RE: Dangers of manhole covers & springtime practice

["Robb N. Wong" <Robb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well....that's why you practice!

I was originally responding to someone who was not used to leaning the bike.
The circle drills just get you more used to leaning the bike, dumping it
shouldn't be an issue since you will be traveling 5-10 mph throughout the
drill.  Drill I would recommend:  big circles in 1st gear (50 feet in
diameter); then go smaller 30 feet diameter; smaller 20 feet in diameter.
As the diamters decrease, lean angle will increase - but speed will be high
enough that on a decently tuned bike, you won't dump it.  These are easy
enough to do in first gear and maintaining steady throttle in 1st
gear....remember, the drill is simply just to get used to leaning the bike,
(and looking "through" the turn).  Remember to keep your head turned and to
look "through" the turn.

Other handling drills where dropping the bike IS a bigger problem - but an
area where I suck - is U-turns.  On a VFR I want to be able to whip around
on a 2 lane road and not make it a 3-point turn!  Uturns are those maneuvers
in which you definitely need control over the bike, and it's a useful
maneuver, but it's not a "natural" thing to do....but it is necessary almost
once or twice each ride!  I was one of those riders who instead of u-turning
a bike on the street, would go around the block looking for a space.  Then I
realized how important the maneuver was (busy streets; cross overs to hiways
etc.)...can't speak for you all, but being proficient at u-turns makes the
rest of my riding easier.

FWIW I start with big "u"s in a big oval, then progressively tighten things
up.  One of the best places to try is early Sunday mornings.  Go to the far
end of a grocery store parking lots where they have rows parking lots that
face each other with space in the middle, kind of like this:

HHHHHHH

   8

HHHHHHH


Start in the middle (at the "8" above) go towards one of the rows and make a
big U turn - use 4 whole spaces wide.  As you come around you will face the
other side of spaces.  Go to the other side and repeat. Once you are comfy
using 4 spaces width, gradually tighten up the turns so that now you are
turning inside 3 spaces, then 2 spaces.  With 4 spaces wide, you can leave
it in first gear and have no brakes.  At 2 spaces, you will probably demand
more lean, more throttle, more touch in the clutch.  At LESS than 2 spaces,
you'll also use counterBALANCING (weighting the outside peg) and feather
your rear brake).  Remember to turn your head and almost look at your ass as
you get into the tight ones.  Once you can do that fairly proficiently -
before you leave....try doing it again with 3 spaces....pretty darned easy!

O.k. - enough - sorry.  Point is to familiarize yourself with lean - do
circles.  To get good at low speed handling do u-turns.  Stalling becomes a
problem...but that's why I practice.  I'd rather be able to control my bike,
than have my bike control me in the event of a close encounter of the
cage-kind.

Robb
Robb@xxxxxxxxxxx


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-st@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-st@xxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jim
> Gillespie
> Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:59 AM
> To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Dangers of manhole covers
>
>
> Robb N Wong <Robb@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> > An excellent drill for getting used to leaning the bike is slow speed
> > tight circles such as those in an MSF class.
>
>     Be very careful not to stall though - if the engine dies when you're
> leaned over at very low speed you may not be able to get back to
> vertical.
>
>                 Jim
> --
>       jim@         ,'_                  After that it's just instinct and
>   gillespie.org   / -.--.    ___        red mist ...
>                  _\_  ~-.`--'_.-'
>                 / /\\    \--'_ \\
>  '99 Sprint ST  \__/ `---'  \__/                         -- Robin Szemeti
>
>
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