corners

So I recently upgraded from a 250 to a 650, first ever bike to my second. I love it. Lots of power in first gear (all around too of course) compared to what I had. So I've been brave, or stupid depending how you look at it, and have been taking corners (gravel only) rather aggressively. I'll adjust my speed properly before entry, but as I come out, I'll feather the clutch and with lots of gas try to slide my rear tire to one side exiting. I've only been riding three years, but this move has gotten a hold of me by the britches. I've been practicing the for about a week now and finally had my first lay down. I knew it would happen eventually and it went pretty much how i imagined. Low side skid for a few feet, no damage to bike or myself. And because of that, i lifted the pig back up with a smiled and rode the next 30seconds home.

Is this a bad idea to keep trying this maneuver? Do you execute it on corners? How often?

Practice makes perfect...Perfect practice on the other hand

http://youtu.be/A13hMU23Res

Embeddy no worky...click the link.

Pressure on the outside peg, a bit of countersteer, a bit of throttle(with clutch to control overdrift)

Be safe! sounds like you are, but wear ATGATT.

You'll learn about traction and whatnot, but you are going to crash pretty hard one of these days. But how else are you going to learn. If you did this on a dirt bike, you wouldn't scuff your new 650 up.

What's the bike? Try practicing on wet grass with plenty of room till you get better. Nothing more fun than a half bald knobby on wet grass. You'll learn more control learning to flat-track than almost anything else. Try doing donuts first till you're comfortable and then go to bigger , wider arcs. When you can go both directions doing 100 yard arcs you'll be better all around.

That's awesome, I want to do that sometime.

2004 KLR. Im starting small for sure just trying to get the movement/control down before I try bigger. Donuts are definitely on the to do list but I can't seem to get the right lean and gas combo. One of these days lol.

Ps I have no idea what ATGATT means. Or many of the other acronyms I see on here

Using the clutch to induce a slide (pull in clutch, build RPM, and dump the clutch to cause the slide) can be very difficult and unpredictable. You can't really maintain a slide this way though since you only over power the rear tire for a moment until it starts gripping again. So you either end up low siding, or the slide wasn't all that spectacular. If you're just trying to have fun and don't care about wrecking then I don't see anything wrong with it though.

The long slide you see pro racers do is from a combination of being near the cornering limits of the tire and applying the right amount of throttle for the lean angle they're at. If you want to learn that, find a slick surface like wet grass. Then lean the bike into a corner and start rolling into the throttle nice and smooth until you start holding a slide. You can use the clutch a little bit to get things started but its mostly throttle control. Gravel can be sketchy with the front tire letting go but its a pretty good place for power sliding too.

There are many more ways to hurt yourself on a motorcycle but few are more fun.

Sliding through rear around a corner is a valid technique for dirt/offroad riding. I'm not brave enough to try it on a 570lb sport touring bike

Glad yer learn sum "real" riding techniques; this will help you tremendously in the long run. Lotta riders slab fer hundreds of thousands of miles, brag'in all the while, not know'in wut theyz do'in cuz slab'in ain't ride'in. If'n yer slide'in 'round in the dirt 'n mud, yer ride'in! (Un fortunately ya get no IBA brag'in rights. )

Try slide'in up close ta the tank; that'll weight the front, and help the rear pivot around it. Also, practice spin'in up the rear in a straight line ta get the feel'in where the traction level iz, then try spin'in it up come'in off the corners. The faster ya go, the mo stable the bike will be, but also stuff happens faster, and ya get hurt mor when ya bail.
Relax 'n let the bike do it's thang; feel the bike, become one with the bike grasshopper.

All the gear all the time. I recon theyz talk'in 'bout wear'in a bunch of gear fer protection?

No gutz, no glory.

go here.

http://www.americansupercamp.com/

you will learn how to do it and have a good time

I just wouldn't stick my leg out sideways like the guy in the cover photo of that website. :eek1 That's an excellent way to screw up your knee if your foot catches anything or you try to put weight on it to catch a fall.

All The Gear All The Time: Means you should wear all the protective gear even for short, apparently safe trips.

Hope you are not trying this move on dry pavement and that your clutch will last.

Yeah...holy crap.

Our knees aren't meant to take forces in that direction. That's a knee surgery waiting to happen right there.

ya'll are new at this, aincha?

That foot is an outrigger......flat trackers.....hot shoe.

Still learning to slide a bike, now at 55 years old. But I am picking it up on the dirt and with my ice bike. Great fun!!

Does help too on the street. Once when demo-riding a BMW R1200GS I had the rear tire break loose on a 90 degree turn from a county highway onto a town road. Because of my dirt/ice experience, I stayed in the lean and rolled into the gas, did my first ever pavement power slide.

Changed my shorts later. Heh, heh.

+1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A13hMU23Res

Balancing 'aggressive' with 'just right' is really the best part of riding for me - whether riding balls-to-the-wall, getting through traffic peacefully or just meandering. Getting "aggressive" WAY wrong WILL increase the pain factor from time to time.

Define "properly" since properly for you is not likely the same for a very skill-enhanced rider. I'm thinking that your "properly" might be timid to me and therefore you need a lot of extra throttle to bring the rear around.

Yeah. I think, for now, that using the clutch and revs to bring the rear around is beyond what you've learned so far. You are asking the rear tire to handle a dramatic change in force when you do this. This technique is probably best reserved for when the front end is plowing (sliding/digging into soft terrain) and there's no other way to catch the bike from falling than without a huge weight shift to the rear.

An old adage comes to mind, "smooth is slow and slow is fast." Misquoted for sure, but it means that you should be very smooth on the controls and activate them deliberately/slowly and not jerkily. The second part means to look far ahead and not just in front of your front tire. That allows you to take in a good amount of road data and act before you get to any particular part of the road. In other words, keep your eyes well ahead of the bike.

Sliding the rear tire? Most certainly, "NO." Doing it the way you are? Most certainly...well...maybe not. I can't predict how fast you will learn the technique, but if you master it before major calamity then you will likely learn about rear tire traction fairly fast.

After rereading what I wrote, I also want to include that you can cause a rear slide with a lot of throttle (or your way) and catch the slide if you quickly return the throttle to a less open position (NOT SHUT) and immediately begin to reopen the throttle gently one the tire hooks back up. The worst thing is to shut the throttle completely when the rear breaks free. Just return the throttle to a position slightly less than when the rear tire broke free and begin advancing it again when the rear tire regains traction.

Better riders than me may say differently, but the techniques I recommend are the same that have kept me safe for a lot of dirt, street and off-road miles.

Now, if I had some nads I might have just been faster...

PS - I love it when a genuinely interested noob rider goes at it with an open eye and willingness to learn. That just peps me up.

Eh, on a blue grooved flat track with your boot sliding would be fine. The OP is probably on a less then smooth surface and dabbing his foot to stop from dropping the bike. Rough terrain + foot stuck in the ground = knee injury if your leg is sticking out sideways. I learned that pretty quick on motocross tracks with left / right turns, ruts, bumps, and jumps.

So I recon this here feller's do'in it wrong too?

I tell you what, a feller could get use to railing corners like that right there.

Yes sir, that's how ya do it...