Advice please

[staningrimsby]

Hi Everyone,

I am really new to motorbikes and did my CBT 5 days ago, had a little bit of an issue getting to grips with the look where you want to be not where your going principal and did struggle with the figure of 8 and U-turn.

Since my CBT I have been out on my bike a few times practicing and slowly but surly I am getting used to these manouvres, the one thing I do seem to struggle with believe it or not is the slow ride in a straight line

I have tried to focus on something in the distance but this seemed to make no difference can anybody please give me any tips on how to resolve this before I go for Mod 1
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When you have removed the impossible the improbable however unlikely has to be the truth.
1986 Yamaha DT 80 >> 2009 Honda Varadero XL 125 >> 2003 Suzuki V-Strom 1000

[andy_uk]

Keep the revs high, slip the clutch a lot, control your speed with the rear brake.
Then just plenty of practice (it does take time, it's harder than it looks!)
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Aprilia Classic 125, GS500E, ER5-A1, ER5-C4, ER6 & an XJ6 project frame...

[kitty kat]

My husband (used to be an instructor), said start off riding with both feet down on ground, look only about 12-15 feet ahead of the bike and feather the clutch in & out. When you have got used to this and can move slowly forwards confidently, lift your feet off the floor & again keep practising until you are confident.

Enjoy the bike

[evilbond]

Bike under drive will stay up, keep it under forward drive.

More you ride the better you will get and more confidence to look where your going instead of the road 1mtr in front of you. Don't expect to be a pro after 5 mins.

Watch twist of the wrist 2 for many pointers. Ride lots,learn from riding and get better with more experience.
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Bike: K2 Bandit 600S
Car: Astra GTC

[hedgehugger]

It's only been 5 days
I found that getting to grips with things one at a time helped.
Practice, Practice, Practice.

It's not so much focussing on something ahead, but a general scanning ahead. It does come naturally after a while.

[Drax]

[Drax]

[esullivan]

The trick I've found is to keep some "tension" in the drive/transmission. The bike can be moved around at *very* slow speeds with a combination of revs, clutch and back brake, but the three of them together took me a while to get.

I was on a course recently where the instructor helped those with slow riding issues by taking the students through the following steps, introducing each of those three things one at a time:

1. Ride with the clutch fully out and no throttle. You'll need some throttle to get going, but once the clutch is out all the way, just let go entirely on the throttle. Almost all bikes will be able to do this if your idle is set correctly. You'll find the bike's natural speed. Mine was about 9mph. Just ride around like this for a while until comfortable.

2. Now add in the back brake, controlling your speed with your right foot. Slow down by pressing with the foot, speed up by lifting the foot. Do until you are comfortable.

3. Now, add some revs and control your speed with the clutch and back brake. You'll be holding the revs up some with your right hand and have the clutch partially engaged with your left. Do until you can comfortably manoeuvre around with no change in the sound of the engine. Let the clutch in and out (very slight movements will be needed) to half-engage the engine and control speed with the brake.

I *think* I remembered the steps correctly. I had no issue when I took the course (commuting in London traffic teaches this quickly) and went straight to step 3, but several people seemed to pick this up by starting at step 1.
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Current: '14 VFR800X Test passed 31/10/12.
Previous: '12 NC700S, '11 CBF 125, '04 SH 125.

[staningrimsby]

Thanks ever so much guys I will be out tomorrow for a couple of hours on my bike trying the various techniques and will let you know how it goes.
____________________
When you have removed the impossible the improbable however unlikely has to be the truth.
1986 Yamaha DT 80 >> 2009 Honda Varadero XL 125 >> 2003 Suzuki V-Strom 1000

[Rogerborg]

[Teflon-Mike]

From the comment you are on a CBT cert and riding YOUR bike, I'm presuming you are practising on a lightweight 125. So my tuppence worth.

1/ Don't try to go 'so' slow.

Start JUST riding in a straight line... not flat out, but at speed that's do-able... then just roll off a bit... then a bit more... then when its uncomfortable... of you have had a couple of prods to stop yourself falling, go do something different, come back later and try again.

2/ Dont drag and slip... ie; rev the engine, slip the clutch and drag the back brake to hold the bike back.

Only reason for doing this is to make the bike go slower than your lowest gearing will allow at the engine's tick-over speed.

Bikes get stability from motion and they get motion from being driven, so drag & slip actually ROBS you of 'control' while making the job hard for yourself, juggling three controls, throttle, clutch and brake, when just one will do!

Its the motorcycling equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your tummy, and something you just DON'T really need to be able to do... BUT examiners like to see as an example of 'fine control co-ordination'.

If you really need to control a bike going that slow, like in competition trials; then for 'full' control, you down gear the bike so you CAN ride it 'clutch out' that slowly. My 250 trials bike has six gears, it tops out in 3rd at about 30mph... about as quick as my 125 goes in first!

