The REAL Reason U-Turns are SO HARD

[00:00:00]Have you ever wondered how motor officers make handling these big, heavy motorcycles look so easy? It's almost like they've learned a secret or discovered a special technique that you just quite haven't picked up on yet.

[00:00:09]Well, there is some truth to that. And in this video, I'm going to tell you exactly what that is. So, if you're still struggling with U-turns and other slow speed maneuvers, this video is going to help you see all of that in a new light. If we haven't met, I'm Justin Barker. I'm a motor officer and accident investigator on a mission to get you home safe on your next ride. That's what this channel is all about. And in this particular video, I want to help you with this skill that so many riders are still struggling with. So, if that's you, you're in the right place and you're not alone. So, before we can get into the main content of this video, you need to understand that you have a problem. And no, it's not the inability to be able to do a slow speed U-turn.

[00:00:41]That's only a symptom of the problem.

[00:00:44]The problem is a training scar. Now, this is a term that we use in law enforcement to describe a bad habit that we picked up earlier on in training. The problem with this one is you don't even know you have it, and it's continuously rearing its head and causing you instability problems. So, we're going to get into that, but first we need to know where does our stability come from in the first place. Our stability on our motorcycles comes from roughly three things. Number one, it's the gyroscopic nature of the tires and wheels turning at speed that makes the motorcycle feel feel solid. You can lean into the curves and it's what we all dream of. That's what everybody wants to do. They want to get up to speed so they can enjoy that that floating feeling. Now, number two, when you get under about uh say 20 m hour, but especially 15 and below, you may have what's left is just momentum.

[00:01:27]So, number two, you've got a little momentum. And some of the guys actually teach to use momentum whenever you're making your U-turns and stuff. And if you're doing a moving U-turn, it that can work. I mean, you may do it yourself, but I'm not talking about your just your typical U-turn. I want you to be able to do a U-turn so slow that you can just about stop the motorcycle on a dime in the middle of the turn without falling over. This is the kind of stability I want you to have. So, number three is power. Going to the rear tire makes the motorcycle want to stand up.

[00:01:55]Now, you hear a lot of people talking about friction zone, and for good reason. They're talking about delivering a controlled amount of power to that rear tire via the clutch lever. Let me set this up why it's so counterintuitive. Whether you trained at the MSF basic rider course or in your cousin's backyard, we were all told the same sentence, something along the lines of, "If the motorcycle starts to feel out of control, pull in the clutch lever and apply the brakes." Pull in the clutch lever, apply the brakes. Now, this is good advice for a guy that's just now putting his feet on the foot pegs for the very first time because your your instructor do he doesn't want you to go full throttle through a wood line or hit a tree or or into a brick wall.

[00:02:47]>> He's telling you something that's going to keep you safe.

[00:02:54]Clutch. Pull the clutch in.

[00:02:55]>> Pull the clutch in.

[00:02:56]>> Pull the clutch in. Oh god. He's going to get hurt. He's going to hit that car.

[00:03:00]Oh my god.

[00:03:05]I don't even know where he's going. This hardwires itself into our minds. And now we've got this in our psyche. Like every time something gets a little unstable, we think that uh removing power and applying the brakes is going to save us.

[00:03:19]But that is the exact opposite thing that you need to be doing whenever you're trying to do a slow speed maneuver.

[00:03:25]>> I pull it in when I'm falling.

[00:03:27]>> That's the problem. That's instinctively you think you should pull it in when you start to fall, but you got to do the opposite of what your brain wants you to do.

[00:03:34]>> Yeah.

[00:03:35]>> So, if you go to make a U-turn and you pull the clutch lever in because things get a little unstable. You've just removed the only source of stability that you had left. And that's why it took me almost a week in the motor school to learn this. I learned that once I could manipulate this clutch lever, I could make the motorcycle do whatever I wanted it to do. Think about a construction worker. You don't see that guy trying to manhandle that big heavy machine around, whether it's a bulldozer, a piece of excavation equipment. He's using levers that are connected to hydraulics that control the machine. Now, we're using this lever right here. Now, this is on a much smaller scale than a bulldozer, but it's the same thing. We're not trying to manhandle these big, heavy motorcycles around. You may can get by with that on smaller CC bikes, but if you've just stepped back into a Road King, Road Glide, Street Glide, ultra limited, something like that, you're not going to be able to ride it the same way that you may have ridden smaller motorcycles.

