Hi Ash, As someone who teaches this skill, it's good to see you practicing and building on these skills. My observations that might assist are. 1. You have a tendency to go straight into the turn, ride forward 1-2 bike lengths to get that control dialed in. 2. While slipping the clutch, Pick up the revs just a fraction. This won't result in rapid acceleration while slipping the clutch, but will aid ballance. 3. Use of the rear brake is good, you can actually tighten up a turn through the rear brake, just don't push too hard as you need some rolling momentum. 4. Look where you want to be, not your immediate vacancy. This helps to pull the bike around. 5. (This ones pre ride and you may remember this from your training) To be test perfect, a full rear observation is required. We shouldn't rely on our mirrors. Take your right hand, place it on the back of the seat and turn to look, before moving. I hope this helps, offer is still there if you want to set up some newbie videos with a qualified instructor. Stay safe and Ridesafe 👍🏼😎

Go to an empty car park. You can start off with wide circles and get smaller and smaller. No need to worry about cars or curbs. When you have gained confidence go back and try on the road.

As someone who came back to biking after 14 years I found practicing in a quiet car park helped, and the KZfaq channel 'be the boss of your motorcycle' and 'ride like a pro' very helpful. They are ex American bike cops and specialise in slow speed training using cones in car parks.

Great that you're practicising these core skills. With sat navs, nowadays I find the need to u-turn if i've taken a wrong turn much less likely to be the case, but it's all good slow speed control work, which is so important. Even at 5mph, it's not just dropping the bike, but if a bike lands on you it can easily break an ankle or you can land awkwardly on a shoulder or hip, etc Main tip would be on location - find a quiet car park and use the bays as markers. Takes away the pressure of having kerbs and fencing looming up on you. Gradually reduce the space you need. Then progress to roads. On technique: revs up / clutch to control speed / look where you want to go.

Don't know if this has been mentioned in all the great advice but for me, what I found best when performing a u-turn was shifting my weight to the opposite side. So, if doing a u-turn to the right I would shift my weight to the left, keep upright and actively lean left to keep the centre of gravity that side. This stops the bike wanting to fall to the right. A biker has a natural tendency to lean into where they are turning but in a u-turn it's the opposite.

Front brake fully on... First gear... Lots of revs... Lean the bike slightly... Release the clutch to light up the rear wheel... 180 degree u-turn on the spot 😅

You're doing well on a new bike. Hours in the saddle gives muscle-memory. Every time I'm back on two wheels after a break I need to recalibrate my brain with an hour doing figure-8's in a quiet car park.

Hi Ash, long time lurker with your videos here. Been riding bikes for 24 years and always consider a new day a new learning day. I don't want to preach about do this and do that but I'll offer a couple of tips that some have already mentioned in the comments. 1. Grip the bike with your knees. (you don't need to hold on to the bike with your hands. (this will take the tension out the shoulder and if nervous will stop that affecting your control. It will also stop the instinct to put your foot down). 2. Before you start the manoeuvre , look where you want to be and then look just slightly beyond that point throughout the turn. 3. Don't be afraid to let the bike bank slightly, acceleration will bring it back up. I discovered this chap very helpful in improving my skills. Quinn Redeker. US Police Motorcycle cop. does the motorbike competitions and has some very helpful hints on tight and slow manoeuvres. Some very interesting videos on KZfaq and has some good learning 3 minute videos. I wish you the best of luck with your riding.

Hiya! A few things I regularly practise and tips: 1. Tight circles - get used to that uncomfortable feeling of the bike tipping in. 2. At low speeds, counter-lean - keep your body upright. 3. Grip the tank with your legs - this will let you relax your upper body. 4: Revs up, 4 fingers on the clutch, drag the rear brake - this is all subjective. Watch some moto gym-kana and Japanese / US police training videos. 5. Emergency braking - include some heavy braking whilst cornering and braking heavily and steering as if you were going round something. If it's wet, get the ABS going (upright in a straight line). If you do some slow speed practise and go for a ride after, you'll feel much more confident in the bike. Anyway... have fun!

Very honest of you putting this video on. It shows EVERYONE here no matter what our transport method is, that not everyone is 100% perfect. ..ESPECIALLY ON KZfaq.. I think your low fuel level is possibly impacting a little also. Not enough weight at the front. I noticed this especially on my cb125 then even on my 750gs. Good job Ash, keep em coming.

