Riding upstairs..
 

Hi can anyone give me tips about riding up stairs ? I,m quite confident about going down flights and around corners but am reluctant to go up. I,ve visions of getting half way and screwing up. Then i will be in trouble. The bike is dual sport but is it best to go slowish and try to acelerate up or is it best to get good speed up first.? Do you think knobbilies would give a good advantage over road oriented tyres.?
Cheers guys, I know you will come through..!

Lucky you ! We don't have mountains in the Netherlands.

See you june 21 (20)

Freek

Standard method of dealing with any uphill situation is to get up to speed first and ride it. If you need to accelerate on the way up you're at huge risk of a wheelie - then you have to shut off and you're toast.

Practice first on an easy smooth slope with a similar angle - and yes it's steep!

How many stairs are you talking about?

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Call me old-fashioned, but i prefer roads/tracks. Why do you want to know how to ride up stairs?

If it's just a couple of steps, build a ramp, if more think of somewhere else to drive/park (i presume you're intending to drive up hotel steps in order to park your bike off the road).
ChrisB

. Why do you want to know how to ride up stairs?

Erm... well around where I live now there are a few smallish flights of stairs 10-12 steps which save me going the "long way" around. I go down them ok, just wondering if i,m good enough ( or stupid enough) to go up them. All this tom foolery goes on before normal people and tourists are up and about I hasten to add ;-)If I get really competent there are also some right mingers to try and go up too. When you start to do it,it becomes addictive. If you have been to the Sacre coure in Paris you know the babies i,m talking about...
Yeah, no worries Freek, be prepared for a major upstaging, put your cash on the dark horse....heh,heh,heh

Wow! - the ones around Sacre Coeur are really steep!

What bike is it? (This will make a BIG difference to the advice)

Advice from MTB school of thought is to hit the bottom at about running / jogging pace with your weight nr the front (stand on the pegs?)

Keep the engine in the "torque" area of the rev range and just let it pull you up. knobblies would probably be better, don't you think?

Lower tyre pressures make he ride more comfortable and give more grip, but you risk rim damage and pinch flats.

I can't wait to hear when you've done it! Send some pics!!

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

I like urban hooliganism a lot. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif

When you start to do it,it becomes addictive.

I agree. We have a lot of steps which seperate neighborhoods near where I live and they are great fun on my 1977 XT 500. If they are long flights, I can only go down.

It's the most fun you can have in the city on a dirtbike!!

Hi all, yeah it is addictive... The bike is an aprillia pegaso and thinking about it, it would be better at lower pressures but I need to get one of those rim clamp thingies or I will be inviting problems...
The steps at the front of sacre coeur are very steep and long but around the back in the residential area, there are some with easier gradients or just as steep but not so long so i,m cutting my teeth on those first. I,m sure if the coppers in the Bourne Identity can ride some of them on BMWs I should manage it....
If i dont get arrested first, when I get competent I,ll sort photos out..

Love this subject.
But I am also very curious what kind of bike we are talking about. Is it a pure enduro bike? Or a bigger one like AT, TA, BMW,....?
Might start a search for stairs around here too... :-) Sounds so tempting!

Hi fireboomer, how are you doin, ?
You know the 650 BMW, well its an aprillia version of that bike with better styling and upside down forks...You,ll get a better look from the back when I,m infront on the Enduro tour this summer..ha,ha I know its not the ideal tool but this could be the excuse I need to get something like a dzr 400 of xr650 or ktm 640 adventurer... too many bikes and not enough money.
Theres some steps where I work and tomorrow is looking good to practice going up, as all the suits will not be around over to weekend to complain :-)

Well some progress has been made, I found a flight of " trainer stairs" to practise on, 4 sets of 4 quite close together. At first i thought I did not have enough ground clearance, when I came over the top step the bike ground out on the step, then realised this was more due to me shutting the throttle off too quickly. I did not have any other problems really, I was suprised how much grip I had with normal road tyres at normal pressures. I guess i,ll have to try it on the real deal this week!

Hi

If I can dig up a slide scanner I will try and show you some pictures of me launching my old Dr 600 up a 30 flight of steps near Popayan Colombia.
The trick is to know what is on the top of the stairs that way you can get airtime without crashing into a baby stroller or a jogger or something.

