How do you get confidence back?

**Phurrball** · 29th August 2005, 15:35

Hi all,

Excuse my Y chromosome intruding into this forum, but it seems most appropriate for the question I have ask...

I'm having a ball riding our Bandit, and I'm on a steep learning curve myself, as was Mrs Phurrball...initially...

A week ago Mrs P let the bike 'have a wee lie down'. No biggie, these things happen and it easily could have been me. She was standing on gravel, turning the bike around to head back down the road, when she lost her footing - tiny scratch on muffler, small flake of chrome off mirror. No biggie. No worries, or so I thought...

This last weekend, I'd had my blatt (round the ambitious 6km-ish block Mrs P had been around last weekend) and It was Mrs P's turn. She freaked out about standing over the bike, fearing it would fall, and told me she just couldn't manoeuvre it at slow speed. She's fine riding it, she just can't handle slow speed/walking the bike anywhere. She rode up and down the road, but made me turn it round at either end in spite of my assured belief in her ability.

Complicating factor in all this is that Mrs P is of slight build - she can stand over the bike with feet flat on the ground, but the bike weighs a little more than three times what she does - my bulk helps me in this area...

Any ideas what she can do to get her mojo back? Buying the bike and learning is something we did together, and I want to keep it that way...bring on the day when we have one each...

Is it just 'miles' under the belt? Or are there other tricks to slow manoeuvring?

Any help is much appreciated...when Mrs P is happy, I'm happy, and at the moment, she's not so happy with her ability to control the bike at slow speed.

**James Deuce** · 29th August 2005, 15:39

There's only one way. Practice.

Get thee to an empty car park early on a weekend morning and lay out a very easy handling course. Progressively tighten turns up as the morning goes on. Keep doing it until Mrs P feels that she has a handle on the process, but keep revisiting it and practicing.

**Pwalo** · 29th August 2005, 15:49

Originally Posted by Jim2

There's only one way. Practice.

Dr Jim is absolutely right. Practice. Go over it in your mind. Practice. In a couple of hours you'll be wondering what the problem was. (Until you do something stupid again).

**N4CR** · 29th August 2005, 15:59

I did exactly the same thing.. taking it out for a thrash on sh16 etc didn't help a whole lot - it was more so the extreme leaning at low speeds that was the problem. So I 'carparked it''- helped immensely.

I was getting small oilly rings on my chicken strips, which is not cool to turn up at biker meetings with right... so go get rid of them by getting faster and faster (and therefore you have to lean more and more around the same radius) in a course comprising of a figure of 8 in an empty carpark between some concrete thingys.

This is the best way to learn in my opinion as it is slow speed, pretty safe and the same road surface (usually ashphalt

)

Good luck with the confidence re-gain

**John** · 29th August 2005, 16:07

Originally Posted by tristank

.....so go get rid of them by getting faster and faster (and therefore you have to lean more and more around the same radius) in a course comprising of a figure of 8 in an empty carpark between some concrete thingys.....

in the words of Mr Binnie "wehen teh radi increasthesth as doesth the sthpeed, so decreasthing teh radi induces slthow sthpeed extrem angli"

**The Stranger:Me** · 29th August 2005, 16:10

What Jim2 says.

On both of our bikes when the wheel is turned say to the right the front contact patch moves to the left, I guess this is because of the trail and that all bikes are about the same. You do therefore get a transfer of weight to the right and the bike wants to fall that way when at low speed.

You can see this by putting the bike on it's side stand and turning the handlebars full Left then try standing the bike up. you will note that there is more effort required to stand it up than if the handlebars are turned full right.

If I am turning the bike manually I need to allow for this weight transfer by leaning the bike slightly.

If i am doing say a low speed right turn I will weight the hell out of the left foot peg this helps a heap. This allows you to lean the bike hard right and pull a very tight low speed turn quite safely.

**crashe** · 29th August 2005, 16:12

Practise, practise and more practise.

Take the bike up to a empty car park... and do all the stuff that she has lost her confidence on... you do it first so that she can follow your line...

Practise walking the bike sitting astride it up and down your driveway....
Practise walking the bike in a slow turn.
Practise reversing the bike.
Practise doing a three point turn.
Practise weaving in and around cones.... or chalk out marks on the car park.

The more she practises all these manouvers she will get better ...

**Riff Raff** · 29th August 2005, 16:13

The only way it to keep practicing. Perhaps she needs an experienced rider to help her to master it. There's plenty of us out here who can give her a hand. I don't mind helping out - I've dropped bikes on a few occassions now!!!!

**ajturbo** · 29th August 2005, 16:22

PRATICING dropping the bike is a good start!!!

she now knows what NOT to do in gravel.......

well done to her!...
i think if you asked a 100 bikers how many have done that very thing ... i am sure that at least 50% would admit to it and 50% would be lying...

**Keystone19** · 29th August 2005, 17:48

Just a thought, but she may also find it helpful to ride with another woman. No offence intended to yerself, but if she can see that other women of similar build can manouever the bike ok then that may help.

**justsomeguy** · 29th August 2005, 17:55

After a life filled with many illustrious failures, cock-ups, mistakes and pure bad luck, I've come to understand the Nike philosophy:

JUST DO IT

**FROSTY:Me** · 29th August 2005, 18:32

Fuckit I agree with JIM--again --this is gettin to be a habit,
Just one thing though Id suggest she actually learns how to pick the bike up BY HERSELF. Find a nice place to lay the bike on its side and practice picking it up.
Sounds stupid but its the old worst case senario situation -- Hey worst case aint so bad is it??

**Riff Raff** · 29th August 2005, 19:38

Originally Posted by FROSTY

Just one thing though Id suggest she actually learns how to pick the bike up BY HERSELF.

Nah, that's what we have men for.

**Skunk Control** · 29th August 2005, 20:16

Unfortunately it's all just down to practice and feeling confident with the bike, practice picking the bike up if poss as this comes in handy for when the bike decides to have a nap, have done this several times now