One suggestion I got is look where you want to go and continue looking where you want to go. Don't move you head at all, just lock it on place until the entire manavour is done. Of course look before you go to make sure no one is coming.

My instructor took me to an industrial estate and in a cul-de-sac behind the police station to practice U-turns. He set two cones about a metre from the curbs, and had me perform figures of 8 passing between the curb and the cone. Ashley mentioned that he has a big motorcycle, I would suggest watching a Jerry Palladino ride like a pro video to see just how manoeuvrable large bikes can be.

When i was doing my cbt, i had a yamaha xt125 from 1980s, i learned to ride off road at a sand quarry that had been abandoned and turned into tracks for off roading. That practice meant when it was time to do the figure of 8 between the cones i stood up on the pegs and could have done it for hours, even had the instructor kick the cones closer and i was still showing off lol The usual advice is revs and slip the clutch, look where you want to finish, apply back brake where needed to turn tighter. Extra advice is to stand up on the pegs, counter lean and trust the tyres (only counter lean at less than 20mph as the more lean at speed, the more risk as suspension can do less of its job leant over). Motojitsu on his channel has a practice course for beginners using cones in a car park to practice low speed riding. You are doing great, i am liking the motorbike content, practice is the key. I was rusty when bought my motorbike few years ago, currently we are in John o'Groats on holiday (the wife amd i) on our first motorbike holiday and getting practice doing turns with pillion and luggage weight on board, its tough but so far not dropped the bike lol

This is what I did to learn how to parallel park in a car. Given how long ago I passed my car test, it was long before that was a part of the test and I realised it was an essential skill. I'd advise anyone who feels they have a weakness in their skills to go out and practice them in some way like this

Hi Ash. I am 69 with 52 years driving experience and never even sat on a motorbike, well not until last September. Long story as to why I wanted to ride at my age, but I am loving it, even if its only a 125 and on L plates. I have been following your Driving Fails for some time, and so glad you are now on the bike as I am sucking up every bit of help I can get to be ready for my Mod 1 and 2 tests soon. So keep the bike vids coming.

I just watched this dude go in circles for 13 minutes straight... And I loved every second.

A couple of things. As a smaller rider, I used to struggle with this on my Katana. I then had a Harley Sportster, and my wife had a Yamaha Virago. I found both so much easier to manoeuvre due to the lower centre if gravity. Though the virago was lighter , which helped. The other thing is to say how important it is for returning riders to either have a professional training refresher, or practice on quiet roads as Ashley has here.

Raise your revs……centrifugal forces will help keep the bike upright, don’t drag the rear brake…..use the clutch to control your speed.

with the u-turn, the thing that my instructor hammered on about, (after clutch control) is to look at where you want to go. don't look ahead, just turn your head to where you want to end up. and no back break, always clutch

I haven't read every single comment yet, but I've not seen any mention of counter-steering. A little forward nudge on the inside bar causes the bike to lean into the turn quicker, then steer into the lean to control the turn. Re. clutch and back brake, I was taught to 'set' the clutch and throttle with a few rev's on, then control the speed through the turn with just the back brake, and don't touch the front brake or the bike will fall over (proved that one the expensive way). It was 25 years ago that I was taught this and I haven't ridden for quite a while, so perhaps the theories and laws of physics have changed since then, but it worked at the time.

Ash, if you don’t have them already, consider getting crash bars. They protect the bike if you crash and it might make you more confident

This I used to have my pupils practice time and time again. Steady throttle, feather the clutch to the bite point and control your progress with the rear brake. No feet on the ground required or it's a fail!

im still very novice, only had my 125cc since january this year but the 2 tips that have helped me feel more confident are as you say, dragging the back brake but and No.2 is using your knees to kind of clench the tank

1. Hold a constant rpm, probably around 2500 or so. Control the power using the clutch. Do it all at a little more than walking speed (every time you put a foot down, you were at 3mph, the ones you felt better at were 5mph+). The higher rpm will feel strange, but it's better than blipping the throttle. And when you are leaning over, you don't want to stall!! 2. Don't immediately turn in, get a little run up to it. 3. Look over your right shoulder. Keep your head in that position until you're over the centre line. 4. Turn towards the OUTSIDE of the turn (ie, left) first... this will make the bike fall to the INSIDE of the turn a little. 5. Full right lock and let the bike lean a little. 6. Drag the back brake to slow, note that the bike will want to fall more, the more you slow. To fix this, let the clutch out a little (the higher RPM will push the bike up again) You're keeping the bike too upright, which widens your turning radius, and then you likely fall victim to the fear of hitting the kerb - for which you'll slow down, and slowing = falling = feet down.

