Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: what did I do wrong?!, gear, speed

Question
Hi Pat,

I am a newbee. I have a 200CC motorbike and have put on it 450Km so far. I practice early mornings or very late to avoid rush hours traffic and gain more confidence/experience.

Today, I am in 3rd gear on one lane street (speed limit is 40) and wanted to turn left but car coming opposite direction was a bit fast. I had to slow down using front breaks. Engine stalled and back wheel locked with a loud noise. No worries as no cars were behind me. I quickly pulled clutch and pushed the bike to far right. Started bike and went on. What surprised me is that I make that turn often in 3rd gear (never encountered opposite traffic) as the bike is gutless in 1st or 2nd gear. Have to say I never had to slow that much though.

Should I have greared down to 2nd or 1st? Or all was needed is to feather clutch to slow down and not lock wheel? what is best way to handle such a situation?

thoughts?

Regards,

Answer
Doesn't sound like you did anything too terribly wrong. You were just in too high of a gear for the speed you were traveling. The gear you choose should be appropriate for the speed of the bike, not the turn--you can take the same turn at a variety of speeds, no?

While you may normally take that turn in 3rd, because you had to slow (more than usual?) you lugged the engine and it stalled in gear, the transmission is what locked the rear wheel.

I'd suggest that most rolling low-speed turns (from one street to another, for example) are best done in 2nd gear. If you had squeezed the clutch when you squeezed the brake, the bike would not have stalled, and you may have been able to ease the clutch out (as you say, feather), remaining in 3rd gear, and make the turn. However, the bike probably still would have been lugging because of the lower speed.

Keep practicing! And good that you are learning lessons as you go.

Pat