Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone?
 

So, today has been a beautiful day weather wise (one of the precious few we've had this summer) so I did a mini-maintenance check and headed out to the truck driving school parking lot that I use for slow riding drills. Today was diminishing radius circles and figure eights, and - as always - U Turns. Later through the session, I did a left hand U Turn that felt "in the zone." Head/shoulders/torso turned sharply and comfortably to the left, eyes seeking and gracefully moving to the exit point, fanny to the front and to the right, right foot naturally putting more weight on the outside peg, gentle throttle, speed of bike controlled by feathering the clutch, bike leaned in, just a little rear brake, Right arm ultra relaxed, left arm relaxed with left hand doing the steering, - essentially all the things I've been reading about, learned in MSF, and practicing all came together at once without having to think too hard about it.

Then it happened.

The left peg gently scraped the asphalt.

There was no panic, no instinctual movement of the left foot off the peg onto the asphalt, no right knee flopping away from the gas tank in a misguided attempt to provide counterbalance, - it just happened. In retrospect, I dearly hope no one was watching because after exiting the turn I came to a stop, shut it down, got off the bike, shouted "WooHOO!" and did a happy dance. I am 56 years old, gray hair and goatee, 6'4" (taller with the helmet)and 275 pounds. There was, without a doubt, nothing graceful about that little display!

Since the front wheel was pretty much maximum left, the bike was leaned in far enough for the peg to scrape, and the speed was just enough (perhaps a little more) to keep the bike upright, my guess is that the left turn was about as sharp as the GZ can make. Is this pretty close to the truth?

Here're the real questions, though: It all fell together so gracefully - it felt "perfect". How close was I to going down? Is this, perhaps, pushing the envelope too quickly and a little to far into the danger zone? It did not feel dangerous but I am inexperienced and not tuned in (physically or mentally) to all the fine gradations that exist between quite safe and Def-con 5.

Congratulations, admonitions, and random thoughts appreciated!

Jim

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

Dam, you are good. I've never been able to do that on any bike. If you can confidently scrape a foot peg and feel good about it you have most riders beat by a far margin. Slow speed stuff in a parking lot is a far better and safer skill than high speed stuff on the road in my opinion. On the road the bike is a bigger part of the equation but in a parking lot it is all about your skill level and ability. Almost anyone can go fast in a straight line or follow curves reasonably well but the real test is the ability to ride slow with confidence. Enjoy your dance, you earned it in my opinion. :2tup: :rawk: :2tup: :rawk: :tup:

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

The GZ will not lean enough to drag the pegs... ;)


http://s3.postimage.org/5v44px1ap/DSCF7556.jpg

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

Then what was scraping?

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

He's just pulling your leg.

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

Ahh. Inside (left peg) joke. I actually went downstairs to see if there was something hanging beneath the bike. Good one, got me! I gather that the man in yellow is, in fact, dragging his peg and that there is some long-standing argument about whether this is possible. Time to ride!

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

Congrats! I'm glad you asked the question as I was wondering as well. Great post (you describe it well). I have not scraped a peg. Although I wondered once if it was going to scrape when I was riding on a cloverleaf turn one time (and it was the best riding cloverleaf I had done on the GZ).

Agreed that slower riding is definitely where skill comes in. And it sounds like you've got the skills! :)

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

webmeister, well done!!! I succeeded that only once, when i was going into u turn up hill. I also felt like you, no panic, just moving on and feeling great. I'm one of those careful freaks, which won't buy harley, even if i had the money, if the pegs are too low, i just don't like the idea of scraping on every bigger turn. But done that on gz, which is fairly high pegged, gives you confidence. I'm planning to go on a riding poligon, where i was learning riding bike, just to check my skills on the same ground where i was riding honda cbf 600.
After 7000km i feel much more secure, but also many times in doubts, especially at cornering on the surface i don't know.
Many times said, but still, GZ is great begginer bike and for humble biker...

Re: Parking Lot Practice - Milestone? or Potential Tombstone
 

Hi and congrats! It sounds like you have very good slow speed riding skill, which is something I'm always struggling with. On the "Ride Like A Pro" video with "Motorman" Palladino, he's always saying that scraping the pegs in slow speed parking lot practice means you're finding the lean limits of the bike and it's nothing to worry about, it just means you're doing it right!

I really should practice my low speed manoeuvering more. I was the only one in my MSF class to go outside the box on the u-turns. I think they still spook me. Your description of exactly how you set up for the turn sounds absolutely textbook perfect, and has inspired me to go and do some parking lot practice of my own. I'd like to have that kind of confidence.

Seems you are were in the sweet spot or "grey area" this is achieved when the throttle, rear break, and clutch are in perfect concert and it is ALMOST impossible to lay the bike down ( something to do with resistance and centrifugal force ) Allows for very tight low speed maneuvers with high degree of safety