Learning to Lean

I guess there are two reasons that make people want to keep their bikes straight up. They're scared because they've already had a wreck, going to slow into a turn and they hit their brakes or their scared because their afraid they will let the motor die in a slow turn and they will let the bike fall over. In a slow turn you must never hit your brakes. Start practicing in a parking lot, turn the handlebars all the way to the left and all the way to the right and practice taking off that way, practice putting your feet on the pegs as fast as possible. Soon you will realize you can take off with ease in either direction, slowly and surely. Just never hit your brakes in a slow turn, get the bike as close to vertical as you can before you hit your brakes. The center of gravity is very low on a motorcycle, you can lean a long way without dumping yourself at highway speeds. You can safely lean a motorcycle until the pegs scrub the ground, as long as your going 25 m.p.h. or more. Just keep your head vertical, whenever you think you've leaned all you can, give it a little more gas (not less) and lean a little more. Play with your clutch, letting it in and out, see how slowly you can go in a straight line. Never use your brake in a slow turn, just your clutch. Just get in an empty parking lot and practice, soon it will be second nature and you'll be flying through curves and loving it.