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Slow riding practice tips?

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beginner said:
Thanks for biting. How about learn to go slow by practicing slow, then learn to go fast by practicing fast? Is it realistic for a rider to think he's competent at 70 mph if he can't do a routine Uturn without paddling his way around?
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:rofl

What are you going to do with your life then? Be a motorcycle valet? You're so good in a parking lot, go park my bike, Jeeves. I'll worry more about riding on the street like the rest of the normal people.

Oh yeah, and I already know how to ride slow, thanks. :twofinger

[youtube]ZQwLvivIoy0[/youtube]

[youtube]0EaCGXhBWKY[/youtube]

beginner said:
Does the US military have any battlefield motorcycles?
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Um, yeah we do.

id_m1030_m1d_01_700.jpg
 
beginner said:
Thanks for biting. How about learn to go slow by practicing slow, then learn to go fast by practicing fast? Is it realistic for a rider to think he's competent at 70 mph if he can't do a routine Uturn without paddling his way around?Does the US military have any battlefield motorcycles?
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Do you know how I started to ride? I did MSF... got my bike... and started riding around in real world situations! Get this... I also went over to this enormous parking lot by my house. Did all my MSF-learned drills there. Plus, you see those parking kiosks with all those awesome 3-foot-tall markers? I danced and swerved around those every day after I got home from work.

But allow me to present another option to your apparent conundrum of 'people are only slow and safe in parking lots': almost all of the rest of my riding was around town and up in less-trafficked twisties. But I didn't have to go fast because I was out in the wild, unsafe world! As a matter of fact, my only rule was 'ride like you're comfortable,' which meant if riding 5 or 10 miles below the speed limit was what made me feel comfortable at that moment, that's as fast as I rode! Simple concept, isn't it? I had no problem waving around faster traffic because I wasn't going to endanger myself by pushing it.

And, as SilverSVS, others, and I have pointed out, if you don't expose your mind to new challenges and possibilities, you'll never grow as a rider. Unless you really don't want to be part of the real world, concentrate on your real-world riding rather than pushing your insanely pedantic PLP on riders who have more miles and fewer crashes than you do. But if you insist on staying in beginner-land (where beginner knows all, despite what true experts say), don't act surprised when you're not hailed as the new leading force behind motorcycle safety.
 
silversvs said:
I would be willing to bet there are some very very competent veryvery fast riders on this forum that couldn't do a smooth easy u-turn confidently. Same for some of the guys/gals that do amazing stunt riding that I can only wish to be able to pull off.

The ability to ride well at low speed is not a measure of every rider's skill set.
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I'd agree... I'm not uber-fast, but I get by, and while I can manage a reasonably smooth u-turn without paddling, I couldn't do the keyhole test on my gixxer (although I passed it decades ago on my Nighthawk).

Kornholio said:
:rofl

What are you going to do with your life then? Be a motorcycle valet? You're so good in a parking lot, go park my bike, Jeeves. I'll worry more about riding on the street like the rest of the normal people.

Oh yeah, and I already know how to ride slow, thanks. :twofinger

[youtube]ZQwLvivIoy0[/youtube]

[youtube]0EaCGXhBWKY[/youtube]



Um, yeah we do.

id_m1030_m1d_01_700.jpg
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What awesome video.... :teeth

And Army dood is a squid... where are his gloves?? :x
 
Gixxergirl1000 said:
And Army dood is a squid... where are his gloves?? :x
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You, of all people, should know better. That's not a Soldier, it's a Marine. :x

And I doubt he's going to have much of a problem with his hand getting damaged by sand should he crash. :laughing
 
Kornholio said:
You, of all people, should know better. That's not a Soldier, it's a Marine. :x

And I doubt he's going to have much of a problem with his hand getting damaged by sand should he crash. :laughing
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It's not his hands I'm worried about... where is is eye protection? :laughing
 
beginner said:
So you think all riding below 30 mph teaches nothing about riding above 30 mph? Perhaps you could expand on that.
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YOU GOT IT. Aside from the really basic crap like the location of your clutch, throttle, brakes, shifter, and mirrors, the concept of looking through a turn and whatnot, the two really do NOT have much in common.

A motorcycle behaves, responds, and steers very differently at different given speeds. A motorcycle traveling 65mph is a completely different animal than one traveling 15mph. The stabilizing gyroscopic forces generated by the spinning wheels are incredibly powerful. It's a vastly different machine.
 
Kornholio said:
Um, yeah we do.
id_m1030_m1d_01_700.jpg
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This is interesting, I had no idea. Do you ride one? Here are a few military motorcycle videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzP_NMIYrU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz7BDHdcplw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtcd1kSdlQY&feature=related

They use several modified commercial bikes including a 250. I'm curious about what the 250 weighs. I like the no nonsense brush guard design. I'd take the paint job but that wouldn't help sell my bike if I needed to do that. I wonder what the diesel version does to the cost of ownership. (Update, one of the military versions costs $140,000 PER COPY! Oops, that might be wrong too. Another post says the 650s will cost less than $7000 each, which sounds low for a limited production highly modified bike.)

The military rider qualifications would be interesting to know. The test difficulty would be interesting. The military branches must have modern motorcycle training manuals. I would like to see one of those.

