Practice :?:

[mzzogrno]

There have been several articles written on this site referencing practicing on the bike to gain improved reaction time when required. Maybe a silly question I am about to ask not really sure. I do not and have not practiced riding, I just ride.

Would you all share ideas of some good practice techniques either in an empty parking lot somewhere or even on street?

[Gord]

I practice slow speed, tight turn manuevres. I find that one is most likely to run into problems at low speed (like in parking lots), and especially when you don't have momentum to help balance the weight of the bike. It is at low speed and in tight situations when you are most likely to drop the bike. And it is what I encounter least as a rider. So I try to practice it.

[mbohn]

I practice slow speed, tight turn manuevres. I find that one is most likely to run into problems at low speed (like in parking lots), and especially when you don't have momentum to help balance the weight of the bike. It is at low speed and in tight situations when you are most likely to drop the bike. And it is what I encounter least as a rider. So I try to practice it.

I do the same and was surprised to find that it also helps a whole lot with normal speed riding.
Mark

[Lion_Lady]

Yup. The slow speed stuff and also Emergency Braking. Hubby does the EB practice at least once a month.

P

[jm1515]

There have been several articles written on this site referencing practicing on the bike to gain improved reaction time when required. Maybe a silly question I am about to ask not really sure. I do not and have not practiced riding, I just ride.

Would you all share ideas of some good practice techniques either in an empty parking lot somewhere or even on street?

Every couple of months, I go to my company's large employee lot. It has islands, tight turns, corners etc. I take about 1/2 hr...
I practice swerving between the islands, trying to get faster and tighter.
I practice straight line 'panic' stops, trying NOT to lock up the rear.
I'll go around / between aisles, and practice hard stops and straightening the bike after or in the middle of a turn.
I practice slow parking lot manuevers.
It's difficult to say if any of this improves reaction time as I know ahead of time when I must brake or swerve, but it does give you a good feel of how the bike will respond, and how to control it....

[154mph]

the best way to learn to ride a motorcycle is in the dirt.
Find a honda xr100 or other 100 -200 cc 4 stroke
dirt bike rent it if you have to. In no time you will get used to
the tires sliding around. Then when it happens on the street
you won't be one of those HIGHLY SKILLED riders that panic.

Street riding is tough to learn. Wet marks by up/down hill
places in the road or at stop signs might be liquid leaking
from a trash truck. It may be diesel fuel.
Stay away from this its slick stinky and
slimey. It will put you on you azz before you know what happened.

[darthrider]

I totally agree with everything above, especially the dirt riding part. I can't say you will never be a good/safe rider without it, but it will shorten the learning curve a LOT and you will learn things on the dirt you will never learn on the street without that foundation.

Another thing that is very effective, and a form of practice is "imaging".

When we were building our dual engine, 450 HP, 1000 lb. Bonneville racer (261+ MPH so far and many Land Speed records), as soon as the basic frame structure was finshed on the frame jig, and with front end and clip-ons attached, our rider Jon Minonno, would come by nearly everyday after work.

He would climb up on the bike, "settle into it" and close his eyes. He would stay that way for about 30 minutes and I promise you it was uncomfortable as hell.

He was a road racer (5 national championships) and a pro drag racer with two national and one state title, and he had been racing at Bonneville for over 15 years. So he already knew a LOT about going fast on a racing motorcycle, especially in a straight line.

We talked about this and he said that when he actually rode this monster for the first time he wanted to have "several hundred" runs already completed...in his mind. He wanted to visualize & "experience" both perfect runs up to 275 MPH and every conceivable machine malfunction and track/weather/wind event. Cross winds, pot holes, ruts, front blow outs, rear blow outs, engine siezures, engine fires, explosions, being thrown off the bike...everything. Many, many times each. He wanted to "try out" various techniques to avoid or recover from all those and "bookmark" the best.

In addition to "learning" this motorcycle and how to ride it before the engines were even ever started, it gave him a lot of confidence in himself and the motorcycle. It allowed him to concentrate on other things as his 'best" techniques had become instinctive & reflexive. He still practiced each of them but by then they were thoroughly "learned".

It worked. On the first record, he was on the "record run" after having completed a "qualifying run" in the opposite direction, at a speed exceeding the existing record. His speed on the qualifying run was 256.234 MPH. To set a new Land Speed record, the average speed of the two runs would have to exceed the existing record.

Accelerating hard at approximately 245 MPH the special 300MPH rated rear tire (thanks to a BIG mistake by Goodyear) threw off 3/4 of the tread causing about as much shaking & vibration as you would expect. Much like the 50 or so times he had "rehearsed" this malfunction. He said he knew immediately the tire still had air in it since the bike was still upright and he wasn't sliding on his ass at 240+! But he didn't know how long the tire would stay together.

Here is where experience, smarts, "rehearsals", practice, and balls the size of watermellons came together with the pro racer's fire-in-the-belly-desire-to-win. At *almost* any cost.

He knew he had to slow down to save the tire and avoid a 100% certain crash. He knew he had to go fast enough that his average speed would exceed the old record...by any amount. He would settle for just a *little* faster at this point! But faster.

He held it all together and set a record of 238+MPH, about 3 MPH over the old record. His mental calculation/estimate of his average speed had been 235! The old record was 235+.

When he stopped rolling and we "caught" the bike for him, his wife & team manager (an RN) took his pulse as she always did. It was just slightly higher than "normal resting" level, right where it always was after a run. The tire thing was not nearly as big a deal for him as us when he described it.

And get this...this was before we had on-board data acquisition and it was part of his job to monitor 8 different gauges, plus a thottle position indicater, plus wind & track conditions at each of the 4 mile markers, plus 2 more timing markers, plus wheelspin. And interpret them and their inter-relationships. And take necessary corrective actions. And report all major readings and events for entry in the Run Sheet. And he did, even with the tire thing going on! He nailed them all. Absophuckinlutely amazing!

Anyway, do practice all your stuff and sometimes sit quietly on your bike with your eyes closed going through some bad scenarios. Or, like many of us, when you're in bed and can't sleep because you're thinking about motorcycles and riding, don't waste that valuable "rehearsal time"!

"The art of doing dangerous things safely"

[mistercindy]

There have been several articles written on this site referencing practicing on the bike to gain improved reaction time when required. Maybe a silly question I am about to ask not really sure. I do not and have not practiced riding, I just ride.

Kinda agree with that sentiment. I do plan to take the advanced MSF course soon.