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Morbius

Morbius

Morbius

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16 Jul 2008
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I've just put a deposit down on a nearly new silver Yamaha YBR125. I have access to some private land where I can trundle around for a bit to get my confidence up before doing my CBT (again). My Dad rides a BMW 1150 so I've got someone who can give me advice.

I did a CBT session during the summer, but I'd never been on a motorbike before. I couldn't do a U turn so I didn't get the certificate. When I was starting the turn, it felt like the bike was going to fall over. I'm certain that this was a combination of a lack of confidence and not going quickly enough to get that gyroscopic effect working.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting back on a bike and working on the weak parts of my riding. :)
 
Good luck.

I failed my test 3 times and ended up winning 2 championships.... ;) lol

for u-turn it's all about the feel of the clutch lever. keep a constant throttle - too quick pull the clutch in more, too slow - let it out more.
keep the back brake covered too and practice, practice, practice. :)
 
I found the U turn a nightmare, my instructors said, tons of throttle, feather the rear brake and clutch... For me, that was beyond wrong, mostly opposite.

Using the above I could never get it right. Tried my own way, which is little throttle (held just a big higher than tick over), throttle at bite point, let the bike roll it's way round. Don't touch the back brake.

But then again, we are all different :)

ags
 
I found U-Turns a nightmare, so much so I failed my test because of it(fell off half way around my manoeuvre on my DAS lol).

When I went back for more training, I got the best bit of advice I'd be given, use my finger tips for clutch control. Up until then I'd been squeezing in the clutch with the upper parts of my finger, and because of that, I didn't have very much control or feel for the biting point. Once I switched to using my finger tips, things came on much better, I was able to control my speed correctly, and because of this was able to complete the U turn with out hassle.
 
With U turns it has never been truer that you will go where you look. After your observations get your head right round looking at the place you want to end up, don't look down or youll go down, dont look at the curb or youll hit the curb, look at the bit of road you want to get to.

With technique above, you can do good uturns on the clutch (covering rear brake - leave the front alone), pretty much just rolling around the turn by carrying the momentum you just built up by moving off (walking pace).

That said I don't practice much and once you pass your test you don't need to perform perfect u-turns anymore. :D
 
bloodiedathame said:
With U turns it has never been truer that you will go where you look. After your observations get your head right round looking at the place you want to end up, don't look down or youll go down, dont look at the curb or youll hit the curb, look at the bit of road you want to get to.

With technique above, you can do good uturns on the clutch (covering rear brake - leave the front alone), pretty much just rolling around the turn by carrying the momentum you just built up by moving off (walking pace).

That said I don't practice much and once you pass your test you don't need to perform perfect u-turns anymore. :D
Click to expand...

I should point out that, yeah it's been 2 or 3 years since my test, and before I had my current 600 I'd only ridden tiny, tiny 125s. I am looking right down the road, but it just doesn't seem to want to do what I want it to; I think I used to do it by just muscling the 125s round, which I obviously can't do now.

I think I'm just not putting my weight in the right place, I'm going to get my dad to watch me at some point soon, I'm sure 5 mins of observation will make it obvious where I am going wrong.

In the real world you don't *need* to do it, but it annoys me a lot that I can't!
 
When I started learning I got an older 125 that it didn't matter If I dropped, no one ever keeps them very long either :P

Failed my DAS part one on the stopping in the box bit, locked up the rear and didn't realise until I smelt burning rubber :P

You have so little feedback from your feet compared to your hands.
 
3 things I found useful on U-turns:

1) Look at where you're going. LOOK AT WHERE YOU@RE GOING!!!!!RAGE!!!!
2) Tonnes of throttle - I kept trying to do it at just over idle on the biting point and didn't have the go when I needed it
3) Lean forward a little. I've got little arms so in my normal position was losing control of the clutch because of stretching my left arm too much when the bars turned. Lean forward - problem solved.

:)
 
Sorry, I'm probably asking a stupid question here, but please humour me :)

Why is lots of throttle plus back brake better than just reducing the throttle?
 
Revs will generally make the bike more stable/upright, due to the gyroscopic effect of the engine turning (I don't know the physics!)

But obviously you don't want to be moving too fast for this manoeuvre, so braking whilst having the engine at revs is the solution. :)
 
Depends on the engine and how it is balanced - my old K75 was perfectly balanced so throttle made no difference, but my SP3 pushes itself over to the right when throttle is applied. It's going to be a negligible effect at a constant low speed though, which is what you want - the less forces you have to juggle at once, the better. The main reason for using the back brake to control the speed is that it's not half as sensitive as the throttle, particularly on bigger bikes, so you get much more fine-grained control.
 
on my cbt i was on normal scooter so you use the back brake to stop yourself shooting off and tonnes of throttle like 3/4 open and use the engine revs as a gyro and you just stay up

on a geared bike its a bit harder ..
 
I'm not convinced there are any gyro effects on a bike engine?

I think its just a case of plenty of revs and a bit of back brake helps maintain a controlled constant speed, which, along with looking where you want to go, is key to the u-turn
 
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