Only one thing to add grabbing that front brake when needing the front fork to turn defeats the whole purpose. use the front brake yes but not when turning and when stoppingif your forks are not staight is asking to go down ... I don't explain things well but when making a u turn a car pulled out making me have to stop grabbed the front brake with the forks at an angle and downI went... Hope this helps, tried anyway...

 

Just go on and drop in front of some friends. You'll feel so embarrased, you WILL definately not drop it again.

 

This may help.
1) NEVER use the front brake in a turn. Use the rear brake, if you have to brake at all. Remember that you shouldn't enter a turn at so high a speed that something you don't see will force you stopping abruptly. If it's a sharp bend, take it slowly enough you can't stop progressively.

2) Slow maneuvering is when you are more likely to go down. be careful, know that's risky business.

3) Be extra careful on slippery ground. Wearing boots with oil-proof soles helps a lot. But dust on a painted concrete garage floor beats even skid-proof soles.

4) try avoiding to put yourself in situations when you need tight maneuvering to get out of them. Putting yourself at in an awkward position at a traffic light, or parking the bike in a tight corner.
Always remember to park your bike so that you will use the engine to pull out of the parking. Maneuvering by pushing the bike, especially on sloping ground may be pretty hard, and dangerous.

I find that if I park rear end first, avoid putting myself in awkward positions while riding, and keep always accurate center balance while maneuvering on difficult ground, the chances to drop my bike are significantly lessened.

Then, it's also true that you may have done everything perfectly, and be down anyway.
Everybody makes mistakes, the important part is learning from them, and from what I read, you already got the most important part of the whole process.

Oh, BTW, I've heard some people say "I don't pull the kickstand away until I'm finished maneuvring, so I won't fall down". This is BULLSHIT.
As soon as you have move the bike, by hand or using its power, pull the stand up. It's just another thing that canget snagged, you can trip upon, and that can just act like a leverage and cause your bike to fall down the opposite side.

 

Good advice here. Don't use front brake. Also, contrary to what your head might tell you, slow speed in a turn or manuvering ain't your friend. I'm not saying lay the throttle open; what I'm talking about is barely having enough speed to move forward. Learn how to go a little faster when slow speed manuvering. If your forks are wobbling and you're damn near falling over, you're going too slow.

And pay attention to what's going on with you on the bike, not that chicka's butt across the street from you. When they said, don't look down, look ahead, they weren't referring to that kind of "looking ahead."

 

Exactly.
What I mean when I say "go into the bend slow enough you can avoid a panic stop" doesn't mean "go into a bend so slow you have barely equilibrium".
Many rookies (ok, I'm a rookie too, but guess that years of learning to sense what the vehicle tries to communicate you helps here) are scared to lean in a curve. So they go in so slow that they can actually curve by turning the handlebar in the curve.
That's dangerous, unless you are barely maneuvering, or in so tight a spot you have no other chance.
It's what is called a counter-intuitive thing, but by going in faster, and leaning your bike to negotiate the bend, you actually reduce greatly your chance of dropping the bike!
Also, looking ahead is VERY important, as your brain automatically coordinates inner ear and eyesight. By looking down your inner ear will tell your brain a thing, relative to the horizon, and your eyes will tell another. Add to this confusion that the centrifugal force that acts on your body, acts also on the liquid inside your inner ear, that is the sensor your brain has to tell UP from DOWN, and will slosh it in a different way when you bend your head down, than it would do when you look forward, and messes up things even more.
By keeping your head up and level, eyes fixed on where you want to go, not what's in front of your wheel (or, worst, the inside of the curve!), may be the single most "saving" factor when it comes to dropping a bike.

 

I use the front brake all the time you just have to get the feel of it and it works a shole lot better than the rear high speed or low/slow. backing up out of my garage is the only place I ever have a problem and a quick grab of the front will set it right back up...

 

Right. Using the front brake isn't the problem. The problem is when you stop the front wheel from turning and you're handle bars are turned and your bike is off balance. If you're going to use your front brake to stop, be sure you're handle bars are straight and you're weight is centered.

