[PhilUp]

I took my first ride this Sunday morning. I was nervous and anxious at first, but once I started riding I felt pretty comfortable. The ninja 250 I have feels a lot more comfortable to me than the Eliminators we rode in the MSF class. I figured 7:30am on Sunday, the streets would be pretty quiet. There seemed to be cars everywhere! I rode for a good hour around town, no heavily commuted streets. There does not seem to be any good isolated parking lots near me for practicing. I want to practice at a community college near me, although there are quite a few hills to get there. This may seem like a stupid question but are riding up or down hills any different? Is there anything I should focus on? In the MSF class, we did not seem to cover riding up or down slopes.

[Munch]

About the same as riding in your car. You have to be more cautious for blind turns though. Other then that just watch your throttle on the way down so you don’t blow past the LEO.

[Clay Dowling]

When you have to start while facing up hill. We’ve got a grocery store by me with a hill coming out of the lot, and it trips me up sometimes. It will take a couple of attempts to get out of the lot on a bad day.

[chaiya]

Getting started going uphill can be a little unnerving at first (rolling back)
This is generally what I do when I need to stop on a hill

1. Stop normally using both brakes.
2. Balance the bike keeping your right foot on the rear brake, left foot on the pavement
3. Let go of front brake
4. When you want to get started again, slowly let out the clutch partway into the friction zone, give it a little throttle as you slowly let up on the rear brake and continue letting out the clutch.

You can try and practice on flat ground to get the co-ordination down…then try it on a hill

good luck!

[briderdt]

My wife has had a huge problem starting on slopes. Why? It’s the “give it a little throttle” thing. She just seems to have some fear of revving up the engine.

Just remember — the CLUTCH controls the speed, not the throttle. You can have the engine red-lined, and you won’t go anywhere until that clutch is let out into the friction zone.

[SantaCruzRider]

Another thing to get the feel for on hills is that more weight will be shifted onto the downhill wheel.
So if you are going uphill and accelerating, you may notice that the steering gets a bit vague as more of your weight shifts to the back.
Conversely, going downhill into a stop, more of your weight will be on the front wheel and you have to be more cautious than ever about applying too much rear brake (keep in mind that aggressive downshifting on a hill is essentially also “braking” the rear wheel, so be ready to pull in the clutch and use the front brake as well).

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