[00:04:26]You've got to learn these techniques or you're going to always feel unstable, especially if you have a passenger, it's going to feel even more unstable. Now, it will take repetition for you to be able to retrain your brain and get past this training scar. And I'm going to explain to you how I do this because I actually practice this almost daily on the police bike. and I want you to understand exactly what's going on and what's going into this. So, let's get into the demonstrations and the techniques of how this all works.

[00:04:51]Okay, so now we're moving into the technique and the skill part of this video. So, this this whole thing happens so fast that I'm actually going to walk you through it by speaking right now, but I'm going to show you this in the background as we talk so that you can see what I'm doing as I'm explaining it because there's a lot that goes into this, but eventually it just all becomes second nature. But I want to break it down for you real quick. So think about it as one, two, three. One, rear brake, two, throttle, three, clutch lever. Now, as you remember from the previous section, we're using this controlled amount of power going to the rear tire to make the motorcycle want to stand up.

[00:05:25]That's where our stability comes from.

[00:05:26]Now, let me explain my setup to you.

[00:05:28]I've I've evaluated the terrain. I know I'm looking at see if there's any loose gravel, pine straw, anything like that.

[00:05:35]And I've discovered, hey, I'm good. I'm about to make this U-turn. As you're rolling along, I want you to start thinking 1, two, three. Number one, set a light amount of rear brake. Just just lightly drag the rear brake as you approach your U-turn spots. Number two, a set amount of throttle. I want you to get between 15 to 2,000 RPM. More throttle is better than not enough because if you don't have enough, you could stall the engine. 1500 to 2,000 RPM. Just a good a good steady purr.

[00:06:04]Now, the next thing is very important. I pull the clutch lever all the way in.

[00:06:07]Then I start letting the clutch lever out till I feel the bike start to pull.

[00:06:11]And that means I've just entered the friction zone. So once I feel that pull, I pull the clutch lever back in just slightly because I don't want to be in the friction zone just yet. The friction zone and that power going to the rear tire makes the motorcycle want to stand up. Well, I'm actually about to make the motorcycle lean over a little bit. So I don't want to be in the friction zone cuz I want the motorcycle to be able to make that lean. Now number three, I've pulled the clutch lever in. I found the friction zone. Now the friction zone is a lot like a trust fall in a sense. I mean, you know where uh where people will like stand like this and then they fall backwards and their buddy's supposed to catch them? This kind of reminds me of that, especially in the beginning because you're trying to learn if this friction zone is going to catch you. And your instinct is actually to pull the clutch lever in because that's that training car that we talked about, but instead we're going to use that friction zone to our advantage to make the motorcycle stand up. So, we're right prior to the friction zone. We're rolling along, you know, 5 to 10 miles per hour about to make this U-turn. I turn my head. I turn my bars. Now I'm going to go ahead and start focusing and looking back on something back there that I want to go towards. I know the friction zone was right there. I haven't pulled the clutch lever all the way back in. I'm right prior to the friction zone. So, I start allowing the clutch lever to enter the friction zone as the motorcycle dips. The further I dip over, the further I go into the friction zone.

[00:07:24]Don't forget to keep your throttle set because you've got to have that power, smooth power going to the rear tire. And before I know it, I have made my complete U-turn and the motorcycle standing up and I'm going the opposite direction. It happens like that every single time. Now, what's easier than that? Doing a U-turn from a stop. Now, don't believe me. I'm about to walk you through the technique I use to be able to do a U-turn like I'm talking about from a stop. And this is a drill that you can practice to learn to get balance on your motorcycle. And it's going to help you so much. Let's get into that now.

[00:07:57]All right. All right. So, I got my foot on this rear brake. As motor officers, we usually don't put our whole foot on the rear brake because we end up overapplying it. So, we're always taught to just just big toe. Just put your put your toe on there. And that's what we're going to use for pressure. So, foot's on the rear brake. Now, I'm going to start slightly applying throttle. So, I got a slight throttle applied. I'm going to start entering the friction zone now.

[00:08:19]See, we're starting to enter it. I feel the bike starting to act. Starting to bow just a little bit. So now I'm going to test it to see if I've got power going to it by letting my foot off the rear brake. No, that's not enough. A little deeper in the friction zone. All right, that's that's good right there. I just need a little pull to it. Just like that. Now I know exactly where I need to get into the friction zone to make this motorcycle do what I want it to do.

