Re: Get off the bike!
 

If I don't like the answer, I usually wind up arguing with myself. And that really looks stupid.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

You will never be accused of being a YES man.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

after 9 months you should be riding around on that bike and shifting like a pro, at least i would think. maybe it is just me but have never had a problem shifting and things like that. after a month of riding i was going as fast as i could around super curvy roads trying to learn how to take the curves better and figure out the best ways to shift body weight and lean the bike so i cold go around the curves as fast as the other guys on bikes did. after 3 or 4 months i was able to take those curves just as fast as every one else.. and i was bored with the bike, it was time to upgrade by the end of summer i did upgrade to a much bigger bike with a lot more power, after 2 hour on that than hopping back on my gz i never wanted to ride the gz again.

when i upgraded to the new bike it was only after about 6 or 7 months of riding. if you still feel weird and things like this after 9 months i would probably think about giving up motorcycle riding. not trying to be mean or any thing but if you are not comfortable by now and still feeling weird you are probably never going to be comfortable on the bike. don't want any one to get hurt.

if any one disagrees with me or it took them a long time to really get the hang of it pleas step forward and tell me that i am wrong and this guy should keep riding, maybe i ought on faster than most people do. i don't know. i really feel after nine months he should be riding that bike around easy as it is to ride a bicycle

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Well said BB. We have to remember not everyone will ride as much as others and may not have the life style to allow it. The real biggy is the fact that us boys have more aggressive genes and willingly put ourselves in harm's way more readily. As a result we may develop skills faster and have more confidence but we also have a tendency to fall down more in the process of learning.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Thanks WW, but I decided that I probably came on a little strong in response, so I deleted my post after I'd considered it for a few hours. I guess I should just say that we all have different goals, abilities and we all ride different amounts in the course of a year. I'm currently putting about 14-15,000 miles on my bike, and I've got a cousin that puts over 25,000 on his each year, but a lot of people only get an opportunity to ride a few hundred or a few thousand miles each year and so just measuring how many months someone has ridden doesn't really tell much about their experience level. I hope diffluere and any others won't become discouraged if they feel a little awkward some days, so do I.

Hope you are having some nice weather to ride in out your way. It's been wonderful here for the last week and a half. Low to mid 80's and sunny for the most part. The only bad thing is the pollen count is extremely high and if you park your bike outside for a few hours it turns yellow!

Re: Get off the bike!
 

For what it's worth, BB, I don't think your response was too strong. I, for one, share your sentiments.

And you're not kidding about the pollen!

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Oh yes Oh yes, real spring weather is here. Does my heart good to ride without all the heated gear and extras that I pack along just in case.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

1. I am a girl. Thanks.

2. I only ride about 3 miles to school every day, and sometimes I get the treat of a nice long cruise. In the past 9 months I have only ridden like...2200 miles total. That's only an average of 244 miles per month. That's not a lot of practice. Plus - have you been to Florida?! Try to find curves here worthy of mastering! Everything is long, flat stretches, with maybe a hill or two thrown in. I've managed to master skills like maintaining speed, riding around with one hand, stretching my legs out without swerving, and other fun things to do while you're basically going in a straight line. Plus, I'm a girl! It wasn't my first instinct to take the bike out and see if it really will do 90mph. Even on my friend's Ninja I only hit 80 on the highway I think. I don't want to die, I just want to have fun. I'm not a risk-taker and that's probably why I've never been in any type of accident, car or otherwise.

Almost all of my motorcycling takes place in town, with traffic and 50 million stop lights, stupid college kids that cross the street without looking, drunk people in the street (at night), football game tailgaters, etc. I've just developed a city skill set: watch for idiots. I'm glad you get to ride around like a macho man taking curves at ridiculous speeds. I wish I could do that (sometimes) but here in Florida it's just not possible. I'm taking my bike up to South Carolina soon so we'll see what happens up there in the mountains.

