It's all coming together...

[magicmonkey]

Ok, so I've got my BHS, I've just bought a lid, I've got a GN250 being delivered tonight and the rest of the gear should be arriving today as well. Now what!!

I'm going to head over to a mates later as they're in a quiet residential area where I can have a ride knowing that I won't be in too much danger which should be good (there just aren't any car parks near mine) Anything I should be doing, anything I should know? In case you can't tell, this will be my first ever unsupervised go on a bike!

[White trash]

Anything I should be doing, anything I should know?

You should be doing wheelies and you should know how to do a mean skid.

Congrats on the new bike BTW

[magicmonkey]

You should be doing wheelies and you should know how to do a mean skid.

Congrats on the new bike BTW

Heh, nothing short of stoppies on the menu for tonight :p

Seriously though, I'll probably brick it if I get her up to 50 at the moment :2thumbsup

[Danae]

You know the exercises they tested you on in the BHS test? Do more of that. Work on understanding what the clutch does and becoming familiar with your bike.

[PirateJafa]

Ok, so I've got my BHS, I've just bought a lid, I've got a GN250 being delivered tonight and the rest of the gear should be arriving today as well. Now what!!

I'm going to head over to a mates later as they're in a quiet residential area where I can have a ride knowing that I won't be in too much danger which should be good (there just aren't any car parks near mine) Anything I should be doing, anything I should know? In case you can't tell, this will be my first ever unsupervised go on a bike!

Advice:
Ignore KB, and go for a spin around the carpark. :niceone:

[paddy]

Ok, so I've got my BHS, I've just bought. . .

This might seem like a really stupid question (and hopefully it is), but you've got your learners license as well as your BHS right? (The BHS being a pre-requisite to the learners rather than conferring any road-rights to you.)

[Squiggles]

Anything I should be doing, anything I should know?

The first time the bike stops while riding, you've hit reserve. When the starter motor doesnt whirr up you've hit the killswitch. The first morning breakdown will probably involve you flooding it.

[magicmonkey]

This might seem like a really stupid question (and hopefully it is), but you've got your learners license as well as your BHS right? (The BHS being a pre-requisite to the learners rather than conferring any road-rights to you.)

heh, yeah I've got my learners, although I got that before I did the BHS (dodgy international license transferring jive)

[Danae]

The first time the bike stops while riding, you've hit reserve.

Or you've left the fuel off :eek:

[magicmonkey]

The first time the bike stops while riding, you've hit reserve. When the starter motor doesnt whirr up you've hit the killswitch. The first morning breakdown will probably involve you flooding it.

:2thumbsup

that killswitch comment is probably going to save me a world of grief!

[AxN]

Congratz on finally bought a bike. Just make sure you practice your take off from stationary, just put you bike in first gear, walking up and down the driveway with your right foot on the foot brake.

Then try to shift gears, braking, emergency braking etc... best to be practiced in a carpark.

Make sure you have your L plate up :) and have fun and try to relax.

[Slyer]

Make sure you look after the chrome really well on those GN's, they tend to go rusty real easy when ignored. (If it's a new one)
Oh and remember to treat everyone like you're invisible to them.

[paddy]

heh, yeah I've got my learners, although I got that before I did the BHS (dodgy international license transferring jive)

Awesome. Well, I hope you really enjoy it. It's all recent enough for me to have fond memories of it all. :-)

[magicmonkey]

Congratz on finally bought a bike. Just make sure you practice your take off from stationary ...

eurgh! I live on a very steep hill so I'm going to have to get used to hill starts pretty quickly, there's something I'm not looking forward to!

[YellowDog]

Many congrats to you Mr Monkey (or can I call you Magic?).

I am sure you will be like a kid with a new toy.

You seem to have the right attitude. JUst spend some time getting to feel the force and get the hand of the bike's handling chacteristics.

You'll be fine, but do remember: Back Brake only when at slow speeds. You have great slow speed control with the back brake whereas the front brake will stop you dead and can often caused newbees to hit the deck!

Oh, and slow down before the turn. Braking whilst in a bend that you have taken too fast will not have a good outcome.

Good luck.

[firefighter]

The first morning breakdown will probably involve you flooding it.

Or the kill-switch! lol


Congratz on finally bought a bike. Just make sure you practice your take off from stationary, just put you bike in first gear, walking up and down the driveway with your right foot on the foot brake.

