Customer Reviews

Maximum Control: Mastering Your Heavyweight Bike

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Greetings,

I have found this book to be of great value to riders of all ages and skill levels.
This is simply laid out with great illustrations. Some, more experiences riders may have to forage through the information to glean new ideas, but there is enough there for them as well, and it never hurts to practice old skills.

New or returning riders will find lots to learn and practice. This is loaded with good illustrations and good step-by-step instructions on how to proceed.

The chapters have a strong and common thread of safety, which is why we would want to learn more advanced survival skills on the road anyway.

Add it to your collection, and loan it to (or recommend they add it to their library) your new rider friends.

I have not had the chance to practice all of the techniques described, as they require dedicating serious time to parking lot practice. I have, however, put into practice some of them, without the parking lot drills, on the road, riding two-up, and they have worked superbly! The single technique that I have found absolutely invaluable, is to make judicious use of the back brake. I have started leading with the rear brake, in all braking situations, and it has made my bike remarkably more stable in all braking situations. I have even used the clutch-slipping, while riding the rear brake, techniques, to make tighter-than-usual U-turns -- turns that before I would have my wife dismount, while I jockeyed the bike back and forth, over a period of 5-10 minutes. Now I turn the bike in a U-turn, with the wife on board, in a matter of 5-10 seconds! If I would invest the practice time in the parking lot, I would be able to handle the bike in absolutely amazing ways, but I am too lazy to do that.

The book discusses how to slip a wet clutch, while riding the rear brake, executing U-turns in a frighteningly small area -- you can even progress to doing full-steering-lock turns... This is what the police learn, and how they can handle their bikes in such amazing ways. That level of handling skill REQUIRES 100+hours of parking lot practice. I just applied some of the techniques, rather poorly, and I was able to make U-turns at really slow speeds, two-up. Even I was amazed at how well I did. I don't ride a heavy-weight bike, but it is 31-years old, and its handling is not that great, but with the techniques I have learned reading this book, I can handle my bike much better than I have ever done before. It has built up my confidence tremendously. Now if I could convince myself to go to the parking lot and practice...

To give you some insight, the authors advocate riding the rear brake, while slipping the wet clutch on your bike (will NOT work with dry clutches -- they will burn out in a short time!), will allow you to stabilize your bike's handling so much, with practice, that you will be able to pull off amazing handling feats, beyond what you thought possible. Just by leading with the rear brake in any braking situation, you will stabilize your bike, avoiding the nose dive you get when you grab a handful of front brake! That alone is worth the price of admission. Everything beyond that, is so much sweet frosting! This book is probably one of the best you could have in your collection. Buy it! You won't regret it. Cheers!

Maximum Control

The main author, Pat Hahn, is a MSF instructor while two contributing authors are Motor Officer instructors. If you've watched Riding like a Pro, then the exercises and concepts taught in Maximum Control should not come as a surprise because they're the same. The first 40 pages are almost completely devoted to adjusting/modifying your motorcycle, but I found it to be dwarfed by the content from other books like the Motorcycle Suspension Bible or perhaps Total control by Lee Parks. However, once the authors discuss Friction Zone, it is all business.

I found several discrepancies in Maximum Control. The authors talk about how people use the thigh muscles to control the brake pedal in a car, while on a motorcycle the pivot point is on the ankle/heel. I beg to differ. Unless you are short and have small feet, it is exactly the same on a car. I pivot my right foot between the brake and throttle pedals using the heel and ankle. When first learning to drive, it was easy for me to jam on the brakes because that muscle memory wasn't learned. It is the same if I suddenly started to use my left foot for braking. On a motorcycle, I found the muscle memory to translate directly over. But the challenge comes from motorcycle riding boots with stiff soles that don't provide the same amount of tactile response as driving shoes or sneakers.

Another discrepancy is cornering. In Maximum Control, the authors cite "slow, roll, look, press" while it was drilled into our heads during the MSF Basic RiderCourse as "slow, look, press, roll". The latter is intuitive, as you'd want to slow down, look to see your options, press on the bar to counter-steer, and roll open the throttle.

The drills are excellent, but anyone that has seen Riding Like a Pro will find the exercises familiar. Dragging the rear brake really helps stabilize the bike at very low speeds. Unfortunately, I didn't have any opportunity to practice on a real bike before my Basic RiderCourse, so I had to jam in some "practice time" during the exercises.

Overall: 5/5 stars, highly recommended

It's a probably a great book if you're new to motorcycling since all the info applies to anyone who rides a bike. but if you're already a seasoned rider I don't think you'll get much out of this book. but it has some nice pictures of bike riders and their bikes.

This is the very book I have been looking for, after buying 4 other books this is right on point for the heavier bikes, very instructive, great exercises for control of your heavier bike.

Highly recommended if you want to learn how to control
your large cruiser bike...great text and pictures..John H.
Houston,TX

When I received this book, I couldn't put it down. I read it, made notes and then re-read it some more. I have been practicing doing the exerices from it and I may be getting better. It was easy to understand and the information very helpful to a guy that rides a bike that is almost 900 lbs.

Bought this for my brother, who rides a large Harley Bagger but who has never taken an actual motorcycling class (no ERC, or even BRC). Perusing the sample pages online, it looked like a good blend of covering the basics while offering more advanced situations and techniques. Perusing the book when it arrived proved this to be true. Some of the basic, yet very important, information from my time in the BRC and ERC courses were covered, but with an emphasis on the unique challenges that heavyweight bikes bring. This takes the instruction up a notch from 250cc trainers so it doesn't read as a book for beginners (so riders with many years in the saddle won't take offense), yet still covers many of the elementals, along with advanced skills.
I was surprised to find that one of the three contributing authors is Sgt. Mark Brown of the NC Highway patrol. I took his BikeSafe NC course one rainy spring day a few years ago (http://www.bikesafenc.com/) . He offers many big bike specific tips and techniques that are applicable to all bike and skill levels.
While no substitute for an actual class, I highly recommend this addition to your, or a fellow rider's, library.

I have only been riding a couple of years, and even though I took the Basic MSF course, I was never quite comfortable with certain maneuvers. After reading this book and testing out some of the exercises, I have gained more confidence in the abilities of my bike, as well as myself. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in gaining the most control over your heavyweight bike.

More of a hands on than Proficient Motorcycling. Has great exercises and scheduling. Really gets into the nitty- gritty of heavyweight riding at speed.