Practice

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Wed May 02, 2012 6:12 pm

What, if anything, do you do to hone or improve your riding skills?

The parking lot where I work has two pull-in parking spaces surrounded on three sides by curbing. I practice making as close to 360° turns within the two spaces as I can. (The curbing keeps me honest.). Also, there is a stretch of two lane, one way roadway on my way home that often has very little traffic. This road, like most roads in the PHX metro area have reflective buttons glued to the road between the dashed white lines. When there is no traffic, I do the weave between the raised buttons, accelerating up until I hit a button. So far I can get up to almost 50 imph before I hit a button.

What do you do?

skully93 · Post by **skully93** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:15 pm

Drive in downtown Denver traffic, often praying to arcane deities...

Actually when I wanna improve I tend to hit the burbs within a few miles. You have to stop frequently since you can't see around large trucks parked, there are curving roads, cul de sacs, and parks, etc. If I am positive there are no other humans for a while sometimes I'll get 40+ and practice my emergency stop at the next light/sign.

rfman81 · Post by **rfman81** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:23 pm

This sounds pretty bad, but there is a memorial garden that is pretty huge that I pass on my way home, it has lots of turns and I go in there and practice on cornering at a reasonable speed. Braking is just practiced on my driving around.

skully93 · Post by **skully93** » Wed May 02, 2012 8:15 pm

Pfft....it's not bad if you're not peeling out on the resting places.

siobhan · Post by **siobhan** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:07 pm

I pretend that manhole covers are squirrels. I call it "the squirrel game" as in "man, the squirrel game was particularly fun this morning in the pouring rain!"

I ride as fast and straight head-on as I can, then at the last possible moment, press, press, and zoooom, I'm around. Metal squirrel is fine, I had some fun, and the car behind me gives me even more distance.

I also turn tighter and tighter circles on my street, which is fairly narrow to begin with, going slower and slower to see just what it takes to finally put a foot down. My neighbors often gather in the summer to watch. They think I'm mad.

Anyone can go fast; going slooooow is difficult.

Raiderfn311 · Post by **Raiderfn311** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:28 pm

rfman81 wrote:This sounds pretty bad, but there is a memorial garden that is pretty huge that I pass on my way home, it has lots of turns and I go in there and practice on cornering at a reasonable speed. Braking is just practiced on my driving around.

They may enjoy it.

miah · Post by **miah** » Thu May 03, 2012 1:46 pm

I would like to recommend a book that changed the way I ride (mostly sport bikes). This book totally applies to scooters as well; the similarity of braking and cornering. Being confident at all speeds comes from an understanding of what forces are acting upon you.

Sport Riding Techniques
http://www.bullpublishing.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=28

My second though: emulate the best riders on the planet. No, not the squids on 1000cc bikes, the people who write them tickets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1I91q2peeQ

It was previously posted that 'anybody can go fast, but it's hard to go slow' and this is true. The hardest part of going slow on my Buddy is the throttle. The automatic clutch is very, very snatchy on my 125. To compensate, at low speed I keep a constant throttle and ride the rear brake to control my speed.

That being said, an advanced rider course offered for motorcycles is the best cash investment you can make for your riding.

PeteH · Post by **PeteH** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:00 pm

This guy's my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99KKx7cB-Ok

All that being said, back to the OT, I have a fairly vacant stretch of road on my morning commute, and I tend to do a little countersteer practice dodging manhole covers, road patches, and rough spots where they scraped off some old lane dividing lines.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:29 pm

Definitely not a bad idea to practice dodging manhole covers. Not only can they be slippery in the rain, but these days you never know when some moron is going to steel one for some cash from metal.

TelPerian · Post by **TelPerian** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:36 pm

michelle_7728 wrote:Definitely not a bad idea to practice dodging manhole covers. Not only can they be slippery in the rain, but these days you never know when some moron is going to steel one for some cash from metal.

After doing this on your scoot, has anyone had the urge to - or actually have done this - while driving a car? I know I have. It was a big ol' SUV too.

Edwub · Post by **Edwub** » Thu May 03, 2012 3:02 pm

TelPerian wrote:
michelle_7728 wrote:Definitely not a bad idea to practice dodging manhole covers. Not only can they be slippery in the rain, but these days you never know when some moron is going to steel one for some cash from metal.
After doing this on your scoot, has anyone had the urge to - or actually have done this - while driving a car? I know I have. It was a big ol' SUV too.

Yes, and worse : /

My gf feels the need to occasionally remind me that lane splitting is NOT legal with a Volkswagen <.<

un_designer · Post by **un_designer** » Thu May 03, 2012 3:53 pm

TelPerian wrote:
michelle_7728 wrote:Definitely not a bad idea to practice dodging manhole covers. Not only can they be slippery in the rain, but these days you never know when some moron is going to steel one for some cash from metal.
After doing this on your scoot, has anyone had the urge to - or actually have done this - while driving a car? I know I have. It was a big ol' SUV too.