But, if you are practising slow-riding on a 125, which will trickle along at tick-over in first at barely 2-3mph, then you really don't need to make it hard for yourself trying to drag & slip.

And it IS hard to slow-ride on a little 125; they have half the weight, so half the stability at the same speed, but as said, with lower gearing, you are likely to be going half the speed at tick-over, so have 1/4 the momentum, hence stability, and its going to be 'wobbly', compared to trying it on a DAS bike.

So back to 1/ dont try slow-riding SO slow, and if you are going to test on a DAS bike, dont sweat it too much; but mark it as something to tell your instructor you want to practice on DAS lesson; where on bigger bike, its MUCH more likely to 'click'... or if you are going to test on a 125... well, ride it clutch out, then to show 'slip '& drag' once rolling comfortably, slip in the clutch, give it a blip, make back brake light come on, then get clutch back out and finish the excersise riding it 'clean'

3/ 'Neat-Feet' - feet belong on the floor when stopped, on the pegs when moving, NOT in between. Don't hover or paddle, or wave legs around unsure where to put them; especially on a lightweight.

Lot of mass in your legs; and waving it about is GOING to make you wobble. Which will make you wave your legs about more, making you wobble more, etc in a visciose circle.

Amazing how soon you can lift your feet; and if you don't believe me; get the thing in a car-park; and try this excersize.

Adopt the safety position. Right foot on the peg covering rear brake; left foot on the floor'; the 'correct' posture for supporting the bike at rest.

Now; DONT put the bike in gear, leave it in neutral, and pretend to pull away... like you forgot to select a gear, or it didnt slot in...

And lift left foot STRAIGHT from the floor and onto the footpeg.

You can get your foot on the peg, without the bike moving, LONG before it wobbles.... some riders can even balance the bike in what's called a 'track-stand' like that for many minutes... in fact, I knew a chap who literally could do it all day! But that's a bit extreme.

I used to demo it; by 'hamming' a flunked gear selection, when I taught CBT; lifting left foot from Safety Position; clutching out, letting engine rev, not moving, then clunking it into gear, and pulling away, to show the amount of 'lag' you have before bike will tip and you HAVE to foot down again.

Try it... worst that can happen is you have to slam your foot back down; BUT, you will get a good feel for the natural balance, and how you DONT have to have legs flapping MAKING wobbles you don't need, and making them worse.

But again, back to 1/ Dont try and slow ride SO slow. Quite likely you are trying to slow ride straight off the line; so you are still getting the bike into balance from launch; eliminate that first; Launch, get it moving, kill the wobbles, THEN slow it down again.

4/ Empty car-parks are the best place to practice this stuff!

Tip: make sure you have copy of your licence & Ins cert in your pocket; 'just in case', a jobs worth comes over and gets curious!

Correct 'response' to "What d'y'fink y'playin at?!" is to point at the L-Plate, and say "Learning! Practising for tests where I'm not a hazard to other traffic" And if they get arsey; don#t argue; stay polite, ride off, find some-where else or come back another time.

Super-Market car-parks are often the largest and most accessible; but they usually are 'private property' with access provided by their T&C's that usually say 'for customer parking only', and they are more often supervised by security guards or trolly-boys, so if you get hassled, more likely there.

Council car-parks are public property; tend not to have such strict rules of entry, or have any-one in attendance, so often the better ones to practice in.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[andy_uk]

[andyscooter]

was going to say dont worry about figure of 8 or u turns until you go for tests

you wont need them
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[staningrimsby]

Well been out practicing as I said I would with cones and everything (looked a right noob), found out the following info on the internet for mod 1

For the slalom the cones need to be 4.5 mtrs apart (I did 5 mtrs as it was easier to measure in the car park with each space being 2.5 mtrs wide.

The figure of 8 the cones are 6 mtrs apart (so once again I did 5 mtrs)

The U-turn is 7.5 mtrs turning circle which equates to 3 parking spaces (after much practice and trying to look where I want to be and not where I am going I managed to get it down to 2.5 spaces )

So all is going well on the practice front I even managed to try the controlled stop with the front wheel in the box but could not manage to find out how big the box should be so just went for 1 sq mtr, but after all that the slow ride still is still an issue I need to resolve but I do have a bit of time yet

I have my theory to sit next week then I have a 2 hour lesson booked as an intro to the mod 1 on a 600cc bike then I suppose I will just have to go from there and see how it goes
____________________
When you have removed the impossible the improbable however unlikely has to be the truth.
1986 Yamaha DT 80 >> 2009 Honda Varadero XL 125 >> 2003 Suzuki V-Strom 1000

[Rogerborg]

Controlled stop area is 1.5m wide by 1.0m deep.

Full layout and dimensions.

There's plenty of room to do all the manoeuvres. When you're done, you'll be surprised how easy it was.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Knacker]

Look where you want to go NOT where you are going
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Current: Gsxr 600 Srad - GS125 - DT125
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