It's all coming together...

[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.
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.

[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

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?

[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?

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.