I've practically memorized all the manholes on my usual route to the gym. And, when driving, I also dodge to avoid the ones that drop a lot because I feel like it's bad for the car.

I've never understood why so many manholes repairs and such are left in such strange conditions. Is there a benefit to not smoothing it with the road? or is it that difficult that it's just not worth the effort?

AWinn6889 · Post by **AWinn6889** » Thu May 03, 2012 4:07 pm

Edwub wrote:
TelPerian wrote:
michelle_7728 wrote:Definitely not a bad idea to practice dodging manhole covers. Not only can they be slippery in the rain, but these days you never know when some moron is going to steel one for some cash from metal.
After doing this on your scoot, has anyone had the urge to - or actually have done this - while driving a car? I know I have. It was a big ol' SUV too.
Yes, and worse : /

My gf feels the need to occasionally remind me that lane splitting is NOT legal with a Volkswagen <.<

I have to remind my bf of this when we're on the highway in his GTI.
Though in that car, 140mph feels the same as 75mph in my wall on wheels.. er.. Jetta wagon.

As for practice, whenever we get the chance, usually on nice weekends, or tuesday evenings, we take rides around our local lakes... LOTS of hills and twisties. It's fun.
I try to dodge anything on the road that's not flat pavement on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, yesterday someone tossed an empty soda can out of their car and I couldn't avoid it-- it sounded like the underparts of my scoot had been torn out. I didn't feel any loss of power, nothing sounded different, and nothing fell off, so I kept going and checked when I got home to see if there was any damage. There wasn't anything major, just a couple of paint scrapes on things that can't be seen from the outside anyway. I'll slap a little plastidip on the metal bits to keep them from rusting. Darn litterbugs.

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Thu May 03, 2012 4:32 pm

un_designer wrote:I've never understood why so many manholes repairs and such are left in such strange conditions. Is there a benefit to not smoothing it with the road? or is it that difficult that it's just not worth the effort?

Ever notice how the surface drainage and manholes are installed first in a new road, month(s) before it's paved? The concrete ring that holds the manhole cover can't be raised every time the road is repaved (because the concrete takes so much longer to cure than paving material), so eventually the manhole gets lower and lower. Finally, after multiple repavings, the grinder comes in and removes enough road surface so that when it is repaved everything is flush again.

un_designer · Post by **un_designer** » Thu May 03, 2012 4:46 pm

Syd wrote:
un_designer wrote:I've never understood why so many manholes repairs and such are left in such strange conditions. Is there a benefit to not smoothing it with the road? or is it that difficult that it's just not worth the effort?
Ever notice how the surface drainage and manholes are installed first in a new road, month(s) before it's paved? The concrete ring that holds the manhole cover can't be raised every time the road is repaved (because the concrete takes so much longer to cure than paving material), so eventually the manhole gets lower and lower. Finally, after multiple repavings, the grinder comes in and removes enough road surface so that when it is repaved everything is flush again.

Aha so that's why! I've never seen a road being built before and didn't know that's how it worked. That explains a lot... Thx for the explanation.

Somethingn like this would be awesome

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-t ... ohio/25565

stASH · Post by **stASH** » Thu May 03, 2012 5:26 pm

Syd wrote:The concrete ring that holds the manhole cover can't be raised every time the road is repaved (because the concrete takes so much longer to cure than paving material), so eventually the manhole gets lower and lower. Finally, after multiple repavings, the grinder comes in and removes enough road surface so that when it is repaved everything is flush again.

There are pre-cast riser rings that can be placed between a manhole frame and the top of the manhole, but that would require the paving contractor to remove asphalt around the frame, uninstall the frame, insert the new riser, and reinstall the frame. I think it comes down to time and labor cost. For the majority of the vehicles on the road (cars and trucks), the dip at a mahole is no big deal, so the cost/benefit analysis doesn't work out in the favor of two-wheeled vehicles. Luckily, we can usually scoot around those things.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand:

I like to also practice some mental skills while I ride. I imagine the absentminded/unaware/aggressive/distracted drivers of cages doing things that could threaten my well-being and how I would quickly avoid disasters.

velobuff · Post by **velobuff** » Thu May 03, 2012 8:07 pm

stASH wrote:I like to also practice some mental skills while I ride. I imagine the absentminded/unaware/aggressive/distracted drivers of cages doing things that could threaten my well-being and how I would quickly avoid disasters.

This.

I practice low-speed u-turns every morning pulling out of my parking spot at full lock, play the manhole=squirrel game, count 2 seconds on the interstate, 4 and 12 elsewhere which I find hard to do since closer cagers are distracting.

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Thu May 03, 2012 11:59 pm

velo, would you edit your post and fix the quoting? You removed a "[/quote ]" tag that ends up making me look a lot more intelligent than I am.