How to do tight U-Turns

[dantama]

I moved this over from the main board from last month in hopes that it makes more sense to find it here.

I found out how to do tight turns by stumbling onto a motorcycle cop practicing in a parking lot by himself. I pulled in and watched and was amazed. He was very approachable and taught me how to do tight turns.

I went home to practice, and couldn't drag the floor boards all the way around, I decided it was my bike. Saw him again and told him how it went and he got on my bike and did just fine (I rode his police road king and dumped it, but that's another story).

Once I knew that the bike would do it, it gave me the courage to go further.

The way you do it is a combination of using the friction zone of the clutch to moderate speed, and a little bit of rpm, and perhaps some rear brake. I go through a row of parking lot spaces (two rows that face each other), and I zig zag down it turning on every other line. Essentially a full Uturn using two spots.

As I start to move into the first one I pull in the clutch, rev the engine perhaps double idle rpm, then use the clutch to moderate how fast I go. I lean it way over for each turn and hold it there. The key is this; every time you feel like your going down and have the instinct to jab your foot down to hold you up, let a little more clutch out (throttle is held steady). The little bit of forward drive will pull you back up enough to lose the I'm going down feeling. Do that each time the reflex to jab a foot down happens.

Eventually you can do a whole row of parking lot stalls hitting every other painted line no problem.

I can turn my 1600 Nomad doing a 180 degree turn inside two lines that are 17 feet apart. It took me 19 feet on my 1500 nomad, don't know if I got better, or if there is a difference in the bikes.

Sometimes when learning it is a little easier if you drag the rear brake a little, once you learn and are comfortable, it's not needed.

I find being able to do tight turns very useful. For instance, going down a country or canyon road that isn't very wide and wanting to do a uturn. If you do the turn, back up, turn.....you are exposed to a possible car coming around the corner longer. If you can slow down, whip around and be gone all in one motion, you're not exposed to the danger of an oncoming car as long.