Broke my duck!

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Well, a day earlier than planned I plucked up the courage to take out my bike for the first time.

I only went from my mother's house up to mine (about 5 miles - if that!). Terrified all the way, stalled a couple of times, over-revved all the time, forgot to indicate, forgot to turn off indicators, missed gears, almost got squished by a bus.

I chose a pretty bad route though. A couple of major roundabouts, and loads of traffic "calming" chevrons!

There was quite a bit of traffic on the roads, so I might have been better waiting until tomorrow (I am actually more nervous about going out tomorrow now that I was earlier today!)

My god, my hands are still shaking!

So does all this sound familiar, or am I just a wuss??

[freestyler_onli]

I felt like that. Aprilia 125 as a first bike. I used to go everywhere by the back roads. Then i got used to the bike and started doing the main routes. Now i just say to myself 'I can do this-and i do.'

[Barker-CBR 600]

Just take it easy, stick to places you know.

One idea is to have a circuit, say a 3- 4 mile circular route than you can get to know well and then every time you come home/have an hour to spare go out for a spin around it.

See if you cant find somewhere with gentle examples of most things, traffic lights, some roundabouts, junctions etc... but dont forget a bit of open road!

Then as you gain more confidence on this, you'll find that other journeys are far easyer since you can apply what you know from the route you know.. to the journey.

DSA instructor told me it takes usually at least 2000 miles to 'get used' to a bike and all its quirks, abilities, strengths and more importantly weaknesses. So dont fret yet!
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Previous - Gilera DNA50 / XVS125 Dragstar/Honda CBR 600F/GSF 650 Bandit
Current - 2013 Suzuki VZ800 Intruder
'Is this a rhetorical question?'

[shop_addict]

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Thanks for that Jo. I was happy to read that you enjoyed yourself
(although secretly a little gutted that I didn't get the same feeling you did ). Hopefully tomorrow I can have as much fun!

I think that my problem was that I didn't give it a long enough go to get past the jitters. I was probably only riding for about 15 minutes before I got to my estate and parked up, and it's been about 3 months since my CBT so that's not a lot of road time. In hindsight I should really have gone straight to some quiet roads to get used to the bike.

Ah well, tomorrow the roads should be pretty clear, I know what I have to practise (stopping and starting - I'm fine when I 'm moving!), and I got in touch with my CBT instructor who has given me a route (and offfered me some one-to-one if I'm still rubbish after tomorrow).

Have fun tomorrow! (I'm sure I will as well)

[shop_addict]

DLAM what you've said makes a lot of sense. If I'd stopped at only 15 mins (or just after my right-hand-turn debacle) I would be feeling rather nervous right now. I think ploughing on for 4 hours pushed me past the nerves and into the grinning zone

Mind you....talk about grinning. The guy at the bike dealership said, "The tank's about 3/4 full", and he took the petrol cap off the show me. I could see a bit of fuel washing around, so I thought I'll keep an eye on that because it looks less than 3/4 full to me!

Anyway, after about 3 hours riding I stopped and looked in the tank again. Horror! I could no longer see petrrol swilling around! So straight to the petrol station for me.

Ahem ......after squeezing just over 2 quids worth in the tank, it was full to the brim! I think this car driver may need time to get to to the fuel economy of a bike!

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Yeah my last car did about 30 miles to the gallon on a good day and cost £90 every 6 months to tax.

My SR apparently does nearer 90 mpg and is £15 a year to tax!

Must remember to bring some cash with me tomorrow, in case I run out of gas! £5 should do it.

[meyrick]

Hey DLAM, well you did better than me! I went out earlier today before it started to rain and I dropped her! Nooooooooooooooooooo

Got off pretty lightly for being such an idiot. I was doing a U-turn on a slope, quite wet and slippy. Didn't have the confidence to make the turn, slammed on the front brake and...over she goes

Scuffed front brake lever, scratches on the engine block and a completely mangled back brake lever. That really made me nervous because I then had to rely on the front brake for the duration of the ride. Somehow I got away without marking the shiny chrome exhaust Took me an hour to fix the back brake.

Anyway, didn't make it out of first gear or the car park - but there's always tomorrow.

Paul

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Sorry to hear that you dropped it mate. I came close when I was parking up, I was reversing the bike up my path and my foot slipped, and the bike almost went over but I got it just in time!

But it's good to know that there's two of us wobbling around this weekend! At least it can only get easier!

[shop_addict]

Paul, sorry to hear that the weather p*ssed on your ride. Still, there's always tomorrow.

That was v.brave of you - I didn't even want to consider doing a u-turn. Instead I went for slow-moving traffic to improve my clutch control (although I had to ignore all the bikes that filtered past me ), and some fast moving stuff just to up the fun factor

At least you've now had experience in the one thing that I'm really worried about........how to pick yer bike up

Jo

[dodsi]

sorry, i cant help but laugh...

I really dont understand this feeling of nerves you guys are having as i was fairly confident after my CBT and was fine on the speedshite untill i wanted to do my test and bought an SR125 (which by the sounds of things DLAM is trying too destroy ) now i am riding something with a lot of poke and is much heavier (had it nearly 1 week now) and am allready becoming cocky on it... i.e. not letting people overtake me in 30 zones and filtering too the front of a que where i meet up with a beemer driver who wont let me set off first so i show him who is boss (me, yay i rule)

However, all i know is bikes. I dont even have a car licence

also people treat you differant on a bigger bike where you have no Loon plates on, they get out of your way as they KNOW you will whoop their asses!

take it easy guys, its slippy as hell and DLAM on down changes (esp 2nd to 1st be gentle with the clutch as you will lock the wheel up)

[meyrick]

[Nath]

Dude, if you want to practise gear changes, you don't need to go very fast. On my CG125 I can change up almost imediately after pulling off, and am able to shift up again almost straight away. With a single cylinder bike you should be able to ride it at stupidly low revs
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[wildcat]

I took my cbr125 out today (why) And dropped her (why) I was actually on my way home after putting a deposit on a zx6r and I was thinking about my new bike instead of the one i was on. Some young boys kicked a football out on the road and my front wheel went over it and my back wheel went from under me. Well I got picked up off the road, and the kids had dissappeared ( Isn't it funny how fast kids wee legs can run) And I must have stood at the side of the road looking at my bike for about 20 minutes before i could get back on. I then set off home only to find that i felt like it was my first time on a bike again.
Anyway if you are a bit nervous, GOOD, You have to have a bit of respect for what you're riding. Its the respect that keeps you on two wheeks.
The minute you take her for granted you'll end up on your arse on the road.
Anyway I'm fine, the bike has a small scuff on the bar end and the football is dead. Thank god it was only a ball and not the kid that ran after it...

[meyrick]