Tips for riding on the open road?

[wysper]

what kind of preparation did you all do before you had the confidence to take on the open road?

Cheers in advance

Practice makes perfect. Small regular trips are better than one long trip. Get on the open road early on a sunday morning when there's less traffic out and about.

This is good advice. Most others are giving you general riding advice. In my opinion the best way for you to build your confidence (with out doing training courses) is to start with small trips, even 15 min out (out of town i mean) and back. Then a bit more etc till you are confident. Much the same way you probably did for your round town stuff.

All the other advice is good too and you should take it on board. But really, the only way you will build confidence is by doing it.

[PrincessBandit]

come for a ride to the pub on thursday, you will learn heaps.

About riding or drinking? (or both - you do know you're not supposed to drink and ride young man...)

p.s. you'd better do something about that prolapse, could get messy

Oh, and Blackmambism - the first time is always the scariest, simply because you're not quite sure what to expect. The suggestion of small out-of-town trips is a good one to start with. The Karangahake gorge is a beautiful ride and I find the 80kph limit through there quite nice. A lot here would disagree 'cos it means they can't cane it through the bendies there, but it gives you time to appreciate the terrain and road surface.
Good luck with the riding and don't feel pressured into overstepping your safe zone before you feel ready.

[Katman]

young man

*snigger, snort*

[blue rider]

*snigger, snort*

ahh very helpful tip for staying safe and having fun while riding on the open road.

[p.dath]

If you have just started riding I would be tempted to go and get a mentor first.

There are a lot of fundamental skills you really need to learn first before taking on tight twisty roads. Loss of control on a corner is the number 1 motorcycle accident statistic ...

A good mentor is worth there weight in gold, and it is a lot of fun riding with someone who knows what they are doing. Trying to teach yourself skills that you don't know exist is very tricky ...

[PrincessBandit]

*snigger, snort*

ahh very helpful tip for staying safe and having fun while riding on the open road.

You will find lots of threads which contain comments unrelated to the OP. I think you will find katman was sniggering about me calling nodrog "young man" in my reply post to one of his.

You'll soon learn to weed out the posts which are directly aimed at the OP from the side-tracked conversations which sometimes occur within in thread.

[blue rider]

You will find lots of threads which contain comments unrelated to the OP. I think you will find katman was sniggering about me calling nodrog "young man" in my reply post to one of his.

You'll soon learn to weed out the posts which are directly aimed at the OP from the side-tracked conversations which sometimes occur within in thread.

i realise that he was cracking a joke aimed at you...sorry they don't have sarcasm smileys....

however this thread was/is one of those that could be a valuable resource for us neebies, if not derailed ...not wanting to sound uptight
it would be nice to get proper advice from the Katman, after all someone asked for help to prevent accidents.

My riding surely is not good yet, and without the help of much more experienced riders and their input i would not enjoy it as much as I do.
So i tend to read this threads, i might learn something.

so if any offense was taken, sorry this was not my intention.

[PrincessBandit]

i realise that he was cracking a joke aimed at you...sorry they don't have sarcasm smileys....

however this thread was/is one of those that could be a valuable resource for us neebies, if not derailed ...not wanting to sound uptight
it would be nice to get proper advice from the Katman, after all someone asked for help to prevent accidents.

My riding surely is not good yet, and without the help of much more experienced riders and their input i would not enjoy it as much as I do.
So i tend to read this threads, i might learn something.

so if any offense was taken, sorry this was not my intention.

No offence was taken - I just wanted to assure you that not every post in a thread is always intended to be helpful advice from an opening question or statement.

Katman is very much concerned with rider safety and responsible riding on the road - both for the rider's personal safety plus that of other road users, and from the perspective of how motorcycling/motorcyclists are often percieved in a poor light by both the general public and TPTB. In fact his mentor motto is along the lines of "I'm not here to make you a faster rider, I'm here to help keep you alive".

Anyway, back to the OP and my comments made above, there are those here on KB who delight in trolling and disseminating dodgy advice; they know it's a p/t, but n00bs don't always recognise it as such. Take what you consider important or helpful from all posts and disregard the rest, as there will most surely be much bullshit in teh mix.

[Katman]

ahh very helpful tip for staying safe and having fun while riding on the open road.

You're welcome.








*snigger, snort*

[Maha]

You will find lots of threads which contain comments unrelated to the OP. I think you will find katman was sniggering about me calling nodrog "young man" in my reply post to one of his.

You'll soon learn to weed out the posts which are directly aimed at the OP from the side-tracked conversations which sometimes occur within in thread.

A few good squirts with Round-up works wonders...

[FJRider]

A few good squirts with Round-up works wonders...

There ARE some on site ... that need to take it internally ...

[PrincessBandit]

A few good squirts with Round-up works wonders...

Oi, I seem to recall as a kid, us shorties were referred to as 'squirts'.

[Blackmambism]

lol was that you i followed from the polytech to ohauiti at like 930pm????

no, wasn't me

and don't worry, i'm good at picking out trolls, all good!

i think the small out of town trips will be the way to go, already done a couple now, getting a feel for the corners and different road surfaces and such.

@PrincessBandit
the karangahake gorge is a great idea, i grew up getting driven through there reasonably frequently so i kinda know the road too. might stop at the waterfall for a swim - could be too cold at the moment though!

edit: i was called a squirt too
edit no.2: god, i wasn't called a squirt because i was squirted into being was i? yucky parents *shudder*

[Subike]

Tips in no particular order:
1)relax and take it easy.
2) Slow in, quicker out on corners.
3) Be able to stop in the clear road that you can see.
4) In right hand bends make sure your helmet never crosses the centre line.
5) In left hand bends don't hug the left side, you can't see too far around it.
6) If some arse wants to get past cos they think you're too slow, find a safe plaace to let them get past. You don't need the hassle.
7) If you're tired, aching or stressed, take a break.

that would be the most important advice on this thread
always be aware of you road position in corners

[bluninja]

There's lots of good advice here.....taking short rides was so obvious I missed it allows you to prepare, and keep the concentration levels high so you can learn and improve.

I once destroyed my riding by trying to apply lots of learning from an advanced riders course. I then went back to my old riding and chose the most important (to me) skill to improve and worked on it, habituated it, then onto the next.

So having reflected on this thread...I'd say

1) lots of short rides
2) get a mentor to help you create good skills and safe habits asap.