What they teach in the CBT is maintain the same speed at all times, same revs, clutch in same position but if you need to go slower, just use the back brake to slow down and release it to speed up if needed.

Watch a few Sarah Lezito videos. She has it off to a T.

I think there is plenty of good advice here. I would only say that those saying you shouldn't use the rear brake can probably be ignored, especially if they add "it's only for slalom/figure of eight/on test/filtering". The rear brake is an important tool in any slow speed manoeuvre. The very skills you use for slalom and figure of eight are used in the u-turn.

@ashleyneal i just came back from a 3 day course in the eifel training corners and tight turns. First you need to go to a car park with plenty of room to get used to the bike and the capabilities of you and the bike. Then inmidiatly begin you turn with a slight pressure on the back brake and release the clutch and use the gas a'd clutch together with the rear brake to keep momentum. Turn the bike in and because you have the space you can make the turn as big as you like and when you are comfortable with all the inputs you can make the turn tighter and tighter untill you think you can't go any tighter. From that point on you need to push the bike (use countersteer for this) under you. In this way you can get tighter turns with lesser steering input. The back brake is used to turn your back wheel into a pivoting point that can be usefull in many other circumstances.

What I was taught, on a voluntary course I took forty-four years ago (so it might not be the same as people are taught now) when all you had to do by law was fit L-plates to your bike and apply for your test, was to find the clutch bite point and hold it there or thereabouts, make sure I had enough revs to not stall but not enough to go wild, then drag the back brake. As for where you should be looking, as you probably know it’s exactly the same advice you give your pupils when turning at a junction - look where you want to end up going.

Ive done a fair bit of this kind of thing and in a similar vane .. building to motogymkhana competitions. 1) Well done for practicing it, so few do post test. 2) id reiterate the empty carpark comment from amother contributor..no kerbs or cars to worry about. 3) bike physics ...before you hit the locks your balancing the bike by steering ....when you fall to the right your steering to the right and the wheel goes back under your centre of gravity to pick you up. When you ride slower the effect is weaker which is why you have to make bigger steering inputs to balance at very slow speeds. When you hit the locks that effect is totally gone ...that's why the panick feeling. You can use throtle clutch and gas to balance the bike in full lock turn, this works as follows. Drag back brake, slip clutch and maintain revs a bit above idle. As the bike starts falling in you will lift it back by coming off brake releasing clutch out slightly and maybe a little more gas to maintain revs ....this picks the bike up by very slight acceleration. ...if it lifts up to much you do reverse and it falls in. In this way you actively stabilise the bike using drive rather than steering. It is a skill many motorcyclists just do not have, it can only be done with practice as it must be sub conscious. To learn go to carpark attempting to touch the locks and progressively touch the locks for longer ..,fig 8 with full circle each way much better that U turn for learning this skill.

One thing that taught me a huge amount about balance and turning was attedning Triumphs Off-Road Training - even if you've no ideals of going off road on yours, it helps build really good balance and low-speed skills, on terrible surfaces!! The major sign for me that I'd learned something was a couple of weeks after I completed it, I was doing a u-turn, something which used to take me the full width of the road. This time, I did it in under two-thirds of the road, without even thinking about it. Really really recommend the course, or similar, to anyone that wants to improve the breadth of their riding skills!!

Loads of great comments here already, so it's difficult to add more. Deliberately counter-balancing the bike (by leaning slightly to the opposite side to the turn) is what helped me the most with my low-speed manoeuvring. The other thing is to set the gas and then leave it alone - it takes one variable out of the equation, so there's less to think about. You want enough revs to not stall if you let the clutch out more than you intended. If you stall while turning at low speed, you'll almost certainly drop the bike! Control your speed with the clutch or rear brake. If the bike starts to fall, release the clutch a little more. You don't want to be adding revs at this point as you'll likely go wide, so set the gas before you start. Dragging the rear brake can help, especially when moving downhill! But be careful not to apply to much brake and stall the engine.

Two tips 1: There's an excellent KZfaq channel called "Doodle on a motorcycle", she covers all of this in some detail on a wide variety of bikes. And she's only five foot three. 2: go play on a competition trials bike.

