You're in Plano, and there's a huge group of very dedicated riders in your area. They always welcome new participants. Trust me you can take your riding as far as you want to go with that bunch. Send me an email and I'll put you in touch with them. Several of them are in videos here. :

www.youtube.com/conedown

I have written a booklet you may find helpful. It's free, just send me an email at:

motorlessons@hotmail.com

and I'll send it back (it's a PDF).

I also strongly recommend the Ride Like a Pro DVD.

The important thing with any of this is there's no instant answer. Improvement can't come from an on line post, a book, or a video. You have to get out there and practice.

It's common to hear a guy say "I wish I could ride like that". He never will. The guy that says "I want to learn to ride like that" is well on his way.

Harris
Denver, CO
www.youtube.com/conedown

 

I'm part of that "huge group in Plano". We invite all riders from the area or visitors from other parts of the world to come practice with us.

We have regularly-scheduled practice sessions every Wednesday evening (weather permitting) at 7PM in the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Parker and Ave K. It's a vacant Minyards parking lot and we currently have permission to hold our practice there. It's also right in front of a Plano police storefront; they also encourage our sessions because they result in safer and more skillful riders.

Attendance has varied from 5 motorcycles to 35 on any given Wednesday evening. (fewer when it's 100+ degrees)

You might also join or visit the Motorcycle Skills forum:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/RIDESKILLFULLY/start

This forum was created to bring together those that wish to improve their riding skills. We're learning that informal practice groups like ours in Plano are popping up all over the USA. Some of the members are hard-core cone-riding competitors; others just enjoy the practice and the skills that can be learned. Practice videos are often posted in order to get advice from the more skillful members.

Hope to see you some day at the Wednesday Nite Practice.

Ken

 

Duplicate?

 

Watch Ride like a pro video like everybody said and practice those drills 2 hrs every w/e in some empty parking lot put some cones down after 4 to 6 weeks you will master the skill and don't worry about laying it down that is only way you will find out yous and bikes limits.

 

Keeping power to the rear wheel is very important, expecially in full lock turns. The angle of the left hand during full lock turns can feel awkward and makes it easy to pull in the clutch too much loosing power to the rear wheel. If you don't recognize it quick enough, you will go down. You just have to practice until it get comfortable and can feel the rear wheel loosing power. By the way, the saddlebags of a SG will touch the ground if you go down, so SG owners need to take the bags off during practice.

Beary

 

When I took an advanced rider course last month, it was suggested that I scoot closer to the handlebars on tight turns and figure 8's. It seemed to help me as the weird feeling of tight turns feels a bit more natural.

 

Things that work for me (and which I recently spent an evening teaching one of my kids for his bike test) are to use lots of revs and clutch slip, put my weight slightly to the outside of the turn and push the bike in a bit, don't look down, grip with the knees, back brake only. Also I try to put more weight if I can onto the inside footboard because it feels better but this is really difficult and only works on left handers as I can't do this and cover the rear brake on right handers. My son still failed so what do I know!