Anyone who's taken a Motorcycle Safety Foundation class is familiar with "the box". The box is a 28 foot (I could be wrong about that) long rectangle painted on the ground specially designed to make newbie riders shit in their pants.
The basic idea is, you enter the box (on your bike) in one corner, do a figure 8 inside the box and exit the opposite corner. Sounds easy until you're heading into the box at 10-15 mph.
A few months back I figured that there must be SOME reason that they'd make us do that, so I've adopted a new ritual when I get home in the evening. I ride past the driveway to my garage, and then try to make the tiniest circle I can to get into the garage.
I'm getting better at it, although I've had to put my foot down more than once. Something is just uncomfortable about turning the handlebars until they lock and then leaning the bike even more in order to decrease your turning radius. Lady Luck describes this as "believing in gravity." Having leaned a bike over pretty far several times, I think gravity is only a theory.
Anyway, it's important to push your limits (in a controlled circumstance) to hone your skills as a rider. One never knows when some asshat in an SUV might decide to give you the opportunity for a practical road exam.
2 comments:
A word of caution for cruiser riders - "the box" becomes a helluva lot harder after you install big-ass beach cruiser bars on your bike... take my word for it...
I live nearby the High School where I took the safety class. When the mood strikes me and the lot is empty I ride the box to my hearts content. It's a little harder on my softail than it was on the little Buell that I took the class on though.
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