Gymkhana

Draw line, puncture, cut away from fingers.

That, I can do!

When we first went to the lot, and I tried to figure-eight, U-turn etc. I was frustrated as to why it was so difficult for me.
Then I realized, I had the habit of standing on my pegs while going slow, with my old dual sport. Doing the same maneuvers sitting down was "getting in my head".
After an hour of practice, I was hitting the stops on right turns, but still need to work on my lefts.
Next time I'll add some more speed too.

Clamp hacksaw frame into a vice with the blade uppermost. Draw the tennis ball along the blade a few times and it will be beautifully cut in half. Keep your fingers out of the way or better still, wear those old bike gloves you meant to throw away years ago.

I started to flame you for this. Then I realized I'd be flaming you for your tennis ball cutting technique in a thread dedicated to riding around in parking lots slow on motorcycles.

Ah, the truth. Timed myself on 12mtr 8's yesterday, my first run was 36's, woop woop said I, only 4 laps said the girlfriend. Bassid!! The reality was times between 42 & 44 seconds, a way to go yet. I doff my cap & tug my fetlock in your general direction Vulfy. Tightest turn was 2 mtrs ish too, G/F reckons I have done better but....
I spent a fair bit of time trying to get to full lock ASAP again, geez it's hard.

Any hoo, for the insomniacs here is a bit of practice.... What it looks like & how it feels is poles apart..

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KdOmZE8CXxc" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

HAHAHAHA! I know what you mean.. I always feel like such a badass when I start scraping pegs in a turn... And then I review my videos and it looks as tame as a kitten playing with a yarn ball.


As for the video, thats not the actual GP8, right?

For the GP8, well we talk about smooth, and slowing down in the turn to get to full lock and get the minimum radius rotation.

Speed is pretty relative turn.

I found out that with smoother lines, and quicker turns, you still have to haul ass THROUGH the turn, in order to get anywhere near 35.

So don't try to slow down too much. Its good for practice, but once you feel the bike and trust your tires to go into a deep lean when you enter the turn, and then hold on to the asphalt as you twist the bars more, and the bike stands up, you can carry a bit more speed through the turn.

I'm still hovering in the 35 second range. I have to keep some speed through the turn, otherwise my times jump back to 37-38 seconds. Of course my turns are still not very tight. I'm trying my best to twist bars as much as I can, but I'm still not hitting locks on my DRZ.

A few times that I managed to quickly turn the bars, I got a wobble on the bike that got me a bit panicked. I'm pretty sure I'm not getting all the parts right, so more work and practice

42-43 secons is about where I was starting with, so I can definitely relate to your progress.
Also remember what motogymkhanaman was saying, hop between the cones. Accelerate hard as you exit, and brake hard before entering. Easier said than done but the feeling I'm getting is

"WRAAAAAAARRR (accelerate / brake) .... whoooooo (turn) .... WRAAAAAAAAAR.... whooooo....

LOL if that makes sense :huh

Video of your GP8, for the next time please.

As far as "slow" in Gymkhana.... We had similar conversation over at Amgrass forums. hehe

"slow" is beginner rider in Gymkhana. Wobbling and making wide u turns is the majority of us here, who are just discovering the true potential of motorcycle handling.

Gymkhana might be "slow" in relation to GP or street racers, but watch this, and tell me that this is "slow".

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dhOz5r4Qsc0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So as Motogymkhanaman says, gymkhana is "maximum" riding. Maximum lean, maximum acceleration, maximum turn.
Its all relative.

Hi Vulfy, that vid is with the balls 1 mtr apart, I'm trying to go from lock to lock, to get the feel of the bike turning & dropping. As you say, when you commit into the corner & try to get those bars around it's a real test of faith, I keep opening the turn rather than letting the bike continue around. It's really frustrating!!!!!!! I think "chickening out" is the term. I'm also struggling with using the brakes properly, to much, to soon, leaving them on to long etc, the finer points are eluding me.. I think that wobble on the bars which makes your eyes bulge is the clue, keeping control & momentum when the bike hits full lock to get the speed. Bloody scary, though. I found the 1 mtr gate great to get the feel of it, slow enough to avoid major palpitations but an excellent exercise to practice the transition for corners.

Here is the GP8 on the TDM, I did not time it as my riding on the big bike is following what I do on the DT. Once I take a step forward on the wee bike I feel more confident trying it on the fat one. The sweat was pishing out of me yesterday, just does not compute when you watch itExcuse the lighting & tediousness...



<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gDYw60BokE4?list=UUts2l-n8WEFWfaBJAsRizEA&hl=en_US" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>



The wee DT. I love this bike!
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6h5V7vEwjII" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

haha loved that wobble at 1:24 Pucker moment brought to you by Gymkhana. LOL

Definitely more lean in the turns. Come in wider with more speed, and really lean the bike. Counter balance it if you have to, but get that bike leaned in as far as you comfortably can, and then start pushing it further. Lighter bike is a huge plus here.

