- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 15 years ago by Jay T.
Harder than I thought
-
AuthorPosts
-
April 1, 2009 at 9:57 am #2661samgoodyParticipant
So this is my very first experience in operating a motorcycle. I live in Saudi Arabia and don’t have the benefit of MSF or equivalent courses. I found out that the Suzuki dealership had some sort of training, and that they use a 250cc bike. I signed up and paid nearly $80, and went to my first lesson. I found out that they didn’t have a “range” or suitably large parking lot, but a maintenance yard in the back of their showroom. The first lesson had me duck walking the bike, but because the area was relatively small I had to duck walk it in a semi-circle. I had the most difficult time with this. Every time I had to turn the handlebar left I felt I was giving the bike a little more throttle than I intended. I may have had a tighter grip on the bars than I was supposed to even though I made conscious effort to keep my grip as light as possible. I was also having a difficult time finding my balance on the bike, but perhaps I wasn’t giving the bike enough throttle to get it to balance correctly. I guess I was a little wary of the rather small space in which I had to do all this. The throttle seemed very sensitive and I couldn’t keep it steady; it always seemed like the bike wanted to accelerate. At one point I did manage to get my feet on the pegs, but I ended up giving it more throttle than was necessary. Thankfully, the bike didn’t go very far, and I managed to keep my calm, pull in the clutch, and bring the bike to a stop. At that point I decided that I’d had enough with this session.
Was the instructor trying to teach me too much too soon? How does this compare to the way the MSF teaches things? How many hours does it take for someone to start getting the hang of things and start operating the motorcycle correctly?
April 1, 2009 at 2:01 pm #17475Clay DowlingParticipantHaving sufficient space is really important. You need room for run-out if you make a mistake with the throttle. Because you’ll almost certainly work out to let up on the throttle and squeeze the clutch, but it might take you a while.
April 1, 2009 at 11:48 pm #17483MunchParticipantThey really need to find you more room. Your fighting two “demons” at once. Getting the idea of clutch/throttle control and compensating arm movement for turns w/out throttling. MSF, or at least the ones I’ve seen, usually gives you 2 rows of parking space minimally to duck walk… even then it’s about 4 or 5 steps at a time. With some bikes you will likely have to lean forward to give your arm the reach it needs to not effect your wrists on the throttle. If you can manage ….get you some straight line duck walking as much as you can til your comfortable with it. Then sit still and practice turning your handle bars hard left so you can understand the mechanics of the reach and skill required for throttle control.
April 2, 2009 at 3:37 pm #17487Jay TParticipantUsually over revving the engine comes from having your grip on the throttle side to high. Start out with your right wrist even or lower than the handlebar. That is to say, with the throttle at it’s start point, wrap 4 fingers around the grip and look at where your wrist is. Keep a check on that. People tend to move back to that high wrist position. As far as the straddle walk exercise, MSF has that as one of the first exercises on the first day. Just not having you straddle walk in a tight space and trying to turn at the same time. I would have you turning your head as you are making that sharp turn (looking to the point where you want to end up). Keep your head and eyes up. There shouldn’t be any reason for you to be looking at the tank, front wheel or the ground right in front of the front tire. To start out you will want to find a spot well in front of where you are going. That seems to be a stabilizing factor.
April 3, 2009 at 2:08 pm #17506Jay TParticipantIf you are riding with your wrist high, you will also over rev while braking. Most folks freak out because of the over revving and forget that they are trying to stop the motorcycle. LET IT OVER REV, IGNORE THE NOISE, KEEP THE CLUTCH SQUEEZED, STOP THE MOTORCYCLE. After you are stopped a good instructor will step over and let you know about your wrist position. I have seen students try to figure out how to stop the over revving and let the clutch out. That usually stops the over revving with the student and the motorcycle on the ground. The big point here is ignore the over revving until you are stopped and then just know that your wrist position is too high. Better yet just be mindful of your wrist position and the rest of your posture to begin with.
April 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm #17663samgoodyParticipantI’d like to thank you all for these suggestions, I’ll definitely be trying them out.
Clay + Munch: You’re absolutely right, there should be more space. That was one of the things that was always in the back of my head during that session, and is something that definitely hindered me.
Elwood: Seems I’m not able to order the Ride Like A Pro DVD’s here since nobody ships here (I tried both ridelikeapro.com and amazon.com). Same goes for books like Proficient Motorcycling, etc. I would be very grateful if you would happen to know some other places I could possibly order them from, or know of any other resources that are more readily available. I’m with you on looking for some other instructor to learn from.
Jay T: Thanks for the advice about the throttle hand position. Actually, the instructor had me put my hand in a weird position. Instead of wrapping four fingers around the twist grip, he had me put my index finger on the front brake, half of my palm on the grip, and the other half on the bar end. He also wanted me not to use the clutch at all to modulate the delivery of power to the rear wheel. The over revving only happened when I tried to put my feet on the pegs (quite a bit of over revving), and when I would turn the handle bar left (not a lot, the throttle just felt snatchy), but I didn’t over rev when braking. As for keeping my head and eyes up, I managed to do that with no problems, but I still couldn’t find the balance needed to keep the bike from wanting to topple over.
Oddly enough, there was one other guy in my session who managed just fine right from the get go, and managed to ride circles in that tiny space with no problems.
April 10, 2009 at 9:23 pm #17672Jay TParticipantMaybe it is an industry you or someone you know may want to start up there. It sounds like you would stay busy. It sure cuts into your weekends though.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.