Excellent practice Ash, especially first time after 15 years… As others have said, raising the revs help stabilise the bike, I’d suggest going a tad bit faster, maybe 7mph or slightly above, it’ll give you a fluid motion as you look through the u-turn, you and the bike will feel more stable and less wobbly. I’ll never forget the my instructor told me that J-turns are slightly harder (starting the turn from a standstill). It’s great that you already worked out that slowing the bike down makes it want to drop, as you said it’s counter intuitive, when you feel like the bike’s going down, raise the speed a bit and it’ll want to stand up. Look into counter balancing, it’s not necessary but it does help to make tighter turns without the bike dropping. Above all keep it up Ash, you’re doing great and it’s inspiring!!!

Low speed is always a work in progress , like many have commentated , find an empty part of a car park , there are no kerbs there , you can use the widths of the parking bays to act as the kerbs/ edges of the road . I’d also practice figure of 8’s as that gives you a bit more momentum rather than going as slow as possible , and yeah , I still do that 12months / 7k miles into my rejuvenated riding career 😃 Ride safe

Hello Neil, the video made me curious about which bikes you've previously ridden/owned. Might be a subject for a Q&A perhaps? Keep up the good work of educating the public about proper road safety! :)

Empty car park instead of the road so you do not target fixate on the kerb , aim for a 3 space u-turn at first, Pick up the revs and use the clutch to control your speed, aim for about 6-8mph then lean the bike into the turn and look where you want to go, use the back brake to tighten the arc if required. Figure eights are a good way to get the technique of the u-turn. Slow speed control requires dedication to get good at. I practice for 30 minutes most Sunday mornings. Slow speed straight line 2-3mph, figure 8’s getting slowly tighter followed by u-turns 3 spaces to the right and left then slowly decrease the turn radius buy adding more learn and a bit more speed.

Second post sorry, second thoughts. It's still a tall, heavy and powerful bike to start learning quite basic skills with but my second point is that your balance and feel for what the bike is doing will almost certainly get worse with your feet down. When I used to teach this kind of thing, ok it's a very long time ago, a good start with learners was to get them to do easier manoevres but with keeping their feet up.....even riding slowly at sub walking speed so that we could walk alongside seemed to teach them that their balance was better with feet up. Sorry about doing a second post on the same subject and I think you're doing great.

My method. (RH U turn). Pin revs around 3k. Find friction zone with clutch. Get up to around 6mph. Lifesaver right. Shift backside left on seat. Countersteer to initiate the turn. Let clutch out a bit to push power into the back wheel to counteract the slowing force of the turn. Turn head and shoulders to look RIGHT back towards your top box. Keep head up. Push the bike down to the right to lean it while keeping your body upright. Try to force the bars to full lock. (This is hard, and a bit scary). If you end up going a bit too quick/wide drag the rear but don't pull the clutch in too much. If you end up going too slow and falling release the clutch a bit. Like anything it gets easier with practice. Full disclosure I failed MOD1 first time on this 😁. Now I practice it most times I get on the bike.

Many others have already suggested practising in a car park, and I would also recommend spending £10 or so on a set of 50 football practice cones. Then you can set out u-turns of various sizes and get tighter and tighter as you gain confidence. You can also use them to practise some figure-eights too. You know as an instructor, it's all down to practice.

I'm similar to you, 15 years without riding, just got my Z650 3 weeks ago. I feel okay with slow speed but the Z is a smaller bike than the Tiger. Really enjoying these biking videos, hope to see more!

U-turns are one of the hardest manoeuvres but super useful when getting out of tricky situations. I’m sure you’ll get more used to it Ash, just takes time to warm up to the weight and steering of your bike. :)

Nice. Building those low speed skills, getting your Flintstoning skilled in. All riders should be doing this. Other people on the road should be looking after you, but lets be honest, most don't even see you when you're on a bike. They're looking for cars so you just become invisible. Getting those skills in protects you immensely.

I personally do not lock up my bike as my turning circle would be too tight, but I make sure my speed is consistent with my hand controls. I use my back brake to help stable myself, and tighten up the turn and look in the direction like you said. Try going in a more open place and practice doing bigger U-turn, one tip I got when learning was a U-turn is 2 corner turns, and I use to do a eg. a left turn slightly straighten up and left turn again until it was one move :) You got this Ash :)

Hi Ashley, the same 'rules' apply to motorcycles and bicycles, stability depends entirely on balance and centre of gravity, when seated your combined centre of gravity is much higher than it is when you stand on the pedals. Much of this I learned long before I was old enough for a license, me and my makes spend many happy hours tearing around the tracks and fields, much of the time on very rough ground it was much more comfortable to stand anyway!. I think that as I got more familiar and experienced it became much easier to keep balanced while seated but I certainly recommend standing during the early stages. Cheers, Richard.

