Who practices their low speed skills? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Who practices their low speed skills?

PrivatePilot

PrivatePilot

Ironus Butticus
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From another thread....a few years ago myself and 2 riding buddies went and did an advanced rider course with Motorcycle Masters. Learned great new skills, part of the day was high speed maneuvering and evasive maneuver skill building, but a lot of the day focused on low speed skills. As I often say, anyone can ride fast in a straight line, but so many people are lacking any sort of skills at low speeds - watch other riders maneuver through a parking lot, for example.

Anyhow, it was so much fun that at least once a summer I take all my pylons out and practice my slow speed work. Keeps up the skils of using the rear brake, clutch, and throttle all together at very low speeds to make this sort of stuff possible, turning around at full lock on the steering, correcting last second, etc.

Someone in one of the Star Venture Transcontinental forums recently suggested that it was impossible to turn around this boat inside 2 parking spots, so I took that as a challenge lol.

mega.nz

929.05 MB file on MEGA

mega.nz mega.nz

3 segments, circles....figure 8's, then straight line weaves.

(Sorry, file too large for all the usual video hosting sites, so a clunky link instead)

Just wondering who else practices their skills (aside from just plain riding) regularly? Looking for something fun and worth every penny? Check out the Motorcycle Masters stuff.
 
PrivatePilot said:
From another thread....a few years ago myself and 2 riding buddies went and did an advanced rider course with Motorcycle Masters. Learned great new skills, part of the day was high speed maneuvering and evasive maneuver skill building, but a lot of the day focused on low speed skills. As I often say, anyone can ride fast in a straight line, but so many people are lacking any sort of skills at low speeds - watch other riders maneuver through a parking lot, for example.

Anyhow, it was so much fun that at least once a summer I take all my pylons out and practice my slow speed work. Keeps up the skils of using the rear brake, clutch, and throttle all together at very low speeds to make this sort of stuff possible, turning around at full lock on the steering, correcting last second, etc.

Someone in one of the Star Venture Transcontinental forums recently suggested that it was impossible to turn around this boat inside 2 parking spots, so I took that as a challenge lol.

mega.nz

929.05 MB file on MEGA

mega.nz mega.nz

3 segments, circles....figure 8's, then straight line weaves.

(Sorry, file too large for all the usual video hosting sites, so a clunky link instead)

Just wondering who else practices their skills (aside from just plain riding) regularly? Looking for something fun and worth every penny? Check out the Motorcycle Masters stuff.
Click to expand...
Almost 2 spots. Against the steering lock? The only way you could do better, do like Gene did. Lean the bike in more than your body, twist your torso around more. Lock the throttle hand, and use the rear brake to tighten your line.

I honestly don't think it gets much better on a "land barge".

Scrape those floor boards!

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk
 
Lightcycle said:
Great run!

BTW, how did you take this video? Drone?

That bike has a very wide turning radius, good job getting it done in 2 spots! (y)
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DJI Air2. I just set it where I want it and then put the controller down and ride, the nice thing about modern drones is that they completely fly themselves if you take your hands off the controls so it will just hover where you leave it until the battery gets low, and then automatically return to where you took off from and land even if you don’t do it manually.
 
PrivatePilot said:
DJI Air2. I just set it where I want it and then put the controller down and ride, the nice thing about modern drones is that they completely fly themselves if you take your hands off the controls so it will just hover where you leave it until the battery gets low, and then automatically return to where you took off from and land even if you don’t do it manually.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was wondering... your hands were on the bars the entire time, "If it that's a drone, then who was zooming in and out?"

Thx for the info.
 
matt365 said:
Almost 2 spots. Against the steering lock? The only way you could do better, do like Gene did. Lean the bike in more than your body, twist your torso around more. Lock the throttle hand, and use the rear brake to tighten your line.

I honestly don't think it gets much better on a "land barge".

Scrape those floor boards!

