How To U-Turn on Adventure Motorcycles / Works with Street Bikes Too 

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Years ago, in a galaxy far away I completed a 2.5 week long police motorcycle school and part of the final test was a speed u turn inside 2 parking stalls. We had to accelerate in, brake hard and turn a U turn inside the lines of 2 parking stall & full throttle out, simulating a pursuit. It was a blast! I still do it today on my adventure bike.

Every time you talk about riding techniques, I learn SO much - even after riding for 30+ years and taking other courses. You're my guru Brett. Gotta come down and take one of your classes soon. Thanks so much for posting these videos.

Finally, after all these years, a flawless how-to video on motorcycle handling. Thank you.

This guy is so good at explaning things, complete with visuals and so on. 10/10.

I have been riding motorcycles all my life I am 77 years old and I wish you had been around when I started but I have learnt so much from watching you now thank you you are the best

Excellent way to demostrate leaning vs no lean to turn tighter

Thank you for your videos. I have been riding 42yrs and you are teaching me thing I never knew. this will help me in my new style of riding, Adventure.

I would love to do a bunch of figure 8’s in front of our house while waiting for my wife to come out to go on a ride. It was a blast and great practice!!

Tight U turns are a MUST on ADV bikes!!! Handling an ADV bike in crowded places is a Must! Slow speed skills is a MUST have for us on BIG bikes! Parking lot practice is HUGE!!! Great Video!!! 🙌👏🤙👌🖖✌👍👋🙂

Holy crap you really walked a tilted GS like it was nothing! Superhuman strength!

I recently completed an off road riding course at MotoScotland and we were doing those very techniques on very rough and unstable ground. Our instructor insisted that we stand on the pegs with duck feet and head up at balance looking were we want to go and counter lean as we turn in full circles, it was amazing how tight we could make those turns.

It’s incredible to see how Bret manages the weight of those heavy monstrous motorcycles with so much ease. 🙏🏼

Bret, I've watched hundreds od videos on riding and you are one of the most relaxed riders I've seen. You are definitely comfortable on your bike and it shows. Look forward to your next video! PS you should do some of your travels.

This channel has the quality of a Tv series! Keep up the Good work! You will ge sooo many more subs in a short while!

All this time I thought only pros could ride this way. After watching your video over and over again and a significant time practicing turns, I'm able to comfortably make locked handlebar turns feel so much more confident. Thanks!

It is probably one of the very few channels where the explanations are short and to the point, beside being done in proper English. Even for experienced riders, who`ve been riding for years, it is good sometimes to go back to the basics and clean up some of the bad habits we picked up along the way. Thanks and looking forward for some more.

I hit the parking lot every chance I get to practice U-turns, figure 8s, Stops, avoidance simulation, and other motorcycle exercises. Riding a motorcycle isn't new, but I didn't practice riding exercises as often as I do these days. I am a much better rider for it.

Very well explained, especially the turning radius and leaning with high traction. Thanks !

U turns are my biggest weakness, had a bike that would stall when it was cold, that's was when I most often needed to do a slow speed turn. I dropped it a couple of times so it's a big fear for me now. I will practice :)

Great U-turn instruction from a very able teacher. I've been riding 30 years and still don't feel 100% comfort with this skill - will try your lean and coast technique for sure! Thank you for great videos.

Thank you Sir Precise, clarity, no condescending. great verbal & visual lessons.

Clear, simple and concise language. Brilliant

Awesome, high quality video. I hope you can keep producing them!

I've been doing low traction U-turns in a high traction environment, time to go hit the road and practice this, Thanks.

you guys are one of my newest and most favorite channels. keep it up !

Cool! Thanks for the detailed Tutorial!

This is the best explanation of a U-turn I've ever heard! I like how you explained the steps of the U-turn at 3:30.

First time seeing this channel , I Instantaneously became a subscriber . Your masterful explanations of the dreaded U-turn using a heavy bike was very informative and much appreciated . Also , very impressed with the way the video was shot , the different angles provided visual data of body and head positioning related to bike movement . Keep up the great work!!

