How to Improve your riding skills:

PJFZ1

New member
My Contribution.... I belong to alot of forums, and have lots of experience, both years and miles. I'm by no means an expert, but I feel I've gotten pretty good at what I do, and I thought that this might be a good spot to share one of the tips I give to riders who are trying to improve their riding, so here goes:

EVERY ride should be spent working on technique. You should read and study all you can (I recommend Keith Codes' Twist of the wrist II).
When you get on the bike you should have ONE technique in mind that you need to work on - Looking through the corner, keeping your head up, body position, scanning with your eyes, relaxing your grip on the bars, smooth throttle control, etc, etc..

Work on that technique for that ride, and as many rides as it takes to make it second nature, then shift to another technique till it's second nature, etc..
No matter how long you've ridden and how confident you feel, know what your weakest point is and be working on it for the next ride. A ride that you're not working on is a wasted ride.

Sometimes riders get caught up trying to ride someone else's ride, or trying to work on 4 different things at once, then get frustrated by lack of improvement, when all they really need to do is work on ONE technique at a time and they will find overall improvement and understanding through that one at a time method, and eventually find huge gains overall without getting themselves in too deep and while feeling the success of getting better.

Think in your mind right now about what single technique you'll work on with that next ride, and make a habit of it...
 
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Bagman

Member
Cynic in me says ....

PJFZ1's post sent from Android, blasting stereo and eating a cheeseburger.


It's good advice, PJFZ1. Essentially, the message is to never be complacent. Years of driving/riding with bad habits is no good either.
 

Fazer 8

Member
And remember, you have to get smooth going slow before you can ever be smooth going fast.

One of the big things I find tends to go away quickly for me if I don't pay attention are my corner entries. Ideally one should have a line, braking point, and turn-in point in mind before they reach a corner. I have to slow down to give my mind a chance to catch up and concentrate on technique. If I get in too fast the survival reactions (Keith Code terminology there) kick in, and while I may make it through the corner OK, it's not optimal.
 
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Umyaya

New member
My Contribution.... I belong to alot of forums, and have lots of experience, both years and miles. I'm by no means an expert, but I feel I've gotten pretty good at what I do, and I thought that this might be a good spot to share one of the tips I give to riders who are trying to improve their riding, so here goes:

EVERY ride should be spent working on technique. You should read and study all you can (I recommend Keith Codes' Twist of the wrist II).
When you get on the bike you should have ONE technique in mind that you need to work on - Looking through the corner, keeping your head up, body position, scanning with your eyes, relaxing your grip on the bars, smooth throttle control, etc, etc..

Work on that technique for that ride, and as many rides as it takes to make it second nature, then shift to another technique till it's second nature, etc..
No matter how long you've ridden and how confident you feel, know what your weakest point is and be working on it for the next ride. A ride that you're not working on is a wasted ride.

Sometimes riders get caught up trying to ride someone else's ride, or trying to work on 4 different things at once, then get frustrated by lack of improvement, when all they really need to do is work on ONE technique at a time and they will find overall improvement and understanding through that one at a time method, and eventually find huge gains overall without getting themselves in too deep and while feeling the success of getting better.

Think in your mind right now about what single technique you'll work on with that next ride, and make a habit of it...

Us Minnesota riders only get to ride a handful of months out of the year.. I feel like all the practice I have done will be wasted once snow comes =[ Gotta go back to square one..
 

Triple6

New member
yep good advice. Complacency kills people every single day. Always stay alert and ride to live.
Keith's book is very good--they should hand it out at all MSF courses lol.
 
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