Learning to ride; habits and resources

faffi wrote: Are there alternatives to MSF you would consider?

If the MSF class was 1-2hrs a night and you could go whenever it was convenient I'd be all over it. But that's pretty impractical from the teaching perspective. But it's how I'm learning for the time being, at least until August, that's the earliest opening for the class in my area.

Stay out of the oily spot in the middle of your lane

Mullineaux wrote: When I told the guys who got me into riding that I wanted a '70's Jap bike, not a Harley it was blasphemy. I still hear weekly that I should get Harley, someone they know has a Harley for sale, check out this Harley on Craig's List, and on and on.

OMG you have no idea how bad that gets. I bought my 1100A3 from a tech who worked at the Harley dealership I detailed for last summer, and it was maybe a personal 'eff you!' from that tech, to our dealership, to sell me this bike. I had been riding to work on a 2001 Kawi Super Sherpa 250 dual sport, what I had to ride, and the 'guys' were always giving me all kinds of crap for riding a tiny bike to work at the Harley dealership. Once I even had the GM talk down to me, said something about not presenting the 'right image' for the dealership - I mean, WTFMF?

Anyways I was always on the lookout for a cheap trade-in, I had ~$1500 to spend on something a bit more practical than the super sherpa, but the effing vultures on the sales floor would call dibs on anything less than $3k the instant it came in, they'd buy them for toys or resell them (it's not like they weren't already making like 5x more than my crappy wages...jerks). So the salesmen were ALWAYS trying to get me to finance ("really you guys? Do you have any idea how negative my credit rating is?") and would absolutely refuse to give me the chance to pick up something cheaper. A couple decent bikes came through, these guys KNEW I was looking for a decent set of wheels, and just would not give me the chance to a decent, cheap bike. So I made some noise to the techs - the actual foundation of the dealership, even if the greasy salesmen made the company its' profits - and this tech rides in on a bright green KZ1100 a few days later.

I paid him $300 cash that day to hold it for me, worked out a payment plan, and test rode it that night. When I finally rode it in to work a few weeks later, it was the most enjoyable 'F-U!' to those stuck-up H-D schmucks because that tech, his son, and his nephew all worked there as well, the bike was known, had a history, and none of them knew I'd bought it. The look on their faces was priceless when they figured out it was MINE. My dad rides a Fatboy, my stepmom insisted on getting a Heritage, they're both active in the local HOG chapter, so I heard H-D crap every day.

But owning this KZ is like a supreme, enormous double-fingers up 'PISS OFF!' because those schmucks need service every couple thousand miles, and expensive service at that. It is truly glorious. They make noise (OHH LOOK AT ME VROOOM VROOOM RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE) but I just drop the hammer and I'm cruising up the road before they get their kickstands up.

Now those same jerks try to buy the KZ off me. HAAAAAHAHAHA! Of course, they didn't call me back for the summer season to detail, but I'm drawing unemployment off them so whatever. It just means I actually ride, I ride all year, everywhere, and I put on more miles than even the most hard-ass H-D toolbag in the HOG chapter. If it seems like I'm enjoying this, it's BECAUSE I DO. I've seen thousands of H-D's, I test rode more than 1,500 last summer, cleaned at least that many, and they're all the same. Every. Single. One. I have yet to see another KZ1100 on my travels.

Revel in it. Real bike guys will recognize what you ride. They'll bug you at the gas stations with REAL questions while the H-D guys just stand there, arms crossed, nodding about a bike they've seen a thousand times already, just in a different color. 'Ohhh chrome air cleaner cover' or 'slip on pipes' *YAAAAAAAWWN

Yeah I enjoy this. I enjoy it more as I fly by the fat hogs as they putter oh so slowly down the interstate. I never dreamed it would be so good to own this bike but I knew that first time I saw it that it was destined to be mine. And now, I need a beer, because I'm all sweaty-palmed thinking about my next ride. :woohoo: Learn your bike, learn some good habits, and it'll be just like lacing your shoes in the morning: once you've got the habits ingrained, you can enjoy the ride even more. You'll always have to be vigilant while riding but 95% of the time, if you're out an mostly by yourself on the road, it'll be fucking awesome.

BTW, and for the record, I'm STILL learning new techniques and trying to overcome bad habits I picked up when I was a lot younger. I can only hope that, when my time comes, I don't wreck myself or the bike too much to get both back on the road.

Hope this gives you some perspective, or at least was entertaining :laugh:

The MSF beginners coarse in Illinois is 20 bucks, my son is starting it Friday if they can squeeze him in.