Then try to shift gears, braking, emergency braking etc... best to be practiced in a carpark.

Make sure you have your L plate up :) and have fun and try to relax.

Fuck that. Just go for a ride! (worked for me!)

Once you've sussed out gear changes and you have a feel then start learning counter-steering, hillstarts and all the other good stuff.
(to much to focus on otherwise)

[AxN]

You'll be fine, but do remember: Back Brake only when at slow speeds. You have great slow speed control with the back brake whereas the front brake will stop you dead and can often caused newbees to hit the deck!

Oh, and slow down before the turn. Braking whilst in a bend that you have taken too fast will not have a good outcome.

Good luck.

I have to second that, especially the slow speed brake part. Tipped my baby ninja twice doing that. Such a noob I am. More shame than actual harm :O

[AxN]

Fuck that. Just go for a ride! (worked for me!)

Once you've sussed out gear changes and you have a feel then start learning counter-steering, hillstarts and all the other good stuff.
(to much to focus on otherwise)

Yeh that will work. Again my advice took risk mitigation into consideration. I am sure the best way to learn to ride a bike on the road is to actually ride on the road. I have just gone through similar situation as the OP is going through (mostly) so the post was made based on my humble opinion and experience only. :)

[magicmonkey]

Congratz on finally bought a bike. Just make sure you practice your take off from stationary, just put you bike in first gear, walking up and down the driveway with your right foot on the foot brake.

Then try to shift gears, braking, emergency braking etc... best to be practiced in a carpark.

Make sure you have your L plate up :) and have fun and try to relax.

yeah, that's the one thing I forgot! I've even sorted insurance but completely forgotten about the L plate. I'll pick one up tomorrow lunch, honest!

[magicmonkey]

Many congrats to you Mr Monkey (or can I call you Magic?).

I am sure you will be like a kid with a new toy.

You seem to have the right attitude. JUst spend some time getting to feel the force and get the hand of the bike's handling chacteristics.

You'll be fine, but do remember: Back Brake only when at slow speeds. You have great slow speed control with the back brake whereas the front brake will stop you dead and can often caused newbees to hit the deck!

Oh, and slow down before the turn. Braking whilst in a bend that you have taken too fast will not have a good outcome.

Good luck.

You can call me whatever you like, it is t'internet after all ;)

As for the attitude, I'm trying to walk that fine line between getting a bike and going for a blast and approaching it with enough trouser browning to be careful :s

I did the BHS on a bike with drums on the front brakes so I was pretty much using those all the time, at the moment I am a little worried about using the disks as they're so much better. Still, I'll be uber gentle with them and make sure I've got a foot over the back pedal while I'm getting the hang of them; hopefully it won't take too long...

[YellowDog]

You can call me whatever you like, it is t'internet after all ;)

As for the attitude, I'm trying to walk that fine line between getting a bike and going for a blast and approaching it with enough trouser browning to be careful :s

I did the BHS on a bike with drums on the front brakes so I was pretty much using those all the time, at the moment I am a little worried about using the disks as they're so much better. Still, I'll be uber gentle with them and make sure I've got a foot over the back pedal while I'm getting the hang of them; hopefully it won't take too long...
If you can master back brake control for low speed riding, you'll find everything else a lot easier.

Just try and resist the instinct to yank on the front brake lever.

[magicmonkey]

If you can master back brake control for low speed riding, you'll find everything else a lot easier.

Just try and resist the instinct to yank on the front brake lever.

Yeah, I've had a close call with that one already. Which was kid of a good thing really, controlled environment and good feedback on exactly what I'd done wrong, means I'm pretty wary on that front and I know what to look out for. Still, what with the disks rather than drums I get the feeling that I'll be learning that all over again in the reasonably near!

[magicmonkey]

well, rather than clog up the forums with my noob rantings I thought I'd just update this instead ...

