Tight U-Turns

er - just read this thread.....why do we want to practice U-turns? I'm all for rider training and agree every day is a riding school day but come on...we don't all live in dead end streets do we?

[Mark_h]

I do

ar - should have seen that one coming!!

i would just get off and walk it round

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by Mark_h

3. Your mirrors will be looking out for passing air balloons. They'll need shifting too.

Not on a faired SV you wont... sorry shoudl have made my post clearer I was refering to the S not the N.. remember the S has clipons, if you move the levers so that the bike fits you better its much comfier and its less easy to trap your wrist between the clip on the bar to.

IMHO

[Mark_h]

You fancy S owners always make things complicated. Keep it simple, keep it naked

In fact, that sounds like a statement that could have uses in many scenarios.

Originally Posted by FishyMug

Hi there, as a relatively new SV rider I'm still in the 'learning curve', I have a lot of trouble performing tight u-turns, I know practice makes perfect but has anyone got any tips, I think maybe I'm riding too to slow during the turn and relying on the steering too much

I'm assuming you've passed your full bike test, if so get off and push it round. Bloody U-turn is the single biggest reason why a fair few new riders don't go on to take a re-test after failing. It's a waste of time in my opinion and only serves to put people off riding again.

Given time and a bit more experience you'll be able to master a U-turn without too much bother, but I wouldn't worry about doing them daily, they come with practise over time.

I agree with Lozzo, it will come with time as other skills get learned and confidence grows it will rub on in this. Either that or you can just got to a car park and really work on it.
My low speed work is really bloody awful and it doesnt help that I still avoid tight u-turns and stuff, like others ahve said. I tend to avoid awkward situations especially u-turns which when cocked up would leave you vulnerable or liable to drop the bike if goes wrong (esp. if you are short legged like me).
I tend to find the best way to do a u-turn is ride on a bit and find a wide turning or something. In general you will be back while everyone else is still messing around doing u-turns across busy roads.
Always try and make life easy, for example back into parking spaces so you can ride out easily (esp useful when you have an audience and youve ended up in a tight spot), not ending up nose down in the kerb on slight inclines etc, turning where there is most room, nudging up onto an incline so you call roll (paddle) back nicely during a turn etc.
Like Lozzo implies, there's much more important real worls skills to focus on IMO.

just put your foot down, no1 is lookin