THE FRICTION ZONE

The friction zone is the area of the clutch between completely open and completely closed. First begin by pulling the clutch in and putting the motorcycle in 1st gear. Next, put your right foot on the brake and begin by letting the clutch out and begin feeding a little throttle and stay in the friction zone.       
    You should be feathering the rear brake so that it holds the motorcycle back slightly. You now have 3 ways to control your motorcycle, the clutch, the throttle and the rear brake. You must keep power to the rear wheel and stay in the friction zone and feed a little throttle.

 

FRONT BRAKE AT SLOW SPEEDS

In parking lot maneuvering, you steer the bike, not countersteer. At low speeds when the gyro effect of the wheels is lost, touching the front brake when the front wheel is turned causes the momentum of that 500+ pounds to continue straight, and dump you right down. Even if it does not dump you, your natural reaction to compensate can cause a dump. You should use ONLY the rear brake in parking lot maneuvering; you will keep shiny-side-up a lot more often!