I think he thinks I'm going to toss him my keys :woohoo:

Time to look for another bike :whistle:

gravit8 wrote: ".... I test rode more than 1,500 last summer, cleaned at least that many, and they're all the same. Every. Single. One."

Well that is very close to the truth, but not exactly true. Some Harleys are real real extra purty..........


:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

How would you like to ride that yellow pig down this road..... :woohoo: :woohoo:

What the hell. I'll jump in to give $.02. I never took a MSF course. I've been riding for about 20 years now. Whats worse is that I got my license through a weird loophole where I never had to take a test. When I got my first bike I read everything I could get my hands on (books and magazines) about how to ride. I think the things that benefitted me the most were a healthy fear of everything, humility, having an old and slow bike, understanding that I needed to ride offensively and not defensively, how to break properly in an emergency, how to break normally, leaving my bike in gear at a stoplight, proper hand and body position, and understanding target fixation. When I read about stuff, I would go and practice them until I understood why it was the right way to go. I would practice until they became second nature.

There are a many techniques that I've picked up over the years that have improved my chance of survival, but understanding that riding is fundamentally about survival is crucial. Leave your ego at home. Leave the road rage. Leave the cool guy shit for someone else. Understand that you are incredibly vulnerable. I don't want to make it out like I don't love riding, because I do. It's the best. But bluej58 is totally right. there are all kind of things you'll learn about. Oil and coolant in the tollbooth lane, oil at the intersection where the cars stop, oil that come up off the street right after it rains. You'll make mistakes. We all do. (And you'll do some insane stupid shit. We all do.) Rule #1 is: go slow and be cautious and that way when you make a mistake you'll probably survive.

:lol:

that was nice :lol:






"Thanks everyone for your input. More tips and resources are always appreciated. I can't stop anyone from posting about the vast awesomeness of the MSF class, but at this point it's kinda like telling me how great Harleys are"

Thanks for the kind words richrand, that tip came from personal experience.

A rookie rider got into the grease in front of me on a curve in Chicago and went down.

I don't remember it but was told that I had to swerve to miss running him over and hit his bike instead.

No helmet :pinch:

Another tip : if someone goes down and hits his head hard enough to where he's cussing out the EMT's.

Make him get in the ambulance and take a ride.

I lost most of the vision in my left eye with that lesson.

JD

On a brighter note; my son did the bike safety course last weekend and passed

They had two walk in spots available and he got there early Friday night to fill out the papers and hand over twenty bucks.

He says that he is really glad that he took it.

They tested on riding and written so now all he has to do is get his picture taken and he's legal.

They even gave him a nice T shirt that I couldn't get him to model.

Well, I took the class, passed and have very mixed feelings about it. I was ready to listen and learn and I did my best with all the exercises and the written material. Actually got a 100% on the written test. In the range riding I did very well during instruction. By the second day I was the leader of the group and the instructors had very few corrections to give me. Then came the test and they had me lead that as well. I choked, I could feel it coming on and I couldn't stop it. I got nervous on the first exercise but pulled it off better than I thought I would. Second one I over thought and did ok, the last one my heart was racing, and I felt like I couldn't *not* overthink everything. In the corner I remembered you get dinged for slowing down, I came out of the apex a little hot and I remembered if you drop it you fail so instead of just believing in the counter steer like I know you're supposed to, I went wide of the last cone by about a foot. In my debriefing I was told that the one cone was apparently the difference between a respectable score (4) and the worst score in the class (14; over 16 is failing, lower is better). What really ticked me off is that at least one student shouldn't have passed, the worst one put his foot down in the U-turn box and went outside the box twice, had to do the swerve twice, the panic stop 3 times, and stalled his bike in the corner and didn't actually complete that part of the test, he passed with a better score than I did. He was surprised he passed.

It was a punch in the gut, I felt humiliated. The test was the worst experience I've had on a motorcycle. I haven't been on my bike since. Part of me wants to ride now that I'm fully licensed, but I'm extremely angry (mostly with myself), nervous, and my confidence is shot. I'm not into rationalizations that absolve me of responsibility, I believe I deserved every point I was given. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the big ups and big down and it's made me a pretty shitty person to be around the last couple of days. I wish I could just say "Eff it, I passed!" let it go, and move on but that's not the kind of person I am.

I’m glad to hear you took the course. The object was to learn a bit more about riding and to practice in a controlled environment with instruction available as needed. The “score” does not matter even a little bit. If you picked up even a few pointers (some you may not even be conscious of) the course was a success for you. I understand how you may be annoyed / disappointed in the score as I too am somewhat obsessive about such things, but just keep in mind that 6 months from now it won’t bother you but any skills you picked up will still be with you. Ed

Thanks Ed. Good perspective.