Use Your Bike's Strengths - Wheelspin

I see it occur often when a rider brought up on a diet of high-revving four-cylinder machines jumps onto a Ducati or other twin-cylinder bike for the first time. Excessive downshifts into a corner cause some rear-wheel chatter as the rear tire fights against the engine compression, forcing the rider to let the chassis calm down before he can get back on the throttle. Then when he is finally able to open the throttle, the bike quickly bumps into the rev limiter, forcing him to immediately upshift while he exits the corner. You can hear him slamming into the rev limiter in the next few gears as well, as he attempts to rev the engine to the moon between gearshifts.

It's not just limited to twins, either. I see a lot of literbike riders screaming the guts out of their engines when exiting corners-but their throttle hands aren't anywhere near wide-open. And then when they do pull the trigger, the front end goes skyward as they run headfirst into the meat of the literbike's substantial torque curve, or the rear tire breaks loose from the strength of said torque.

Falling into the habit of always using the same riding technique is an easy pitfall, especially when reinforced by years of riding one motorcycle-whether it be displacement, engine configuration, or specific model. All the television images of the top racers exiting corners with the rear tires scrabbling for traction just strengthen the belief by many riders that if you're not coming off the corners with the engine sailing near redline, you're losing time. You'd be surprised just how much faster you'd go-and how much time you'd make up-by adapting your riding to your motorcycle's strengths.

A Ducati's or other sporting V-twin's torquey powerband doesn't have an inline-four's quick-revving nature and upper-rpm power hit (the same could be said of three-cylinders like Triumph's Daytona 675), and so many riders think they have to ride them up near redline in order to make time. What those riders don't realize, however, is that V-twins possess a very stout low-end and midrange that many inline-fours can't match. Taking advantage of that strength means not keeping the engine rpm sky-high while cornering, but instead using the engine's torque to get you accelerating through the turn earlier and easier.

This often results in entering a corner a gear higher than you think is normal. Valentino Rossi has said, "If I need to decide between a lower gear or a higher gear, I always go for the longer gear. It's better to be in a slightly taller gear than a slightly lower gear. The important thing is that you need to stay where the engine has the best torque, not before and not after." What Rossi means is that it's easier to use the softer portion of the torque curve to get you through the critical portions of the corner, instead of tiptoeing near the torque peak and being forced to be extremely careful with throttle control to avoid overpowering the rear tire while cornering. But because a V-twin has a relatively flat torque curve, there isn't much of a peak to avoid, so throttle application can be much more aggressive earlier in the corner.

All of the current 600s have spiked torque curves compared to those of V-twins and literbikes. Thus, in order to stay in the best part of the torque curve and take full advantage of their power characteristics, the 600s need to be revved a lot harder than the bigger bikes. There simply isn't enough torque available lower in the powerband to make use of. And while you do need to be careful with the throttle as the power approaches its torque peak, it's not as critical as it is with a literbike. However, as your skill level increases, you'll be surprised how a 600's agility allows you to keep corner speed high, and there will be situations where you will be able to carry enough momentum to use a gear higher than you would think is possible and avoid approaching the torque peak in a critical part of the turn.

While a literbike's torque curve is obviously wider than a 600's, the latest versions are also now the equal of V-twins, with smoother overall outputs. This means that you can take advantage of the powerful low and midrange torque available from most of today's literbikes and get through twisty sections quicker than you would if you were keeping the engine in the real meat of the powerband, where throttle control would be critical. And yet they are revvy enough to zip through that midrange and into the top-end fairly quickly, meaning that you will probably be getting identical drives off the corners without having to scream the engine and tiptoe through the top-end.

Next time you're out riding, try taking advantage of portions of your bike's performance other than the top-end. You might be surprised at what you find.