Posted on 06/09/2002 4:32:52 AM PDT by 2Trievers
| 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.
I wish I could say this isn't true,but it is. WAAAY too many "role players" out there.
Really? Think maybe you have a bent rim or a wheel out of balance? My bikes always seemed most comfortable at around 75 MPH.
Another is to NEVER ride in a "new" rain. You will have to learn to judge how much rain is "right" for your particiluar circumstances and roads,but NEVER mix it up in traffic when it first starts raining! Pull off somewhere and wait until it has rained enough to not only pull up all the oil that has dripped onto the highway from passing cars,but also rained enough to have washed this oil off the road. BTW,these oil leaks are why you NEVER ride in the center of a lane.
I disagree. If you assume that drivers can't see you, you will not be defensive enough! When I ride, I assume that the drivers on the road are going to do whatever they can to run me down!
I'm also pretty nervous for another reason. While driving my CAR, I've been rear-ended at stop lights 3 times in the last 8 months! Now, I'm a big guy (6'4", 300#), but if they can't see my car, how the hell are they going to see me on my Duck?
Mark
I ride a Pasta Burner! 1997 Ducati 900SP!
Mark
You betcha! The biggest unspoken fringe benefit from owning a Harley can be summed up in what I've had a couple of women tell me,"Harley's vibrate best!".
I dunno about that,but I have often said that if I ever buy a new bike,it would be a BMW. The reasons for this is it is so butt-ugly nobody steals them,there is no market for hot BMW parts anyway (Dentists buy new parts),and they are invisible to police radar. You can park one anywhere and walk away from it,secure in the knowledge that it will still be there when you come back. That's a "biggie" when you are travelling.
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.
That's not a problem with motorcycles, that's a problem with Harley's....
Harley riders live to ride and ride to live.
Honda riders ride to work.
Do care. Seriously. Step up to the real thing and be done with it. You'll be glad you did.
Where you don't have divided roads, that's good advice. On divided highways tight clumps of traffic are the big problem and I still prefer to simply try to keep as much space around myself as possible. The advice about riding in rain is straight on.
In all three cases, there was nothing that I could have possibly done...In the first, I was in a right turn lane, and although the light had just turned green, there were still cars going through the intersection. The lady behind me was watching the light, and didn't bother checking to see if I was moving before she stepped on the gas. She pushed me into the traffic, and it was a miracle that the crossing car swerved out of the way... The other two times, I was just waiting for the light, with stopped cars in front of me, and someone behind me just didn't stop!
There was nowhere for me to go...
Mark
Dude, that is so freaking true. That is great advice--I like to be in the curb lane with a car to my left front when I go through an intersection--like a blocker. Yet not so close that if he jumps into my lane it will bother me.
I kinda think of it like this
1--There is an invisible bubble of vulnerability around you and your motorcycle. It's radius is your max braking distance at the speed you are travelling. Your job is to keep track of anything and everything coming into or out of that bubble.
Extra points if you can manage to maintain that bubble unbroken in heavy traffic.
2--Leave all the people in cars somewhere to go other than into you if they make a mistake (and they will).
3--Leave yourself somewhere to go instead of into them if you make a mistake (and you will).
4--Don't expect anyone to follow the rules--Just because it is illegal for a car to do it doesn't mean they won't do it--and you'll be just as dead whether they made a legal or illegal turn.
5--Don't follow the rules if it will save your life in an emergency--just because it isn't legal (crossing a solid line, riding on the sidewalk, speeding to get away from a clump of ill-mannered drivers) doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it to save your life.
6--Very occasionally, your throttle just might get you out of trouble more effectively than your brakes....
I realize you don't need any 'riding tips' from me, but you got my brain working on the little ways that I stay safe.
And all of them are good tips. So is the saying from the 60's that you are not paranoid if people really ARE out to get you. When you ride a bike,be paranoid.
This bike was the first new design from HD after they'd bought themselves out from AMF. One of the many changes found on this bike was the rubber-mounted engine. The system is rigid in the horizontal plane, but allows the V-Twin to move quite a bit in the vertical plane. The engineers tuned the mounts so that from 2000 rpm on up, the mounting system works very well. But at an idle, the 80 cu. in. V-Twin overwhelms the mounts and the "Rubberglide" shakes like Hell's own tuning fork.
Over the years I've caught glimpses of slack-jawed amazement from onlookers as they view the spectacle; handlebars, exhaust pipes, levers, engine, front wheel, and sissy bar wiggling around at an idle like Heaven wouldn't have it . . .
Yet the Stoplight Freakshow is infinitely preferable to the electric buzz and tingle I've endured from all those Japanese inline fours over the years, IMHO. Especially from that Honda 750F I owned prior to the HD . . . ; )
LOLOLOL!
I love the old inline 'big fours'. I've got an '83 Honda CB1000Custom that I've fixed up. Shaft drive, gas-assist shocks and dual range transmission.
It has that cool 'whirrrrringgggg' noise as the DOHC spins up and a 4-into-4 megaphone exhaust that makes it look like the Bat-bike...
I hear Suzuki is bringing out a sport touring bike (not the manga-anime crotch rocket version) powered by the 1300cc Hayabusa engine--150 hp. I may get rid of my old Honda for that...
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