[00:08:41]Okay, I turn my bars. I turn my head.

[00:08:44]Let my foot off that rear brake. And now I'm just controlling my speed with the rear brake.

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[00:09:25]>> So, with the Gold Wing, it's very similar to the way it is on the Harley.

[00:09:28]I'm going to set up the same way. I'm going to put my foot on the rear brake, moving up to number two here at the throttle, I'm going to set my throttle around 1500 to 2,000 RPM. Then, I'm going to move over to the clutch hand and I'm going to start entering the friction zone. And then, as I feel the bike starting to pull and it'll either bow or the RPM will start to drop a little bit, I'll know that I'm entering that friction zone and the bike is ready to go. Now, if I want to test this to see if I'm deep enough into the friction zone for the bike to move me forward without me falling, I can let my foot off the rear brake and see if it uh pulls forward decently. If it barely moves forward, I'm probably not far enough into the friction zone. But if I feel it pulling and I feel like it's got a little pull to it, then I'm going to be good. Now, the hardest part for a lot of people learning this for the first time is not necessarily your balance.

[00:10:10]It's trying to balance your throttle input and your clutch input. I'm so used to the Harley. Riding something like this is completely uh completely different for me. So, I'm going to give it a shot.

[00:10:25]All right. Foots on the rear brake. I'm a little bit on a downhill slope here.

[00:10:30]Set my throttle. I'm going start entering the friction zone. Okay. See the bike starting to bog there. Feels like it's got enough pull to it. So, I'm gonna turn my head, turn my bars, foot up.

[00:10:43]Now, I'm controlling my speed with the rear brake.

[00:10:54]Doing it to the other direction is a little harder for me because as motor officers, we're always taught if we're making a right turn from a stop that we're supposed to put our right foot on the ground. Now, this makes it a little more difficult because now we don't have that foot covering the rear brake. So, we got to get it up there quickly. Now, if you want to try to do it from a stop holding it like this, you can. I'm not going to hold it against you. You can try it however you want, but I'm going to do it the way I was taught. So, I'm going to keep my right foot on the ground kind of pointing in the direction that I want to turn. I'm going to go ahead and get my RPM up a little bit.

[00:11:25]So, instead of one, two, three, I'm here at two and three. So, I get my RPM up.

[00:11:31]Okay. I start letting the clutch lever out to the friction zone and feeling it.

[00:11:35]I feel it pulling pretty soon. I turn the bars. I turn my head. And then I put my foot up here. And I start covering that rear brake as soon as possible because this is where my speed control comes from. And I can just keep this thing fully locked like this. And I can kind of just control it how I want. Now, I'm not deep into the friction zone and I'm not hard on the on the throttle. I'm just gently in it. Now, this is not a problem at all.

[00:12:05]So, one of the reasons this is easier to make this full lock turn from a stop and it has less consequences because if you're fully locked and the motorcycle is straight up and down, you don't really have to worry about it falling over that much because you're you're more likely to be able to catch it if you do mistakenly pull the clutch in.

[00:12:22]So, it's just easier just like that. Now, let's say for whatever reason I had to pull the clutch lever in. All right, look. the motorcycle is still so straight up and down that it doesn't really it doesn't really cost me. I don't drop the motorcycle because I'm still so straight up and down. And there's so many reasons that you need to learn to do this and keep the motorcycle straight up and down.

[00:12:45]I'm going to do a full lock turn in the gravel. It's kind of sketchy. Give it a shot. All right. I'm going to be kind of up in slow riding mode. I've got a slight amount of power going to the bike. Dragging the rear brake. I'm in the friction zone.

[00:13:14]This is why it's good to be able to keep the motorcycle straight up and down because if you need to do a full lock turn like that in the uh in the gravel, then you can without fear of dropping it. at least not as much fear of dropping it because if you something happens and you need to put a foot down or you had to pull in the clutch because instinctively that's just what you've always done if you got unstable. You're more likely to save yourself because your motorcycle is straight up and down instead of leaned over. And then if you got this thing leaned over with any weight on that leg as you go to put your leg down, it's probably not going to end very well because that gravel is is slippery.

