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RE: [ST] U-turn diameter



Mike,

Bummer about the spill.  I'm still looking at some of the damage from a hit
and run at 3000 miles (3 years ago now).  Torques me a bit every time.

About the U-turns...  I'm not sure I can explain this, but the MSF
instructor showed me a little trick for doing them...  When you go into a
tight u-turn, you should shift your body weight to the outside of the turn.
That is, if you are doing a tight left hand turn, hang off some to the right
side of the bike.  Standing slightly on the pegs can help too.  I know this
sounds wrong.  It feels really wrong the first couple of times you try it.
But it really does work.   This guy then proceeded to drag the jugs on his
BMW airhead  -- at 10mph.

Remember back to the bicycle days.  When you were just tooling around at
slow speeds and you did a tight turn to the left, you flopped the bike to
the left with your left leg firmly against the cross bar and your butt off
the seat putting your body weight to the right side of the bike and on the
pegs.  It works on a motorcycle too, only the bike is too heavy to flop over
so you have to move your body to the outside of the bike.

Try it.  It works.

Dan Wallander
'99ST
'74 R90/6

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-st@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-st@xxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Michael
Young
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 8:05 PM
To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ST] U-turn diameter

Two weeks and 1500 miles into things, I still feel like such on dork on the
ST. I dumped it in a gas station Saturday evening turning around to get to
the other side of the island. It has always felt a bit ungainly at low
speeds.

So, tonight, I rode out to the empty church parking lot where I once long
ago rode many hot, sweaty miles. I was shocked to find that I would fail the
m/c license test if I were to take it at this moment. The best u-turn I
could manage was a touch over 20', and that's sweating bullets, slipping the
clutch, and riding the rear brake. At no point was I comfortable turning
with the bars at full lock.

Maybe I'm just gun-shy after the recent "off". Or I just forgot how to ride
over the winter lay over. I have it half in my mind to tape moving blankets
on the plastic and ride little circles until one of us gets it right.

Does anyone else have this "problem"? I think it's a matter of getting used
to the bike, but the seating position and tall gearing makes it somewhat
more difficult.

(Not a *real* big deal on the spill and its aftermath. Some inch long
scratches through the paint, and the brake lever is bent almost 90 deg. I
didn't even notice the lever until this evening, 2 days and 300 miles later.
I don't know if the gear made a big difference. When it went, it went over
really fast, pitching me into a tumble to land on my feet, like a Hollywood
stuntman. )




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