"TouringBubble" (TouringBubble)
09/03/2015 at 17:00 • Filed to: None
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"TouringBubble" (TouringBubble)
09/03/2015 at 17:00 • Filed to: None | 1
| 9 |
Part deux of my mishaps and follies of learning to ride a motorcycle. Part one is in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
You can only practice what you know you need to work on
After nearly dying and buying my neighbor a Mercedes, I decided that I needed to take it slow going forward. I looked in to MSF courses in the area but none were offered for a couple of months.
So, I reached out to a friend who’s been riding for a while and had taken the MSF course for some instruction. He agreed, but wasn’t available for a few weeks.
So, I obviously decided to ride in circles around the cul-de-sac while I waited for some instruction.
This didn’t go too badly. I got used to the clutch engagement and got comfortable riding and turning. I even got to where I could do a figure 8 fairly well. I only ran in to my neighbor’s driveway once when I lost control.
Obviously, at this point, I had built up some confidence. “I can do this!” I thought. Well, I was partially right.
I needed to go to the parts store that evening for some bolts. Those are easy enough to carry on a bike. Plus, the parts store is literally in my neighborhood, about 1/2 mile away. I could totally make it there.
I headed out from the cul-de-sac and up the street.
Going down the small residential street felt great! It was so much easier than riding circles in the small area as I was before. “I can totally do this.”
I got to the end of the street and pulled up tot he stop sign. I had a decision to make. I could go right and take the shortest route to the parts store, or turn left and take the long detour through the neighborhood. Weighing these options I settled on left to get some more tine under my belt. A pretty solid idea.
One problem. I had never practiced leaving from a stop and turning.
I gave it a little throttle and eased out on the clutch. I turned ... or, I tried to turn. Shit. It’s not turning.
Immediately I got right back in to my head, trying to actively think about everything that needed to happen. That just doesn’t work. Then the target fixation on the mailbox I was heading toward set in. I needed to brake but froze.
I managed to dodge the mailbox and a tree in the yard of my neighbor at the end of the road. Then the bike stalled. I immediately learned another lesson.
Bikes are heavy. When it stalled it leaned left and I couldn’t stop it. I toppled over in this stranger’s yard with about 15 people at the neighborhood pool looking on in amusement.
I lifted it back up on to the tires (with much, much effort), rolled it back in to the street, fired it up and headed back to the cul-de-sac.
Man ... I still need those bolts.
Next Time: Finally, I get some lessons
TheOnelectronic
> TouringBubble
09/03/2015 at 17:05 |
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Bikes are incredibly heavy. People swear there are all these tricks you can do to lift one up easier, but none of them have ever worked for me. Mostly because they always demonstrate this with massive goldwings or harleys that can only lean over 15 degrees before they’re resting on bodywork anyway. The same techniques don’t work on something that will go past horizontal when it falls over.
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TouringBubble
> TheOnelectronic
09/03/2015 at 17:09 |
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Absolutely. Someone was telling me the other day about lifting them in reverse. I don’t have anything to grab on this SV if I do it that way. I’ve got decent upper body strength and can do it alone, but it kills your back and knees not matter how you do it.
DAT-AS-SUN
> TouringBubble
09/03/2015 at 17:11 |
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Buy grom ride like rossi !
Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
> TouringBubble
09/03/2015 at 17:48 |
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Best way I’ve seen is like a dead lift with the bike behind you
yamahog
> Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
09/03/2015 at 18:27 |
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This is how my father taught me to pick mine up, and because of my shortness, he made me practice over and over until I could pick the thing up in under 5 seconds. /coolstoryme but for real if I can do it, the average dude should be able to.
BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
> TouringBubble
09/03/2015 at 19:30 |
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SV1000 is a nice bike, but a bit much for a beginner... an SV650 would be fantastic.... but it is a nice bike... be careful with that throttle.
A tip for righting a bike, and perhaps something to practice in a soft part of your yard...
don’t bend over at the waist and pick it up like a box.
stand by the tank/seat area, and turn your back on the bike. Squat down with your legs, and reach back and grab the low-side handle bar, and the seat subframe on the down-facing side.
keeping your back and arms straight, stand up with your legs, and step back as the bike stands up on it’s tires. If you are on the left side, kick the side stand down (unless it is somehow broken and that is the reason it is on the ground.) If you are on the right side, either walk the bike to a place that you can lean it against something solid, or swing a leg over and mount the bike, and kick the side stand down.
Lifting that way, when done right, can actually allow people of relatively small stature lift heavy, and even tall-suspension off-road bikes, much better than trying to lift with your back from being bent over forward at the waist.
TheRealBicycleBuck
> TouringBubble
09/03/2015 at 20:19 |
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This is the right way to pick up a fallen bike. My bike was fairly large (565 lbs) and this was the only way I could pick it up.
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TouringBubble
> BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
09/03/2015 at 20:53 |
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A 650 would definitely be a better beginner bike, but this one was free. So, in my opinion, this is a great bike to start with, because it’s the one I could afford. I’ve got about $750 in it.
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BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
> TouringBubble
09/03/2015 at 23:53 |
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I have been a fan of SV1000S for a while... and free is a deal of a lifetime for any SV-bike.
Even if one weren’t to keep it... that would even be a helluva flip, but I can totally understand keeping it, as I said, SV1000S is on my short list.