Try to wheelie, at about the same angle of the stairway. aim the front wheel into the fifth or sixth stair and keep the throttle up while trying to keep your chin over the front fender. It is surprising how much distance you fly off the top step. Keep the tire pressures high. I dinged both rims at 30 psi!!
Going down on stairs. You can do crazy steep staircases if the are wide enough to ride down them diagonally.

enjoy

lost1 (the stairmaster)

Hi there, man, i,d love to see pictures of that!!
Not grown the balls to try the biggies yet, Had a small mishap on a different set, stalled the bike crashed into the clocks winded abit but just held onto it and not drop it. Need to have another crack at it me thinks.....

hey loons! great topic. i have done many stairs and am totally addicted. my tips would be, dont hit the stairs at any speed you would'nt want to hit a log or concrete block at while riding. When the front starts climbing, stand on the pegs and lean over the bars. KEEP THE POWER ON!!! A drop off will cause a wobble or you to go over the bars and an increase will cause a fatal wheelie. I have the concrete burns on my back to prove it!! I am planning a new concept. Escalators. Anyone who knows Canary Wharf in London will know the undergrond entrance I mean, but it has to be planned with military precision. I want to go down the up and up the down, at night I might add with look outs to give me the all clear, no passengers. By the way, its mine, dont go getting my glory! happy stairing!!

ere, that blokes a nutta!!
hello mate, good to see floughting the law is alive and well ;-)
i know what you mean about the going over the bars if you shut off abit..... happened to me and I was thrown into the mirror stalk and it winded me. Managed to hold the bike and reverse back down the flight. No witnesses though thank god....the embarrassment !!!
What bike do you use for these antics ?

1985 XT600, loads of low down grunt so I dont have to think about gear changing if I need to up tempo a bit. A recce of my escalators has revealed camaras everywhere! rubbish! Off to dip me wheels in the Sahara in Sept tho, so that should keep the excitement fix at bay for a while!

Nice bike.... i,m beating myself up here trying to decide what to get next. The aprilia is 100% reliable but I want something that could handle serious abuse and still go quite well on the road.

Get rid of your Pegaso. I had one and it gave me nothing but trouble. First the shock went, then the frame, then the starter clutch, etc etc ad nauseum.

I reckon any XT or XR (big ones 600+) would do perfectly for this sort of antics. I know the XR/R and XR/L can both be tuned like you wouldn't believe, to create a great urban hooligan bike...

NO NO NO!!!! TO THE PEGASO! i had one from new, but after 2 months took it back with full refund. So many hassles and they took the engine apart twice to try and get rid of a really annoying backfire when shutting down the throttle. Get an older XT or XR and spend the money on getting it done to your spec ( Dave Lambeth or Overland Solutions are good) loads of grunt, easy engine and will go anywhere. Hope i've helped.

You know, I,ve not heard anyone to say a good word about the aprilia. I must have been quite lucky cos its not caused me any aggro !
Your all making me paranoid now.... i was hoping to replace it this year but am gonna squeeze a trip to russia out of it first.

sorry, I thought you were GOING to buy one, if yours is good i am sure it will stay that way. They just seem to come off the line with faults from new. Have fun in Russia.

you guys are all mad!
but you've got me wondering if i can get my
96 YZF600 up the stairs near my local beach
might want to up my life insurance first!

great stuff keep it up!
cheers Slugnugget

Hi Guys, Keep practicing on riding both up and down stairs. It comes in handy when you have to park your bike in hotel lobbys or in plain view of a restaurant window. Our friend American Bob used to hit the five marble steps up into the Laos Paris Hotel lobby in Vientiene way to fast and finally cracked one with his yamaha TDM, but the hard part was getting through the glass doors at the top after quite a few BeerLao...

This stair climbing technique worked really well for us in Ecuador:

1 Start out by drinking some snake liquor (big jar of rotgut with real snakes in the bottom)

2 have dinner and a few beers

3 go to kareoke bar, have more beers, sing all the songs they have in english

4 share bottle of rum with locals at kareoke bar

5 repeat steps 3 and 4 until the proper mood is accomplished

6 get bikes from hotel and do wheelies around the plaza. This gained the approval of the locals and many thumbs-up.

7 find a good flight of stairs. you will be surprised what you can go up on an XR

8 approach in 1st gear, just into the "meat" of the powerband, blip the throttle to help the front wheel onto the 1st step

9 stand up, lean forward, and gently roll on more throttle. As with any hill climb, keep the clutch slipping a bit for max control. Continue to the top. A little extra speed will let you launch into the air for bonus points from the judges.

10 laugh till it hurts

This is not looked down upon in many countries. As I said, the few locals who saw us thought it was great and congratulated us the next day. In the USA, we would have been hanged. Relaxed attitudes are possibly the best part of travel.