Awesome! Definitely need to practice this in spring!

Great, easy to understand video. I practice doing this every morning when I get to work, it's fun and I get a lot of comments about how easy I make it look doing tight u turns and figure eights. Thanks for the video.🏍

2:12 Glad to see you trust your kickstand so much!

Thanks for the reply, enjoyed the video 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.

What an insightful video no bull no time wasting just the information you need. Thankyou very much for creating and uploading this video.. another subscriber to your channel..

Wow!!! just love your vids man. Thanks.

Amazing. Thank you for these instructions. I´ll try it a lot.

When I was practicing on my 125 for my test, I visited an abandoned factory parking lot, marked the floor and did lots of weaving, figure of 8 etc. I would make smaller and smaller marks and tighter and tighter weaving until I could do a figure of 8 in 2 car space parking lines. I really believe this practice of balance, clutch control etc helped alot and continues to now

I put a set of wide bars on my GSXR750, 15. the 1st turn I did with the the limited steering lock on this bikes was how do you say ... interesting alls I could think about was my dirtbike 😁 you have some great points in your tutorial and I can see the expertise in your bike handling skills. The 1 thing I noticed is that in tight situations it's virtually impossible to turn around on a heavy adventure bike , I now have a think before I get myself in too deep especially on single track

This is one of the better videos explaining tight turns. And I've watched about 20 of them. The down-angle shots are extremely helpful. THANK YOU! ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

I'm so glad i found this channel

That was incredibly informative and it just goes to show how much I have to learn. Thanks for sharing.

Excellent Vid!! Thanks!

A new subscriber from the UK. A friend recommended your channel and i'm really enjoying the content, great stuff! Its good to see the countryside too, I had a relation that lived in Edmonds, but I haven't been back for many years. Soon I hope......i still remember the breakfast at Snoqualmie Falls!

love all of your videos, more power to you! Please post more!

Wow. Excellent instructional video. Thanks for posting!

Man risked dropping his bike to show us how much better it is to turn and lean. Explains everything perfectly.

THANK YOU! Finally someone who explains how to do this! Well made, kudos sir.

This was great, thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to practice this once some of this ice disappears!

With my first little adv bike coming in at the end of this month- this was an amazing video to watch... thanks.

Another great tutorial, thanks for sharing!

Great video! Thank you. I've been riding motorcycles, on and off road, for 30 years. The first time you try to make a tight U-turn on one of these high riding 650 pound monsters, it's different. The center of balance, your body position, and how much you turn the wheel (not at all on some street bikes, all the way on these), all changes. The way you lean away from the turn to hold up the bike, which you do on a BMX bike but do much more on one of these, is worth practicing even if you think you know what you're doing. Thanks for posting this.

Excellent video, just discovered your channel and despite riding for over 35 years and can honestly say I am nowhere nearly as skilled at the u-turn as you! Never too old to learn a new skill I guess. Thanks!

Great content, really enjoying it!

When you get good at this in lower traction areas, you can really kick out the back tire if you give it a little more gas as you come out of the u-turn. The chicks love it, I think.

Really enjoyed that Bret. Thanks for sharing

This is such a good video. I just learn a lot. Thank you Bret.

Very good Video! Something we all need to go out and practice more often...

Excellent video. To the point and spot on. This technique is not just for U turns. I used it to get around the tight hairpin bends on the East slope of the Stelvio Pass in Italy. The queue to accelerate on the exit comes quite naturally. You won't need to think about it. Forget about the rev's, think about the clutch and look where you want to go.

Best U-Turn video I have seen! Great job on the demo of how turning radius changes with bike leans. Covering both good and poor traction is brilliant. I started coaching at an advanced riding school (mostly people wanting to go on to race). I enjoy improving my skills and helping people that want to improve there everyday riding skills, what your doing is perfect! I will likely be sharing the link to your video with others. :)

Excellent video ! Thank You !

Nice Work..... the leaning to decrease turn radius demo by walking the bike was brilliant. I taught physics for 13 years and was always on the lookout for ways to demonstrate concepts and you nailed this one in the motorcycle world .