Anyway, I got home yesterday to find 2 HUGE parcels with all the gear in, I'd picked up a helmet at lunch and then about 20 minutes after I got home the bike got dropped off, everything just happened exactly as it was supposed to, I love it when a plan comes together ;)

I got my mate to ride the bike to his (very tight turns up a steep hill to get there, not quite ready for that yet) As there's no car park near mine I took it for a ride around a residential area, all cul-de-sac's so no through traffic and I only saw about 5 cars on the road all night which was good. I probably pissed the neighbours off bombing up and down their road for hours though! I'm quite glad I was on the road rather than in the car park, riding at a reasonable speed is much easier that way. The road itself had quite a few twists and turns, a couple of hills, there were also manhole covers all over the place and plenty of side streets dotted around. I started out having a bit of trouble getting the line I wanted through a corner until I remembered the 'look where you want to go' advice from here which really does work! I was picking a line, looking at my exit and visualising going through that line (probably rolling on the gas very late but hey, I'm learning!) that was a good moment :) The addition of manhole covers was good as well, it made me pay attention to other factors than the best line through a corner and gave me my first experience of why to avoid them (deeply sunk manhole cover which I didn't notice until I was on top of it, half a second of bricking myself then a much larger bump than I was comfortable with).

I also got over the disk brake paranoia pretty quickly, they're actually pretty forgiving so long as you don't grab at them. Engine braking on the GN's is much more forgiving than I thought it would be as well; I was almost expecting to go over the handlebars when I dropped it into 2nd for a U-turn but it just purred along, shedding speed at a completely comfortable rate, that was a pleasant surprise. In fact, there have been a lot of pleasant surprises so far, not least the idea of riding above 20K's. In a car park that felt like quite a lot but once I was out on the road, without a line of cones and a stupidly placed lamp-post in the equation I found myself loving the idea of going a bit faster, paying attention to how the throttle controls the line of a corner when you're leaning, noticing countersteering for the first time (although it came so naturally I assume I must have been doing it on push-bikes without noticing). I even broke the speed limit at one point, naughty me! Still, I was worried that I'd brick it going at a reasonable speed on a bike, it's very reassuring to know that the adrenalin doesn't kick in until a bit later, that stuff makes me make bad decisions!

So, things to work on, getting more comfortable with stopping in a short distance, coordinating using the indicators and the clutch at the same time, paying more attention to the countersteering, changing gears while braking. I'll have to start learning hill starts in the next couple of days or I'll never be able to get my bike away from my house, that should do me for a little while; maybe I'll think about learning to swerve after that, although that's probably better done in an empty car park than on the road.

Any suggestions of things which would be good to practice would be very welcome, I'm well aware that I've got a lot to learn and not much of a clue on where to start!

[Slyer]

Sounds like you're progressing well. GN's are very forgiving, just need to give them plenty of room to accelerate and brake. :bleh:
Things to practice? Everything. Heh.

[White trash]

Any suggestions of things which would be good to practice would be very welcome,


Wheelies. And skids.

How they comin' along?

Seriously though, it's refreshing to see someone take a mature approach to learning the basic skills for a change, and posting their progress while looking for advice. Too many young people (and I'm not saying I was different) are all about the "Got me bike, got me licence, I'm off to harass the public"

[Slyer]

Too many young people (and I'm not saying I was different) are all about the "Got me bike, got me licence, I'm off to harass the public"
Apparently I did it all wrong then. :pinch:

[magicmonkey]

Seriously though, it's refreshing to see someone take a mature approach to learning the basic skills for a change, and posting their progress while looking for advice. Too many young people (and I'm not saying I was different) are all about the "Got me bike, got me licence, I'm off to harass the public"

Heh, that's an urge that I'm trying to stifle! It helps that I'm on a GN and well aware that if I harass the public they'll probably catch me at a running pace :p

The plan is to move up to a nice bike once I've learned the basics, then I'll harass the public and stand a chance of outrunning them ;)

[Slyer]

The plan is to move up to a nice bike once I've learned the basics, then I'll harass the public and stand a chance of outrunning them ;)
Farking oath. I borrowed my dad's GN to sit my restricted test.
Was so incredibly happy to get back on the GPX250, felt like a rocket ship!
What sorts you looking at? :D

[magicmonkey]

Farking oath. I borrowed my dad's GN to sit my restricted test.
Was so incredibly happy to get back on the GPX250, felt like a rocket ship!
What sorts you looking at? :D

I'm quite taken by the ZXR's and GSX's, maybe a CBR. At the moment I'm going to be taking it pretty easy and then when I'm more confident I'll do a few test rides to get a better idea of what I want as it's bound to change by then. I'm definitely after a road bike, with all the farings and jive, not least because they look good ;)

[Maki]

Ok, so I've got my BHS, I've just bought a lid, I've got a GN250 being delivered tonight and the rest of the gear should be arriving today as well. Now what!!