Try watching some Mod1 training videos for slow speed advice - Roadcraft Nottingham do really useful videos

It's down to learning how to use the revs and your weight in micro-adjustments to keep you up. I found that keeping as much weight on the pegs as possible, without actually standing on them, helps a lot. Can't be learnt without practice. For a laugh, try it with a boxer or an in-line motor, not transverse.

Like the video and some awesome advice in the comments. I have similar issues with U-Turns, I suppose most riders do, not really practiced that much but my biggest issue, and I suspect might be same for many, is the old fear of dropping the bike and potentially damaging it. Hampers the confidence a little when you think you're going to cause damage.

I was always crap at it as well, Ashley, and I was riding for 35 years before I had to give it up, so don't worry..!

Once I passed my driving test i was not so good at a certain manoeuvre and because of this I went out to places and just kept doing this until I was better .respect to you for stating and creating an answer for yourself .

It shows that there is still lots to learn and perfect as an experienced rider. Great to see an instructor teaching himself a necessary skill on a motorcycle.

I passed my test more nearly 30 years ago and I can honestly say that I have never done a U turn since then, the major reason being that the bikes that I have had had simply dreadful lock that would have required a full 3 lane motorway to do the U turn. Have I missed out on doing the manoeuvre - no. One thing I was taught was to lean out rather than into the turn, which is very counter intuitive and because of that you tend to ride more upright doing the turn. I have watched various videos of particularly, Japanese Police motorcyclists perform slaloms on full sized bike by leaning into the turn but they have extraordinary skill to be able to pick the bike up from each lean.

Move forward at your lowest possible speed (2mph?) then move out towards the centre of the road. Now swing into the left and start your turn to the right. Shift your weight over to the left, hand side. Move your butt over the seat. If you use the back brake, the bike will instantly 'stand up' however you need to have your right foot ready to put down.

Remember, you can turn a bike tighter with a bit of lean, even at a crawl (you can counter balance the bike if you're going too slow to stabilise the bike). A bit advanced but a counter steer first to initiate the lean will help, though I'd strongly recommend practising in a car park before the road 😅

Hi Ash, I'm a motorcycle instructor. I often watch your videos to get a different perspective on the road, so it was interesting to see you get a motorcycle, especially as I ride Tigers for work and have had a few of them. It's great that you're working on your slow speed skills but self analysis has it's limits so I would suggest getting help with it. Now a large percentage of riding instructors (as in the bike version of what you do) in this country will just repeat the basics which you already know - (drag the rear, ride the biting point, look round) which may help a bit - for example, you didn't seem to be aware that you should raise the rpm during the U-turn so they could help with stuff like that. Since you're operating on a slightly higher level though, finding someone with technical expertise could really change the game. As an example: in this video your main problem is actually your left arm. Tigers come with very long handlebars so what's happening is as the bars turn to the right your left arm is getting to full extension because you're trying to reach the clutch. Watch the video again and in the shots where the camera is pointed back to yourself you'll notice the arm is locked absolutely straight. The solution here is to move your chest a couple of inches forward to keep a bend in the elbow, therefore maintaining full clutch and steering control. This is the kind of thing that just repeating the maneouvre won't fix, instead you'll eventually just work around and live with the problem instead of fixing it. I could offer you half a dozen points outside the obvious of a similar nature; it's not something I can do with every student since not everyone can absorb, retain and implement that kind of feedback. You probably can though, but what you're unlikely to be able to do is figure it out yourself. Let's not even get started on counter leaning. You'll get variable results with standard m/c instructors but if you find someone who genuinely understands the technical side of riding you'd be surprised how much there is for you to learn. On a lighter note, adventure bikes are the worst bloody bike to U-turn so don't be too hard on yourself! Good luck with the u-turns. Can't wait for the figure of 8 video.