Absolutely amazing! That skill set of yours blew my mind. You make me want to practice a lot.

Thank you for spending your time for my gains of learning thank you my friend. Another like!

I'm on my first bike, and I bought a cruiser. It's doing well by me, I've put about 15000 miles on it in about 18 months so I can't complain but it really threw me that I wasn't able to do a lot of this stuff until I realized that with the forward controls the ability to throw my body weight back and forth is close to zero; leaning is the best I can do. Still any skill gain is good, and I hope when I get a bike with pegs I can stand on I'll get better at these things. . I plan to replace it with an ADV in the spring.

Subscribed. Awesome channel! Deserve more subs.

i just bought a GS 650 as my first bike, love the bike, keep up the good work with your videos.

Bret, I could not tell if you were also using the rear brake whilst in the turn, but you should be basically working the rear brake against the throttle whilst in the turn, along with some clutch slip as necessary.

I give you two thumbs up for that very concrete demonstration of how much of a tighter turn can be made while increasing lean angle!!! PS. I miss living in Western Washington! I might be a little jealous of you.

Great video . Thanks for the lesson

Super amazing. Glad I found your channel.

Excellent tutorial on a useful basic skill. Thanks.

Great advise and demonstration. I have actually been practicing my low speed U-turns in a parking lot near my house. As your U-turn skills increase, so does your confidence. Happy Trails

the information in this video helped me get so much more comfortable with u turns, awesome video!!!

Some of the best production values I've seen in a motorcycle information video.

Very great explanation. I will try those tips at the weekend on a parking lot near my home. Thanks!

Thank you for your videos! I like it! Very informative!

Your rig must weigh more than my canoe packed for a two week canoe trip with a canvas tent and wood stove on board. I love the videos easy to listen to, thanks!

Thinking of getting a GS so your videos are really helping. I'll obviously do an off road course as well but these are awesome. Thanks a million.

Brilliant thanks for sharing your expertise..

Just discovered your channel and subscribed! Good stuff here!! I ride a 2006 R1200GS and a 93 XR650L...relatively new to the off-pavement world and enjoying the adventure.

Don't forget to explain the rarely mentioned counter steering action to trigger the lean of the bike. It is very clear when you do it on videos shot from above at the 0:31 seconds mark and then again on 5:50 mark. Great stuff, man!

you people are really good in teaching this tips thank you very much for thees clips

Excellent video. I learned from your video. It is a very important technique. Thanks very much.

Bloke, wonderfully explained and demonstrated with simple yet effective end states to achieve.

Top class and well explained.thanks.

That shot at the end was great

Perfect explanations, thanks!

Good video! Thanks for posting.

Great vid - thanks! Subscribed.

Great video, thanks

I've been riding for a long time, but never really had formal instructions for this, and am always a little nervous when space is limited for a u turn. Can't wait to try this.

Fantastic explanation. Subscribed!

great explanation, extremely comprehensive.

@Bret- been a subscriber and follower for a while! Hope to do one of hour training courses soon. Great video as always!! (I realize it’s a few years old) If I may add, the part missing from this great video is HOW to counter steer. As a GS owner, I think it’s helpful to think “knee to outside cylinder”. It’s there, use it! Push the outside knee on top of the cylinder to help shift your weight. On other bikes, the same principle applies... knee to in front of the outside foot peg. Stay nimble, stay light on the pegs. Feather the clutch and look in the direction you want to go. And Practice, practice, practice!!! Cheers mate!

This episode is outstanding! U turnare (well... seems) so easy! I just got conscience about what you did!

I’ve been listening to Bret’s segments on the Adventure Rider Radio podcast - some of my favorites! Glad I found the videos too. Subscribed!

your videos are always so usefull and i love it

It's the Bret hat! When ever I see it.

Excellent video. Like the information & techniques.

Just listened to this segment on Adventure Rider Radio Podcast, ha ha! Thank you for the tips! Nice to be able to see and hear it.