The skills that I am working on from my class…
Start with finding a parking lot that is empty in the evenings, preferably without curbs…obvious reasons…
Just start with practicing slow manouvres…left hand circles…see how tight you can get them…then try right hand circles…if you need to have markers for reference points, take some rags with you and place them where you would like to be turning…rags so that if you run them over it won’t upset the bike, if you use rocks…well it could cause you to drop your new bike…once you feel pretty confident (keep your speed as slow as possible, these are balance exercises), move on to a figure 8…and again see how tight you can get them…
Once you have a good grip on that, practice you emergency braking…see what your bike is capable of…make sure you practice emergency braking in a corner as well…
I would also practice starting out turning right…this is harder because when you start out from an intersection the right turn is much tighter, and most people prefer to start with their left foot down which puts you off camber…right turn, right foot down…left turn, left foot down…
You will also want to practice hill starts…
There are a lot of things to practice, and having taken the course you just need to practice the drills that they taught you…just remember your GS500 weighs about 150lbs more than the DR200 or Super Sherpa that you took the course on, and the weight is higher…I found my GS500 heavy for the first while, and in slow manouvring I still find it a little heavy…which tells me I still need a lot more practice myself…
Good luck, and congratulations on the bike!!
Later.
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