Welcome to MOTOTREK! i'm Dusty Wessels professional motorcycle instructor
with west38moto doing tight u-turns on steep hills is difficult for any rider
i'm going to show you how to do it but we're not going to start here
so let's start with some easy practice exercises i've chosen a spot with a slight grade now one of
the best places to practice tight ear turns is the pavement but i chose this because it doesn't have
marbly gravel on top of it it's not wet man you throw either one of those two conditions
on top of this completely changes the game so if you're going to practice pick a high traction dirt
environment we're going to practice tight u-turns standing up why do we stand up i'm going to quote
one of my best friends and favorite adventure rider coaches bill dragoo the triple S's - Sight,
Suspension and Steering. stand up you're going to be able to see better suspension you're going
to use your natural built-in suspension by bending your knees steering all the steering off-road goes
down to your feet on the pegs our human brain is constantly looking for balance when we're standing
our brain is communicating with the nerve endings in our feet we've got proprioceptors
all throughout our body a lot of them are in the bottom of our legs and they communicate they
tell us when to move and how to move and how to react with the bike the most important thing to
making u-turns is turning your head you've got to turn your head you can't just watch the ground
in front of your front wheel as you make the turn turn your head as far as you can to find your exit
keep your shoulders up and keep them parallel with the bars as you turn the wheel in these
turns momentum control is another really important piece to successful tight u-turns it involves the
clutch brake and throttle you want very delicate inputs to each as you're operating the motorcycle
in the clutch you're going to be working in and out of the friction zone throttle very very
little input on the throttle instead of a light switch think of the throttle as a dimmer switch
front brake i know this is kind of a stressful point for a lot of people riding off-road but the
front brake has a lot of power in it and if you operate it very delicately with one or two fingers
just pulling it back and forth really nice it'll work really well always keep your weight outside
in a turn when you're riding off-road you can keep your weight neutral and lean the bike that's fine
really the goal is to lean the bike but you've got to counteract that lean the bike's leaning you've
got to lean you want to shift weight at your hips so if i'm turning left i want slight or extreme
hip weight out to the right same thing if i'm turning right slight or extreme hip weight
out to the left what helps me with that a lot especially from a stability standpoint is my
knees in the tank so if i'm making that left turn i can stick my knee in tank and use it to kind of
brace to help me hold that spot how much weight should i shift dusty well there are two things
really actually three things that determine how much weight you should shift when you're
turning a corner number one how fast are you going what's your speed number two what's the
radius that the trail is making you turn or how tight have you decided to turn and number three
what's the traction environment underneath you the foot peg position i like to use i go back
and forth between my arches and the balls or the toes of my feet i'm on my arches just in
case i want to drag my rear brake in one of the situations i'm on my toes if i'm not going to use
my rear brake if i'm okay with my front it gives me a lot more flexibility in the ability to move
and turn my feet towards the bike so the orange cone represents the apex of the turn when i
practice on slight grade or hills when i practice these tight u-turns the first thing i do is get
enough momentum now you can carry momentum with your throttle if you have a dct and you don't
have a clutch you're going to have to carry and manage the whole momentum shift with your throttle
so carry enough speed that you think you can make it all the way through this turn now at the top
what i like to do here is pull my clutch in that helps me manage my momentum so i get a little more
than what i think i need if you've never practiced pulling your clutch in to manage your momentum
up a hill or around a turn try it so when i go to initiate my turn start to lean the bike to
make this turn i want to push on the inside foot peg and pull on the bars a little bit now is some
of my weight going into the inside foot peg yes it is foot pressure on the peg maybe a little of
my inside hip weight but i only want it there for enough time to get the bike to lean and when the
bike leans i just let it move underneath me and i shift my hip weight back to neutral or slightly
outside as soon as i get the bike into the lean now i need to turn my head and find my exit
scanning my peripherals i get my momentum managed i get my weight shift managed and about right here
about at the top of the apex especially on a little bit of a grade you're going to go from
carrying momentum with your weight outside and the bike staying somewhat uphill to now going
downhill so you've got to be ready for that just a little bit maybe a little more weight shift to the
outside to be ready for that also pull your clutch in here and start to think of your front brake so
don't stab it don't grab it just nice easy pressure and squeeze just to manage the
momentum so you don't fly outside the corner just past the apex the bike is going to be
leaned as far as it's going to go in other words your contact patch is going to have the least
amount of traction available so you have to be set up whether you're in an extreme weight shift
or a straight up and down weight shift either one keep your head turned keep your eyes on the exit
the biggest thing to remember here is don't go to neutral in other words if my weight is shifted out
here don't think of your exit like i found my ex and i could just go straight up stand and go no
depending on the grade if you move at all to the inside that bike's going to fall or it's going to
make you dab or it's going to dip the higher and steeper the hill the harder you're going to fall
the further away the ground is so keep your weight shifted stay there all the way until your front
wheels go straight at your exit so now entering on a downhill turn i'm going to be going pretty slow
and i'm going to take it a little wider turn initiation is the same
i'm going to press my right foot on the inside foot peg move the handlebars a bit
keep myself neutral just a bit outside but get the bike to a comfortable lean angle that i can manage
as soon as you do that turn your head look back at your exit scan the terrain with your peripherals
this right here is very little input on the bike as you roll around this turn you've got
gravity pushing you and now right here you need to take it up you need to let off the front brake
let the clutch out a little bit and start to add some throttle
keep your eyes on the exit keep your head turned slowly roll through it
and as soon as your wheels go straight that's when you go back to neutral and you make your exit
so now we're on a much steeper hill the stakes are higher
all the techniques are the same but you're in a much more dynamic environment things are going
to happen so much faster obviously with a steeper hill you've got a lot more momentum you have to
carry and that momentum is going to shut off fast so if you haven't practiced the clutch in method
up a hill i would do so and do wide ones at first do really wide ones at first until you get to a
point where you can do something tighter like this so manage your momentum going up the hill whether
you've got dct or not get enough to carry you all the way up the hill you're entering into the turn
a little bit different than when you're on a slight grade or flat ground is you don't want to
turn your head right away the challenge with that is especially on the grade is it's going to drop
the bike right in as soon as you start to turn your head the bike says okay let's go and it's
probably going to drop there so don't turn your head right away instead focus on the point where
you've chosen to turn around in this case i've got an orange cone sitting out there not a whole lot
of weight shift here you're standing straight up on the bike coming up the hill the weight shift is
going to happen when you get to the top of the apex and you exit so i'm managing my momentum
right here this is where i like to pull my clutch in and start to coast i'm on the front brake a
little bit right here i'm staring at the cone shift your weight all the way to the outside
start to lean the bike all my weights on the uphill foot right now as soon as i start to go
downhill boom the pressure goes to my inside foot i should still be way out here extreme body weight
shift to the outside knowing that now the bike's weight is pushing downhill turn that front wheel
into the line that you want pick your head up and stand straight up that's how you finish this turn
when you're practicing if your front wheel moves on you too much or if you have to dab
here you've shifted your weight too fast you didn't keep weight outside long enough
riding tight u-turns takes a lot of skill especially when you do it on a steep hill remember
head turn head turn head turn counterweighting counter balancing weight shifting manage your
momentum with delicate input to the controls start on the flat ground this will give you a
good idea of the traction environment underneath you when you get comfortable making turns in that
environment then move up the hill more get a little steeper get more comfortable with that
pretty soon you're going to be more comfortable making that tight u-turn near the top of the hill
you