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I know if I went faster I could certainly tighten the circles (I’m actually counter-leaning for a lot of this, the way it was taught), but take a look at the police motorcycle rodeos and you’ll see that they carry much more speed through their maneuvers. I’m pretty sure I could do that sort of stuff as well with some practice, but I would be much more worried about a drop at that point - Dropping a big cruiser/touring bike at a crawl like this tends to result in very minimal damage (or none at all) that usually isn’t even visible as the contact points are usually it’s pretty strategically chosen, however a drop at higher speeds might result and more damage due to sliding.

I’d like to get my hands on a dedicated cruiser rodeo bike (like the rodeo Harley’s) that are designed specifically for rodeo riding (and being dropped lol) so I could really push my boundaries, but I can’t justify buying one specifically for this sort of thing, and there is a limit on how much risk I’m willing to put into damaging my chesterfield, especially this one seeing as how parts can be hard-ish to find since the Yamaha abandoned it.
 
matt365 said:
use the rear brake to tighten your line.
Click to expand...

There's a trials technique that I'm trying to master right now where there's no rear brake involved, only front.

You use it when your lean is so extreme you need to take the inside foot off the peg. This means that although you're able to use the rear brake for left turns, for right turns, your right foot is basically on the seat, so you're only able to use the front brake to control your speed.

Scary part about using the front brake is that the drive from the rear wheel is compressing the forks, which makes steering very difficult.

I'm okay doing the lean bit, still trying to master the front brake control without dabbing. Or dumping the bike... 😭

 
I did the motorcycle masters course on my old VTX which I was much less worried about from the perspective of dropping it and getting a few scratches on it - it pretty much only had one contact point, the crash bars, and if they got scraped up on the bottom edge, I really didn’t care that much. It also had a much lower centre of gravity with no top box, and definitely less farkles, etc. Perhaps a combination of that, along with less apprehension about actually damaging something that wasn’t cheap and/or easy to replace worst case scenario, made me a lot more brave with speed through some of these manoeuvres.

I did some of these exercises on my Vulcan, and now on the transcontinental, and the differences in the centre of gravity vs the VTX were certainly noticeable, however I was amazed at how much better the transcontinental is vs the Vulcan, It’s such a well engineered bike with all of it heft down low.

bitzz said:
you want to talk to user N234, he's put together a gymkhana group
www.gtamotorcycle.com

motogymkhana riders

Who’s been practicing?
www.gtamotorcycle.com www.gtamotorcycle.com
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I actually came really close to booking one of these this summer but it didn’t take me very long watching a lot of the videos of such to realize that I am certainly going to be a black sheep amongst the crowd showing up on thousand pound couch.

Plus then there’s the whole paranoia of possibly dropping it and causing all sorts of expensive damage (see above), blah blah blah. I come back again to really needing an appropriate bike (or a beater) for stuff like that.
 
The cops drop their bikes all the time. I have an OPP moto cop drop by Markville course frequently.

Yes, their big secret is counter leaning the big and 'throw the bike down'.
 
Evoex said:
The cops drop their bikes all the time.
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My brother used to manage the Toronto "Blue Helmets"... and I used to go down and watch them practice.
YEAH they drop their bikes, a LOT.
They have a "move" where they rush up to the line, slam on the brakes, without putting a foot down, slam the kickstand down, then fall over onto the kick stand... PARKED. There was a "new" member, she wasn't very good at this, so they let her go last, so she could watch how it was done... so she slides in last, kicks out the kick stand, and MISSED, and her bike fell and knocked over the other 11 bikes, and riders, in the line, like dominoes. The third time was the funniest.
 
Lightcycle said:
Uhh... @PrivatePilot, are you riding Darkside while doing these drills...?!?! :oops:
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Yep. There’s a lot of misconceptions and assumptions about the whole darkside thing, like this sort of stuff isn’t even possible while darkside.

A few weeks back I was on the floorboards at 80kph carving a beautiful constant radius sweeper that led to and from our campsite in a state park in WV, and yeah, I can do this sort of stuff as well. Honestly, with a few caveats, darkside rides like a regular motorcycle tire 90% or the time. Many less astute riders probably couldn’t even tell they were riding Darkside if you put them on random motorcycle without telling them first.

