Slow Control course

[Lord Snooty]

A month or two back there was a slow riding / control day at Nutts Corner but it was £99 for the day, that put a lot of people off.

Yet they will gladly pay more than that for a bit of worthless tat to bolt onto their bike rather than invest in their own skills. £99 for a day's training is an absolute bargain, some people just don't understand the value of good professional instruction.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

I love slow speed stuff - but there's definitely room for improvement. Usually, I'll do a few figure 8's if I can find a block of 4 car park spaces before leaving work.

Been working through the exercises that were developed by Robert Simmons of Be The Boss of your Motorcycle YouTube channel. The tough one I'm finding is setting off on full lock from a standstill.

Practice practice practice...

 

[developer]

Despite everything written about GS's and their balance/low centre of gravity, I find the big front wheel and wide bars make the bike the least stable at walking pace.

The slightest input on the bars affects the stability.

Both my (old) sports bike and (modern) hyper bike are much better at very low speed (smaller wheels/narrower bars) - I think it's also because on them I'm over the front wheel, due to the riding position.

Neevesy describes the 1300GS as fidgety - I tend to agree.

 

[yoyo]

I take students out in ERS courses and drive home the importance of good slow control.

It's easy riding a bike at 30+mph, it just wants to stay upright, but if you drop the bike at 3mph abd snap the clutch lever off that's going to mess up your day, worse still you put your back out trying to pick it up.

As already said, do a course then practice, a little and often is key. People go out and practice for too long, they start to do well but then the bike heats up, the clutch starts acting differently and all the confidence is lost.

Sent from my SM-S921B using Tapatalk

 

[dommiek]

When I first joined an IAM club more than thirty years ago I was amazed how many riders were seriously lacking in basic skills.
There was a definitely trend with newer riders, once the advanced test was passed they would upgrade to the biggest, most powerful pe nis extension of a bike of they could afford; i.e. a Blackbird or ZZR1100....because they were now 'advanced riders'.

It was common to see them paddling around the car park, feet dangling, praying nobody would see them drop their bike, which seemed to happen often.
Lifesavers and counter steering seemed to be far more important than balance and clutch control !!