Horse wrote: ↑Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:16 pm
Had a trainee who'd bought an LT, had it delivered to his house. Then fell over when parked. Asked for help.
Plan was that I'd ride it to an open area, he'd folow in his car.
Bike was in the garage. Had a turning circle outside, gravel - which had been pushed into a small 'berm' outside the door. Oh, and the garage was opposite the house wall, so a 90° right turn was needed ... to go uphill and 90° left around the front of the house.
So, ideally for gravel you'd give it some beans and stand up to let it weave etc. But not with an up and over door immediately ahead.
If I say so myself, it must have looked impressive. One of those do or die, one attempt, events!
Coincidence... I had a trainee who'd bought a brand new ST1300, dealer had delivered it to his garage, where he dropped it trying to turn it round to face out. Course delayed two weeks whilst new parts were ordered. He didn't want to ride it out of his uphill gravel driveway to the tarmac, so I had to do that. No up and over door and just a 45 degree turn. I just had a feeling about the way the day was going to go, so parked it right at the end of his turning, where it exited onto a main road, and angled so all he had to do was get moving.
At the end of five hours, he had barely managed a turn tighter than left at a roundabout - the bike was clearly way beyond his ability level, so when we got back to his town I ended up parking my bike at the edge of the built-up area, then giving him a ride home on the ST before getting a lift back to my bike. I didn't like the ST13 at all - compared with the original, it was top-heavy.
I have had a couple of trainees with the 1600 - motors well, sound good, and whilst it flatters good riders it does look relatively easy to manage - unlike that ST13.
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