I’ll get 40-50,000km out of a $180 BF Goodrich GForce Comp2 vs 10-15,000km out of a $400 motorcycle tire. Plus I have benefits like insanely better rear braking in an emergency due to 10x or more rubber on the ground, and better cold weather and rain traction.

I know there are a lot of strong opinions on both sides, but after putting almost $1500 into rear tires and labour a few seasons ago because of the mileage I ride, I decided to be open-minded about the whole thing and honestly, having now found attire that I really like (the most common one in the IBA crowd, dark sighting is needless to say very common there), it’s unlikely I will ever go back.
 
Evoex said:
The cops drop their bikes all the time. I have an OPP moto cop drop by Markville course frequently.

Yes, their big secret is counter leaning the big and 'throw the bike down'.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that’s the stuff you never see in all of the videos online.

The fear of dropping your bike is what keeps a lot of people from doing courses like this. I get it, there are legitimate damage worries for a lot of people, however at the Motorcycle masters course they actually had clip on scrape protectors for the Harleys, a lot of guys took off their side bags as well. Some blocks of wood, thick plastic, or foam in some strategic places would provide all the protection many people would need however.

I think there’s also the stigma attachment of being laughed at, however at the Motorcycle masters course this absolutely wasn’t a thing, to the contrary I saw a few people trying really hard and then dropping their bikes only to get a round of applause and reassurance afterwards. My buddy on his Goldwing was one of those people. This course made him an insanely better rider with more confidence after only a day. And he was involved in a “left turn of death” accident two years ago and some of the emergency braking and avoidance skills he learned that day may very well have saved his life.

bitzz said:
They have a "move" where they rush up to the line, slam on the brakes, without putting a foot down, slam the kickstand down, then fall over onto the kick stand... PARKED. There was a "new" member, she wasn't very go
Click to expand...

I’ve done this kinda sorta, putting my kickstand down while almost stopped. I’ll see if I can do it the way you describe lol. Probably cheating with the darkside tire on the back end, it’s much easier to keep balance while straight and slow lol.
 
A timely thread. I do this at the start of each season and it is a real head game. Once you go in the parking lot with the lines I find out how much I suck at going clockwise, able to lean way over on the counter clockwise. Still not locked to lock though.
Well done with the drone filming
 
At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to do some low-speed exercises. So far, I've done zero. Life has gotten in the way.

Nevertheless, I hope to have much more free time next year. For now, I've got some nice tips from this post.
 
A full steering lock u turn is about a basic confidence level anyone should have for street riding. Your overall control on the motorcycle will improve astronomically.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Yep. There’s a lot of misconceptions and assumptions about the whole darkside thing, like this sort of stuff isn’t even possible while darkside.

A few weeks back I was on the floorboards at 80kph carving a beautiful constant radius sweeper that led to and from our campsite in a state park in WV, and yeah, I can do this sort of stuff as well. Honestly, with a few caveats, darkside rides like a regular motorcycle tire 90% or the time. Many less astute riders probably couldn’t even tell they were riding Darkside if you put them on random motorcycle without telling them first.

I’ll get 40-50,000km out of a $180 BF Goodrich GForce Comp2 vs 10-15,000km out of a $400 motorcycle tire. Plus I have benefits like insanely better rear braking in an emergency due to 10x or more rubber on the ground, and better cold weather and rain traction.

I know there are a lot of strong opinions on both sides, but after putting almost $1500 into rear tires and labour a few seasons ago because of the mileage I ride, I decided to be open-minded about the whole thing and honestly, having now found attire that I really like (the most common one in the IBA crowd, dark sighting is needless to say very common there), it’s unlikely I will ever go back.
Click to expand...

Your exercises are even more impressive now.

Also... you know what I said earlier:

Lightcycle said:
Not my style of riding, but I don't think you're crazy.
Click to expand...

I changed my mind. You're one crazy murder foxker...
 
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