Learning to ride a motorcycle...

[diebitter]

Ah, you haven't lived till you've laid one down at about 40-50mph and done the tarmac slide...

[icepick]

I took a 2-week night, 2 weekend-afternoon class, $175, through the MSF.

Worth every cent. And it counted as the riding skills portsion of my endorsement exam. Took the written part at the DMV, and was offically done. Spent a couple of days putting around the neighborhood too.

On the flip side, my mother took the class, twice, and spent about 200 miles worth of time in a parking lot before she was comfortable on a normal street.

[mostsmooth]

i bought my first bike, the previous owner dropped it off, my friend gave me a couple pointers (how to shift, brake, etc) and i rode it around the block for like 5-10 minutes. i almost dropped it doing an ultra slow u-turn. after that we decided i was ready to go and i rode it about 40 miles to his house, parkway, city roads, everything. luckily i didnt crash.
i dont think its hard to learn to ride, but it takes a while to be good at it
safety courses are a good idea
when you go for your license, rent a trailbike with plates, like a 100cc or so. road test will be a breeze.

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Never brake during a turn! Not even a little!

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[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

This is a truly ridiculous statement. There are definitely situations where you will have to brake during a corner. In fact part of my first motorcycle test tested this skill explicitly.

Alot of people are telling you that you will fall a "couple of times" this isn't necessarily true. Yes lots of people drop the bike a couple of times during low speed maneuvering and thats nothing to be embaressed about really. But saying that you will crash on the street a couple of times while learning is silly. If you crash a couple of times while learning, you probably haven't absorbed what they taught you in the course.

It is quite possible that you won't fall at all while learning. I had never ridden a motorcycle 6 years ago when I took the motorcycle safety course and still haven't gone down yet. BUT I assume that I will fall at some point and as such am always prepared for it. I'll agree with the others and say the most important thing here is to get some decent safety gear. This means gloves, boots that cover your ankles, either a kevlar or leather jacket and a good helemet. Get a real full face helmet. Wearing all this gear is often uncomfortable in the summer, but who cares? Its more comfortable than multiple skin grafts.

When you're looking for new motorcycles start with something small (500cc or less) Spend a year or two on this bike getting comfortable. There are a ton good condition 15+ year old motorcycles that are perfect to learn on.

Anyways, most of this thread has been a bit doom and gloom. Motorcycling is far and away my most enjoyable hobby. I can almost gaurantee you'll fall in love. It is a truly exciting and rewarding pastime. The acceleration, speed, handling and braking of ability of motorcycles is what make them both fun and dangerous. They're far less dangerous than the rest of the world would have you believe though! Take the safety course and have fun!

Neko

Definitely take the MSF course. We rode little 125cc engine bikes like Honda Rebels at the course I took and it was just a two day course. That was my only experience riding before I bought a 3 year old CB750 for $3700.

my hardest lesson learned: blue jeans aren't worth a [censored] when you're sliding across pavement faster than 30 mph.

[Malachii]

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Alot of people are telling you that you will fall a "couple of times" this isn't necessarily true. Yes lots of people drop the bike a couple of times during low speed maneuvering and thats nothing to be embaressed about really. But saying that you will crash on the street a couple of times while learning is silly. If you crash a couple of times while learning, you probably haven't absorbed what they taught you in the course.

It is quite possible that you won't fall at all while learning. I had never ridden a motorcycle 6 years ago when I took the motorcycle safety course and still haven't gone down yet. BUT I assume that I will fall at some point and as such am always prepared for it. I'll agree with the others and say the most important thing here is to get some decent safety gear. This means gloves, boots that cover your ankles, either a kevlar or leather jacket and a good helemet. Get a real full face helmet. Wearing all this gear is often uncomfortable in the summer, but who cares? Its more comfortable than multiple skin grafts.

When you're looking for new motorcycles start with something small (500cc or less) Spend a year or two on this bike getting comfortable. There are a ton good condition 15+ year old motorcycles that are perfect to learn on.

Anyways, most of this thread has been a bit doom and gloom. Motorcycling is far and away my most enjoyable hobby. I can almost gaurantee you'll fall in love. It is a truly exciting and rewarding pastime. The acceleration, speed, handling and braking of ability of motorcycles is what make them both fun and dangerous. They're far less dangerous than the rest of the world would have you believe though! Take the safety course and have fun!

Neko

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Good post Neko. Thanks for sharing.

[Blarg]

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Ah, you haven't lived till you've laid one down at about 40-50mph and done the tarmac slide...

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Haven't died either heheh.

[Landon_McFly]

I bought a motorcycle when I was a senior in highschool. I bought a helmet and gloves, but that's the only gear I bought. It was a GSXR600. I never laid it down, but when I left town for a couple days my friend laid it down doing about 15mph. Didn't really mess it up, but a few weeks later I was getting used to it and before I knew it I was doing 125 on the highway EVERYTIME I GOT ON THE HIGHWAY. I had no idea before hand, but I'm totally addicted to speed. Doing 80MPH soon felt like doing 30mph.

I realized that one wipeout and I'd be dead, so I sold it. So far, it's added 3 years to my life, and I think it'll add many more. Take my advice...

Don't EVER let your friends ride it unless they have enough to cover any damage they could cause.

You have to repsect their power (I don't)

and...

DON'T EVER LET YOUR FRIENDS RIDE IT!

[Blarg]

This is kind of how I look at it. I haven't ridden anything since my mini-bike days as a kid and my friend's real one around the parking lot years ago, but loved the heck out of it. And I've also had enough odd and disastrous harmful things happen to me that I figure a motorcycle would get me killed. Especially with the outrageously terrible and aggressive drivers in L.A. Heck, the first week I got a bicycle here I almost got killed and wound up in the hospital.

A motorcycle seems like it puts you in those terrible situations in life where your well being comes down not to your own skill and attention, but to the lack of idiocy in others. I have never found others to be reliable in this regard.