[japac1]

OK. I am looking for my first bike, recieved great advice from this forum. There’s one thing (OK – really 2 things) still on my mind:

1. Every time I drive into my neighborhood I note the entrance. I am on a main street, close to an intersection with another busy street. The entrance into my neighborhood is 1/2 block away from this intersection. Cars drive down this street quickly and I often have to speed up then quickly slow down to make the right turn onto my street to avoid getting rear ended. This is in my car. Then I note that the entrance is a tight turn and uphill. I keep thinking “there’s no way I can negotiate this tight, uphill turn on a bike with traffic pulling up behind me.” Any thoughts? I hope I made this clear.

2. Right foot: In the BRC, I found I had my right foot laying on the break lever. That can’t be right, but felt strange having my foot on the peg. It seemed to be too far under me. Hopefully, this was just the small trainer.

Thanks

[briderdt]

Your foot isn’t on the brake pedal when you’re driving a car until you want to apply the brakes. It may feel strange, but it will alleviate the tendency to drag the rear brake (or trigger the brake light even if the brakes aren’t engaged — anything from an irritant to drivers behind you to an outright danger because nothing changes once you DO apply the brakes). Put the balls of your feet on the pegs. You’ll get used to it quickly.

[Matt]

Elwood is right about slowing down earlier and slower. Start signalling just before you put on the breaks. It’ll give the other driver more time react (and he’ll know why you have to slow down). The mental process will change from “Why is this jerk stopping when I want to be going fast” to “Crap, I got stuck behind someone making a turn”.

… I keep thinking “there’s no way I can negotiate this tight, uphill turn on a bike with traffic pulling up behind me.” Any thoughts?

Don’t worry about the traffic pulling up behind you (check your mirrors for idiots, but don’t worry about upsetting the drivers behind you so long as your ride at a reasonable rate).

Also, don’t worry about making the tight turn. I found that taking tight turns in the BRC was harder than it was in the street. In the course you only have cones to work with, on the street you have more concrete thigns to use for judging distances (like a curb or shoulder, and yellow line). Also, I found most lanes are wider than what they had us practicing on in my BRC. The net effect was that right turns from a stop were extremely hard for me and most the people in my class, but the secord or third time I did it on the street I had no issue.

Ride safe

[Clay Dowling]

Motorcycles excel at tight turns, especially the little 250s. In my BRC the turns we practices in were like a moderately sized sidewalk turn, definitely nothing like a street corner.

But the other posters are definitely right about slowing down early. You don’t want to go along with traffic, you want to control it. Force them to slow down early, make sure everybody is cool with how things are going, and keep a close eye on your rear view. My mirrors and my signal lights are the most important safety gear I have, even more important than my brightly colored full face helmet.

[Author]

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