Becoming a Biker, Part 2: Learning to handle the new Harley

Union Leader ^ | June 9 2002 | JEANNE MORRIS

[2Trievers]

Part 1

06-02-02
BECOMING A BIKER:
Buying the motorcycle is
just step one for this beginner

This thing might kill me. That thought is on my mind as I learn how to ride my shiny new purchase, an 883 Harley-Davidson Sportster.

Experienced riders advised me to never lose this respect for my bike. Riding is risky, no matter how good you are.

Nearly everyone recommended the three-day motorcycle rider safety training program put on by the state division of motor vehicles for $85. Anxious to increase my odds of survival, I signed up. Plus, if you pass the class, you get your license. That means avoiding the stand-alone test at the DMV.

But the earliest state safety class available was June 3. Who could wait that long?

For $50, the state will give anyone a motorcycle learner’s permit. That lets you ride in the state from dawn to dusk. No experience or knowledge required. Get on and go.

Not that I was in any hurry to do that. Just sitting on the bike and starting it up was thrilling enough. And that’s all I did for a few weeks. Then it was moving the bike a big 15 inches. What a thrill, shifting into in first gear, slowly releasing the clutch, inching forward, and rolling backward.

Next, to the end of the driveway and back. Then to end of the short dead-end street and back. Back and forth, back and forth. As boring — and perhaps silly — as this sounds, it wasn’t. Learning how to throttle, clutch, shift, turn and brake takes a lot of practice.

Finally, the big day. My outing with cars. An experienced Harley-riding friend assured me I was ready to ride a mile to the parking lot at Jenness State Beach in Rye. The big open pavement. She followed behind in an SUV.

For several weeks, she coached me on how to do figure-8s, turns, stops, and shifting at various speeds. Going straight was easy. Accelerating exhilarating. Turning frightening. But still fun.

After becoming comfortable with all this, I took to the open road. Well, almost. A slow 30-mph trip along Route 1A through Rye and Hampton. It was ideal because it’s slow, has a lot of curves to practice on and few intersections. Invariably, a line of impatient motorists would collect behind me.

I find few things natural about riding a bike. It’s not like a car. It involves your entire body. Your hands and feet control different functions, braking, shifting, accelerating. And your body controls things like the bike’s balance.
The open road

On April 17, the mercury hit a record 90 degrees. No one with a motorcycle left it at home. I suited up in full leather armor and full face helmet, and attached the windshield. My first highway ride, a 48-mile commute from Portsmouth to Manchester on routes 95 and 101.

What a drag! Noisy, vibrating and way too dangerous. Cars whizzed by way too fast and close. I found myself envying people in their cars.

Holding the throttle open for the 45-minute ride was painful. Not much different than gripping a vibrating jackhammer. By the time I arrived at work, my right hand ached and my arm was numb up to my elbow. No leisurely ride to work sipping your coffee and listening to the radio. Plus, I missed my morning stop at Dunkin’ Donuts to get a coffee for the office. Bummer.

By the afternoon, the National Weather Service had issued thunderstorm warnings. The rain never came, but the wind did. Ungodly blasts of wind pounded me. My bike blew all over the highway. I gripped the handle bars and hung on for dear life.

I tried to calm myself with words like, “Of course, motorcycles are designed to drive at highway speeds in high winds.” But this one sure didn’t act like it. Who in their right mind rides a bike on the highway?

So what’s next? It seemed like I had done it all: back roads, highway, parking lots. I even began feel pretty cocky about having logged 760 miles on my bike. I half suspected the state’s three-day safety course would be a bore, although experienced bikers assured there was plenty left to learn.

They were right.
Bike school

The course was taught by a stout man named Chico, who rode an awesome Harley. He looked the biker part with a shaved head, giant mustache, black leather jacket, black boots and black jeans. In his other life, he is a successful bass player who travels around the world playing with well-known artists such as blues singer Koko Taylor.

Chico, and an assistant instructor named Doug, imparted all sorts of valuable and potentially life-saving information to the eight women and three men in attendance. Some had never sat on a motorcycle or even driven a standard transmission car. Others, like myself, owned bikes and had put a number of miles on them with learner’s permits.

The state supplied the motorcycles: lightweight 150cc and 250cc Hondas and Suzukis. Some were brand new. Others were battle-scarred. Mine was an abused Honda CB125. Most of the red paint was scraped away from the dented gas tank. One rear view mirror was missing. The gear shifter was bent, and a parking light had a missing lens. But it ran great and was perfect for learning.
Real-world knowledge

Chico taught us about the official and unofficial rules of the road. Every day we learned more about how to ride safely. Stuff like where in the lane to ride, how to be seen in traffic, how to minimize the risks such as a car turning in front of you, and lots more. We went over numerous potentially dangerous situations (from oil on the road to a dog giving chase) and how to ride through them. It was all good stuff.

To my amazement, even the people who had never ridden before did great. They stayed upright and balanced. They even rode pretty well for their first day of ever sitting on a bike. In hindsight, I can see it would have been a lot easier and if I had taken this course before I ever got on my bike. Even bikers who have years of experience say this. Many take this course because it has a lot to teach even veteran riders. The state offers advanced riding classes, too, which I intend to investigate.

Everyone in the class had a blast. Occasionally we dumped the bikes, but by the end of the three days, we were all weaving through tightly-spaced orange cones, swerving around an imaginary school bus, accelerating through sharp turns and skidding to a short stop.

The third day of our class was the big evaluation day. Each of us had to successfully maneuver the bike through four exercises: weaving and sharp turns, quick braking, hard accelerating through a tight turn and swerving — all stuff we had been practicing for two days.