Get a gixxer.

[magicmonkey]

Get a gixxer.

If you lend me yours I'll think about it ;)

[AxN]

Looks like a good session you had. Just practice often and take it for a spin during quiet traffic time would be the next step. Use your mirror at the lights, head check before you turn/change lane, just two things off top of my head :)

[magicmonkey]

Well, seeing as how you lot have all been so helpful and decent about me posting my newbie rants I thought I might start updating this thread in the hopes of a few more little nuggets from the KB crew ;) Just so you're warned, if you bore easily you might want to move on from here ;)

I went to my mates and picked up my bike this morning (he's in a residential area so I'd left it there) and had a little ride. I hadn't been on the thing for a couple of days due to the weather and my laziness so I just pootled up and down the road, bit or engine braking, U-turns etc., starting out gently. So, about 20 minutes into that, just as I'm thinking I should start playing around with emergency breaking, it starts raining a little. Not a big deal as my kit is waterproof (except the leather gloves but I'll be having a go at them with some nikwax once they're dry) so I did a couple of emergency stops. First time I forgot the clutch and stalled but stopped from 50K's a lot quicker than I thought I would. I found out that it wasn't the slowing down from that speed that was scary, it was that moment when you've finished stopping and the suspension bounces back up to normal height, it threw me off balance and there was a terrible moment when I thought it was going to drop the bike but I managed to save it, lesson learned! The second one was much better, clutch in, stopped in a shorter distance than I could in the car and I was ready for the unsettling suspension moment. So far all good; then the rain picked up and bit and I went to my car for a smoke to see what the weather was going to do. Sure enough, it starts hailing. I did my BHS in the hail so I'm not too worried about handling the bike in those condition, it was just miserable and I didn't get a bike to make myself miserable :P

Once the hail calmed down a bit I decided to take the bike home, down a steep hill with a really nasty hairpin and some sharp blind corners. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to do, in fact, it was probably a bad decision, but it made sense at the time. So, managed to get the bike down the hill without upset, was very thankful for the U-turn practice I'd put in earlier on the hairpin (2nd gear, little or no throttle, not sure if that's how it's meant to be done but it seems to be working for me at the moment). I walked back up, got the car, drove to town and got L plates, now the bike is properly legal!

Later on it cleared up so I went out for a couple of hours again, this time I worked on the emergency braking more, shifting down to first while braking and trying to take of reasonable quickly after the stop as well for those 'just in case' moments. Still needs a lot of work but it's coming along well so far. As I was heading up the hill there was an idiot over my side of the road on the hairpin so I had to stop and learn hill starts with 5 cars behind me, I figured it'd be a lot simpler if I just waved them past so I did that and took my sweet time. Considering how steep the hill is, I was quite surprised that I could stop the bike from rolling by having me feet down, without the need for brakes; it seems my freakish chicken legs now have a purpose after all! I had a little practice with hill starts using the front and back brakes as well (separately, obviously) as I figure I'll probably need it at some point although it doesn't seem quite so important after that experience.

The other thing I had a little play with was counter steering. Fuck me Does that bike want to dive into a corner when you counter steer!!! That gave me a bit of a surprise even though I'd moved the bars less than a centimetre to drop the bike over. It wasn't so much the angle of lean it was how suddenly it got there and how sharp the turning was, a massive improvement on just leaning; which is what I've been doing so far. As I was in a residential street with cars parked on the road I wasn't really that comfortable starting a corner with counter steering so I tried initiating corners with a lean and very, very gently counter steering to maintain the lean. I really want a wide open space to play with counter steering in though as I think that's something I should put a lot of effort into learning well.

So far so good, I've spent time on the things I wanted to spend time on, noticed things I wasn't aware of and generally enjoyed being on 2 wheels :) The residential area I was in has become something of a 'comfort zone' though, I noticed that as soon as I left the roads I had been practicing on I became much more apprehensive and rode a lot slower. I think I might have to take a trip down the ohiro road tomorrow as it's out of my comfort zone but pretty much just a straight line down to the beach. Means I'll be able to pay a lot more attention to traffic that if I was messing around at intersections trying to co-ordiante things which aren't second nature yet...

So, if anybody managed to read all of that drivel, well done ;) Any recommendations on things I should do or be paying attention to are more than welcome!