U-turn smash-down

[Jonnie]

I smashed into a guard rail earlier this year at the forks; took me a while to get comfortable with taking any turns at speeds above slow.

Your confidence will come back in time I promise! Take it easy for now.

[ETR]

You're right - 3rd gear was your mistake.

In fact, it is best to always be gearing down as you're slowing down so you are always in the right gear and have power available in case you need it. Plus blipping the throttle is fun and sounds cool. I even do it in my car.

An exercise I used to do was to zig-zag through parking spaces in an empty lot - basically a series of tight U-turns. Keep increasing your speed as you get comfortable and you'll be scraping pegs in no time.

Try slipping the clutch and dragging the rear brake instead of disengaging the clutch entirely.

If you were still in 3rd you would have known it if you were slipping the clutch, instead of finding out when you re-engaged it.

OP the above advice is very sound, it's all you need to make a good turn in addition to watching your tachometer, if you still are not sure which gear you are in after shifting down too fast, watching your tacho meter will let you know if you are in too high of a gear still or not or in the right one, and always try to smooth the clutch out each time you shift down so its somewhat engaged, if you had it all the way pressed it means you need more practice knowing what gear you're in how to use the braking with the downshifting so thats never an issue, every bike has the average rpm range, i think on the 250 its around the 4ooorpms, which is enough that its not high reving and not low enough to slow the bike down too fast and enough not to skid or make the engine scream, bigger bikes have a different range.

Also when you make U-turns you lean the opposite direction of the lean of your bike to balance it, its the opposite of what you would do when the bike is at high speed turn.

practice in a parking lot with cones or make your own cones out of empty can's, and use the motorcycle hand book for the slalom M1 bike test as a starting point, practice doing a slalom, once you get good at that, do figure 8's, in both directions, and trust me you will become and ACE in tight cornering and U-turns with good practice on that.

And from there on you can create your own diagrams with cones to practice even harder and slower obsticles. practice it once in a while in a parking lot to keep the precision, since riding is seasonal here.

Good luck and yea falling is all part of learning and riding, i've stalled infront of people too, not because i was in the wrong gear or what have you, my clutching is so precise, that my clutching and throttle became slithly off when my clutch wore off a bit more at that point in time, but then i got used to the newer clutch position, this happens because i tend to use my clutches till when they are at 5% life left, since i have to change it myself.lol

[ETR]

Easy fix to your Turn-signal

If its your left turn signal, all you have to do is replace the front left turn signal bulb with a new one. The sympton for this is a left rear turn signal static when you engage the signal. why this happens is, when the bike is either making a turn at very low speed either right or left, if it falls, the handle bars are turned and the first thing that hits the ground is the front turn signal bulb, and the encasing does not break because it flexible but the bulb inside dies due to the intense ground impact.

So just replace the signal bulb and things will go back to normal. unlike cars, when a blub goes out it does not flicker faster, instead the signal becomes still.

[whetaus-tr]

Easy fix to your Turn-signal

If its your left turn signal, all you have to do is replace the front left turn signal bulb with a new one. The sympton for this is a left rear turn signal static when you engage the signal. why this happens is, when the bike is either making a turn at very low speed either right or left, if it falls, the handle bars are turned and the first thing that hits the ground is the front turn signal bulb, and the encasing does not break because it flexible but the bulb inside dies due to the intense ground impact.

So just replace the signal bulb and things will go back to normal. unlike cars, when a blub goes out it does not flicker faster, instead the signal becomes still.

Thanks a lot for the info ! I will get a new bulb asap. If my casing is broken tho, would a new casing come with a bulb ? lol

[TekNinja81]

Thanks a lot for the info ! I will get a new bulb asap. If my casing is broken tho, would a new casing come with a bulb ? lol

In my case it did. I bought a new bulb and temporarily fixed the casing; later ordered a new casing, and it came with the bulb, mounting screws etc. Ordered mine through Snow City, but I'd assume most dealerships would get it the same.

[ETR]

Don't order through snow city, they are expensive as hell! even if you go in store, they were charging me $140 for a 250 cc suzuki supermoto bulbed tail light "the most basic type tail light you can imagine", found the same one from a kahuna online catalouge for $13 but ended up paying $55 for a sick led aftermarket drz 400 sequential tail light, instead go online to kahuna motorsports, and click on their shop online, and it will take you to their online catalouge, and you can order what ever you want through a local store, so no shipping raping either.lol gl.

[TekNinja81]

Are you talking about a tail-light bulb, or the entire tail-light *fixture*? There's no comprehensible way that one dealership would be selling (whichever one it is) for $140, and the other $13. It sounds to me like you were quoted $140 for the fixture at SC, and just the bulb itself at Kahuna. Either that, or someone at one of those places is on crack -- and I've found them to generally be pretty reasonable about parts/accessory pricing.

[ETR]

Are you talking about a tail-light bulb, or the entire tail-light *fixture*? There's no comprehensible way that one dealership would be selling (whichever one it is) for $140, and the other $13. It sounds to me like you were quoted $140 for the fixture at SC, and just the bulb itself at Kahuna. Either that, or someone at one of those places is on crack -- and I've found them to generally be pretty reasonable about parts/accessory pricing.

Im talking about the whole Red tailight assembly, the red cover, the bulb inside and the main piece with the plug in wire into the bikes wiring harness, SC quoted me $140, and i could have got the same thing for $20 bucks "see link below for proof since assumptions have gotten the best of you", i spent $55 and something 10 times better, a DRC tailight assembly with lic- plate kit, better then what SC was giving or what stock vs stock would have been given to me. The stock one looks like the first $15 tailight assemply in the top left corner of the page i've linked.

http://www.kahunapowersports.com/cat...-374&imgview=y

[Uberfetus]

When the summer comes, come hit up the Fleming parkinglot with me, high speeds, tight turning, lots of braking and acceleration. ALWAYS have fun there!

[whetaus-tr]

I'm in for sure !

When the summer comes, come hit up the Fleming parkinglot with me, high speeds, tight turning, lots of braking and acceleration. ALWAYS have fun there!