3. My first time riding a motorcycle was in the MSF course. So I had 0 experience. No dirt bikes or 4-wheelers, and I can only BARELY drive a car with a stick shift (no one in my family owned one - i learned from friends). I just was never around that stuff. I can drive a boat though, haha! I'm pretty good at shifting gears, and almost all of the time I know what gear I'm in based on the sound of the bike and the speed I'm going, which I'm pretty sure everyone on the GZ is capable of.

I don't feel 'weird' all of the time, it's only on 'weird days' like the others here are describing. Most of the time I get to school and back just fine with 0 'oh shit' moments. I just realized how many times I said 'weird' in my last post. Omg I am so lame! =P

Anyway danny, I think your response was really rude. Luckily I don't care much for the opinion of the internet. My real-life riding buddies say I'm doing 'better than they did as a newbie'. Get the whole story before you tell people to stop doing something they enjoy because of one little message board post. From my other posts here, you could have determined that I'm doing pretty well that this two-wheeling thing. This is a post about people that get a strange feeling on a bike sometimes, which apparently happens to everyone here.

Here's an analogy: we are all at work, sitting in the break room bitching about our jobs. You walk in and tell us all that if we hate it so much, we should just quit! Everyone at some point bitches about their job, (including posts i've read by you) but that doesn't mean we want to quit. It's just something people do so they don't go crazy.

/end rant


IN OTHER NEWS: It's sunny and beautiful here in Florida!!! I went on a 120 mile adventure through Ocala National Forest with my mom's boyfriend. I managed to keep up with his Harley the whole time, with 20mph wind! And, after reading that countersteering post, I was playing around with that on the moderate road curves that happen to be in the forest. Pretty nifty!

Re: Get off the bike!
 

holy shit that was long! sorry guys.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

This seems to be something that's unique to America. In every other country in the world, it would appear that vehicles with manual transmission are the norm, with only a few automatic transmission vehicles being around. In England, if you pass your driving test in an automatic, that's all you're allowed to drive. You need to pass the test on a manual (stick shift) before you are allowed out on the road with one, on your own. :)

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Yes, that was really rude.
(JUST KIDDING. See follow up reply.) :whistle:

Re: Get off the bike!
 

What we have here is mostly a bunch of guys shooting the shit. Guys tend to be crude and insensitive.......some more than others......but I think "rude" implies a certain intentional put down and I don't think that was intended in his post at all. Maybe it came across that way but not intended. Might want to read it again; there were some "disclaimers". :)

As for the sunny and beautiful, yes here too; highs in the mid 80's which is 15 above normal.

I'm planning on coming down to scout around G'ville in late May-early June.
Might see you then. Promise to try and not be rude !! :biggrin:

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Long can be a good thing. A long explanation of the facts tends to clear things up and we also get to know you better. We sometimes forget others have different kinds of roads to ride and different schedules that aren't the norm.
Now I am off to find a coffee at the end of a curvy stretch of asphalt.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

I don't see how telling me to give up motorcycling isn't 'rude'...okay maybe 'insensitive' is a better word. I didn't intend to start a flame war so I'm willing to drop the whole thing. For some reason message boards have this unique ability to offend or annoy people when someone doesn't intend that to be the case. Maybe when danny sees my reply he will feel the need to respond, maybe not. Maybe he thinks i'm rude for calling him rude. Without the benefit of tone it's hard to really tell what someone meant or if they are joking. Anyway, I love to ride a motorcycle and I plan on continuing said activity. =)

Easy - see ya soon! Are you bringing a bike? I know some good country roads, they aren't very interesting or curvy but they do have nice green grass and horses to look at. You can be rude to me in person, I deal with that shit all the time at work and I'm likely to throw it right back at ya. =P (I work at home depot, and guys are often offended that a "little girl" wants to help them with plumbing instead of some old dude).

Damn, I'm on a roll with these ridiculously long replies today! My apologies to all of your eyeballs for forcing you to read my nonsense!