One more thing that would be interesting to know is whether the military bikes can be laid on their side intentionally and not leak fuel. My 300 is not so blessed. It would be nice to have a solution.

(I believe tires are black because a material called carbon black is added to the compound. Carbon black resists ulraviolet sun damage. Camo colored tires would be a nice touch. Maybe it's just not practical.)

revnort said:
Maybe I want to know WHY it is worth me doing these exercises. I already told you I do do parking lot exercises. Some of your examples though I don't see the point. So I am asking you.
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If you already do PLP and you hear about an interesting exercise you would just go try it. If you think it's a waste of time then you wouldn't do it any more. Sometimes my rationales seem right, sometimes the benefit I was looking for is not as useful as the one I got. Some exercises came and went because something else seemed more effective. After three years I still think PLP has been time well spent.
Cite specific examples of real world riding situations where learning that drill will help me.
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I know nothing about your real world. If I did it wouldn't be my place to advise you what you should do.
 
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beginner said:
does the US military have any battlefield motorcycles?
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Yes they use a KLR650 that has been modified for use with diesel fuel.

http://www.angelfire.com/mo/motormark/marineklr.html

Sorry woke up half asleep and then saw someone already clarified the Marine Motorcycle. I would be willing to bet the Marines are not training in Parking lots as Much as they are in the field. A short get familiar with the bike on a smooth known surface and then take it out where it will be used. The reason I used the shooting range scenario is I was a PMI (primary Marksman instructor) I went with what I was very familar with.

Kornholio:what plane is that the rear of in your avatar?
CH46 plane capt and mechanic here.
 
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After 270 posts, on 18 pages, I'm thinkin this Parking Lot Practice thread is going to go for Three Years.

That's Damn Impressive :thumbup
 
louemc said:
After 270 posts, on 18 pages, I'm thinkin this Parking Lot Practice thread is going to go for Three Years.

That's Damn Impressive :thumbup
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It will take 10 years to master it though.....:rofl
 
Marine_R6 said:
I would be willing to bet the Marines are not training in Parking lots as Much as they are in the field. A short get familiar with the bike on a smooth known surface and then take it out where it will be used.
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My first two years the deciding issue with PLP was safety margin. Since than it's about having skills for their own sake. A significant percentage of the year my trails are off limits because of excessive snow or moisture. There are two choices, park the bike or practice on a nearby parking lot.

To make PLP more productive it's worth sharing ideas with others who do it. It's not productive to share ideas with people who don't do it.
 
beginner said:
To make RIDING more productive it's worth sharing ideas with others who do it. It's not productive to share ideas with people who don't do it.
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Fixed

By the way, that riding-trails-faster-comfortably feeling you described, where it feels like something has clicked? Don't attribute that all to your PLP. That's maybe some actual riding you've been doing? And yes, it gets so much easier by practicing it more! You went from slow, big figure-8s to fast, tight figure-8s by practicing them - you'll ride trails more confidently and quickly by riding trails.

I would imagine that with the amount of dirt stuff you do (and I know I've brought this up before in another thread) that it would be a far superior learning experience to do your slow-speed practice on dirt and not asphalt, but I know you're on a farm, snow, mud, yadda yadda.
 
beginner said:
If you already do PLP and you hear about an interesting exercise you would just go try it. If you think it's a waste of time then you wouldn't do it any more. Sometimes my rationales seem right, sometimes the benefit I was looking for is not as useful as the one I got. Some exercises came and went because something else seemed more effective. After three years I still think PLP has been time well spent.I know nothing. If I did it wouldn't be my place to advise you what you should do.
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1. Fixed.
2. He's not asking you to advise him- he's asking you to provide specific examples of actual riding where your parking lot drills ad nauseum are of benefit. How would your obsessive-compulsive repetitive drilling in the parking lot benefit ANYONE who's actually out riding in the Real World?

louemc said:
After 270 posts, on 18 pages, I'm thinkin this Parking Lot Practice thread is going to go for Three Years.

That's Damn Impressive :thumbup
Click to expand...

And it still won't have any real world application... :x

beginner said:
My first two years the deciding issue with PLP was safety margin. Since than it's about having skills for their own sake. A significant percentage of the year my trails are off limits because of excessive snow or moisture. There are two choices, park the bike or practice on a nearby parking lot.

To make PLP more productive it's worth sharing ideas with others who do it. It's not productive to share ideas with people who don't do it.
Click to expand...

So basically, then, you do it literally for no other reason than to do it. It serves no purpose other than to get you off the farm, and pointlessly wearing the knobbies off your tires... :wtf
 
Gixxergirl1000 said:
1. Fixed.
2. He's not asking you to advise him- he's asking you to provide specific examples of actual riding where your parking lot drills ad nauseum are of benefit. How would your obsessive-compulsive repetitive drilling in the parking lot benefit ANYONE who's actually out riding in the Real World?



And it still won't have any real world application... :x



So basically, then, you do it literally for no other reason than to do it. It serves no purpose other than to get you off the farm, and pointlessly wearing the knobbies off your tires... :wtf
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how else do you think tire manufacturers make track slicks?? I know bridgestone employs several "beginners" to endlessly figure 8 each tire until it's ready for racing!
 
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