in this video I'm going to give you two exercises that can help
improve your handlebar turns so hang tight
hey guys I'm Paul the motor guy and welcome to my channel, where I pass on riding tips, practice
drills and defensive riding strategies now I'm a rider coach, a motorcycle sergeant and owner and
instructor at Prorider Center Texas, where we teach police riding skills to civilian riders
now handlebar turns can be very intimidating for riders.
now I've done several videos on why I think we struggle with this
and at the end of this video I'm gonna leave a link up top and in the description below.
now the first exercise I recommend is the 360 exercise. now this is a great exercise because
it allows you to work on gradually starting to turn your handlebars a little bit at a
time, while also working on the friction zone, your head and eye movement and feathering the rear brake.
now I have done a video on the 360 exercise but I'm going to cover it again just in case you
haven't seen that video yet. now there are five key things that you want to focus on when doing
this exercise. now tip number one is your head and eyes. now as you're making your 360 you want
to make a full head turn and with your eyes you want to look as far back behind you as you can.
if you do a partial head turn like in this video this will cause you to go wide.
now tip number two is the friction zone and throttle. you want to be in the friction zone
the entire time doing this exercise, because the motorcycle is in a lean the entire time.
if you pull in your clutch and don't have enough momentum to keep the motorcycle from falling, the
motorcycle will fall. now you also want your rpms to be steady ideally anywhere between 1200 to 1500
but this does not have to be exact. now let me explain what I mean by steady rpms
what you want to do is set the throttle and forget it. now many of you have the habit of
rolling on and off the throttle which is one more thing you have to worry about. now tip number three
is trail breaking or feathering the rear brake. now if you find yourself picking up too much
speed this will cause you to go wide. so you can drag or feather the rear brake to take off speed,
which will cause the motorcycle to lean more, which will tighten up your 360.
if you have too much speed it will also make it hard for you to turn the handlebars.
now this is because the more speed you have causes the handlebars to want to straighten out. now tip
number four is counterweighting. now you want to use the counterweight and technique when doing
this exercise, which is keeping your body upright and allowing the motorcycle to lean underneath you.
this will keep your eyes level with the horizon and take away some of the sensation of falling.
now let's talk about tip number five handlebar turn. now as you're making your 360 and applying
the four tips we covered earlier, you then want to start turning your handlebars as much
as you're comfortable with. you then need to get out of your comfort zone and gradually start to
turn your handlebars a little more and a little more. now every time you practice this exercise
try to increase your handlebar turn until you can eventually hit four lock or close to it. now
for my 360 demo I will be using one pivot cone so you can see my path to travel a little bit better.
but you can do this without a cone. if you do use a pivot cone do not look down at the cone.
remember you want to always keep your chin up. now as I'm riding the exercise I will start
with the handlebar slightly turned and then I will gradually start to turn the handlebars a
little bit more and a little bit more. now I will show an overall view first, which would
show how my 360 started out wide and then they get tighter as I continue to turn the handlebars.
now I'm going to show you the view from the handlebars. this
time notice how when I start turning the handlebars the motorcycle leans more.
now the next exercise to help with handlebar turns is the figure eight exercise.
now if you're having trouble with the figure eight exercise in general,
I would not recommend doing this version of the exercise until you're ready.
now this is because in order to use the figure eight exercise to improve your handlebar turns you
must shorten the distance between the two pivot cones, which makes this a little bit more advanced.
now the rule of thumb is the closer the pivot cones are together the more handlebar turns
required in order to get the motorcycle back to the center of the exercise, so you can start your
next turn. I would recommend starting with about 20 feet between the two pivot cones then you can move
them closer together as you improve. now there really isn't a minimum distance it all depends
on your skill level. so the better you get you can challenge yourself by moving the cones in closer
and closer. now I will sometimes do this exercise with the pivot cones about five feet apart.
remember, the shorter the distance between the cones the more handlebar turn is required.
now let's go over how this exercise is done. now tip number one is when doing figure eights
you always want to ride to the middle of the exercise, no matter how short the distance is
between the two pivot cones. now tip number two is you want to stay in the friction zone. now because
of the short distance between the pivot cones you don't have a lot of time to go in and out of the
friction zone, so I would recommend staying in the friction zone the entire time. now tip number three
is your head turns and your eye movements have to be quick and precise. now when I do this exercise
I start my head turns and starts searching for the middle of the exercise just before the motorcycle
gets upright. now again the closer the cones are the sooner you would need to start your head turn
now tip number four, if you turn your head and look soon enough with your eyes
you would naturally apply enough rear trail break to slow the motorcycle down, so you can
hit the middle of the pattern. now tip number five is turn the handlebars and lean the motorcycle.
now again the more you shorten the distance between the pivot cones
the more you must turn the handlebars and lean the motorcycle. now tip number six is
just like any other slow speed maneuvers you want to keep your rpms between 1200 and 1500
during the entire exercise. now for my demo I will have to cones that 20 feet apart and then 10 feet
apart now the first video will be an overall view of the exercise so let's check it out
now the next video I'm going to show a handlebar view so you can see how I turn the handlebars
now next I'm going to write the figure eight exercise with the pivot cones 10 feet apart.
now I want you to notice that my handlebar turns are a little more aggressive at 10 feet apart
than they were at 20 feet apart. now this is because at 10 feet apart I have to have
a quicker handlebar turn in order to get the motorcycle set up for the next turn.
now there are other exercises you can do that will help you with turning the handlebars,
but both the 360 exercise and the figure 8 exercise both allow you to improve at your
own pace no matter what your skill level. now I hope you found value in this video, if so let me
know in the comment section below and until next time practice practice practice and ride safe