[Clay Dowling]

Everybody hates the figure eight. It’s definitely the hardest part of the course, and it put my deductions up near the limit. The frustrating part is that it was just testing nerves. The night before I spent 20 minutes pulling figure eights that tight on my own bike.

They really do become easy in the field. The trick being not to think about it so much as just do it, and everything works fine.

[Clay Dowling]

Explains a lot about why I’m always in a crap mood when I drive into Detroit.

[Clay Dowling]

Look for a used bike. Craigslist and ebay were great for me. I wound up with a 750 Magna on the recommendation of a friend, because the power delivery was smooth and the engine very reliable. So far he’s been right.

One thing I noticed right away though is that this big bike is a lot less maneuverable than the little 125 that I took my MSF class on. There are definitely times when I’d like than maneuverability. And I’ve never had this bike over 90mph, which is within the range of most 250cc bikes.

[Clay Dowling]

My first bike was a 750. Not ideal for a first bike, but can be managed.

First, no passengers. If this is your first bike, you don’t have the experience. When you’re riding you are very much part of that bike, everything about how you move and how you hold yourself affects the bike. By extension, that includes your passenger. Get comfortable on the bike, learn how to control it, once you’ve been on it for a while (normal suggestion I hear is one year), then you can carry a passenger.

Second, at anything less than highway speeds even a 250 has plenty of power to get up and move out of the way. You don’t need to worry about outrunning anybody. That’s the wrong solution. The right solution is to remove yourself from where the trouble is, and that’s usually going to be more about maneuverability than speed. When the SUV pulls out of the driveway without looking, speed won’t save you, but being able to stop quickly or swerve to a safe path will. Likewise, you can tuck into small protected spaces when you find yourself about to be run down by somebody coming from behind. I’ve been hit in both situations in my car, and in both cases a motorcycle would have gotten me out of them safely.

Know your power band, know how to use the friction zone, and know how to do your slow speed maneuvers. Those are the physical skills that will keep you alive.

I also strongly recommend the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Basic Rider Course. They spend two days teaching you about all of the low speed and evasive maneuvers, all things that will help you stay alive on the road. They’ll also tell you about some mental skills that, when applied, will do even more to keep you alive.

[Clay Dowling]

That is slick. Hopefully I’ll never have to learn this skill, but it’s worth remembering.

[Clay Dowling]

You just trying to make your bike louder? Or is there some other benefit that’s supposed to come from this? I find I can’t hear the engine once I get over 50 mph anyway, because of the wind noise. And I’ve got no faith that anybody else on the road will hear my bike no matter how loud it is. With radios, ipods and road noise there’s no reason to believe they’ll hear a thing.

[Clay Dowling]

It’s a huge informal community, and quite welcoming. I attended a social event for a client a while back, and came in on my bike. That riding jacket was pretty much an introduction to most of the people in the group, which held a high percentage of riders.

Also, it’s a good reminder that on a bike, you’re small, and it pays to be polite to everybody.

[Clay Dowling]

Coming across as a bit breathless there.

It’s dangerous, but lots of things are. Driving a car is dangerous too, especially for a new driver. If you assume that all the other drivers are not paying attention you’ll live a lot longer. My car has been hit twice while standing still, by people who didn’t have their head in the game. I now drive and ride the same way: assume that the people around me are oblivious. It’s saved me from ugliness a bunch of times, both on two wheels and four.

Take the training, then spend a lot of time practicing on -your- bike, especially your low speed stuff and evasive maneuvers. This is the hard stuff that will trip you up, get you injured. Your bike will handle differently than the bike you learned on in the training class. My 750 is a whole lot more resistant to turning and swerves than the 125 I learned on, so I had to relearn how to do all that. Not that my bike isn’t nimble, but I need to commit my body a lot more to any maneuvers.

That, by the way, is one of the very good reasons to buy a smaller bike. I definitely need to think out what I’m doing faster and further ahead on my 750 than I did on a smaller bike. It hasn’t undone me yet, but the potential is there.

[Clay Dowling]

I wasn’t comfortable with my skill level for my daily commute (45 miles one way) until the temperature had dropped. The first morning was brutal. My jacket was fine, and the insulated jeans I used for ice fishing were also excellent for riding. But I discovered my heavy winter gloves had blown a seam, and my face was frozen even inside my full face helmet. A very brutal ride.

I picked up a balaclava that day, before I rode home, and it made me worlds warmer. I also grabbed a pair of snowmobile gloves from Tractor Supply. They aren’t ideal, in that $13 gloves don’t really have the flexibility you might like, but they’re warm, and the gauntlet cuffs come up over the sleeves on my coat, keeping the cold air out.

[Clay Dowling]

If you don’t have any pro shops near you, I recommend becoming mechanically inclined real soon now, definitely shortly after buying the bike. Also, strongly consider the service record of your bike. I’m not sure how the Harley Davidson bikes are now, but they have a long standing reputation for being high maintenance, which makes them a very unhappy choice for you.

[Clay Dowling]

Your insurance company may even have somebody in the area they can recommend. A lot of times its easier to work with their regular shops because the adjuster will come right out to the shop and settle everything up.

[Clay Dowling]

A friend of mine, who is an experienced rider, and also tops 6’1″, actually moved down from a 400 to a 250. Most of his drive is in the city, where the small size really pays off. He can definitely take the freeway, but it isn’t his favorite. It’s also mostly irrelevant, given his situation.

[Clay Dowling]

I found it very tiring, because I was constantly learning new physical skills. That was also a little stressful for me. The flip side was that I had a lot more skills when I hit the road, a lot of things that I wasn’t confident I could do until I took the class. Swerves and emergency stops were pretty nervous making for me, until I took the class. Then they were a lot of fun. I don’t practice my emergency stops every day, although I do make use of all of the skills for it. I do practice my swerves every day, partially to relieve boredom on my straight line commute, partially because there’s almost always some sort of trash in the road that needs going around. And also because the roads around my house are terrible, and the suspension on my bike lets you feel the road in great detail.

[Clay Dowling]

You need boots that cover your ankles, and gloves. You can pick both up fairly inexpensively at any place that supplies work cloths (I prefer Tractor Supply Company). I’m also using heavy insulated work pants from TSC as riding pants, but I would recommend proper riding pants for the long run, especially because you’ll want to have some water protection.

You also need riding goggles or sun glasses, because they won’t let you ride with your visor down. The course material implies you should not have a full face helmet, but in my class it was strongly encouraged. Especially since everyone who biffed it in the class took a face shot. That chin guard was invaluable.

[Clay Dowling]

which was entirely cross-wind. 15-20mph cross winds. It was a pretty consistent wind so it didn’t present a lot of control problems. It did leave my neck sore, constantly fighting that force from the right. I was happy to get out of it.

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