As it slows down and you are turning bars tighter and tighter, bike will start to stand up, thats when start applying more throttle and by the time you exiting you already picking up speed.

But yes, lean lean lean. Start wider if you have to, but lean it more.

I am leaning as far as I comfortably can!!!

Then start pushing it beyond your comfort level
Of course only if you are comfortable to wipe out. Armor is your friend, and sliders are cheaper than repairs.

Yes Yes Yes, half a degree at a time....I get scairt!

Where did the TDM vid go? Ghost in the machine..

Yes......I suppose slow was not the proper word to use.
Tight, technical, or sharp maneuvers or turns, would have been much more descriptive.

Here's a video I found that made me feel a bit better about the way I look compared to the way these guys (and ladies) on the little NSR250's look: ZZR1400 gymkhana. Don't get me wrong -- dude still totally kicks my butt, but at least he doesn't look nearly as quick as the people on those tiny little two-stroke 250's do!

On a side-note, got my wheel bearing kit today. Can't wait to get the bearings replaced so I can get some more practice in before the snow arrives to shut down my riding season

http://youtu.be/BEWkD0uUU5Q

ok heres another video i made tonight, i spent about 30 minutes in the car park, i set up my oregin science atc3000 camera on a ram mount i left it sitting upright like a tripod with the clamp mount, but it didnt turn out as good as i expected it, the car park was well lit, but well, you can see the video.

the onboard camera has the headlights helping it, and an IR night vision mode, you see a few things in grey thats from the night vision i think.

i think im leaning over pretty well in it.

woooohooo !!!

Finally touched the ground with the knee.... and the elbow..... and the shoulder.... hehehe

Had the most spectacular slide today. ~30mph, slid for got 15-20 feet. Nothing broke on me or the bike. A tiny bruise on the elbow. Other than that, it was actually pretty fun.

As far as Gymkhana.... 35 seconds.... 34 from time to time. No major breakthroughs in technique or time. Working on twisting the bars in the turn. Also tried going different ways. One is to lean hard into the turn, and as the bike slows down and tightens, twist the bars more and stand the bike up.
Two, twisting the bars right at the entrance to the turn, and keeping the bike less leaned, but more initial twist in the bars.

Leaning into the turn, produced much faster times, but twisting the bars right away, tightened the turn considerably.... Interesting.


Also almost got pinched by local rangers. Was lucky enough to take a breather just in time when two patrol cars showed up and wedged another biker who was also doing loops on the same lot. I really feel bad for the guy, as he just got there, and didn't even had time to do anything. Did maybe three loops, and two cars showed up.

I decided to promptly pack and leave. As I was passing them, they were giving stern talking to the other guy, but I didn't see any tickets issues, so I'm hoping he will get away clean.

It is always a hassle to practice during the weekends... Too many people. I have a feeling that my slide had something to do with two patrol cars showing up 15 minutes later.

Its not like we are doing this on the street, its an abandoned airfield, with no pedestrians anywhere near us...

Sight....

Sorry to hear about the slide, but glad you and the bike are okay!

Regarding the patrol cars showing up...(expletive deleted) nanny state! Are there any "no trespassing" signs posted on the airfield? If not, I'd have had half a mind (there's part of the problem right there, lol!) to tell the cops that you are essentially doing nothing more than refining the skills -- off of the public roads, mind you -- that are on the DMV test to earn the motorcycle endorsement so that you can maintain proficiency on your bike, especially since the DRZ you are riding is a new bike to you!

But then again, I don't take to authority very well, and I seem to sometimes find myself on the wrong side of the valor vs. discretion curve, so I'm probably not the best guy to listen to

i went to the shop that ive been using its car park of lately, and explained to the manager what i do, and why i started to use his car park, after being crash tackled by a drunk in the woolies car park (of which i had spoken to the boss of their and got his permission to use its car park) he does not mind at all as its a bit of security for his business, and said he had seen me on the security cameras and had been wondering what i was doing as he could only see a small part of what i was doing. i gave him my you tube video to have a look at so he can see that im not doing much to annoy anybody. so i gave him my details incase he gets any complaints about me, noise etc.

A great sage once said "It is sometimes better to seek forgiveness than ask permission". However it seems that your local law take a somewhat different view. We spend a lot of time schmoozing the Police and local authorities so that they are not overly worried about a bit of light Moto Gymkhana practice on their patch. We always ask that riders adopt a 'good neighbour' policy and keep things at a sensible level. We know that riders might be good at long, lingering wheelies or radical, rolling stoppies, but can they do a rotation turn in 2.5 seconds?

We are just about to publish a document which will detail our safety record and explain what we are doing to landowners and local authorities and we will make it available for download from our website in due course.

yeah, i sometimes think that too, i just heard he has been having some security problems, were a very small town here, so everybody knows each other, people talk. cant even take a dump with out people commenting.