I am hoping that the 2 Questions I have are proper for this forum/section. The reason I am posting these in the Aprilla Forums, even though many boards exist for discussing advanced motorcycle skills, is that I found the discussion here very intelligent and insightful. So here it goes and thanks to all in advance for the input.
1. COUNTER-STEERING
I have been, as of today, riding for a month; so very new rider here. However, I am very interested in automobile advanced driving techniques and physics of motoring in general and did a lot of reading and research before beginning to ride full time. I also took the MSF Beginners Course where they make a half-hearted attempt at teaching counter-steering. After riding for a week and thinking that I was properly counter-steering, however, I set a day aside to really dig into this concept and I found that, I was not counter-steering really. I was still muscling the bike (a 125 CC mini race-type bike, by the way) into turns. After a few attempts of applying no downward pressure on the handlebars and really pushing FORWARD on the bar on the side I wanted to turn and confidently letting the bike do the rest, I realized that this is indeed frikkin magic!!! How effortless the bike leans and turns still boggles my mind.
Unlike most new riders, however, I am finding that counter-steering is working too well. When I perform it on public roads in the manner described above, I feel like the front end of the bike is almost floating, or gliding so easily as if it were on ice, and I am fearful of the bike suddenly leaning too much. I realized that this fear is making me steer very slowly and gradually into turns. When I see a bend, I am very slowly countersteering and it takes me a good amount of road to lean the right amount (even if it is a relatively minor turn) that is appropriate for the turn. This may sound strange but I caught myself doing this many times over the last couple weeks. It is annoying and almost dangerous too. A few times I realized I wasn't looking ahead far enough and when I saw a turn coming up shortly I had a hard time getting into the right lean angle on time -mind you this happened even when I didn't need any space to brake and reduce my speed (my speed was already suited for the corner coming up). Of course I also need to make it a habit to look well ahead, but I should still correct this bad, bad habit of very slow steering, I'd think, no?
Would you all have any suggestions for this at all?
2. ClutchLess Shifting
This question is more to satisfy my curiosity as opposed to a real problem; though I'd love to know what you think about it.
In autos I enjoyed shifting without the clutch when appropriate and I was super happy when I realized that it is even easier to do on a motorcycle. I am able to shift both up and down relatively smoothly (depending on the gear; for example clutchless upshifts from 2nd to 3rd are generally butter smooth -even smoother than when I am using the clutch for the same shift at the same speed) without using the clutch. I am basically unloading the drive-train momentarily by closing the throttle and shifting the gear at exactly the moment when the throttle is maximally closed (by that I mean as closed as the throttle needs to be closed for that particular clutchless shift); not sure if this is the best way, but so far it is working fine on this weakass bike. On downshifts I am blipping the throttle following the closing phase of the clutch too. I am doing this to avoid engine braking (no slipper clutch on my cheapy bike of course).
My question is whether mastering clutchless shifting in the manner described above could work in a high performance motorcylcle on a roadcourse. Would the downshifts that I am describing above work reliably enough that one would not have to use the clutch? Or would the above technique still lock or severely brake the rear tire occasionally if done on a track with a powerful bike, thus making it too risky to rely on as a routine race technique?
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