For riders who dread the slow stuff
U-turns, stops and tight turns, one step at a time. Every rule comes with the manual and the page. I wrote them after dropping mine twice in one month.
Vol. I and Vol. II come on their own or in the set. Vol. III only comes in the set.
Vol. I
Stops, turns from a stop, hills and parking, for riders who've dropped it
For the bike that goes over at a stop sign, a gas pump or the end of your own driveway.
Best value
Vol. I covers stops, hills and parking. Vol. II covers curves. Vol. III is the U-turn and the skills test, and it only comes here. Each book points you to the others instead of repeating them.
Vol. II
Entry speed, where to look, countersteering, your line and braking, by the manual
For the curve where you come in too fast, look at the shoulder and drift wide.
Two weeks after I bought my touring bike, I put it on its side at pump number three. I came in slow, turned the bars to tuck in close, and squeezed the front brake with the bars still turned. The man at the next pump set down his nozzle and helped me lift it without a word. A couple of weeks later I dropped it again, turning right from the stop sign at the end of my own street.
The next night I sat at the kitchen table and typed a for-sale listing. Year, miles, new tires, “minor scratches.” I'd made both of those scratches. Carol read it over my shoulder and told me I could sell it, as long as I knew I'd be the guy who sold it. I closed the laptop. I never hit the button.
Here's what I had wrong. I'd ridden for twelve years before, so I figured slow speed would come back. It didn't. Two drops at walking speed didn't mean I couldn't ride. They meant I had never learned slow speed on a heavy bike.
So I bought orange cones at the hardware store, asked Gus for his empty lot on Sunday mornings, took a weekend course at 54 and read the manuals with a pencil. Three notebooks later, these are the three books. Every rule has the manual and the page next to it. When two manuals say it differently, you get both.
I can't promise you won't drop it. Nobody honest can. What I can give you is the steps I use now, in the order the manuals give them, and a safe place and way to practice them.
Kickstand down, engine off. See you in the lot.— Dale Kovach, Parma, Ohio
Every chapter in all three books has the same seven parts, in the same order. You always know where you are.
What the bike is doing and what you're doing, in plain words. Sometimes I start with one of my own drops. No numbers without a source.
The rule in the manual's own words, with its name and page: the MSF manual, a state manual, a published test or your owner's manual. When two say it differently, I print both.
Numbered steps for an empty lot, used with permission, in full gear. Start wide, close it up a little at a time, both directions. A drawing for every step.
Things you can check yourself: where your eyes are, whether a foot touched down, whether the bike stands itself up, whether you stayed inside the lines.
The usual mistakes, mine first, each with its fix. Nobody gets laughed at here, the duck walk included.
How to adjust for your height, your neck, your strength or your balance: go wider, start with the easier side, stop before you're tired. For your body, ask your doctor. For your bike, your owner's manual.
Where this shows up on the street, in a curve or on test day, and which of the other books picks it up from there.
U-turns, slow ride, corners and the skills test, step by step
For the tight U-turn that still beats you after years of riding, on the street or in the test box.
Rider from Parma, Ohio. Warehouse shift lead. Back on a bike after 24 years off.
I'm 58. I've worked at the same warehouse near the airport since 1989, these days as a day-shift lead. I live in Parma, Ohio, two streets from where I grew up, with Carol, who rides on the back when she feels like it. My uncle Stan taught me to ride in a church lot when I was 16. At 30 I sold my bike to pay for a crib and a furnace, and I didn't ride again for 24 years. My neck has been stiff turning right since a fender-bender in 2015, so I plan my turns around it.
The summer I came back, I explained U-turns to my daughter Katie with a salt shaker and a fork. She teaches high school physics. She listened, then asked, “Which page?” I didn't know. That week I read the Ohio manual, the MSF manual and my owner's manual with a pencil. Half of what I'd been repeating wasn't in any of them. Some of it was the opposite. She gave me a pack of yellow sticky tabs, and I've cited my sources ever since.
I'm not a coach, a cop or a racer, and nobody pays me to teach. I'm a rider who had to learn slow speed as an adult. On Sunday mornings I'm still in Gus's lot with Dev and Bev, counting the cones twice before we leave.
Riding a lot of years doesn't fix slow speed by itself. An empty lot, some cones and the right page in the manual do.
Read them for 7 days. If they're not for you, write to me and you get every cent back. You can tell me what didn't work, if you want to. You don't have to. The refund doesn't depend on it.
They arrive instantly after you pay. Nothing comes in the mail. You open them on your phone, tablet or computer, and you can print them at home. If you wanted books on paper, ask for a refund and you'll get it.
You pay by card or with PayPal, on the secure payment page. I never see your card details.
Write to me within 7 days and you get your money back. No conditions. You can tell me why if you like, but you don't have to.
Yep. Most of us in Gus's lot on Sunday have ridden for years. Miles on the highway don't fix slow speed by themselves. My first twelve years were mostly one year, repeated. That's on me.
With a hands-on course in your state, then Vol. I. I took one at 54 after 24 years off, and it was humbling. Vol. I starts where I fell: stopping straight, then putting a foot down.
I can't tell you which bike to ride. Bev, who rides in our lot, tried a heavy one and switched to a lighter one, and she tells me not everybody should be on a bike like mine. That's between you, your owner's manual, your dealer and your doctor. What the books cover is moving the bike you have at walking speed, wide first.
So was I. For two years I told myself I was at full lock. Then Dev filmed me, and my bars were nowhere near the stop. “Full Lock, Body Upright” in Vol. III works toward it a little more each pass, from a wide circle, in both directions.
Usually the clutch is all the way in or all the way out. Vol. III has a whole chapter on it, “The Friction Zone and the Rear Brake”, with what the MSF manual and the state manuals say, and drills in the lot to practice it.
No book gets anyone through a test, mine included. Vol. III walks through the exercises of Ohio's published skills test as one example, with the measurements Ohio and California publish, and a section on Test Day for the nerves. I lost points in front of a dozen people at 54, so I wrote that part carefully.
Probably not. Tests vary by state. I print Ohio's and California's because I could check every line of them. Get your own state's manual and test description and put them next to mine.
An empty lot you have permission to use, with nobody driving through. Full gear. A few cones, or tennis balls cut in half. Your owner's manual. Every drill starts wide and gets tighter a little at a time, both directions.
Nope. On a public street it isn't practice. Vol. I and Vol. II show how the steps look on the street, and you rehearse them in the lot first.
My neck turns right about like you'd think for a guy rear-ended in 2015. I take a full stop and more time to look, and I pick the easier turn when there is one. Every chapter has a part called Fit it to your body. It isn't medical advice. Ask your own doctor whether riding and these drills are right for you.
Let it go. Engine off. Check yourself, and call 911 if anybody's hurt. Lift it only the way your owner's manual says, or with help. Vol. I has a page on exactly that, “If it goes down anyway”.
No. Vol. I and Vol. II come on their own. Vol. III only comes in the set, because it ties the other two together, and its Fix It by Symptom index points into all three books.
A rider, not a teacher. Every rule in the books comes from a manual named right next to it, with the page. When something is only my own habit, I say so, and it's listed in Where Every Rule Comes From.
Three books, the manual's page next to every rule, and the same steps I use every Sunday in the lot.
