help with gears on a 125

[dianemcewan]

hi guys i passed my cbt about 4 months ago on a twist and go 50cc and i have been knocked off my bike TWICE by cars trying to over take me on small roads even tho am doing 30mph the speed limit for that road , they havent judged on a car coming the other way and clipped my back wheele trying to get back in , so iv decided to go up to a 125 to hopefully try eliminated people over taking me cuz am on a small bike BUT am really worried about doing the gears , i drive a car on my l plates and do ok with the gears but with a bike i know its diffrent , anybody got any tints and tips on what i should do , i was thinking about going back to the cbt company and doing a few hours there but i would then have to pay another £100 and i wanna avoid this if possible , any hints and tips very much welcome , thanks in advance
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DIANE MCEWAN

[Quornholio]

Perhaps it's worth booking a lesson?

[P.]

Got any friends with gears?

Its essentially the same as a car, all the gear items are on the left hand side. Usually 1st is down, the rest of the gears are up.
Clutch control takes time to get used to, creeping along etc.

Personally if you have no experience and a friend is out of the question then having a quick refresher lesson would be a good idea.

[dianemcewan]

yeah but i wanna avoid paying another £100 for 4 hours on gears , i am confiendent on the road all i need is abit of gear traning
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DIANE MCEWAN

[Rogerborg]

Why not get a 125 scooter? Heck, with the money that you should have got from suing those murderous mongtards, you should be able to buy a Chinese scooter factory.

Gears just need to be practiced, there's no magic short cut. Get a bike, get it to a car park somehow, then spend a few hours doing stop-starts and slow speed creeping along, dragging the clutch. Changing gears at speed is relatively easy, you only need a tiny dab of clutch, ease off the throttle, and give a quick kick up or down.

The only thing to look out for is kicking down too far at too high a speed and locking up the rear wheel, but you'll only do that once before learning the lesson.

Either way, work on your road positioning. Don't ride in the gutter. Own the lane. If a car wants to overtake, make them move way over to the right hand side of the road. If that holds them up, tough. Better them than you.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[dianemcewan]

i think i might try the gears and if i cant get the hang of it then maybe book some lessons , and also can any body recoment the lexmoto XTR S125 as thinking about buying it next week
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DIANE MCEWAN

[P.]

[Quornholio]

Four hours for gears?

[Vincent]

[Nexus Icon]

[P.]

If you were closer I'd let you use my 125 in a car park... but you look to be about 80ish miles away.

[Quornholio]

I'd try another school TBH. The guy who took me for my CBT had no problem letting me book hour/two hour slots.

[Acemastr]

maybe it's your positioning on these small roads, if it's single lane road, take up the single lane road, especially if you're going the speed limit anyway.

I see too many peds riding in the gutters and it looks so uncomfortable, so dangerous too.
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2017 KTM 350 XC-F - 2014 Yamaha R6 - 2005 Yamaha YZ125
2016 Toyota Tacoma Limited

[dianemcewan]

oh i thought that was a good bike to have iv got £1700 to buy a new 125 and i dont want to buy second hand i want to buy brand new
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DIANE MCEWAN

[Quornholio]

[P.]

[dianemcewan]

iv been saving up for months for a decent bike after getting a xinling 50 qbt 50cc bike GIVEN to me when i passed m cbt i can no see why they gave it away lol i really do like the lexmoto 1 tho got good reviews aswell
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DIANE MCEWAN

[Sam_Y_93]

Buy a 125 get it to an empty road/car park/industrial estate and teach your self. This is how I learned to ride, Took about an hour of riding before I was confident enough for roads, was still wobbling away from traffic lights but I got there.

As for the actual riding you want to play with the clutch until you find the biting point then start adding a bit of throttle, once you can pull away you will be fine.

EDIT: leave the lexmoto, get a very tidy CG for £800-£1000, then when you look at moving on and selling you will get pretty much the same for it when you sell.
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Bikes Past: Yamaha Aerox (sold) Yamaha R125 (written off)
Bikes Current: Honda VFR 400 (awaiting restoration) Honda CB600f F-4
Theory passed July 21st Mod1 passed August 3rd Mod 2 passed 26th August

[Quornholio]

[P.]

[Nexus Icon]

[P.]

[Rogerborg]

[Teflon-Mike]

Book some lessons.

Fact that this has happened more than once, traveling at the speed limit, means the problem is your riding, NOT necesserily your bike.

125 geared or twistie, riding legally at the speed limit, SAME THING will happen, wont it?

Why?

Almost garantee, its because you are gutter sniping, riding too close to the kerb, nervousely, giving car drivers opportunity and 'idea' they can 'bully' you out of thier way, rather than holding your ground, riding defensively, dominating your lane, MAKING them give you road room, or at least thinking twice about how much space they should give you.

You wont get that 'technique' from trading up to a bigger bike, alone, in fact, getting used to gears and higher road speeds is actually likely to give you more to worry about and make you even more nervouse and even more bullyable......

10/10 for sticking with it though; so many having bad experience like that would just give up.

But, solution is to do some training, and get some technique and tools in bike riding.

Sad but true; many instructors have little interest in scooters, and dont give scooter riders time or attension they possibly deserve; presuming they are already a car driver, or they are 'only' on a 50, no different to being on a push bike, AND, it not being a 'propper' motorbike, they have no interest in it, and you not choosing a proppa motorbike, probably have no interest in being toght 'bikes', so there can be some 'short fall' in what you ought to have got out of CBT, and its road positioning and defensive riding that is very often the 'tell'

So you are more likely to get 'more' of what you need from training on a 'propper' bike, but you still need to find a contentious and sympathetic instructor, who can grasp what you are about, and give you the instruction you 'need' to sort yourself out.

But stick with it, for trying
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Vincent]

I can understand why you wan to but I really wouldn't buy a new bike, esp a Chinese one. The build quality is very inconsistent to say the least. If you want Chinese, at least if you buy a second hand one, most of the problems will have been sorted.
To an untrained eye, the Chinese bikes may look nice but anyone with any savvy of bikes can see the shoddy build quality.
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