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Parking lot practice

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Cat13 said:
BUT then you dont want him worrying about what will happen if he hits one, but rather focusing on his skills. He'll know he hits one and sounds like hes got to will to keep working on it.
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You're the expert.

but, the idea is to learn to deal with objects that may end up in your way.
 
Sushii said:
You can always just get some card board and cut tiny circular shapes out of them and add some light and thin weight at the bottom so that you won't have to worry as much about running into them.
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thats smart... wouldnt be slippery...
 
reciprocity said:
You're the expert.

but, the idea is to learn to deal with objects that may end up in your way.
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Youd be surprised what target fixation can do. We wear yellow vests on site.... wanna guess how often students come right at us?

I am by no means an expert... Just wanna give him every advantage he can use.
 
Cat13 said:
Just a couple comments on that.... keep in mind different bikes have different centres of balance different size tires etc. I rode the big harley decker and it was easier to manoeuvre than my vstar with less ccs. Your bike can prob still move better but its just a comment :)

As for the right hand turns… yep practice but your doing awesome in taking that time to do just that.

Last parking stalls are typically 2.75 metres by 6 metres long. Varies depending on municipality. But might help you in figuring out your distances.
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The center of gravity gets closer to the ground as the angle of rake on the steering is increased. That is, if you imagine the ground as the bottom of a triangle, and the forks as one side, then as the angle increases, the centre of gravity from ground decreases or gets closer to the ground, which puts all the weight above this point and makes the bike tipsy as you try and balance all this weight above it. Compare a super sport to a sport touring. This is why a super sport, with the more aggressive rake, becomes tipsy in a tight turn.
 
Wheelieboy said:
Prefer to get it locally. You can run them over and not crash.
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You sure about that??

These can actually cause more problems than the larger ones as the allow you to get so close so rolling over them isn't that difficult, but if you're on the brakes while rolling over, they skid and do all sorts of other enjoyable, unpredictable things that will find you on your head.

the larger ones are unforgiving,, yes, but you'll learn to stay away from them, much like the other hard fixed items you'll find on the local roads that you'd like to be able to ride around, but not hit.
 
Cat13 said:
Youd be surprised what target fixation can do. We wear yellow vests on site.... wanna guess how often students come right at us?

I am by no means an expert... Just wanna give him every advantage he can use.
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So target fixation can be worked on with the larger cones as well, he'll learn not to look at them.

there's a good chance he's going to see SOME kind of target out on the streets at some point, with no experience dealing with targets, learning on the fly is the only option.
 
reciprocity said:
You sure about that??

These can actually cause more problems than the larger ones as the allow you to get so close so rolling over them isn't that difficult, but if you're on the brakes while rolling over, they skid and do all sorts of other enjoyable, unpredictable things that will find you on your head.

the larger ones are unforgiving,, yes, but you'll learn to stay away from them, much like the other hard fixed items you'll find on the local roads that you'd like to be able to ride around, but not hit.
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Thats true, but the thing I like about the small cones is that it allows you to abort the turn if you're taking it too hot or at the wrong angle by standing the bike up and running them over (as opposed to hitting the brakes or correcting mid-turn). You dont really have that option with the large cones. Ideally, you want to learn to avoid them, but when pushing/learning the limits of your own skills, things dont always go as planned.

I'm not talking riding at M1 exit pace here, I'm talking push the limit of your skills/bike pace.
 
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Wheelieboy said:
I'm not talking riding at M1 exit pace here, I'm talking push the limit of your skills/bike pace.
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This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

The 2 US-Based race schools I've taught for used the larger ones for this reason, because you have actually go around something.

try it with both and you'll find you actually approach things much differently with an object to avoid.

If you're talking M2 skills, the tiny ones are fine.

If you're looking for advanced skills, practice how you want to perform in the real word(avoidance is the key)

because this is practice, you can also build in a buffer zone initially, to ensure you have room to abort, but another skill is to actually test riding into one of them, clipping one with a bar, in a controlled condition to see what happens.

Anything you can add to your skillset as rider has value.
 
reciprocity said:
This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

The 2 US-Based race schools I've taught for used the larger ones for this reason, because you have actually go around something.

try it with both and you'll find you actually approach things much differently with an object to avoid.

If you're talking M2 skills, the tiny ones are fine.

If you're looking for advanced skills, practice how you want to perform in the real word(avoidance is the key)

because this is practice, you can also build in a buffer zone initially, to ensure you have room to abort, but another skill is to actually test riding into one of them, clipping one with a bar, in a controlled condition to see what happens.

Anything you can add to your skillset as rider has value.
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I see what you're saying here. I suppose my biggest concern is trashing my fairings on my streetbike...fairings dont come by cheap. I do have a second bike (SV1000) that I can practice on which doesn't have fairings on it, could be an idea with the big cones.
 
You're going to attempt to explore the limits of your skillset on a bike you don't want to crash??

Hitting a cone is going to be the least of your worries, the only way to know where the limit lies is to cross over it from time to time.

Seems like a bit of a conflict of interest
 
reciprocity said:
Seems like a bit of a conflict of interest
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I would say so for my streetbike. Theres a level of risk I'm willing to take on my streetbike in terms of exploring the limits. Practicing basic skills through the big cones is within my comfort zone in terms of the chance of crashing the bike, pushing the limits of my skills...not so much as I'm likely to make mistakes along the way.

My SV is not pretty so I'm not too concerned about cosmetics on it. No conflict of interest here.
 
Well you've got great points with the cones. There are ups and downs to each variation. Wheelieboy is going to have to decide which works for him. Nothing saying you have to stick with one either. Want something not slippery at all... sidewalk chalk works also.

But now you see what I dont say I am an expert. I can learn too :) No one ever knows it all.
 
JFD said:
The best riders are the ones that can ride the slowest.
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I'm so ****ing good, i don't even need to ride... i walk!
 
my one and only gripe about the m1 exit course is that they are done on small dirt bikes and/or sport bikes...i'm riding a kawi vulcan 500 and it's SOOOOOOOOOO different from what i learned on...i felt confident once i finished the course, but now am a little more timid on the cruiser...i do go out and ride on my own and with the bf, but i definitely still have to find the courage to do a lot of the low speed turns etc. we did that weekend...
 
Ideally I would like to use the larger cones for practice as I'm sure it would offer a greater challenge, but I don't think they are very practical to move around. I need something that I can throw in a backpack or transport on the bike. Maybe I can strap down the big cones onto the back of a bike?

The reason I really want to get better with these skills is that I find that tight radius, max. lean, low speed riding fascinating. It looks like the riders are just toying with the laws of physics! Right now, I think I'd rather focus on these skills over being able to drag knee at silly speeds as that's the kind of riding that interests me most.

If I hit a cone and go down..., well that's just part of it I guess. This is exactly why I chose a Ninja 250R as my first bike. I wanted to be able to really "ride" a forgiving bike that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg to fix if/when I drop it.

Also, does motorcycle gymkhana or anything like it exist in Canada? If not, do you think it would take off? I think it would be an amazing thing to get into.
 
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