 

+1

With some kind of bad habbit developing, twice in the last few weeks I have almost thrown myself off the bike at near zero miles per hour because of my newest trick of using the front brake to stop in a slow turn (like when approaching an intersection to make a turn on red).

Now its all I think about when coming to a stop ("keeping straight"). I've been riding most of my adult life and never had that happen. Out of the clear blue,I get this stupid habbit forming. Very unnerving. I am amazed how much inertia is still there even though the speed isalmost zero.

I don't think there will be any time in your riding experience where you can comfortably take your eye off the ball (so to speak).

 

Thanx, Wldbill, 43 yrs thisyear, here.Been awhile since it has happenend, but "chit" happens. And gravity, 2 wheels, and the human body can combine for some interesting activity. Oneof them being, down. Saw it in a earlier post, "There are 2 types of riders, those that have been down, and those that are going down." It is a fact of life. Some experience it more than others, but it has been my experience that if someone says they have "NEVER" dropped a bike or gone down, it is because no one was there to see them when it happened, or "they don't ride". That said, I do agree with many of the posts. Paying attention is the first asset to acquire. Next would be to ensure the bike is "sized" for you. This does not mean, tall ppl = tall bike, small ppl = small bike. It is what is sized for your ability. Seen women on Ultras do just fine, and have seen guys on Sportsters struggle. Just because you are a GREAT marathon runner , does not translate to being a basketball player. Not everyone is suited. Does not mean you cannot"learn it", just have to work a li'l harder at it than a "natural". The hardest bike for me to get myself around are the FX's. Don't ask me why, it just is. I have never dropped a chopper, (Have had 4) but I have "way" more than my share of "fun" with the FX's. And I owned a Sporty that I dropped once. Dropped our Ultra twice, both in the grudge, and both times on the right side. And both times in the first 3 days we owned it. Momma "really" struggles with slow manuevering, can't keep her hand off the brake, and let's the bike get too far over B4 beginning a corrective action. Don't mind it on the Honda, but apprehensive 'bout putting her behind on the FLH this summer. JMFUO based on MFU experience.

 

The FLH frame bikescan be ridden with the bars turned to a full lock. It's one of the exercises I teach in my Ride Like A Pro course. It's a skill that is not easily acquired. It is an unnatural feeling to come to complete stop, turn the bars to lock, and ride a complete u-turn with the bars locked. It takes a lot of practice and focus. But like anything else, once you learn how, it's not a problem. It is something that comes only AFTER you have learned the basis of riding in the friction zone, dragging the rear brake, manipulating the throttle, and proper head and eye placement.

Yesterday I had a private lesson with a father and son in law. Both HD riders. The dad is an old timer, and the son, fairly new. When class started the son as struggling, and could not play follow the leader with me. He kept wandering out of line and all over the range. I thought it was going to be a loooooong day. The dad did great, but the son was struggling, and I mean struggling. He was rough on starts and stops, and he was a "grabber", meaning whenever he was uncomfortable, he would GRAB whatever he could with the controls and drop his feet. I kept working with him and he kept working with me.I told him to take off with authority and deliberation. I asked him, "When the light turns green, do you sit in your car (he came in a Maserati) and hesitate, or do you just go?". He said "I go". So I told him well "Ride the bike then!" That smoothed his starts right out. Then I had him working on stops. I did repeated starts and stops with him keeping his right foot up on the brake for control, and only the left foot coming down. That smoothed out his stops and slowly he stopped dropping both feet. Suddenly inexercise 2 HE GOT IT. He was riding the 12foot cone weave with AUTHORITY, really dipping the bike back and forth, and moving the bars side to side. He was no longer afraid of the bike. He was riding the bike, the bike was no longer riding him. His confidence went from here (hand six inches off the ground), to HERE (hand as high as I can hold it), inless than10mins. He did the rest of the exercises very well, with the exception of the above, the full lockU-Turn from a stop. He dropped the bike a couple of times, (one of my KZ police training bikes), but then again so do a lot of riders. His dad did very well with that evercise, dropping his training bike only once. They did so well in the 24foot Iron Cross that I cut it down to less than 20 feet.

I guess what I am saying in this manifesto, is that anyone can improve and ride with confidence. All it takes is an open mind, the willingness to get out of your comfort zone, and lots of practice.