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Long? Long you say??? Young lady, your posts are not long! Have you read some of mine lately? Easy used to complain about my long posts, but now he's found other things to complain about. :poke2:

Really, it's good to have the point of view of a new, young, female rider here. I like what you write. I think you have a lot of sense. Remember, motorcycling is one of relatively few things you will do in life where your life literally depends on how well you do it. Therefor, learning is a lifelong experience, and riding is best approached with that attitude. By the questions you ask and the comments you make, it is obvious that you are aware of this, and are actively trying to improve all the time. Sometimes young males think they have to know it all already. Dishearteningly few riders I know really try to learn more on a continuing basis as part of the whole riding "deal".

The people who really should consider giving it up are the ones who think that they have nothing more to learn, and have no need of improvement.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Yes. Wouldn't be coming othewise.....probably.
I made that trip last year on the GZ and had a good time but I think the Honda will handle it just a bit better.

I have a small Shadow riders meet in southern Illinois on May 22.
That puts me about 1/4 the way to Atlanta where my daughter and her "fir farm" lives.
And THAT puts me just a few hours from N. Florida........where we hope to start "wintering" next year.

An excellent excuse for a nice long bike trip, wouldn't you say ??
And it gets me out of the house for about 2 weeks which makes my wife happy too.
Win....win !! :tup:

Re: Get off the bike!
 

dh - thanks for the compliments. =)

To be honest, aside from motorcycling I'm a bit of a know-it-all in most subjects. I am what you call a "nerd" and I LOVE proving people wrong, especially at work when boys think they know more than me about "fixin' shit" or whatever. I assure you in a few years I will be a know-it-all about motorcycling and will sit around here schooling n00bs on what to do when there is a GINORMOUS amount of pollen on your driveway.....(seriously. I am going to take a pic tomorrow to show you guys. You can't see where the driveway ends and the road starts.)

Easy -see PM. Illinois -> Florida sounds like one hell of a trip! No way I'd make that on the current seat on the Babybike (what I call my GZ). I barely made it to Crystal River and back with lots of breaks, man that thing is NOT comfy!

Re: Get off the bike!
 

You're complaining about pollen? It was in the 80's here the end of March for crying out loud. Oh well - Spring in New England.
http://s4.postimage.org/gqpMi.jpg

Re: Get off the bike!
 

That picture of your snow, is what the pollen here looked like until about a week ago when we got a good rain storm to wash some of it away.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

sorry doll, i was not trying to be rude, i see you saying if you make a stop that is not on your normal daily motorcycle rout you start feeling strange and get confused (or something along those lines) than you say going from the motorcycle to your jeep messes you up and you cant break the jeep correctly cus your breaking skills in a car are damaged from riding a motorcycle.

when i read that the first thing that came to my mind is wow that is scarry, if that were happening to me i would not be riding a bike but i was under the impression that these kind of things happen to you all the time, maybe i missed something in there saying that this was just once in a blue moon.

i actually do not fly around curves super fast like a macho man all that often :lol: my new bike is not made for that, it is a pretty big bike and i do try to make sure i know the bikes limits, how fast i can take curves on it and i feel that is important to know., my gz on the other hand i could take sharp curves much faster,

when learning to ride and you get comfortable on a bike i feel you should definitely work on taking curves fast, pick a road and to know the curves on that road like the back of your hand and see what you can do on that curvy road, why do i feel this is necessary, well you never know what is going to happen out there on the road, there is always the chance that you are going to come up on a sharp curve when not expecting it. or halve to make a emergency sharp turn out of the blue. so yes you should be able to take corners at fast speeds encase you ever need to.

when i first started i did not know how to take a curve well at all. other guys were taking them much faster than me and staying in the center of the lane, where i was taking them slower and not able to stay in the center of the lane so i practiced and practiced on curvy roads and ill tell you want it made a huge difference in my riding abilities.

i feel it is good to push your riding abilities a little more and a little more at a time but only push as much as you are ready for.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Danny,. . . quit while you are behind.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

your life does depend on how good you are on the motorcycle, i feel i am very good on my bike, but there are others that are much better and yes you are always learning when out on the road. speaking of learning, here is a site i came across at some point in time and bookmarked, lots of good tips and some good information here. http://www.msgroup.org/default.aspx

Re: Get off the bike!
 

