Getting your mind off work and brushing up your skills

[AlpinePossum]

So I tend to be one of the last to leave work... and so the car park is pretty empty.

If I hop on and drive off my mind is still trying balance N constraints and solve complex problems elegantly. BAD! BAD! BAD! (For surviving on a motorbike).

So I have taken to doing a bunch of loops and figure of eights around the car park...

• What happens I try to turn as tight as possible?
• What happens if I try turn at a faster speed?
• What happens if I shift my weight as far as I can into the turn and down? (Knee drag) (The bike is at less of a lean)
• What happens when I turn leaning my body as far as possible "the wrong way"? (The bike leans more into the turn and can turn tighter)
• What happens if I want to turn tighter when I'm already in a turn? (Small counter-steering tweak while I'm in the turn)

By the time I have done a few of these my mind is completely on riding, I have learnt more / extended my range of control / ...

Any other suggestions for "in the car park" games?

(Hmm. Just thought of this one.... tight turn and out fast tight turn out faster, tight turn out faster again...)

[specter]

So I tend to be one of the last to leave work... and so the car park is pretty empty.

If I hop on and drive off my mind is still trying balance N constraints and solve complex problems elegantly. BAD! BAD! BAD! (For surviving on a motorbike).

So I have taken to doing a bunch of loops and figure of eights around the car park...

• What happens I try to turn as tight as possible?
• What happens if I try turn at a faster speed?
• What happens if I shift my weight as far as I can into the turn and down? (Knee drag) (The bike is at less of a lean)
• What happens when I turn leaning my body as far as possible "the wrong way"? (The bike leans more into the turn and can turn tighter)
• What happens if I want to turn tighter when I'm already in a turn? (Small counter-steering tweak while I'm in the turn)

By the time I have done a few of these my mind is completely on riding, I have learnt more / extended my range of control / ...

Any other suggestions for "in the car park" games?

(Hmm. Just thought of this one.... tight turn and out fast tight turn out faster, tight turn out faster again...)

haha great way to have some fun... could end up badly though

and you'll look like a dick in front of your co-workers

[AlpinePossum]

haha great way to have some fun... could end up badly though

and you'll look like a dick in front of your co-workers

That's why I do it _after_ most of the sods have left....

On the other hand I'd rather end up looking like a dick than been smashed by a car.

I've done both in my life and I can assure you the first one hurts a _lot_ less and heals sooner!

Once I spent the time practicing braking and suddenly turning tighter when in a turn... very tricky and came damn close to screwing up!

However it became damn handy when some metal plated idiot came way over the white line at me on a bend on the way home!

[dino3310]

Any other suggestions for "in the car park" games?

(...)

burn out .

[BMWST?]

do some excercises following the lines delineating the car parks,so you have to stay dead straight and make a one carparK width u turn,how slowly can you ride staying on the painted lines.....

[vifferman]

Any other suggestions for "in the car park" games?

Emergency braking practice.
Swerving around obstacles (they don't need to be real - you can pretend a pothole or painted line or whatever is a piece of wood, brick or whatever that's fallen off the back of a truck.
I do this riding down my street, from time to time. As for the emergnecy braking, I started to practice this after needing to stop in a hurry at some traffic lights one day, years ago, and stopping about 4cm too late. Luckily, the car's plastic back bumper popped back into place readily, with no signs of damage, but my front mudguard's still scratched and cracked. It surprised me how violent emergency braking has to be, in the car or on the bike. We get conditioned to braking gently, or even just occasionally hard, but if you really want to stop in a hurry, it's a completely different kettle of grasshoppers.