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My second time on a motorcycle
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May 23, 2009 at 5:44 pm #2879samgoodyParticipant
This past Thursday was my second time on a motorcycle. Right now, my experience on these machines totals two and a half hours, mainly because I am having trouble finding good training here in Saudi Arabia. I can’t seem to be able to find any bikes to borrow, and by law I can’t buy one unless I have a license (no such thing as a permit here). So far I’ve relied on a couple of dealerships (three hours away from where I live), which explains why I havn’t had a lot of seat time. My first experience was about a month ago at the Suzuki dealership on a TU250, and that didn’t go very well. This time, it was the Harley dealer, and this time I had a better time.
These guys seemed a more professional outfit, and they started me off a couple of weeks earlier with the Learn to Ride the Easy Way DVD by “Motorman” Palladino. I went over it a couple of times and then went down to the dealership to get some time in the saddle. I was caught off guard a little when the venue for the training turned out to be the street in the back of the dealership. Not an ideal location, but there was no traffic, and there was room to manuever and make a few (simple) mistakes. Better than the tiny maintenance yard at the Suzuki dealership.
The instructor started me off with some excercises on the friction zone. The entire one and a half hours were spent in the friction zone. The instructor had me doing the excercises without using any throttle. I managed to get a hang of it quickly, and soon had my feet on the pegs.
After a few more straight line runs, we progressed to making some turns. This is where I had the most difficulty. I’d heard, read, and watched a lot of videos about how my hands would follow my head and eyes. Somehow that didn’t work for me, and the bike seemed to refuse to go where I was looking. I wasn’t looking directly down in front of the bike, but perhaps I wasn’t looking far enough ahead. I think I also still had a bit of fear of leaning the bike. I would manage half a circle, then think “man, I can’t make this turn”, straighten up the bars and bring the bike to a stop. In my estimation, there was about 26 feet between the two kerbs, so it was plenty of room to make the turn. At one point I managed one and a half turns, but bailed out while attempting the second turn.
At one point I dropped the bike coming to a stop because I got a little heavy handed with the front brakes. Instead of letting the bike go, I made the mistake of trying to hold it up once I felt it was going to tip over. Thankfully, I was still holding the clutch in, and I managed to find the kill switch after laying the bike down on its crash bars.
The bike they used for the training? None other than the 883 Sportster. Not ideal, but it could have been worse. I thought the vibration and the noise would intimidate me, but once I got on the bike I wasn’t as intimidated by it as I thought I would be. I thought the heat from the engine would cook my inner thighs, and while I was drenched in sweat by the end of the session, I’m happy to report that my inner thighs weren’t roasted. The weather was hot and humid, so I was completely exhausted by the end of the session. The clutch is heavy bastard, and my left forearm still hurts from holding that thing in the friction zone. And the bike is heavy! It seemed like it needed a lot of muscle to move the handle bars at slow speeds.
One of the bikes I was thinking of buying was an 883 Sportster. I’m glad I got the chance to try it out before I make a decision on it. Even though I managed to pick up certain things quickly, I probably could have learned them even quicker if the bike had been lighter. A heavy bike like this requires a lot of work and PLP, and this past Thursday showed me just how much I’ll need to put in to make this kind of bike work for me. I haven’t used the throttle yet, so I don’t know quite how strong the torque is, or how forgiving the bike will be of my rookie mistakes. I may yet decide to go for it, but I still can’t escape the feeling that I’d be having fun sooner on a lighter bike.
I felt I had a better time with the Harley guys because by the end of the session I had managed to gain a (small) bit of control over the motorcycle. The bike is heavier and more powerful and more intimidating than the TU250 I first rode, but by the end of the session I was less fearful of it than when I started. The training at the Suzuki dealership was the exact opposite. The bike didn’t seem very intimidating when I hopped on it, but by the end of the session I felt that I had gained no more control over it than when I started, and began to be more afraid of it. I guess the quality of the instruction can go a long way towards teaching someone how to ride and making them comfortable on a bike.
Overall, I had fun time and can’t wait to ride again!
May 23, 2009 at 7:32 pm #18875Speedy RodriguezParticipantThat’s a great bike, but a little heavy for trying to learn from scratch, imo.
Hang in there, you’ll get it soon enough and everything will start to feel natural.
May 24, 2009 at 5:04 am #18895owlieParticipantSounds like a good time. Glad that you were able to find better instruction.
May 28, 2009 at 7:41 pm #19016samgoodyParticipantI had my third session at the Harley dealer on the same bike. This time it was good, but not so good.
Speedy: You’re right, it is a bit too heavy to learn on from scratch. I learned a few more things today and it’s starting to come together, but I still struggled with the weight. I think I’ve pretty much eliminated the 883 Sportster from my list of choices as a first bike.
Elwood: Thanks for the advice on the head turns, that really helped me out today. You’re also right about the bike needing momentum to turn. I dropped the bike four or five times trying to make the u-turn, but eventually managed to put a series of them together and it was all flowing smoothly. But the weight was still a factor. In my original post, I noted that it seemed like the bars took some muscle to move at low speeds, and I have confirmed that today. In fact, I made one u-turn and couldn’t get the bars straightened up again. That had me heading for a kerb, and target fixation set in. I managed to pull in the clutch, but I couldn’t reach the front brakes in time, so the bike ended going over the kerb. That’s how my session ended. No major damage to me, except I think I sparined my left knee. That bike was pretty scratched up, though, from all the drops. The Sportster is a beautiful bike, but I don’t think it’s the right bike for me.
Owlie: Aside from the various drops, falling off several times, and getting the bike onto the kerb at the end, it was a good time. This time I felt even less afraid of the bike. However, the training venue – the street behind the dealership – isn’t an ideal place. Sure, there’s about 26 feet between the kerbs, but it’s never going to be like an open parking space. And there was a little bit of traffic today, which was really distracting, not to mention potentially very dangerous. It’s the best training I could find here, which isn’t saying much. Even though I am managing to pick things up and I’m sure I could do it, I’m starting to wonder about the wisdom of attempting to ride given the limitations that I have here. I just wish I had a resource like the MSF training available to me so that the training could be done in a safer environment.
May 28, 2009 at 7:44 pm #19011samgoodyParticipantSorry about this double post, my Internet connection was a bit slow to respond. Cand the mods please delete this post?
May 28, 2009 at 7:46 pm #19017samgoodyParticipantAnother double post. Sorry.
May 28, 2009 at 7:48 pm #19020samgoodyParticipantSorry again.
May 28, 2009 at 11:22 pm #19023zeppelinfromledParticipantJust curious, where do you live where you have a Harley dealership available but not an MSF course? The MSF seems to have pretty good coverage of the US. I started with the MSF course, and I’d say that it’s worth a drive if you can find one anywhere around you (especially if you’re having trouble learning with the way that the dealership does it).
May 29, 2009 at 5:51 am #19032samgoodyParticipantMay 29, 2009 at 2:44 pm #19042zeppelinfromledParticipantThat sounds pretty awesome. I have a friend who is living just across the water from you (and quite a bit north). She’s in Cairo for a while, I’m not really sure what she’s doing. Best of luck learning.
One additional question. How comfortable are you on a bicycle? A lot of the techniques of motorcycling are unnecessary on a bicycle because of the weight, but I suspect that being comfortable on a bicycle helps.
May 29, 2009 at 4:46 pm #19044samgoodyParticipantIt’s been a long time since I rode on a bicycle, but last I remember I was quite comfortable with it. It’s all coming back now, though. Once the motorcycle was in motion, I was instantly able to put my feet on the pegs. I was actually getting comfortable with leaning the bike when I was doing all those u-turns.
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