U-turn without duckwalking... big deal?
#461
08-04-2015, 05:55 AM
Some lessons were painful.
#462
08-04-2015, 07:32 AM
This is an awesome post ^^. 
I live on the edge of town, and the road past my subdivision is brand new, gorgeous blacktop, that turns to gravel about two miles away. There is almost never any traffic. I start with 25 mph maximum stops, and work my way up, 10 mph at a time, until I'm doing maximum braking from 65 mph.
The road has fog lines on both sides, and I practice u-turns and figure eights, and see how far inside the fog lines I can go.
Then I practice some fairly aggressive weaves using the dotted center line.
When I leave the house to go anywhere, there are three stops signs to get out of the subdivision. Keep in mind, everyone who works is gone, there is nobody out and about at all. Nonetheless, every stop sign is an opportunity to practice: just as I come to a dead stop the left foot goes down, I look left, then right, then left again and go. Three times. I try to make every stop perfect, zero lean, zero wiggle, left foot down, look, look, look, go.
When I come home, as I'm pulling into the driveway in front of the garage, I do a 720 in one direction, and into the garage. The next ride, I do a 720 the other direction, then into the garage. I try to do them as tight as I can, with the second circle tighter than the first.
I live on the edge of town, and the road past my subdivision is brand new, gorgeous blacktop, that turns to gravel about two miles away. There is almost never any traffic. I start with 25 mph maximum stops, and work my way up, 10 mph at a time, until I'm doing maximum braking from 65 mph.
The road has fog lines on both sides, and I practice u-turns and figure eights, and see how far inside the fog lines I can go.
Then I practice some fairly aggressive weaves using the dotted center line.
When I leave the house to go anywhere, there are three stops signs to get out of the subdivision. Keep in mind, everyone who works is gone, there is nobody out and about at all. Nonetheless, every stop sign is an opportunity to practice: just as I come to a dead stop the left foot goes down, I look left, then right, then left again and go. Three times. I try to make every stop perfect, zero lean, zero wiggle, left foot down, look, look, look, go.
When I come home, as I'm pulling into the driveway in front of the garage, I do a 720 in one direction, and into the garage. The next ride, I do a 720 the other direction, then into the garage. I try to do them as tight as I can, with the second circle tighter than the first.
#463
08-04-2015, 07:35 AM
#464
08-04-2015, 09:51 AM
#465
08-04-2015, 10:51 AM
Seasoned HDF Member
My HOG chapter just organised a day's Slow Riding course this last weekend. We had about 10 bikes attend and it was great.
I practice slow speed U turns, slaloms, emergency stops and stuff all the time, but it was good to have a proper course marked out with cones and specific exercises to do. Very valuable practice and you could see the skill level of people in the group who hadn't done much slow riding just get better and better as the day progressed.
So to echo many in this thread, it's about looking where you want to go, having good clutch control and being confident that the bike can do what you ask of it. And lot of practice of course....
I practice slow speed U turns, slaloms, emergency stops and stuff all the time, but it was good to have a proper course marked out with cones and specific exercises to do. Very valuable practice and you could see the skill level of people in the group who hadn't done much slow riding just get better and better as the day progressed.
So to echo many in this thread, it's about looking where you want to go, having good clutch control and being confident that the bike can do what you ask of it. And lot of practice of course....
#466
08-04-2015, 12:15 PM
Road Captain
Also, along with a few dirtbikes over the years, we had three wheelers (ATC's) too. Look them up. Not sure if my parents liked me and my brother or were secretly trying to kill us.....
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