Weekend Workout

[Cloggy]

I saw this article posted on our very own "The Spin Doctor"s Facebook page, I thought it was a great write up of a few excercises you can practice on the weekend (or during the week) to improve your riding skills.

If you choose to do these excercises be sure to do them in the correct order, as some excercises in later parts refer to advice in earlier parts.

These excercises are aimed at bikers with a basic knowledge of riding a bike (at least for people with a european license) but I think that most people should be able to learn something from this.


WEEKEND WORKOUT – smooth, beautiful riding from Survival Skills PART ONE « Survival Skills Rider Training

WEEKEND WORKOUT – smooth, beautiful riding from Survival Skills PART TWO « Survival Skills Rider Training

WEEKEND WORKOUT – smooth, beautiful riding from Survival Skills PART THREE « Survival Skills Rider Training

WEEKEND WORKOUT – smooth, beautiful riding from Survival Skills PART FOUR « Survival Skills Rider Training

WEEKEND WORKOUT – smooth, beautiful riding from Survival Skills PART FIVE « Survival Skills Rider Training

WEEKEND WORKOUT – smooth, beautiful riding from Survival Skills PART SIX « Survival Skills Rider Training



Spin has also said he would answer any questions raised by this article, when possible (being a full time instructor he gives lessons all over the UK, giving presentations and writing articles for magazines).

We already know a lot of the information in this article but I think it's well explained and put together in easy to understand exercises.

I hope someone else learns something from these :thumbup:

 

[Nelly]

Great post, well worth a read.

Nelly:thumbup:

 

[Cloggy]

These "workouts" explain a lot of things I learned on my follow on course in the spring, but as well as the practical excercises it also gives insight into the whys :thumbup:

 

[Erci]

Excellent reading! Thanks for sharing :thumbup:

 

[Cloggy]

Unfortunately I was busy at the weekend, so I practiced improving my posture on the way home from work this evening (weekend workout part 1), working on a relaxed riding position (whilst still being in total control).

I must admit I generally do ride like this since I did my course but there's always room for improvement.

Has anyone else tried this?

 

[The Spin Doctor]

Thanks to Martin for sharing this with the forum... good to see some positive reception so thanks for the nice words guys!

As Martin says, a lot of the info is available elsewhere (after all, there aren't that many different ways we can accelerate, steer and stop a bike!) but I've found that books and articles on better riding tend to be short on real-life practical exercises... so these are the sort of things I set my trainees to do on the riding courses I run here in the UK.

Part Five is now also available over on my blog at Survival Skills Rider Training and with a bit of luck Part 6 should be available this weekend (30 June).

 

[Poot]

Thanks for posting this! I just got my FZ6 two weeks ago, and was starting to look for rider tips.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[pookamatic]

One of the things the MSF didn't really hit was posture. They did, but didn't use it in real world examples. After reading part 1, I immediately thought about how much pressure my arms push to support myself under hard braking. Will work on this on the way home today.

 

[Cloggy]

Thanks to Martin for sharing this with the forum... good to see some positive reception so thanks for the nice words guys!

As Martin says, a lot of the info is available elsewhere (after all, there aren't that many different ways we can accelerate, steer and stop a bike!) but I've found that books and articles on better riding tend to be short on real-life practical exercises... so these are the sort of things I set my trainees to do on the riding courses I run here in the UK.

Part Five is now also available over on my blog at Survival Skills Rider Training and with a bit of luck Part 6 should be available this weekend (30 June).

Thanks for posting the new workouts, & thanks for letting me post these great workouts Spin :thumbup:

 

[The Spin Doctor]

One of the things the MSF didn't really hit was posture. They did, but didn't use it in real world examples. After reading part 1, I immediately thought about how much pressure my arms push to support myself under hard braking. Will work on this on the way home today.

The sportier the bike, the more important it is to try to keep weight off the arms... I had a trainee out just recently who was totally astonished at the way the bike he was riding would steer once he'd been told to keep his weight off the bars.

He'd spent a lot of money on all sorts of tweaks to the chassis and tyres (shock, different profile tyres, steering damper) to try to get round what he thought was a machinery issue. Quite simply it was him. As hard as he tried to countersteer with one arm, the weight on the other was stopping the bars turning.

Under braking leaning on the bars takes away the 'feel' for what the front tyre's doing. You're far more likely to detect a tyre on the verge of locking if you've got loose arms on the bars, and it also makes for more feel (and more relaxed riding!) in the wet.

But you can only do this by using your knees and back to support your weight... in a straight line, it doesn't really matter if you lean on the bars - I do... but the moment you want to brake, turn or to a lesser extent accelerate, think of the bars like the tiller of a boat - it's an instrument to control the bike, not something to hang on to.

 

[tskorka]

Awesome, can't wait to do these practice exercises!

 

[The Spin Doctor]

Part Six of the 'Weekend Workout' series went up at the weekend and I hope to get Part Seven completed for the coming weekend! Enjoy!!