As one rider to another best thing todo is take yourself off to a carpark. Ones with painted spots. Use x3 spaces as a learning zone, keep turning withing them 3, try different techniques until your confident abit more, then bring it down to x2 spaces with that techniques, for me its just throttle control, i found i dont use my brake to control the speed, look where you wanna exit the turn start to move with the required steer, control the throttle, constantly looking at your exit. Theres many techniques, mone works best for me. I only every use the brakes to slow, i never use them to maintain speed, and i dont think ive ever used my rear brake at all ever. Confidence helps manoeuvres massively

As others have said, a touch of back brake helps, a few more rpm on the engine will help as well (there's a gyroscopic effect which assists at slow speeds), but look at your body positioning with regard to the balance of the bike. You seem to be leaning into the turn so your left arm is very straight which makes small control inputs more difficult. It also puts your weight into the lean of the bike. Try counter-leaning (there's a FortNine video about it). That makes your weight counterbalance the bike and keeps your left arm looser. Looser arms always help control inputs.

I think you are analysing every single thing about it. I'd personally ride down towards the end of that road till you're relaxed then u turn whilst trying not to overthink it, rinse repeat doing laps up and down road

Honestly, I hated the u-turn. I really struggled with it and my instructors were even thinking for me to cancel my mod 1 due to finding it very difficult and still not getting the hang of it the day before my test. However, I persevered through it and does the u- turn with ease using a slightly different technique one of the instructors taught me. What I did was use a little more power and when completing the u-turn, hold the clutch in and using very little brake so that the bike could still move, passed test fine. Always look where you want to go.

It’s the rear brake drag that’s hindering you. Dragging is fine when moving in slow moving traffic or the slalom on the mod 1….

I'm sure from memory I used to use the back brake & feather the clutch to do a U turn but that is 20+ years ago now. Never go for the front brake as that causes the bike to dive & unsettles it. Keep it up Ash I'm sure you'll perfect it.

Find an empty car park on an industrial site when everything is closed and have a play, get used to throwing it around at low speed by applying more throttle when you start to wobble and hold it steady and even with the clutch. when taking a corner or bend at speed in the car, you slow 1st then apply the throttle before the bend to actively keep the ‘drive’ going to the wheels through the corner. If you brake, lift off the throttle or put the clutch while still cornering the car becomes unstable. [but you don’t necessarily feel it because you are on 4 wheels] It is exactly the same principle at crawling speed on a bike, if you lose ‘drive’ to the wheels while turning, the bike becomes unstable and it then becomes a balancing act.

Look where you want to go, get your head all the way round as far as you can. I do drag the back brake while using the clutch to control speed. You need to have the revs higher and constant, using micro movements on the clutch to keep your speed constant. Practice on a wider area until your confidence is high then go to narrower streets

I struggled with u-turns back when I did my test on a petrol bike. Switched to an electric commuter (Zero) and it's so easy to ride electric it's basically braindead. Suddenly every single slow-speed move is a total doddle even in Sport mode. One thing I noticed with both the petrol and electric bikes is that dragging the brake never worked for me. Throttle control is literally all I found I need to do the U-turn. If the bike's starting to tip, a bit more juice. That's all it needed.

Just did my CBT and bought a bike... I find it a little frustrating that I have to think about things on the bike which are effortless in a car. I've been spending weekends on the industrial estate in people's car parks. One thing I've been doing is 'circling the drain' where I find a drain and ride tight circles round it while looking at it. Then trying to break the muscle memory of putting a foot down on a wobble by keeping my foot up and letting the clutch out a little bit to pick up some speed.

Set your clutch first (before you turn), and just adjust the speed with gentle use of the rear brake :) ..of course there's multiple ways to handle this (using clutch and no brake etc). I'm fairly sure I was taught to set the clutch first and control with the brake initially ...that was 15 years ago tho!

Not sure why people are saying not to drag the rear brake. It's a godsend in slow manoevers and will help smooth out those jerky movements. Do some straight line slow speed using the clutch, rear brake and throttle. You will find the best amount of each without thinking about the turn. When you have it dialed down at walking speed, add the turn. Small steps, big goals. Good luck, stay safe and happy riding. Oh and lean the bike, not your body. Counterlean.✌🏻

I had a similar stubborn area in my riding when I did my test a few years back. All my test went well until I rushed into a right turn and swan necked it - fail. I managed to get a retest booked for a month later. I went out almost every night doing circuits of right turns until I had no issues. I’ve done some really good slow speed control and some so bad I dropped the bike. The key is to look at what you are doing wrong and work to improve it. I think for slow sped stuff keeping slightly higher revs on so you have the power if needed and keep the speed up to maintain balance.