[00:13:51]The cool thing is this works in grass like right here. We can do this in the grass, too. Just like a normal U-turn, dragging my rear brake. I'm got my throttle set. Using my clutch lever there to be in the friction zone. Look here. I'm almost stopping in the grass.

[00:14:06]I like to be upright in the grass because I don't want to slip and fall.

[00:14:11]Okay, now I'm going to do a turn in this gravel. Now, gravel's spooks a lot of people. So, I'm using the friction zone.

[00:14:21]Some pretty soft gravel.

[00:14:27]Now, if I wouldn't have been under power just then, there's no way I would have been able to do that without tipping over. And it's a controlled smooth amount of power, too. It's not an excessive amount of power.

[00:14:38]Okay, so it's getting dark on me, so I need to quickly cover your training scar number two. This is another training scar that you've got. I have had this one, too. And that is the belief of you're going to burn out your clutch doing what I just did over there. Doing those slow speed maneuvers, you feel like, okay, I'm going to cause unnecessary wear, burn out the clutch.

[00:14:56]Now, one thing you need to know is a motorcycle clutch is bathed in oil.

[00:15:00]Okay, this helps keep the clutch cooler and it provides us this ability to be able to do these things like we're doing without the motorcycle overheating. Now, Harley's like this one, this is a air cooled Harley and I have seen these things put through the ringer. I'm talking about some some bad stuff. And the clutch actually lasts a lot further than you would think it would. Now, you wouldn't dream of not using your brake pads because you don't want to replace your brakes. Brakes are necessary.

[00:15:26]That's a replaceable part, and that's honestly the way that we look at uh our clutch pack. Now, the clutch pack is also a replaceable part. Obviously, there's a little more to it, but it is still a replaceable thing. in law enforcement when I first got into uh being a motor officer, I still had this this training scar because when I was a kid, my dad, my granddad, everybody always said, you know, we don't abuse our things. Money doesn't grow on trees.

[00:15:50]This kind of thing. Now, that's true.

[00:15:52]Parts are expensive, but you've got to understand the trade-off. The benefit that you're getting from be able to ride a motorcycle like this and literally do a full lock 360 turn without worrying about dropping the motorcycle is worth whatever you're going to pay for a clutch later on down the line. Now, the only thing I would warn you on if you if you've bought a secondhand Harley, you've got an older motorcycle that's higher in mileage, yes, you can speed up the whole wear process on needing to replace the clutch, but on a newer bike with lower mileage, you really don't have to worry about it that much. Now, I wouldn't want to do these maneuvers if you have less than 500 miles on your bike. I want the clutch to be broken in.

[00:16:29]Well, I would actually prefer the bike to have more than a thousand miles before I start using the clutch the way that I was doing just now. Uh, if you're curious, our police bikes typically get anywhere from 25,000 and above on a typical clutch pack. The thing that you saw me do, I literally do that every single shift that I work. You don't have as much to worry about as you think. Put that training scar behind you and start practicing and learn to have control like we're talking about.

[00:16:59]Now, a few things you want to watch out for. If the motorcycle feels like it's fighting itself, like it's chugging along and you're having to hammer on that rear brake and you're having to give it excessive amounts of throttle, you are damaging the motorcycle at that point because it is fighting itself. The goal is to have as little amount of input from the clutch and rear brake as possible and not an excessive amount of throttle, not excessive amount of RPM.

[00:17:24]So, a set throttle, a light input on the rear brake, and a light input on the clutch. Now, when you first start making your full lock turn from a stop, you may be a little deeper into the friction zone and a little harder on the rear brake until you get to up and get your balance. Once you get up and get to moving, slightly pull in on that clutch lever and allow the bike to relax just a little bit. I'm not saying pull it all the way in because, you know, we talked about that, but you can pull it in slightly. And since we're practicing this maneuver where we're completely straight up and down, you really don't have to worry about the motorcycle falling over if you mistakenly pull it in too far because we are straight up and down in this practice maneuver. So keep all this in mind. This is how we as motor officers do it. These are the reasons that you're having problems with the things that you're having problems with. And until next time, ride safe, God bless, and I'll see you on the next one. So just like whenever you're moving on the Harley, you start dragging your rear brake a little bit. Set your throttle. I'm entering that friction zone. And now I know exactly where it is. I'm going to turn my head, turn my bars, look in the direction I want to go, and go.