Total Motorcycle Community Forums

What mikeydude said.

There are many people who swear it doesn't matter about slow speed skills.

I can run the 100m in 9.9 seconds, why would I ever need to walk?

First off if you are good in traffic then you are lucky (probably) or skilled at slow speed.

If you are in city traffic this is the most taxing of any type of driving you will do, in terms of slow speed. Stop and go repeat. What do you do when you have to coast at 5 mph or get hit from behind? You must know clutch control,
or you are just very very jerky at those speeds. If you are slow and you have to turn the wheel, if you aren't trained and you hit that front brake, you are going down eventually. If you are good why would doing these slow be a problem? If its so easy and ridiculous prove it and take the MSF, its easy anyways.

I have seen guys with 20 years of experience that swear up and down that they lean to turn their bike MWHAHAHAHA and they are on 800lb ultra classics.

There are also the misguided lies (you often hear them from sportbike riders) - Never use your rear brake.. that is real funny since lots of sportbike riders stay in the urban areas (there is a reason there are endless under 10k miles 7 year old sportbikes that are pampered and never were just left). Point is the rear brake rules low speed, people see me standing my bike up for a minute at a light without putting my feet down they don't get it. They also have to drag their feet in parking lots and can only duck walk their bike around u-turns.

Ok I've gone to long bottom line is training doesn't hurt ever, and if you master low speed you sure as hell can master high speed. Doesn't work inversely though.

Okay, point taken...don't be a fool, stay in school...blah blah blah...

onlinesmurf wrote:I have seen guys with 20 years of experience that swear up and down that they lean to turn their bike MWHAHAHAHA and they are on 800lb ultra classics.

I once saw someone demonstrating that he could idle (and turn) his 600lb non-classic around a parking lot with his hands in his pockets.

Not quite the same thing but I used to ride my bicycle all over the place with a camera in my hands... rarely touched the handle bars once the bike was rolling.

TWO wheels only, great lunatics they are conducted an experiment on an airfield at the end of last year.

They took a complete newbie, never ridden, from their office and taught him the skills needed to get a Fireblade up to 180mph in two hours.

I should buy TWO again, they were threatening to do another article with that guy...

VermilionX wrote:basics are not hard to learn but not easy to master either.

Sweet, I think you are getting what we were saying a while back.

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I should probably post that I am in fact signed up for and going to take the MSF class, I know there is a ton they can and will teach me, and I really want the low speed skills and the general awareness tips. I just dont think it will apply across the band of skillsets needed and practicing before is a good idea IMO. Not for a second should my previous post be any form of saying that its not a good idea to take the course, please dont take it that way. And next year I plan to take the next step course, and the next after that, which I am told ARE higher speed skills, wish you could just take them all at once, that would be nice.

I bet you can learn how to crash in less than a half a day too!

Dichotomous wrote: And next year I plan to take the next step course, and the next after that, which I am told ARE higher speed skills, wish you could just take them all at once, that would be nice.

That's like expecting to learn how to play a piano concerto in "three easy lessons" I know what you mean tho. I don't just want to ride...riding is enjoyable, but riding with skill, well, that's the whole ballgame

yeah thats true, I am with you on that, I would way rather be a smooth and skilled rider than someone who can be all squidish. I AM very cautious when I try new things and when I practice my riding, and I call it all practice right now. I try to be carefull in my speed coming into curves and turns, I try to hold a good line through the turn and such. I try to stay as smooth through traffic as I can, use both brakes, that sort of thing, and yes I try to hit up slow speed times in parking lots, usually when the girlfriend is out for an errand I follow and play in the lot, she thinks its funny