I second dl's recommendation of msgroup.org. It has a wealth of information and tips about riding safely. It really helped me when I was learning to ride.

Come to think of it, it's been a few years since I've been on the site. May be time for a refresher.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Now how many of us have tried to take off from a stop light/sign in 2nd/3rd gear. Sometimes the brain just does'nt engage.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Or in neutral, like I did the other day, felt pretty stupid, then I got flustered, put it in 1st and killed it, had to crank it back up and then pull out. Pretty embarrassing! :whistle:

Re: Get off the bike!
 

I found myself following a little to close the other day when traffic suddenly stopped. My emergency stopping skills were a bit rusty and I ended up locking the rear wheel a couple of times. I managed to stop in time and stay upright.

At least I got myself headed toward the clear space between the cars.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

At first, I would start from a stop sign in second gear like once every two weeks. Back then, I was taking a back road to school which only had stop signs every few blocks, no real traffic lights, so I'd only make it to 2nd gear before I had to stop. Now I take a much busier but faster route to school so I make it to 3rd gear, so starting in 2nd seems to happen less often.

dh - luckily i'm not allergic to pollen! My car/bike went from being black to being green overnight! And that stuff is slippery, I have to turn into my driveway and there's a little slope, and if I turn too sharp the front tire doesn't like it very much. But I imagine it's nothing like driving on snow. I haven't seen snow in like......12 years!

bill - I locked up my back tire trying to stop at a yellow light a few weeks ago. Now, I just look around and see if it's safe really quick, and go through the yellow light. That was scary but I stayed upright and remembered (yeah, talked to myself again!) back brake - take your foot off!

danny - no problem dude. I think I have mild OCD and I like to drive to school/work the same route every day, I walk to class the same way every day, and I even do my morning routine the same every day. If anything different happens it kinda throws off my whole day, like if one of my roommates gets up before me and makes coffee first, and I can't make coffee at the correct point in my morning sequence! So if I have to drive a different way it just feels wrong. It's a weird feeling but it's not scary and I don't feel like my motorcycling is really affected; I've managed to not crash or drop the bike so far, so I'd say that's good. It's just my OCD is affected, haha! =)

If I could find a curvy road to practice on, believe me I'd be out there all the time. The closest one I know of is the Ozello Trail in Crystal River and that's an hour and a half away. There might be some in the surrounding countryside but again, that's far away. Gainesville is laid out on a grid system so the roads are all flat, straight and boring. The only way to go around a curve is to get yourself into a roundabout and stay there! I do try to make left and right turns at more exciting speeds each time I do one though.

Thank you for reading Volume 4 in the Get Off the Bike saga...

Re: Get off the bike!
 

It's not just noobies who do silly things. I've been riding for many many years, & the stupid thing I do when I'm not thinking is to set off in first, then instead of click click into second, going click, and finding that I'm reving up in neutral. :??: :cry:

Re: Get off the bike!
 

David L. Hough's second book "More Proficient Motorcycling - Mastering the Ride" deals a lot with "mental motorcycling". We all know that, even though our very lives depend upon being sharp and 100% focused at all times, we're not. We are human, and at least parts of our minds drift to other matters when not needed for the job at hand. But one can learn to monitor one's self so that you know at least how focused you are at any given time, and force yourself to adjust as needed. It's a very important skill for any kind of driving, especially a motorcycle, and it is just as much a learned technique as the physical skills like cornering and braking.

The scariest lapses for me have been the times I have seen a sharp curve coming, and have been aware of it on some level, but have failed to take any appropriate action whatsoever, like slowing and moving to the outside. Suddenly I have found myself in mid curve at straightaway speeds, and in the improper lane position. The only things that saved me the two or three times it's happened have been good physical skills, and the fact that I tend to ride fairly slowly anyway, so my straightaway speed was survivable in the curve. I once asked a much younger rider I know who is a very active track racer if he had ever done the same thing, and he admitted that he had on more than one occasion. I haven't done that in a few years now.

