Mastering Low-Speed Motorcycle Turns & U-Turns: Everything you need to know 

Thanks Alex. I didn’t think about countries where you drive/ ride on the left side. Must be a pain when it comes to U turns. Upside is you guys get to practice right hand turns/ U turns a lot more often and become pros at it.

@@e_t_matrix It certainly makes you aware of your posture but leaning into a right hand turn is a little harder. Sitting up as straight as possible gives you more room for arm movements and I have found it easier with a bike with decently wide handlebars. I'd hate to have to do u turns with a set of clubman bars😁

Great to hear!

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you - Brad 😀

💯

What helped me in the beginning (say, 1000km ago) is to keep your left foot on the ground if you're going left, and your right foot on the ground if you go right. Once that stops being a big deal though, please get into the habit of applying your foot brake when you're waiting for the lights to change. It will make it more likely to walk away from when you're rear ended.

Youre welcome! Any empty parking lot would work

@@e_t_matrix Where I am in the UK, empty parking lots are very thin on the ground. Quiet streets are my practice grounds - not ideal, but it sure puts a restriction on U turns. Ride safe!

Thanks buddy. Ride safe

Glad it was helpful! Ride Safe.

You’re welcome 👍🏻

Thanks appreciate it bro

It depends what you're trying to do. Whenever I'm going walking pace, it's clutch in, a touch of throttle (just to create a buffer) and gingerly dipping the clutch out as needed. You're storing a bit more energy in the flywheel when you do that, and you tap into that with the clutch. On a smaller displacement bike, you'll need more revs. On both of mine (both 650cc, one twin, one four), there's enough torque from the idle control system, but I like to have that buffer regardless. If I'm doing moto gymkhana, then the power is fixed, somewhere in the 2-5% range for my bikes. Once I'm off the line, throttle stays there. Clutch is out and stays out. Speed is controlled by rear brake, that's the smoothest and most intuitive way to go about it on those courses. It's foghting the engine, so you have to use more of it, but it works a treat. You end up with really hot brakes if you do that for very long, but these courses are usually under a minute long.

@@233kosta if you like small displacement bikes, you'll love the Hunter 350 😁

Glad it was helpful!

Thats right. Keep ur Focus on where u are turning and on controlling the bike and not on any imperfections in the road.

But then when you look away and hit that pothole, off the bike you come! The UK roads are atrocious!

I’m not saying just make the turn without being aware what’s in it. Quickly scan for any imperfections and make ur turn accordingly. If u look directly at the pothole u will most likely either turn ur bike into it or end up making a very rough turn trying to avoid it. Believe me there are places with roads that are a lot worse 😂

Yes, uturns or other low speed turns like zig zag. It's called counter leaning where you lean the motorcycle but your body is not leaning with the motorcycle, this technique is better suited for low speed turns as the motorcycle can change direction quicker as opposed to being neutral(leaning the same way with the motorcycle) and hanging off(this is for high speed corners, think of motogp racing).

You should counter lean if you are going at extreme low speeds for high speeds counter lean isn’t effective

For a beginner, it's hard to control the throttle and front brake at the same time. Using the rear brake also eliminates chain slack. I do think it's bad advice though to "never ever" attempt trail braking, in fact it might save your life as it puts more weight on your front wheel, and more weight equals more grip.

Try the drills in an empty parking lot. Normal turns first focussing on an object and then tighter turns doing the same with counterbalancing the bike lean

Thanks. Appreciate it 👍🏻