Roundabouts... ??

[Varcon]

Hiya !

Does anyone know of any decent sized roundabouts around for practising KD's on ? Near(ish) Oke would be nice, but just generally round and about....no pun intended there !

Ideally they need to be fair large, clean and quiet ! I was thinking of the one over at hatherliegh, but i think its probably a bit too small !!

Cheers !

O yeah, also a google map of where they are would be good too !

Also, if anyone wants to come out sometime this week with me to practise that would be cool !

[TLS-Moose]

In a public forum, no such locations exist


That big oblong one between Keynsham & Bristol looks quite good though

[Music]

Do you have a big carpark ? Get some cones or boxes anything will do. On a quiet day or in the evening

Or is there a old airfield near you? We have one in Honiton (Smethearp Nr Dunkerswell) I am sure you could use that one if you asked the farmer.

[haynesvfr750]

hehe theres a few good'uns in cornwall ! id say just go out early in the morning and use the ones which are generally busy during the day , id liekto come out and mess around but a bit far to come and practice kd's lol

[Mervin]

Blast down the A30 too davidstow airfield do it there stay off the roads eh, will not repeat my experience with one twerp near Bridlington last summer in too much detail but trying to knee down around a roundabout on bank holiday sunday inside an artic is not really a good idea, 44 tons of artic supersingle tyres one slip i dont even want to think about it. we never even stuck our knees out until Sheeney started it too stop wearing bits off his bike, except the first transatlantic match races when the yanks stuck their feet out speedway style racing harleys with cowhorn handlebars.
Enjoy riding it does not matter if someone else is faster than you they very likely will be faster into the hedge as well
me nearly 50 and writing this in the hope that you will see that knee downs do not matter being safe does, Oh and i do 60.000 miles a year in a truck so could go on all night about the idiots i see
merv

[DynaMight]

Not a roundabout but I enjoy this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en ... 4&t=h&z=16

It comes off the M5 Junction at Exeter Services (First Exit if you're coming off from Plymouth/Paignton etc). No-one rarely goes up there and as you can see its almost a 360 degree corner, go in slowish though as theres a bump early on.

[Blimey]

Ok knee down on highways is only going to slow soemone down as mentioned 100's of times. Unless of course you know a road so well and absoulty flying. But we all know its fun

On the track its a need. Not just for stopping your scrapping parts of the bike away but it makes it easier to corner faster as the centre of gravity is lower.

There is no way i could corner on a track as quick if i kept my body bolt up right.


Got to go with Merv on the sillyness of doing knee downs around a busy roundabouts though.

My bet is try like the exit off the M5 onto the A30 Honiton bound. When its hot and warm and keep a tight line as Diesel normally spreads outwards. Easy peesy there but if you slip bye bye as there is no run off

[Jonny]

The sliproad where the A30 joins the M5 saaf baand is a bit of a laugh, camberd and clean.

Make sure you do it at off peak times. I nearly saw the colour of adrenaline in Newton on the way to work the other day. Knee downing in town @ rush hour is not a recomended thing to do.

[steve-d]

I wouldn't mind going out and doing some. One thing I regret about the trackday, not hanging off. Theres a 180 degree corner coming from cullompton i think it is that leads onto dual carrigway to exeter really quiet peg scraping corner easy.

[Mervin]

Just too elaborate a little further, Barry Sheene started this as i said back in the seventies, someone else said to him i keep wearing holes in my exhausts or something like that he said do what i do stick yer knee out when it touches the ground you are far enough over, and i seem to remember a couple of testers from a magazine riding along one with knee out one knee tucked in saying it did not make any difference on the road, hit gravel or diesel and nothing will save ya thats for sure,
merv

[Varcon]

Its not about taking the corner so fast and needing too - more of just a wanting to....i think theres a certain amount of skill in doing it, and it does look pretty cool !

[haynesvfr750]

yer it does look kwl , and feels even better when your doing it , first time i got my knee down i had a huge smile on my face all the way home , just kept thinking that was F-in awsome

[SlowR1der]

another reason to hang off is that as you are lower if you do have a fall then you should slide and not bounce (well thats the theory anyway)

Twist of the Wrist
Keith Code

[georgie_d]

Funny enough i saw a biker doing it tonight around the teignmouth kingsteignton rondabout very famous for bikers getting there knee down he had a ducati 999 and titanium sliders sparks everywhere well cool i was in my car and followed him round out of envy

[Jonny]

Is'nt the road surface on that roundabout utter shite??