[akima]

Originally Posted by Firehorse

It also stalled about 5 mins into my ride when I had it going after a light and gave it some throttle. ???

Doesn't stall on hills where I was expecting it too. Am I giving it too much throttle? Not enough before but now too much?

When slipping into first gear and moving away my instructors said to:
1) give it a very small amount of throttle
2) slowly release the clutch lever until you feel it bite (the engine starts to slowly try and drag the bike forward)
3) give it more throttle
4) slowly release more of the clutch as you need more speed.

I don't recall stalling my Ninjette once, so this technique seems to be working for me!

Originally Posted by Firehorse

I have no trouble with going really slow and just using the clutch/brakes to control tricky maneuvers (feet up) so that takes away my idea that it's just my inexperience with the clutch.

When I was learning my instructors agreed that in their experience the girls have much better balance than the guys for the tricky, slow speed manoeuvres. They said where the girls often did worse than the guys was quickly getting up to the required speed in traffic.

Just thought I'd share that!

Originally Posted by Firehorse

One of the things I never got to try but have heard of is doing the circle while leaning to the opposite side of the bike. Something about counterweight??

Has anyone learned this or know where I would need to use it? I thought maybe tight corners but I tend to lean in the direction of the turn. What am I missing about that maneuver?

The very first time I did circles and figure of 8's, I did that thing where you shift your butt to the side of the seat that is outside of the turn, and I kept my body upright while the bike leant over. I did it because I saw an instructor doing it. The next instructor I got told me off and said that I don't need to do all that shuffling about!

The 'counter leaning' (or whatever it is) did seem allow me to get tighter angles at slow speeds though. Maybe that's what it's for.