slow speed handling & noobs

[dgyver]

I used to get a lot of practice doing a full steering lock 180 u-turn to get in my shop. This was on my TLR going about 4-5mph in the grass and avoiding dog sh!t. I am better turning left since right pushes the throttle again the tank. It takes practice and confidence. An easy way to see how experience a rider is.

[LesaKing]

Thanks for the explanation everyone

[Dr. Love]

Full lock u-turns and figure eight, super slow riding, no problem... I hate taking my feet off the peg, much less putting them down (trials habit). The lower and narrower "clip-on" of the '89 does make thing a bit harder for me; bars would definitely help.  This is also where I would prefer an accurate digital speedometer - the unit on my GS tend to read zero when I'm creeping along, so there's no way to tell how fast/slow I'm going  , although pedestrians pass me on regular basis when I'm stuck on SW Marine... which brings me to another point... (which might be completely off-topic)

Mileage != Saddle Time. A person who commutes by freeway every day rakes in miles much faster than say a inner city commuter with the same saddle time (my daily commute averages about 36km/h, which makes me only moderately faster than the roadies).   It's not a contest.  There is no need to feel bad if your milage is low... huge mileage doesn't equate to lots of experience.  I knew a woman who lived just off the highway and so was her work - her F4i did practically nothing else yet she collected almost 60,000km in just two season.  I spend ~7.5 hours on the GS per week and only do 1200km/month (I should be an accoutant  ).

Not to mention my trials bike... now that thing is perfect to learn to be slow on