the tank area and many of them will have accessories, smaller grip things that will go
other places on the motorcycle where your body makes contact with it and the idea is you don't
slide forward and backward under acceleration, when you're going to hang off and you're trying
to turn you will be locked into a position on the motorcycle and you won't have to do much.
And remember, the idea of motorcycling always is, if I can achieve the same result with less amount
of effort now, then I can ride that motorcycle for longer without getting tired and getting tired is
a definite problem because as you get tired, your ability to concentrate goes away from you
and that's something that is always going to be dangerous. In fact, if you've read the accident
studies, they all say the same thing, that most accidents happen within five kilometres of your
origin or destination, the most common origin and destination being your home in your office.
And the reason is not that something supernatural happens in that five kilometre radius, it's just
that you're close to your origin destination and your brain is beginning to think about other
things like the stuff you have to do when you get to work or stuff that you have to finish when
you get home and it's that list making process and the loss of concentration it implies that
usually causes the accidents. So the less tired you are, the better you'll ride the motorcycle
and all of these changes accrue to the same result, I feel better on the motorcycle, I feel
more in control of the motorcycle and when I ride for longer, I will be less tired when I get there,
but the point is, you will get there. Thank you so much for watching.
This is the PowerDrift Podcast. If you'd like to see more podcasts like this, leave us a comment,
if there's specific topics you'd like us to discuss, do leave us a comment as well. This
podcast is a discussion on motorcycling, sometimes very abstract, sometimes not so abstract,
like this time, but whatever it is, I'm happy to discuss this with you, just leave us a
comment. Thank you so much for watching. Four buttons, subscribe, the bell notification icon,
thumbs up and please do share this video with your friends. Each of the items I've mentioned
in the video are quite easy to source now, was not the case as little as five years ago, but to me,
they're not changes that you make tonight. Do one thing at a time, see the changes it makes,
be excited about adjusting the motorcycle to how you think it should behave and these
five things will change quite a bit of it. Thank you so much for watching.