Learning the circle and the U-turn

When describing a maneuver putting thoughts into words reduces that thought to something less than the thought. Therefore words can never be sufficient to completely describe it. It’s important to have a teacher who has demonstrated proficiency in the maneuver so the words and techniques used will result in getting you close enough to be able to figure out the rest yourself.

I’ve developed the following series of exercises to help you perform a circle and a U-turn (which is just half a circle) successfully. It won’t work as well if you don’t trust me and try the exercises as I describe them. I’ve pondered the matter a long time and I know these will work. So will things other people use. There can be different ways of expressing the same thing.

Much of this comes from watching the video Ride Like a Pro IV many times and stepping frame by frame through the video. The exercises to set up the learning process are mine.

My method of learning is to break things down into such small components that each one seems trivial. If it’s NOT trivial, then I haven’t broken it down far enough. Then a complex maneuver becomes a series of trivial components.

The difficulty with this method of teaching is some people take offense because the components are so trivial. If that happens, I’ll consider myself successful, but I do apologize if you get that feeling.

Becoming good at each trivial component is necessary before progressing to the next one. Otherwise the second trivial component will be messed up by a poor entry after the previous one and you will be practicing mistakes.

I won’t get into the theoretical here. It will be purely practical.

I use marshmellows for cones. And animal crackers for gates. The crackers will get crushed by your rear tire, but that’s ok, the crumbs leeave a good marker. In my opinon large cones are distracting. As I develop the exercises it will be much like turning your front tire through slolam gates. Later, you can add cones around the maneuver that is performed and you will see you miss them all. The gates are the minimum essential places to aim for and by aiming for them, your head will be in the right position.

Note: I specifically don’t talk about shifting weight. I don’t do it. At 6 mph the bike won’t fall doing these exercises. If you find yourself falling, add throttle and go straight ahead. If you drop a foot, still add throttle and then pick up the foot and go straight ahead. If you stop and have a heavier bike, you likely won’t be able to hold it and then you will have to practice picking up your bike. Be sure to wear all your gear. Do not use the front brake during any of these or you may fall.

It really helps if you make a video of these exercises so you can see if what you are doing is what you think you are doing.

Exercise 1: three cone weave to a gate. (Mastering the "dip")

Set up 2 marshmellows 12 feet apart if you are trying for a U turn with a radius of 24 feet. I suggest starting with this even if you are already proficient at smaller circles/U turns. Later, after you can already complete a 24 foot circle/U-turn using these techniques, you can move the marshmellows closer. I.e. to do a 20 foot circle/U turn, move them 10 feet apart. On the last marshmellow, put an animal cracker 9 inches either side of it. This is the optimum distance I found and will work for a fun exercise we will do later. Put animal crackers halfway between the marshmellows. You will be trying to crush these with your front tire.

Trust me on this. Although the exercise seems trivial, spend a lot of time on it so you don’t have to think about it. Spending a couple of hours on just this exercise spread over 2 or 3 sessions will save a lot of time later.

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Start maybe 30 feet away from the marshmellows and maybe a foot to the left. Then the next time a foot to the right. Do the exercise at about 6 mph. At first we won’t use any braking or friction zone. That comes later.

If you start to the left, weave to the right, crush the animal cracker between the marshmellows, then weave to the right going around the center marshmellow, crushing the animal cracker to between the second two marshmellows and hit the gate to the left of the last marshmellow. Note, within reason, the wider you go on the weave, the easier it will be later. The idea is NOT to go fast.

After your front wheel passes through the gate, immediately start a right sweeping turn. Make a big U turn and come back to the starting point and do it on the other side. Don’t worry if the U turn is 50 feet in diameter. That’s not the lesson to learn here. Note, you are passing closer to the marshmellow than you would for a cone weave. Don’t worry, if done correctly, it will pass between your wheels and you won’t it it.

At first there will be a tendency to look too close to the front of the bike. Ideally, at the start you will be looking at the last gate and when you hit the last gate you will already be looking in the direction of the turn.

Now, before you read any further, go do this.

Ahh, you are back. Now go do it again the next day. This is the most important exercise for slow speed riding, in my opinion. Everything else builds on it.

Exercise 2: Dip to a 90 degree turn.

Set up the marshmellows and animal crackers the same as in the last exercise. But we are going to add a gate. This gate is the only place you NEED to look for the first part a U turn or the first quarter of a circle. Everything intermediate to that is extraneous.

The gate will be 12 feet to the left and 12 feet beyond the last marshmellow. Make another gate 12 feet to the right and 12 feet beyond.

Do the weave as in the first exercise, but instead of a sweeping turn, go through the gate in that direction. After you go through the gate, continue in the turn. Start looking in the direction of that turn before hitting the gate. Look as far as you comfortably can.

As you are coming to the last marshmellow, pick up the gate marked 90 and turn your front wheel to go through that gate.

After you go through the gate, continue a turn in that direction and go back to the starting point.

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I think you can see where we are going with this. What you are learning is the first quarter of a circle. Once you master that, the rest is easy.

Practice this for a day until you get it down easily. The important thing here is to get a sense of where your front wheel is and be looking ahead to the gate at top well before your front wheel passes through the gate between the circles. Master this before you continue to the next step so that your front tire passes through the gate everytime. The ability to do this precisely will limit your ultimate minimum size circle by double the error.

If you find you are going to go outside the gate, you can use a touch of REAR brake while keeping on the throttle and it will tighten the turn. I am speaking from the perspective of riding a scooter. You will have to consult a motorcycle rider on how to use the friction zone. But really, at this size circle you won’t need much of either.

Exercise 3:

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Now, as you pick up the first gate and you are pretty sure you are going to hit it, pick up the gate on the left or right side of the circle. Ideally, when you get good at it, you will be looking almost halfway around the circle at all times. In the beginning it’s likely to be less. That’s what practice is for.

When you make it through the last gate, continue the turn a few feet and then straighten out and you have just done a U turn.