Total Motorcycle Community Forums

buddhacide wrote:One thing that I felt sort of weird about was the breaking. I found that when i went to use the front break it was sort of difficult to not open the throttle a little bit. Did anyone else find this?

On my first CBT I was wearing sking gloves which caught the throttle everytime I used the brake.

After I got myself a fitting pair of bike gloves the problem went away.

I don't know how long your fingers are, adjustments can be made to the position of the levers.

I had tons of trouble with the clutch and the friction zone at first. I was new to both motorcycles and gears. Continue to practice the friction zone, in reference to grabng the throttle when braking, I did that alot also the first couple of days, it was was because I was afraid of letting go of my grip a bit to pull the brake lever. Trust me with time, it'll all be second nature.... hang in there and keep practicing, make sure you have plenty of room to manuver in and remember to guard that clutch.

One thing I've found that helps with coordinating the throttle and the front brake is to keep the two completely separate. Don't cover the brake lever when you are using the throttle. If you keep that in mind, you will find that you automatically roll off the throttle when reaching for the lever. You should not be braking and accelerating at the same time.

There are some variations on that you should be aware of though...

If you roll off the throttle it is like putting the rear brake on. The bike starts slowing rapidly... but the brake lights won't come on. That's dangerous because a driver behind you might be counting on seeing brake lights to warn them that you are slowing down. It is a good idea to give the brake lever a bit of a pull (just enough to light the bake lights) whenever you plan on reducing throttle so much that it slows the bike down.

However, it is often not necessary to completely release the throttle to slow as much as you want. You may drop from half throttle to quarter throttle and be slowing down.... so you need to be able to pull the brake lever at any throttle setting.

VermilionX, i too am working on no feet at lights, but its not going to well, the best i have done so far is roughly ten seconds, i counted in my head, but i cant get far past that. i dont foot down at stopsigns for the most part. i ride this alley home for about a mile and there are 7 stop signs which really gives me the ability to practice.

snwbrdr wrote:VermilionX, i too am working on no feet at lights, but its not going to well, the best i have done so far is roughly ten seconds, i counted in my head, but i cant get far past that. i dont foot down at stopsigns for the most part. i ride this alley home for about a mile and there are 7 stop signs which really gives me the ability to practice.

10 secs is pretty impressive to me.

i can only hold it for a sec or 2.

i have been practicing for a long time, its just practice practice practice.

snwbrdr wrote:i have been practicing for a long time, its just practice practice practice.

i don't really practice it... that's just how much i can hold it from the start.

a 1 sec stop and then go is good enough for me. i don't see a reason to hold it longer.

it's a good exhibition though if you're into that stuff.

yep... run that light!

I cheated when I was learning how to use my clutch... I turned the idle screw up, and when I would release the clutch, it would just start rolling and away Id go...I slowly turned it down to normal RPM range as I got the hang of it...