[Jeff in Kentucky]

Not braking enough before the turn, so you have the bad choices of braking in the turn and maybe sliding, taking the turn too wide and maybe going off the road, or leaning until something scrapes.

Putting your foot down at a toll booth, stepping on spilled oil, and either almost dropping or dropping your bike at 0 mph with people watching.

Street tires and wet grass do not mix.

Sometimes painted road lines and steel railroad tracks are a lot more slippery than the pavement, especially in the rain.

Sometimes tall weeds are hiding a leaning fencepost, that is very painful when your leg hits it.

Carry a piece of sheet metal to put under the kickstand for soft pavement, so the kickstand does not sink into the pavement and your bike falls over. A flattened soda can will help as a last resort.

An extremely windy day can push you bike over, so it hits the bike next to yours and breaks their clutch lever off.

Sometimes you fuel goes empty and you need to switch to reserve in the middle of passing a car, when another car is coming from the other way and you did not plan on your engine sputtering at that moment.

[Munch]

My personal favorite…….

Pulling into work and stopping to talk with potential customers, excited for a sale dismounting before letting down the kickstand :^P

[TrialsRider]

…Trees that just barely clip your handlebar, guy does a nose wheelie in front of you, frost coming out of the ground, flip turns on the floating dock.
Hey …this is way cooler than doing it
…full knobby tires on a manhole cover, that black tar they put on road cracks, stray dog, cow over the blind hill when you are in a mid air jump, getting rear ended by a truck with monster mudder tires.
Ouch that’s a bad memory, I think I’ll stop now

[owlie]

…Sitting on a bike at the dealership while wearing high heels (not me, thank goodness)
…attempting to go from asphalt to gravel while the bike is still leaned for the turn (happy to take suggestions for improvement)

[Munch]

slow or stop before taking the turn….. slow enough to use a slow crawl dragging rear brake and friction zone on the clutch to control speed. Attack the Turn in at a perpendicular angle instead of trying to “merge” into it.

[eon]

Hah, I did the asphalt to gravel thing on my bicycle when I was 16. Still have the scar to remember it by. Lesson learned was caution outweighs looking cool any day.

As to how to do it on a motorcycle, I’m guessing TrialsRider or Allen would be the best people to give you advice. My guess would be to not lean anymore on the asphalt than you want to on the gravel. I would also expect the bike to slide a little during the transition which I’m sure would be scary but so long as your lean and speed are reasonable, would pass once you get traction back. Please try this out and let me know if it works

[Jeff in Kentucky]

I have found it is better to not go into a turn too fast, by braking early. If I mess up and go too fast anyways, taking the turn a little wider and leaning far enough to scrape something seems to work the best for me. Braking in the middle of a corner upsets the suspension, and can cause one of the tires to slide. Another tip is to start from the outside of the beginning of the corner, so you can see farther into the corner and look for cars crossing the center line or potholes and other pavement problems.

[TrialsRider]

At the risk of stating the obvious; swing out wide on the turn like you’re driving a long semi-trailer, make the turn later and tighter where you still have the clear pavement, straighten up the bike completely before you enter the gravel (if possible) and from that point exercise extremely smoother throttle control, engine or no braking at all while on the loose gravel corners.
Street bikes always feel ‘twitchy’ on thick gravel but it doesn’t mean you are going down, resist the urge to over-react, pucker up those butt cheeks, transfer your weight as low as you can and ride with it.

On my drivers test I was riding a full knobby dirt bike at the time and I wrote on the edge of the test paper, “wooHooo, roll on the throttle and do a big cat walk” …along with the correct answer. …The government really has no sense of humor, do they !

I just thought of another oops! … reaching down to put your spark plug cap back on at high speed in the pouring rain

[JackTrade]

Forgeting to turn on the fuel valve, only to wonder a few hundred yards later why the bike is sputtering and dying, then wondering if anyone around you is laughing at you, knowing why you’re reaching down on the side of bike while riding.

And the worst part is I absolutely remember FINE-C.

[owlie]

Ahh… soo… no magic bullets, just more practice. Mark your calendars- The rubber meets the road on April 17th (unless we get a freak snow storm that packs another half inch of ice on my driveway…)

[Ixecapade]

kickstand not being down- I was so nervous after my first big ride to the DMV I didn’t double check and i wasn’t as familiar with getting the stand down. lol didn’t lose it but ALMOST did.

and I still randomly stall occasionally at lights

and not enough throttle into a slow turn means you tip over at 0-2 mph and look like a jackass.

and whats the deal with heels on the bike? whys that an oops thing?

[Sean_D]

Assuming that when the dealership tells you that your bike is warmed up and ready to go they did more than just start it up, run it for 30 seconds and shut it down with the choke still out. Started the bike back up, left the dealer, got a mile or so down the road and came to a traffic light. Noticed the idle was *way* high. Ooops.

[owlie]

Well, consider this: Heels on tile have little to no traction. Now imagine…

A small dealership were the bikes are packed in tight formation on the lovely tiled showroom floor. A customer comes in on her lunch break to look at a shiny new bike for a summer ride. She settles into the saddle of a nice V-Twin, picks it up, and admires the lovely pearl white paint job while the sales person chats her up about the classic spoked wheels. As she is moving the bike back and forth under her to understand where the center of gravity lies, she over balances the bike. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge problem, but she is wearing heels that have no traction rather than boots or tennis shoes. Down she goes, with the bike, and every bike in the row…

Oops. Not me by the way, it was a tale told to me by a sales person who claimed that it happened to him…

[Ixecapade]

lol fair enough… that sucks for sales guy!

not all heels are tractionless though trust me on that

[TrialsRider]

some good pointers at : http://www.flamesonmytank.co.za/offRoad.htm
…and : http://www.flamesonmytank.co.za/ride.htm
Note: they seem to drive on the wrong side in South Africa, but fortunately everyone does it

[Author]

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