Berm riding pic, and question

[MarksCR250]

Heres a picture of me trying to learn a hairpin berm turn. I approach in a pinned 2nd gear.. then a bit before the elevation starts I begin applying rear brake.. half way up the elevation I pull on the clutch, lock the rear brake, and shift my weight forward while extending the old leg of mine and turn the bars a bit.. the momentum of the rear means I dont have to spin the rear tire for the back end to come around, and when it does I feather out the clutch and pin it!

Are there better/faster ways to take a berm like this? I've heard about pivoting around the front tire by using the front brake but I'm not sure I buy that technique.

 

[BullDog KX125]

hehe looks like your about to fall
sorry to add a non helpful post...

 

[Hick]

That’s a good shot, but it is hard to tell from a picture what is going on, and I’m no expert anyway. But it is very difficult to have your weight TOO far forward in a turn. Scooting up on the tank more is almost always better.

One thing that really helps weight transfer is raising your inside leg. Again, it is hard to tell from a picture, but you look to be pivoting off your inside foot. That isn’t necessarily bad, and may be required on an incline like that, but using your leg to help weight transfer in a corner really helps.

In this case you could stick your left boot out (up high, you don’t want it to hit the ground) as you entered the corner, let your body scoot up the tank as you hit the brakes, rail it and, if you have to, drop your boot down to pivot off your foot.

Try it, the amount of weight transfer you can get by swinging your inside boot up around the fender is surprising. And when you brake for the corner, scoot up the tank, it is really hard to be TOO far up there.

I taught myself to ski in Santa Fe, and riding is the same. You have to keep your body pointed “down hill,” you can’t turn if you are on your heels.

Hope this helps.

 

[KawieKX125]

A couple thing to try.
1)Get the ball of your foot on the peg and press hard.
2)NO body wieght should be on the front end.
3)Sit forward, but not on the tank.
4)OVERGRIP the throtle. Your wrist looks to be in a very bad position. You have too much undergrip to open the throttle that much.
5)Raise the leg to the rad shroud. When the leg is back, the center of weight moves back making the bike unstable and causing it to wheelie.
6)Body perpendicular to the ground. This is very important.
7)Keep elbows up!
8)By the looks of your left arm, your body has moved forward placing wieght on the bars and making you arm into a bad position. Try to keep you body a litle bit farther upright to help the arms and the balence.

These techniques are for accelatering through a turn. To brake slide, what you are doing, you seem to be doing it fairly colse to correct. I really can not comment on this as Gary SEmics taught us nothing about sliders in the course I took. Sorry.

 

[MarksCR250]

Thanks for the comments you guys. I think I've been staying away from 'railing' the low kinds of berm turns- the ones where you stay as perpendicular to the ground as possible and lean the bike over and gas it.. thats a racing technique I'll have to practice and grow into during the summer. For right now I'm just fooling around still I guess. One of my latest interests is finding the tallest berm I can, and riding the crap out of it. Heres one thats kind of tall.. dont you think?? :eek:

Thanks again for the berm tips. I'm looking forward to trying the bike-lean turning technique in the weeks to come.

 

[JPIVEY]

This may be totally wrong,but it works for me. A buddy has a pix of me going though a corner were my body is almost vertical and the bike is almost horizontal (bars inches the ground) and I'm practically on top of the gas tank. As I enter the corner I just roll the bike under me,slide up the tank , spot my exit and gas it. This could be a really bad habit and I do have lots of um.

 

[super rat]

dam

 

[RMFanatic]

Burm

I agree with KawieKx on the riding style, but I will add one important point that I just recently got a full education on. When you go into the burm place your weight on the flat of your foot not the ball. The ball of your foot is great for street bikes, but the flat of the foot is motorcross wise. I say this because I nearly broke my foot when it slipped off of the peg while up on the ball my foot. I have been down for a month and forsee another week or two before I can get back on the bike. I did dislocate my foot according to the specialist that I went to, so think about it for a few.

Gordon Spraggins
Mxr's for Christ