Twist of the Wrist: The Basics of High Performance Motorcycle Riding

by Keith Code

Book Overview

This volume focuses on the skills needed for high performance machines. It uncovers and traces, action by action, the direct links between man and machine. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0918226317
• ISBN13: 9780918226310
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Acrobat Books
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Helped me survive some scary occurences

I don't know about everyone else, but when I read a book I learn from it. There is a lot to learn in this book. I am glad a I read it a few times already because I think what learned from it saved my skin the other day when I hit a large hole in a country road going about sixty or seventy in pretty good lean on a right hander. I think my forks bottomed out because they made this ugly noise and the bike started bucking like a horse ( I don't have steering damper ). I did what the book suggested in this instance: I didn't get scared ( until later ), I relaxed, I got out of the saddle, balanced on the pegs, and gassed it. Result: bike stayed up and I didn't eat it. Keith will tell you to trust your bike and let it do its thing, he says riders and their fears are the reason bikes go down and all you have to do is learn to be a good rider and let the bike do what it is designed to do. Excellent advice. This book might save your butt. BUY IT AND READ IT OVER AND OVER.

Useful for road and touring riders as well.

Although clearly written for the high-performance and/or racing addict, "Twist of the Wrist 2" is highly useful to help road and touring riders get the most out of their machines as well. Although if I get carried away, I start dragging pipes, saddlebags and floor boards on my touring cruiser, Code's instructions on when to roll the throttle on, when to brake, counter-steering and turn entry and exit, etc., etc., work just as well on heavy touring barges as on crotch-rockets - may be even better, because no one expects them to handle. Oh, and stealthy application of the appropriate technique sometimes allows you to catch unawares those sport-bikes that enjoy more power than rider skill. By the way, efficient riding makes life easier on the passenger as well, they can't see the speedo - smooth riding makes for happy passengers!

Want to really improve your riding?

Code's book changed all my perpective towards motorcycling. Reading it and applying the information given in it improved my way of riding dramatically. I generally ride big enduros and at first, I was thinking that this book was for only the sportsbike riders or even for the race track fans. I was on a vacation at the Mediterrenian coast when I started to read the book on the beach. After reading a few chapters, I found myself on my bike exploring the new world of curves. My wife was a little bit angry with me but on the way back home, she was also very impressed.Improving your cornering is only one of the many other perfect riding techniques that you can benefit from Code's book. You will also be surprised when you learn braking, looking at the road, sitting on the bike etc. Every corner of the book is full of information and it is really very difficult to get everything at once. I read it maybe 5 times and everytime again and again, in order to get the feeling what is explained in it. I got up early at weekends and rode to my favorite curves in the city just for practising. Everytime you become well at doing one thing and find out that you couldn't pay enough attention to another point. But as you practice, you make incredible improvement.There is only one point which I found annoying in the book: The meaningless vocabulary at the end of each section. My language is not english, maybe that's why I couldn't get "the point". It was confusing.My last word is "ANY motorcyclist SHOULD read this book regardless of what kind of a bike she/he is riding.".

A Solid Book of Fundimentals In Need Of Updating

As a beginning rider that completed the MSF riding course, I was searching for the tools that would allow me to ride faster and safer. While the MSF covers the "how to" it doesn't really go into the "why"...This book does an excellent job of telling you why you do things on the bike and how the bike will react.If you are a street rider wanting to ride faster, better and safer than skip "Twist of the Wrist" and buy this book instead. "Twist II" really should have been the first book in this series as it focuses on fundamentals, while "Twist" emphasizes the skills of road racing, which are obviously different than street riding.While the information contained in this book will always be relevant, the text and layout look a bit dated, especially in this day and age of "...for Dummies" books. The text is easy to read and comprehend but can be a bit juvenile at times. I have read and applied the concepts of this book to my everyday riding and feel it has accelerated my learning curve tremendously over what I would have learned simply by doing or listing to the advice of friends.Bottom line: 95% of riders can benefit from reading this book. Read it, apply it and be a better rider.

excellent book, ride faster smoother safer

This book will teach you how to ride like Doohan instead of riding like a squid (eg fast and smooth instead of point and shoot). "A twist of the wrist 2" will teach you how to ride faster, smoother, safer, it could save your life and will teach you more about motorcycle riding technique than you thought you could ever know. This guy (Keith Code) taught Doug Chandler how to go faster. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This volume teaches you cornering technique that applies to any situation. The main chapter headings are "throttle control", "rider input", "steering", "vision", "braking", "traction" and "racing". You will learn that smoothness equals speed and safety. Using the techniques taught by Keith you will find even a bike like my Yamaha Virago 1100 is a pretty quick bike through corners as long as you set up a smooth entry into the corner, then power through and blast o! ut the other side. I've blown away squids on GSXR750s and 1100s using this riding style, mainly because I can now carry a higher cornering speed. Keith teaches you that braking hard into a corner just upsets the suspension and maked the bike pogo all th way through. Get your braking done before the corner and the suspension is set up to provide traction all the way through the corner.