Working on throttle control…
Jan 22nd, 2010 by Leo
[Here's a great way to work on throttle control during the winter riding months]
In order to corner well, control traction, get an unruly bike to behave, you only need one finely tuned skill: throttle control.
- In order to stabilize a bike while leaned all the way over in a corner, you need a small amount of throttle. Too much and you’ll be on your butt. Too little and the bike will push toward the outside, not turn or be able to handle bumps as effectively.
- Also, in order to get a slide or a misbehaving suspension under control, you need throttle control. Abruptly turn off the gas during a slide will only make it worse and contribute to a crash. Doing nothing and continuing to roll on throttle when the rear wheel is slipping will make it worse and cause a crash. It takes a good amount of skill to hold the throttle until traction is restored to then roll on or slow down…
So how do you develop your throttle control skills?
Well…practice, practice, practice… and go to a track school where you can work out the difference throttle and no-throttle in a corner. But, according to Lee Parks, the best way to learn the skill is while going straight on any ole’ road…
Here’s the drill: Get moving in a straight line on an open road. Click it up to 3rd or 4th gear, and then gradually roll on the throttle for 10 seconds to about half-throttle. Watch where you’re going. And the last part is to roll-off the throttle for 10 seconds. If you don’t have a lot of road in front of you, then you can just focus on rolling-off from about half-throttle for 10 seconds.
Sounds easy right? Good luck. People say, “I thought I had pretty good throttle control until I tried this.” Most people get done rolling off around the 3 second mark no matter how hard they try (at first).
How does this help develop throttle control skills? Skills like these (and skills like learning to walk or run) need to be learned on a subconscious level so that you consciously don’t have to think about it. If you’re rolling off in 3 seconds when you’re trying to roll off in 10, what that means is your brain can only control the throttle in these large increments. By working on this safe, easy to replicate drill you are teaching your brain a much finer sense of throttle control.
Keep working on it and you’ll find that you’ll be able to control the on-throttle to off-throttle transitions better (because you’ll have better throttle control), your passengers won’t knock your helmet as much when you roll off the gas, and in high performance riding situations or low traction situations, your right hand will be better able to finely roll-on or hold the throttle through slides because your brain will have developed the fine motor skills of throttle control.
Got any more throttle control tips or drills? Share the wealth. This drill is from Lee Parks and from people who’ve taken advanced rider courses (although the pics above are from a Superbike School).
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