The basic idea I'm trying to get across is that it's not enough to master the bike - you have to master yourself, and your human mental state.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Might not be a good idea for a rookie but I have done "sweeping curve" practice at a full clover-leaf interchange on an Interstate. You can loop around getting on and off all day if you want. :roll:

It's kind of the opposite of Nascar......as all the turns are right hand. :biggrin:

Re: Get off the bike!
 

there was one road in Tennessee i had never taken before, it was slightly up hill and there was a spot where there was a little bump in the road, just high enough you could not see the road past it till you were right up on it. as soon as i went over that bump i was doing around 45-50 and there was a crazy sharp curve in the road, if it were not for all the practice on the curvy roads and quick reflexes i probably would have flew off the road in to the ditch. there was no sharp curve sign or any thing. just a holy shit, hard breaking and flying around that thing. moral of the story, if you can practice taking curves do it and get good at it and if you don't know the road you are riding on be careful, if there is any time where you cant not see the road ahead and don't know what is coming up, slow down. better safe than sorry.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Better safe than sorry means not riding faster than your visibility. If you can't see around the bend of the curve, then slow down before you get there - you never know what lies around the curve, could be a stopped car, someone coming in the opposite direction cutting the corner over in your lane, a fallen tree, rocks, etc, etc., you'll never know 'till you see it. Not good, doing hard braking going into a curve. Sounds to me like more good luck than "skill".

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Contrary to what many riders say, I can and do brake going into a curve. I'm not talking about race track speeds but speed non the less and I do it with the front brake. A little rear brake to settle the back end but fairly hard on the front end will scrub off speed in a hurry. I also practice this now and again after entering a curve. A little more exciting of course but something we should all be able to do. The wild life around here doesn't wait for you to be riding in a straight line before leaping out and scaring the stuffing out of you.
So many new riders never learn how to front brake for fear of going over the handle bars. Not so in actual life, your are more likely to go over the bars after T-boning a cage because you can't stop properly and in the shortest distance possible.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

i agree, once i ran over a squirrel, he jetted out into the street and went right under my bike, and i ran him over, thank god only my rear tire went over him. not sure what would have happen if the front tire would have ran over him.

i have all kind of practice hard breaking right before going around sharp curves. i have practiced every thing i cold think of that might come in handy some day, practicing hard breaking in all situations is a really good idea, it would be pretty hard to go over the bars using your front break on a cruiser, those crotch rockets on the other hand might flip you over the bars easily, those guys hit the front breaks hard and rid wheelies on their front tires.

mrmld1 my exact words were (if there is any time where you cant not see the road ahead and don't know what is coming up, slow down. better safe than sorry.) it was definitely better to break hard going into that curve that it wold have been to fly off the road into a ditch. and when i say ditch i mean big ditch a good 2 feet or more deep, hard breaking going into a curve is definitely skill, in my case it was a bit if skill and luck. like you said you never know if there is going to be gravel or any thing else there trying to wipe you out.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Maybe I misread or misunderstood the post(s). If you are talking about hard breaking BEFORE you enter the curve, that's fine. If you are talking about hard braking when you are leaned over going too fast once you are already in the curve, that's another story, which I don't think many people recommend, (especially if it could have been avoided), at least to a newbie.
Depending on the amount of room you have and what's in front of you, it may be better to steer straight and stand the bike up and break like hell, vs. brake really hard leaned over and risk a lowside. It all depends, as always.
Read up about trail braking, if that's what you are talking about, braking in the curve.

Re: Get off the bike!
 

Nope, I was talking about breaking right before I hit the curve. breaking when you are going around the curve could end up bad if you do not do it right, if you do halve to break while taking a curve i believe you should keep the breaks on threw out the whole curve or at least until you slow down enough that letting off the break is not going to effect you and you should mainly use the front break, i know letting off the breaks suddenly when going around a corner fast can also cause your rear end to slide out. as well as breaking while going around a curve if you do it wrong, .