We were all ridiculously nervous and jittery. Many of us rode like we never had before, which is to say terribly. We hit cones, overshot turns and such. But we all did well enough to pass by a decent margin.

By the day’s end, Chico handed us all little graduation cards. All 11 of us became bikers right then and there. The real thing. And more.

As Chico said, we didn’t just get our license. We had joined the universal brotherhood of bikers. Very cool. 

[Joe Hadenuf]

A harley (or any heavy bike) is the wrong thing to learn to ride on. I learned on a dirt bike (like I think all kids should) After woods, jumps high speed slides and wheelies (intentional or otherwise) mud and diverse terrain, you are ready for anything.

Thats true as far as handling a bike, however, it wont tech you what to look for or being aware of the 3000 pounds of steel coming at you constantly on the streets.

Number one safety tip for the street, is to ride like your invisible, pretend no one sees you and you may survive.

[Joe Hadenuf]

tech = teach...

[BraveMan]

I've been invisible. Invisibleness sucks . . .

[backhoe]

The rationale behind that was to apply the rear brake first to stabilize the bike ( "throw out the anchor" ) then apply the front brake for more effect. The fella who taught me that & a few other tricks had survived a 130+ mph tangle with a wild boar and his flathead 80. ( OK, he never walked right after that, but he did survive... )

[blackie]

That's funny, the Bridgestone 350 was a pretty sophisticated two stoke motorcycle in its day.
Beside the rotary valve induction, it had chrome bores and make a pretty good road racer.

Why would you want to reverse the plug wires? :o)
You don't have to do that to get two strokes to run backwards, they been known to do it while attempting to start them.
I drove big rigs for 31 years, I've had Detroit (GMC) Diesels run backwards, it's funny seeing smoke coming out of the air cleaner...you just set the brakes, put it in top gear and let the clutch out, killing the engine...

As or the Road King dispatching just about anything on four wheels: the next time you're in the vicinity on it, drop by and we'll see if it's quicker than my White Lightnin'... :o)

Magazine writer's are like all of us; we all have our likes and dislikes...I like all bikes...

[pt17]

Wahhhh - this sixty something wants his Wizzer back!!! A great little machine - expecially with a "bellow pipe"!

Yeah (sigh) me too. The "bellow pipe" was more than mechanical music to a young boy's ears, it was the sound of living!

[2Trievers]

Did you boys want to come out to play? Hehe &;-)

[medved]

At the end of the day you will still have a Jap bike,and I'll have a Harley.

Anybody who rides long enough ends up on a BMW.

[Eagle Eye]

There's nothing to match the thrill of doing 65 on an unpaved road and watching a dog decide to cross right in front of you...

How about hitting the speed at which point you have decided that if the cops see you and turn on their lights, you might as well make a run for it 'cause you're going to jail either way, doing it at night, and after staring at your tac to see if red line really means red line, you look up to see that you've drifted onto the shoulder of the highway and all you can see is the parked semi trailer looming in darkness just ahead of you. WHOOSH! Wasn't even time to move toward the brakes.

I found out later that my fiance woke out of a sound sleep at that same moment and prayed for me. Probably the only reason I didn't do my immitation of a junebug on a windshield.

[maxwell]

always applying the back brake first

Not according to conventional wisdom-- Hard's right-- I got told "always apply both brakes simultaneously and steadily". I'll use back only for very subtle slowing and for gravel, like Hard said, but that's it...

[pt17]

How about this little (Rinspeed) number for those of us who rue the fact that cars don't lean into turns? The cockpit on this one does.

[sleavelessinseattle]

LOL no one has ever accused me of making sense!!! you got that in one take...As I maintain...Above average brain material... so Stay safe...Look at her...Have you EVER seen anyone so cute?

&;-D

Pity she has absolutely no respect for any human institutions...:-) wait...That's what I like about her!!! never mind! She's perfect.

[BraveMan]

That BS was abysmal. Absolutely the worst bike I ever owned . . .

The 1/2 pint size battery wouldn't last more than a month, and you couldn't start the bike without one. The carburetor slides had this nasty habit of sticking in the wide open position. Couldn't keep it in tune for more than a week. Hit a bump, derail the chain, break a sidecover; hit a bump, derail the chain, break a sidecover.

Do you remember the Bridgestone's gearbox? You could choose shift patterns with the flip of a lever, from 1 down, 4 up, to all 5 up, then neutral, then all five up again. Vibration would cause the lever to change position. You'd be tooling along in 4th, go to shift into fifth and get neutral. You'd think you missed the shift (easy enough to do), try again, and promptly let out the clutch in first gear at 50mph. Now THAT was exciting . . .

The road handling was good in that it wouldn't spontaneously buck you off on a straightaway at 60mph, on a clear day. On the trail, it was a tree magnet.

But the magazines loved it. Like a fool, I believed them . . .

[maxwell]

Oh HELL yeah...

[stands2reason]

Bump for later

[blackie]

Bring it on little girl... LOL

[blackie]

I never rode one, I saw them at races, if fact I don't know anyone who owned a street legal one... :o)

I had a '69 350 Suzuki two sroke twin, it a six speed gear box and damn quick in those days.
One of my buddies had a 650 Triumph and he would get pissed because I could beat from stop light to stop light... :o)

[Tijeras_Slim]

Ditto New Mexico for this Aerostich wearing COG (Concours Owner's Group) Member.

[2Trievers]

Your pic looks like a funny car ... pardon me ... wait right here ... I'll be right back ... there's something I just have to get out of my system ...

[VA Advogado]

Pity she has absolutely no respect for any human institutions...:-) wait...That's what I like about her!!! never mind! She's perfect.

She does have those road hugging curves. Perfect for the Merit Parkway :)