Look where you want to go is KEY!!! Keep revs up and control speed with the clutch. Practice is all you need, you’ll get there. Just be patient. Keep up the good work 👍👍👍

As part of my basic handling skills test I had to make a tight left hand turn from a stationary position. The way I was taught was to turn the bars fully while stationary, look over my left shoulder to a point beyond the course, give it enough revs that it will get moving and slip the clutch. I feel that Ashley is doing himself a disservice by being too slow, 3mph probably should be around 5mph and he will find himself a little more balanced.

As others have said, go to the far side of a large empty car park and do circles in ever decreasing size until you feel you’ve got the balance and speed ratio right. Also don’t forget that the more upright the bike is then the larger the circle. Therefore some lean helps.

Car parks! There are umpteen channels telling you how to do it. Most of them tell you to practice in car parks, using the bay lines to do the manoeuvres. Do it in 4 bays, then 3, then 2. Higher revs. Look where you want to go. Keep momentum, lean the bike and counter lean will shorten the turn.

Good first attempt to be fair :-) You just need to get used to it and practice, balancing the clutch, throttle and back brake if needed. You don't always need the back brake, smooth throttle and clutch control is more important for a U turn in my opinion. The key to the bike not falling over is enough power to provide sufficient forward momentum. Power will "lift" the bike and stop it "falling into the turn". Any time the bike is leaned over , it loses speed, you need to compensate with a throttle adjustment (not a handful), but find the "sweet spot". I would also practice in a car park so you have more room to begin with, can avoid bashing into kerbs perhaps :-)

One fantastic piece of advance riding advice I was given was just using the rear brake for slow speed manoeuvring. I see so many turning at slow speed and unsettling the balance of the bike by using the front brake.

recommend using an empty carpark first, about 2.5 car spaces. once you're comfortable there, try on the road. this helped me mentally get round not staring at curbs and looking ahead.

Excellent skill to master. Personally i found using full lock much easier standing up on the footrests, this makes correcting the bikes tendency to tip in too fast for the low speed much easier to correct when compared to having your bum on the seat. So empty car park stand up use back break and once your familiar with how the bike moves in tight circles add in sitting down.

Some good tips here, it will come down to confidence and being able to relax in your movements. Once you get it you’ll be fine.

Everyone has their own way I drag the rear brake use constant revs and the clutch brake combo to control speed I can uturn the multistrada fully loaded using full lock without putting my feet down, find an empty carpark and use the parking bays as markers far better than practicing on roads until you are confident.

Hi I used to ride and was quite good at this as others said keep revs up, set you hand and moderate speed with the clutch, don't jump into it go forward a couple of bike lengths and then turn also your head is not moving nearly enough you keep looking down and not far enough around, keep your eyes up and look where you want to go will make it much smoother. I would also say look at the physics of riding a bike it helped me a lot to improve my riding, I find if I understand the mechanism behind what the bike is doing I can better master the machine. overall though good effort, just keep practising with head movement and cluth/ throttle control.

I feel your pain. I still remember the building dread of doing U turns on the bike test. Practice makes perfect or just buy a sports bike and use that as your excuse (I did). Good luck with it and top marks for sharing your experience.

The best place to practice this is an empty car park Ashley. Using the lines as limit markers means you won’t be concerned with hitting kerbs. Practicing that way builds confidence and leads to tighter and steadier turns. Check out Moto Jitsu’s channel for slow manoeuvre tips.

If you don't want to put your foot down or drop the bike, then you need to maintain a bit of forward speed. That means you have to commit. However, it's hard to commit if you don't know what you and the bike are capable of. The problem is that you went straight to hard mode by trying to do a tight turn between two physical kerbs. You should go to an empty car park and practice turning between painted lines. Once you are comfortable with that, then you can go to hard mode. That's a more efficient way to learn. Also, full lock is challenging too. You should practice that where there are no kerbs as well. I've never seen the point of dragging the rear brake. You will overheat the brake. I've never done it myself. Check out Moto Control. He is the best motorcycle instructor on KZfaq, IMO. He doesn't recommend dragging the rear brake.

Large adventure bikes will be quite a steep learning curve due to the higher C of G. Not suggesting a different bike, just expect this to take a little longer to get the throttle, lean and weight shift dialled in.

