Slow Speed Riding Skillz

[Ken C]

I see a lot of riders terrified of slow speed maneuvering. Here's my three minute take on the subject. Check out the video at the end of the post. It's amazing.
How to Ride a Motorcycle Slowly/

[slowkermit]

Good points and cool video!

[golden chicken]

I might humbly add:

Note that the Harley demo riders actually carry some speed. I had terrible trouble with tight U-turns until I realized I was going too slowly.

The rest is just practice.

[csmutty]

I might humbly add:

Note that the Harley demo riders actually carry some speed. I had terrible trouble with tight U-turns until I realized I was going too slowly.

The rest is just practice.

I find that it depends heavily on the style of bike. On all of the MSF bikes (TW200, Honda Rebel, Kawasaki Eliminator, TU250X, Nighthawk 250, etc) I have no issue with slow speed maneuvering at a crawl with counter weighting, dragging rear brake, and keeping the bike in the friction zone while in 2nd gear. With my R1 I have found that counter weighting is less effective and might even make the bike less stable. The motor is also much harder to utilize at slow speeds in my opinion.

[jasnmar]

Slowish speed practice from about a year ago.



I haven't recorded any of my slowish practice sessions this year. Fortunately I have built in lean angle sensors, and a bike that will lug through 3rd gear with not throttle and no clutch to get a feel for how far one is safe leaning.
There was one practice session (fortunately not on tape) where I was leaning a bit too far on the engine guards. I crashed, but was still sitting on the bike when it shut itself off.

When I bought this boat the slow speed stuff terrified me, especially with a passenger. That's gotten significantly better, but with practice.

[Ken C]

There must be a minimum speed to prevent the bike from falling over. The balance of speed and lean angle equals a tight turn. The faster you go the more stable the bike will be, but you'll have to lean the bike on its side to make the turn. And if you go too fast you'll run wide.
Sport bikes are a pain to turn in tight areas. The bike I found easiest to turn tightly was a Honda ST1300, the most difficult...my Triumph Street Triple. The ZX6R was also tough to make a tight u-turn on.

[nhbubba]

Controls are key here too. Wide bars are obviously much easier than narrow clipons.

The NH state MC licensing exam is basically a bunch of slow speed parking lot drills. The day I took mine I watched a guy flunk quite badly on a liter super-sport. I've watched pimply teenagers boggie through the test on dual-sports.

My new dual-sport with the 21" front is silly easy to slow-race.

Jason, your video cracks me up. (Especially the part where the people walk past the camera. Apparently it's like we're living in the dark ages.) I totally want to do that on my track toy. I think doing those drills would make me more comfortable on the bike on the track.

[Paul_E_D]

Actually, Wings are one of the best at slow speed stuff. Any twin cylinder sportbike from the 90s up until electronic riding modes were introduced are the worst. Ken, I find the triumph pretty good for a sportbike, though honestly, the ST has much more lurch down low than the daytona. I think they might have messed that motor up a little with the cam.

[GixxerJosh]

Deep head turn, Finding the Balance point, and keeping the power to the wheel are always my biggest tips.

The biggest issue I have on the GSXR1000 is repositioning my hand on the throttle for the right u-turn in the box and on the 15'x3' cone weaves. I used the gixxer to demo during 3 ERC's this year. With practice I can actually get the bike to do a figure 8 the 24'x60'. I do miss it sometimes though. I have the most trouble on the 15'x3' cone weave. My Goldwing GL1200 I have no issues and on the VTX1800 I have a tough time but can usually get the 24'x70' box with the floorboard on the ground through the whole turn. Issue with that bike is it is lowered slightly for look and has drag bars with a long wheel base. The bar reach on turns makes my body twist like a pretzel.

[backinthesaddle]

Friends with trials bikes have some real fun right in their backyards maneuvering around just about any thing that they can find. Obviously the bikes are made for slow speed maneuvering but they still are great for working on body weighting, tight turning, and just keeping up skills.

[jayth]

When I first picked up my C10 I was decidedly more nervous at 5mph than 100... Learning to wrangle that fatty at slow speed certainly made me a better rider...

[Vortex Punchtop]

These guys have terrific low speed maneuvering skills.