U turns

[damnas]

How annoying are they!

I don't have my bike yet, and I'm doing my DAS soon..

My only concern is the U-turn!

I work for Pizza Hut, so I'm always doing U-turns on those scooters, but theyve got tiny wheels so I'm expecting it to be a lot different.

When I did my CBT, I managed it, but had a real struggle with it!

So what would be the best way to practise? Trying them with bicycles?

[G]

Practice doing even tighter turns on your scooter.

The trick is to condition yourself against shutting the throttle if you start to fall. Instead bring it on slightly and you can pretty much to turns on full lock if you get it right.

[Whosthedaddy]

Its easy once mastered...

look in front / behind / front / behind
pull off at steady speed and get balance
life saver
look at where you want to go, ie opposite curb
maintain a busy engine and balance with clutch and rear brake if needed to help stability
hold the tank tighlty with knees to prevent the foot coming down
turn handle bars as needed, do not turn the bars to sharply in the beginning otherwise you will be on full lock before you know it. This can be done on the ER5, quite cool when pulled off
pull along side curb

do not put foot on curb when stopped

Dont get dispondant if you keep failing, just take a deep breathe in and relax.

On the test, this is one of the few times that is in your time, so dont rush into it, remember to look before and the life saver as about to turn
____________________
Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[Mark_petty]

Whosthedaddy what do you do not put foot on curb when stopped?

When I did my test thats excatly what I did and I passed. Where else would you put your foot when you finish
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[Rides: Suzuki GSF600sx]
[CBT: Passed] [Theory: Passed] [DAS: Passed]

[Whosthedaddy]

[BWW]

I struggled with this manoeuvre throughout my lessons. Then on the day of my test I was out with a new instructor. He got me doing U turns like I'd been doing them all my life. Once I got to the middle of the road he just told me to make sure I looked as far off into the distance at something as I could and just concentrate on that whilst turning. Never fails me. I owe him a big thanks, so 'Thanks, Paul' (CSMT Edmonton).

[.....]

Control your speed by moving the clutch lever not the throttle. Keep the throttle contant and fairly high revving. Drag some rear brake and apply more pressure if you need to slow down.

And don't look down at the handlebar - look where you want to end up.

[John C]

With the NSR's lock (in comparison to er5) it was quite tight so I went to tesco car park and just played at turning the bike.

After about 20 minutes I could go round in circles all day with full lock on.

The trick i used was to spread my weight about 50/50 between the seat and the pegs, then if you start to fall inwards just put some of your weight on the outside peg.

[stephencassid...]

My instructor told me that I had to be that close to the curb when I had finished the manouver that the only place I could put my foot was on the curb. Did exactly that on the test and passed.

Ste

[Mark_petty]

[colin1]

turn up early for your bike lessons, and practise doing u turns on the big bike in the car park for ages

i doubt they will mind, if you ask

also there are two types of u turn. practise both and see which you are better at. some situations are better suited to one or the other

i think we all know about the one where you start off by going straight along the road, and then do your u turn, but there is also the static u turn.

with this one you are stationary, you put full lock on, and you put the heel of your right foot on the ground in front of you.so when you move forward, straight away you are turning with full lock so you can turn in smaller roads. as you move, you keep your foot on the floor, but you sort of roll from heel to toe as you go

with the normal u turn, there is also a trick you can do to get full lock on earlier in the turn.

you start off a bit out from the kurb and then stear towards the kurb so you are turning left, then steer left, so that by the tim you reach the kurb you have full right lock on, so you can do a u turn in a smaller road more easily
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[king kong]

The U turn is done on a road roughly 9 paces across, fins a road and practice as suggested earlier. What I did was try and do 5 in a row, if you mess up, start again until you get 5 in row.

[Whosthedaddy]

The day of my test there was me and another geezer. The other bloke was having an absolute nightmare, he dropped the bike rode over the curbs and could not get the U turn right.

Whilst the instructor was trying to talk him through this rough spell, I was down the road slightly doing U turns in my own time. One turned into 2 and so on. In the end I was going around and around in circles in the middle of the road.

The funny thing was that I had to do the U turn on my test in exactly the same place
____________________
Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[MRX Steve]

[Whosthedaddy]

Is the foot on the curb an examiner faux pas, just like putting your right leg down when stationary at lights
____________________
Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[krebsy]

Right foot down at lights is not an issue as long as you have the front brake on.

doing the U-turn is the biggest point of failure for most people it seems. one thing my instructors taught me is that on a moped or 125 you should be able to turn the bike around in HALF the width of the road. If you can do that then the 500 will go round in 3/4 of the road width which is what you need.

Don't look down ever during the move. Don't look at the Cerb as you will ride into it. Head up and eyes down the road where you want the bike to end up pointing. Lots of revs, control speed with clutch/rear brake and don't be afraid to push the bike onto it's side whilst turning. You need to do this otherwise it won't go round. That, and plenty of gas....

K.
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What's my New Year's resolution?

1280 x 1024.

[MarkyPancake]

I was most worried about the u-turn and either did them quite badly or brilliantly during my DAS. Thankfully I did it flawlessy on the test.

[Mark_petty]

[damnas]

Cheers for the advice! And was interesting reading all the other things about putting the right foot down at traffic lights etc.

The main thing about U-Turns then would be:

- Look where you want to go
- Dont panic and go crazy with the throttle

[monkeymagic]

don't look at the curb, look where you're going. if you're getting wobbly just let the clutch out and keep the bars tight. it's fighting the natural instinct eh? i messed it up 2 times out of 4 on the morning of my test but somehow pulled it off during the test.

[damnas]

Hehe, I guess it doesn't help I'm taking mine at 7:00 AM!!!!

And on a Sunday!

[pieman]

Like they said keep the throtle set and revving at around 2500 RPM control the speed with the clutch and drag the rear brake to keep it steady don't look down or straight ahaead instead look where you want to end up ie the oposite curb a little way down the road to your right.

As for not putting your foot on the curb thats rubbish if you stop at the distance from the curb that your supposed to then you should put your foot on the curb thats what I did on my test and I passed with zero faults

.

[damnas]

I did my CBT again (havent ridden in a year) and I asked him about this when doing the U-turn (which I did quite marvellously! Thanks for all the advice) he said the examiner will fail me if I put my foot on the curb BECAUSE:

IF you're trying to put your foot on the curb, essentially you're aiming for somewhere, and that's a distraction.

Or something like that.

[Whosthedaddy]

[damnas]