Flat ground practice techniques

Figure 8's are good.
Try varying the size and shape of the 8, use old car tyres, rocks, lumps of dirt, whatever, try not to create something that will mess you up if you clip it though.
Make the corners sharp, then do the 8 as fast as you can, then make the corners open ( sweeping ) and do that as fast as you can.
Look at what you want to improve on ( braking, powering out, sliding etc. )
and then work on that.
What I think lapping the 8 allows you to do is push it until you find your limit,
without the problems of being on a moto track with riders, jumps etc.
Also, try and be smooth, keep it tight, dont stomp on the brakes, no big hand fulls of throttle, smooth is surprisingly quick.
I think having only two corners and them being close together allows you to become familiar, with the bike and the surface, very quickly.

practice

positions on the bike, different amounts of pressure at different points in the cornering process. hopefully when you say "stoppys" you are practicing stopping very fast and not rear wheel wheelies!
try different gears, make the bike bog then figure out the best way to correct.
bob Hannah said somthing that stuck with me for a long time, he said somthing to that fact that he wasn't the best rider out there, but he was the best at saving a mistake or correcting the bike so it wouldn't crash.
try not to crash of course but, make things happen so you know what to do if your out of shape going in or out of a corner, straight etc.


wardy

Originally posted by Casper250
I ment rear wheel wheelies, but it does help me on front brake control. it's a grassy field and the front brake will lock up the front tire. I started doing this after i took a nasty fall when i locked my front wheel on some hardpack during a race. Do you have any other braking drills that i can do?

Click to expand...

i like doing those rear wheel wheelies too. can you do rolling endos? come in fast in second gear and move forward while hitting the brakes. Feather the leaver pressure until you can roll with the rear wheel up in the air. great to watch.

two good braking drills you can do is: ride along in first or second and then lock the back wheel. slide it out and then turn the bike around with the gas to do a 180 degree turn, without putting your foot down.
a front brake exercise is to ride along at walking pace, and then while looking up, lock the front wheel and keep it sliding with the gas on. it will wash away sooner or later, but you will develop a feel for it and will learn how to counter a front wheel wash out. try to keep it going for as long as you can.
have you tried going as slow as you can in a straight line? this will help your balance a great deal, just like those amazing trials riders. if there are logs or any small ditches to cross, these are great to jump over too, again going as slow as you can. good fun.
when you have run out of things to do, try those stand up wheelies. plenty of practice needed for those!