U-Turn Q&A, Tips and Tricks

[ital916]

Hey guys...again

Man this seems to be a posting threads week for me. Was practicing U turns whilst killing time waiting for someone. I was on the side of the road, checked to make sure no traffic was coming, started pulling off, cranked the steering to lock and started pulling the u turn and promptly started wobbling. Every time i try it I get the wobbles unless I am already going at like 10 k and there is heaps of room. If i am starting from stand still I really have trouble doing a u turn, or even at a walking pace it's tricky. What's causing the wobble, do I need to counter balance the bike. I always end up sticking my leg out to stop from falling over *shame*. My counter steering skills have improved lots but alas it seems my u turn skills still suck. lol Gotta love kiwibiker it's a supportive forum, and when you make a cock of yourself *like asking a stupid question such as the one I have just asked* you get funny p/t replies.

Ride Safe

Drider

[JimO]

pactise in a empty car park, less chance of being run over

[yungatart]

Don't ask me...I always get hubby or son or some other gorgeous male to do it for me..you could always try that...

[BiK3RChiK]

I sort of have the same problem sometimes. I have found that if I look 'through' the u-turn instead of in front of the bike, then I wobble less. Hard to describe really...

M

[chanceyy]

Definately give yourself plenty of room to practice, start straight look to where you want to go, weight the outside peg (clench your thigh muscle) and practice large circles and get smaller

have just practiced this for the last two months in prep for my full last week .. most important parts are the focus to where your going and the weighting of the pegs ... also if you feel your going to fast only use the back brake to slow rather than the front ..

can not underestimate the practice though .. good luck

[ital916]

Don't ask me...I always get hubby or son or some other gorgeous male to do it for me..you could always try that...

I could always get my mum to do it for me, she wants to get a bike, but she would just dump the clutch and pin the throttle. Next thing you know she's off into the sunset on one wheel. *she managed to stoppie a scooter whilst getting her basic handling skills recently , then dropped it lol*

[Katman]

A common problem with learning U-turns is starting the turn too sharply. Start the turn in at a shallower angle and increase the angle of turn only as your speed through the turn increases.

[martybabe]

Personally, I ride the clutch,it gives much more low speed control,dont ever use maximum lock no room for adjustment, works easy as. I don't know if that would be legal for test purposes though.

[Grub]

Having dropped my new bike a week after I got it, I worked it out. I feather the clutch to control power or no-power and it seems to work really well.

That way you can have some throttle on, so it doesn't snatch, and then just slip the clutch as you go around

[sosman]

If ya putting yr leg down to avoid falling over!,then ya need to have more throttle on & also would suggest praticing in a car park

[quallman1234]

For the record, you can make rather tight U turns on a RG150 (I have one). So don't go blaming it on the steering stop.

[Mikkel]

I find that going into 2nd gear helps a lot. (At least for my small 250 - it would depend upon gearing though.)

Challenge is to maintain smooth throttle control even though you're turning - riding the clutch sounds like a good idea to help this issue.

Furthermore I've found that when maneuvering at very low speeds it pays to hang off to the opposite side compared to where you are going and then lean the bike out underneath you while steering (not countersteering...).

You can never practice it too much

[Goblin]

Turn bars to the right, tilt bike to the right, rev like fuck, dump the clutch...and hang on!

[martybabe]

Having dropped my new bike a week after I got it, I worked it out. I feather the clutch to control power or no-power and it seems to work really well.

That way you can have some throttle on, so it doesn't snatch, and then just slip the clutch as you go around

Thats the way,Grub put it better than me, work the clutch puts you in control at silly slow speeds.

[Neon]

You might also find trailing a little rear brake helps to stabilise the bike - high performance small engines can be a bit touchy, so trailing the brake keeps tension on the chain and helps with smoothing out power delivery.

I do this with the Hornet and it works a charm for low speed manouvering.