I find it's easiest to keep the clutch and revs constant and just control speed with the back brake (drag but add more if need to). If you feel it dropping let clutch out slightly and it will stay up. Another tip is to turn your head and focus on an object like a cone or a post in the distance to head towards. This takes away the focus from the bike and stops you from overthinking the controls. 😄

Adding to the other good advise, do not go fully locked, you need a bit of wiggle room in your steering to balance

for any slow speed manoeuvres, you gotta rev up. With motorcycles, you don't control your speed with the throttle, but with the clutch. If you're wobbly or have a feeling like you're falling, slightly release the clutch. Otherwise keep it at that bite point. With U-Turns, you gotta look where you're going. So if you're turning, look fully left or right and commit.

Always interesting when you give the game away and let us know when you are recording. So this was the morning you dropped the video about taking your bike on a train, and i mentioned about the amount of adverts on your channel, typing this when yet another advert popped up on this video.

Dragging back brake is fine, not too much because you don't want to kill that momentum, keep the revs a bit higher and if you feel a wobble let the clutch out a bit more, you have more control over the clutch than the throttle when at full lock because of the angles your right arm is at. Get into that slow ride technique before you perform the manouvre, for the life saver tuck your left shoulder toward the bars, this will help with keeping the bike straight while looking back.

could be the camera lens... but looks a tight road for U turn, on your test its 7.5m minimum (usually three cars abrest kind of road) tight turns come with experience, but you need speed which is counterintuitive when you're nervous, also worth starting on wider roads and then getting narrower, i remember doing this when i learnt to ride. i use the clutch and zero throttle on mine, it will tick over at 8-10mph on the flat so requires no throttle for low speed moves, unless you want to do them quicker of course!

*Ashley, maybe try going to a car park (the one that you take your students to to practice parking) and just make right-hand turns over and over again.* Edit: that way you can make progressively larger turns until perfection.

There is something unequivocally comical about hearing a British guy grunting in frustration.

Ha ha ha. If it's any consolation a U turn has always been my worst manoeuvre too. On a too narrow road I have been known to Flintstone it through a three point turn instead. The hard part is doing it starting from a standstill. If the U turn is in the middle of a series of manoeuvres it's a lot easier.

first of all, only look where you want go, do not look down or in front of you, you should be only looking directly behind you when you start, this will help massively, as soon as you deviate from this you will start failing, once this is correct then you can start thinking about clutch, revs and everything else . I still have to concentrate on doing this even after 10 years on motorcycling, keep at it Ashley.

You're trying to keep the bike upright. Keep your revs up, and control your speed by balancing the clutch and the back brake. You can allow the bike to lean once you've got your confidence up enough to add a bit more speed to your manoeuvre. It does take quite a bit of practise but you will get the feel of the balance. I managed to get to the point on my VFR 750 where I was able to do the turn quickly with the bike leaned quite a long way over. This meant I could do it in traffic without holding anybody up.

early comment, so you may have done it, but best to practice close maneuvers in an empty car park, where you have room to straighten out of trouble. being in a place where you have no choice but to do it perfectly, adds to the stress, which adds to the wobbles.

Look forward to the "track-stand on a road bike, waiting at red lights on a busy dual-carriageway, whilst clipped in" next on the cycling channel!

Speed is key for stability on a bike (motorised or pedal) and the slower you are the less control / stability you have. As you discovered towards the end, maintaining or having a little bit of speed actually keeps the control and makes the turning circle smaller as you aren't fighting the steering. Obviously, too much speed is a big no not only for control but also safety It is also another good reason for slowing early at red lights when on two wheels as you can keep better control on the approach without needing to slow below stable speed...just watch out for impatient ones behind that don't understand what you are doing

Reference your clutch control, try using only two fingers instead of four, will give you a lighter control, been riding birds 53 years , and todays bikes need little clutch pull in , ridden your bike and I’ve got a tiger 660 sport and clutch only needs 1/2 inch of travel 😊👍😊

Get the bike rolling first, then turn. Use a few more revs while slipping the clutch (it's wet). Make sure you have the lever adjusted so the bite point is manageable for you. Triumph's all have the bite point a long way from the bars, so not having the lever adjusted correctly can make this hard to control.

Constant pressure on the rear brake. Constant revs a way above Rickover. All the control comes with the clutch. As you said, momentum is key and most important. Look where you want to go and not at the kerb