The other day, my wife commented to me that I am seemed to be more confident on the bike. Music to my ear because she lost confidence herself when I dumped her quite a few months ago on a slow U-turn. When I am riding solo (which is not that often), I practise taking corners a bit more aggressively and do slow speed maneuvering. This helped a ton. But as others have pointed out, switching out the front tire made a big difference as well. The stock tire was getting an odd shape, feels like it slips when taking corners, and really felt weird. After switching out (albeit it is a Shinko - not a PR2 or PR3), I can now appreciate how different it is with the new tire - the bike corners with so much less input. I do however want to point out that with wife on the back, I still get a bit nervous (which is bad) on slow speed cornering. Although she is about 120 lbs or so, I definitely feel that weight on slow speeds. Twisties is another story - she just does not like it when the bike leans too much - she will do all kinds of crazy stuff on the back. I keep telling her she will get us both killed or maimed. Not that I lean that much to begin with, my feeler will be good few inches off the ground and yet she does not like it whatsoever. So, guess no twisties for me unless solo, which is fine by me. But I do need to gain more confidence on slow speed with her on board. I am taking some ERC this June and hope I learn a few tricks.
I also wants to point out that knowing your limits, which can manifest itself as fear, is a good thing. But with fear can come nervousness and that can be a bad thing. When you are taking a corner and you get nervous, you can make all kinds of mistake.
