Gymkhana

What is tail chasing?


This video from Ohgood deserves to be embedded

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I just about fell off the couch when I saw that MP3.

Doing those one handed 360's is hard too......
Very entertaining.

Leader guiding everybody through a course, and everybody is in one line chasing each other's tail.
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It's the 'U' turn or variations thereof that is by far the biggest problem effecting riders today.


However it's not their fault that they're a problem, it's just that the teaching methods currently used are simply not sufficiently well designed to prevent riders being unhappy with doing 'U' turns.


A 'U' turn is a fundamental and critical skill that needs to be mastered very early on in a riders career and if not, then they will always be at a terrible disadvantage. It embodies all that a rider needs to be able to do on a bike as it requires them to manage every control similtaneously as well as using their vision to advantage.


At the moment the 'U' turn is something to be feared and once one has been achieved for a test or grant of a certificate it never needs to be visited ever again (watching all the duck-walking shows the truth of this).


Our own GP8 Challenge is essentially two 'U' turns linked by two straights and that is why we see so many riders struggle with it the first few times they attempt it.


The Japanese understand this fact and that is why they don't 'teach' it in the conventional sense, but instead allow riders to 'discover' it. They do this through the wonders of tail-chasing when all the students follow the master around a course made up of pylons. These courses are cunningly designed to contain tighter and tighter 'U' turns so that initially the master takes the students through the big wide one and as they get more and more experience, he takes them through tighter and tighter turns until eventually they are 'U' turning the bike without thinking. The only teaching that has been done is for the master to say to the students "follow me, do what I do and keep up".


Compare that with the western way of teaching where the Instructor demonstartes the 'U' turn and then asks the students to attempt it, usually with disaterous results. No wonder we have so much difficulty. Unless the rider in this video had not learn't 'U' turns in this simple and non-threatening way, he would never be able to do advanced 'U' turns like this.

http://youtu.be/VCzGo8y52Qs

this looks like a really good challenge. I'm going to forward to buzz, our local guru that makes up our courses and see if he likes it. thanks !

most importantly, it shows him countersteering from a standstill , which is pretty cool. don't think I've noticed that before. ill video myself to see if I'm doing it yet.

:)

Before getting started with motorcycles, I spent a few years as a flight instructor and...that's brilliant.

That tail chasing is similar to what we did with my G/F, changing the course as she was riding so she did not get fixation on one problem, the lesson was never what she was actually thinking about but what she had done in an earlier exercise. Great way to teach!

Hope i have not offended with my flippancy Teh Wall!!

well i have had the cops called a few times, doing burn outs apparently, i wish i could drift the bike around a car park like im doing u turns

Thanks for the clarification on the tail chasing.

This thread continues to be full of win.

I discovered that a giant parking lot near my house is completely free of the ol no trespassing signs. It also gets used for driver's ed, so it is often full of cones. I already did a little session there a few days ago.

Oh yeah.

Agreed!

And no, Harvey -- no offense at all :) I'm enjoying this thread, and the "Braking by Nick Ienatsch" thread, immensely.

Just popping in to have a cup of tea & a lie down.. The braking thread is making me tired & a tad giddy.

Go Motogymkhana man I never realised you were in the UK.

Fascinating the assumptions people come to communicating on the t'interweb.

Just found this thread. Thanks for the great idea!! I'll be setting a course up for my local riders come spring. This will be a great way to work the rust out of some of our skills

across the road from my house is a lane between two sporting fields, it only gets used once a month when they do soccer or something on it, that has rear to curb parking either side, no lines, so its about 10 meters wide, and about 100 meters long, its nice new tar, but covered with gravel!

ive been trying to talk to the local council who run a street sweeper, to do a clean up for me, but ive been told if i mention what i want it for, it will be hell complicated and they would want a traffic plan and traffic control and stuff.

that must be very frustrating.

Big wide fkng broom. sweep it yourself. Won't take that long to do.

gas leaf blower..........
much faster, much cleaner, much happier

we used one mid-day after pavement started coming up

made a HUGE difference

i was thinking of that

Our (notso) secret weapon for sweeping up a course before use is one of the Karcher push sweepers.

Have used leaf blowers and hand brooms, but this is by far the best way of getting rid of those bits of gravel from around the riding line on the course.

Here's the link to the UK site, but you will no doubt find them locally.

http://www.karcher.co.uk/uk/Products/Home__Garden/Sweepers/Push_sweepers/17663000.htm

Some great pictures from the Moto Gymkhana event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

https://plus.google.com/photos/1047...ms/5809833755463628449?authkey=CNPZ75_kptjSLg

this !

sweeping misses a lot of garbage the blower will not. the difference is grip, heaping helpings. hire a lawn service guy to do it once if you don't have a backpack. money well spent.