Slow speed, tight spaces

1Look

The hardest speed on the machine

Riders assume the fast bits are the difficult bits. On something this heavy the difficult bit is the slowest speed you can hold without putting a foot down, and it is the speed you need most often.

2The idea

Slow is a skill, and almost nobody practises it

Adult rider training gives slow-speed control its own range lessons — the cone weave and the U-turn — and puts the same manoeuvres in the skill test at the end. They are there because tight, slow spaces are where riders put a foot down, run wide, or drop the machine.

It is all practised in an empty lot, and it costs nothing to get wrong there. A dropped machine in a parking lot is a story. The same drop between two parked cars is a different afternoon entirely.

3Your turn

The weave and the turn

Run it once with your eyes set close to the front wheel and once with them set well ahead. The difference is the whole lesson.

4The idea

Head up, eyes where you want to end up

The instruction in every riding course is the same, and it is dull until you try the other thing: ride in a straight line looking where you are going, then adjust speed and turn, still looking where you are going.

In a slow turn that means looking round the turn to where you want to come out. A rider staring at the front wheel is steering with about a metre of information, which is why their line wobbles and why the turn keeps arriving before they are ready for it.

5The idea

Around people, walking pace

On a shared path the rules are short. Keep right and pass on the left. The faster user yields to the slower one, which on a path is almost always you. Adjust your speed to the conditions whatever any posted limit says.

And passing is three moves, not one: slow down, call out, wait for a reaction. Waiting is the part riders skip. Then go past leaving a comfortable space of a few feet, not a handlebar’s width.

6Decide

Three people are walking abreast on the path ahead of you and have not heard you.

7Say it

The four words, out loud

Practise it somewhere with nobody around, because the first time you say it to a stranger it comes out either as a mumble or as a shout. What you want is the voice you would use to ask for something in a shop.

8The idea

The U-turn, and when not to do one

Use the widest part of the space you have. Get the speed down to walking pace before you turn in, keep the power steady rather than on and off, and look round the turn to the spot you want to end up facing.

And if the space is genuinely too tight, get off and walk it round. There is no score for doing it seated. Walking the machine round in a driveway takes about six seconds and has never once put anybody on the ground.

9Find them

Which of these are walking-pace moments?

Tap the ones that count.

10Do it

Before you leave this page