I don't think "no pain no gain" applies to riding motorcycles.

 

If you an't dropping it in practice you aren't learning

Get some fire hose or similar and use electric ties to secure it to the engine guard. If you have a SG take the bags off.

 

Look down you go down. Buy 15 feet of heater hose & zip ties. Put it on your engine guards & crash bars if you have them. Saves the chrome. I do it for newbies and anyone else that cares about their bike when I am teaching them the figure 8 through the key hole, etc., Pick objects well outside the circle to look at to keep your bearings. Practice doing U-turns in two stalls of EMPTY parking lots. Clockwise & counter clockwise. Then decrease the radius as you gain skill & confidence.

 

Lots of people ride lots of miles and never really know how to ride other then going straight down the highway or gently around the corners. Being a graduate of the purported toughest motor course in the country (andy campbells Ut highway patrol course much harder then the Northwestern course which I also did) I can say I have dropped a bike at least a 100X's. Prior to Andy's course I thought I could ride as I had done 100,000's of miles on the road. I found out I had a lot to learn, fortuneately you can teach an old dog new tricks lol,

 

Time and time again, I see riders who have rode for 20 plus years and you know what? They are the very ones dragging thier feet the most. Last time I took the advanced safety course, this was no different.

On the other side of the coin, a very good rider who takes the course each year with a CVO dresser locked his front wheel and let the bike down gently. Why? Cause he's trying to better his skills. Skills that will help keep him and his wife alive.

Do I want to lay my bike down? Hell no! Have I? Not to date. Will I? Probably at some point in time. Will it bother me? YES.

 

Remembered about an earlier thread from last fall about Midwest motorcycle police training.
ThomasO gave this little tip about protecting your chrome:

~snip "On dropping and damaging the bike, they had guards for your guards. I found similar and bought a set. What they had, looked similar to collar shafts (see link below); but theirs were silver. I am not sure where they got them, but I used ones that Grainger carries. You need four in total - one for each for each side of the engine guard, and one each for each side of the bag guards. Just put a small strip of reversable tape between them and the bike's guards and this works great. There was no damage on their school bikes.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAY...t-Collar-1L706" snip~

I just took a MC riding class for some low speed skills & I need to work on them... Instructors said we could come back & practice if nothing was going on in the parking lot. Buddy has some cones & with the guards it shouldn't get tooo ugly...

 

So that is who we are, and I am. Really? Sad...

 

3 times in one day has to be some kind of record.

 

They had the MSF course set up in the local High School parking lot last year. I took the Electra Glide out to see how I could do in the course. It is hard. I dropped mine too, but at a stop. I say good for you for practing. You must push yourself to learn.

 

To the OP. I started riding in 1956. I have ridden through a good chunk of North America.

I have never dropped a bike. I suggest that you keep practicing. Maybe some day you to will be a rider and not a learner.