Regaining confidence after a fall

[PrincessBandit]

Semantics.

Dudes are in greater supply, and usually have done more shit on bikes.

Semen-tics? yeah nah

"more shit on bikes" dem's your words not mine

[skippa1]

Semantics.

Dudes are in greater supply, and usually have done more shit on bikes.

^^^^he's right

[Gremlin]

Back on topic please... and play nice in the Angels section.

[Drew]

Back on topic please... and play nice in the Angels section.

Yeah, because they never lower the fucken tone.

[bittertwistedcute]

We got a new Bandit 650 about 6 weeks ago. It has since spent about 5 of those weeks being repaired under insurance. Let me explain...
.....
Any tips or experience from other lady riders who have had something like this happen? Did you ever really regain your confidence again?

Hi

you will be zooming around on your training course by now, those things are gold for confidence!
Each time I get a new bike I like to do one, or at least do laps around an empty track or large empty parking lot.
My experience of going from a twin (which I loved) to a bandit (which I didn't) back to a twin, and now settling on an IL4 for the last two years. I found there was a bit of difference in the way I rode the twins, the SV was like a tractor, and I felt safe and confident
Getting on the cbr was a learning curve, love it now tho.
I did drop him in a corner, not enough on the gas and elegantly leaned over, looked like he was napping ; )
Luckily I had the chance to pick him up and keep riding, I wasn't hurt and there wasn't any real damage. Whatever you do, you will get to know your bike, and you will work out what happened, just keep riding,keep learning and smile lots! Riding is always better when you are having fun.
Tyre type and temp do make a difference, when my tyres are cold I am more cautious, after a few wee scares. Anyway, get to know your bike, have a great time, push your luck a little every now and then, and stay safe

[shflbm]

Yeah it is but I surf recent posts so I didn't look until you mentioned it.
I think that's not important if the responses are about helping with constructive advice related to the original OP.

Am I wrong though?

Hmmm not wrong as such.... but there IS a reason I originally posted in here and not just in the general forums. Good advice is good advice full-stop, but when it's paired with sexual innuendos and subtle (and not-so-subtle) put-downs it is not right, especially in the Biker Angels section.

[shflbm]

Because it took a lengthy discussion to figure out you meant clutch slipping and not coasting, unclear or misleading advice is bad advice, regardless of how much experience the adviser has.



From a moderation perspective, the whole of kiwibiker is woefully under-moderated; for some it is why they like it, for others it is why they dislike it, in either case, why should this subforum be an exception?

Because it was specifically designed to be that way - read the original post that set it up.

[shflbm]

Rant and rave might be about right (and PD is fine of course), but all the other subforums, the line should be tightened up a lot.

Sounds a bit sexist to me, a lot of guys would probably like the same thing, but where is our refuge?

Make one. This is a lame excuse and you know it. It seems like only the other 90 % of kiwibiker is made up from a male perspective. But if you want to start a male sub-forum go for it! What's your excuse?

[shflbm]

Back on topic please... and play nice in the Angels section.

Thanks Gremlin

[shflbm]

Hi


I did drop him in a corner, not enough on the gas and elegantly leaned over, looked like he was napping ; )
\

Fairly certain this is what I had the Bandit do. Will post again shortly on course outcome. Thanks.

[shflbm]

Strangely enough... my profile seems to have changed to Scooter Boy. Not sure why - is it related to how many times you contribute to a thread?

Anyway, as promised, yesterday was great. I started the day on the ER6 with about 5 % of my pre-fall confidence. I even had a mini meltdown in front of the other 6 attendees and the two instructors. They had us do emergency braking exercises, but this wasn't the thing freaking me out. After the braking exercise we had to carry on down the road and do a u-turn, and then another one at the start, to turn around and get in line for more braking. I really dislike u-turns and with my confidence so low I just psyched myself out. HOWEVER I continued... and didn't fall off. Huzzah! I even aced a couple of u-turns, reminding me that I actually had them down quite nicely before I lost my confidence.

By the end of the day I reckon my confidence was regained to about 85 %. I was tempted to ride the Bandit home (my husband did the course on it) but wasn't 100 % so continued on the ER6. My plan now is to get back up to 100 % on the ER6, then start on the Bandit again. We are also ordering shorty levers for the Bandit since the clutch is wide and tough compared to the ER6 and I have little hands (and yes, it is adjusted as close in as it can go at the moment and even my husband finds it hard). Apparently they take about 2 weeks to get in so once they are on it should be a perfect time to get back on the Bandit.

Now, as for the slipping the clutch conversation. As far as I'm aware the answer was a resounding NO. EXCEPT in 'slow riding mode' so doing u-turns, approaching and leaving intersections, coming to a stop, leaving your park and other such situations. The instructor answered it like it was obvious (!) and clearly it is not, but what it did show was her conviction that it wasn't a good thing to do. So that's what I thought, and that's what I was doing, which made me feel great. Use the clutch as control in slow-riding mode, but don't use it on any other corners or bends at higher speed. Does that make sense? Please don't be nasty about this - these things are not intuitive and what we sometimes need is a more experienced person i.e. a course instructor to confirm this for us.

The cause of my fall? By the end of the day I had come to the conclusion that the main reason was that I had got too cocky. I was on a bike I thought I knew but didn't. I was riding it like the ER6 which is the only other bike I've known. I approached the corner at too high a speed when I should have erred on the side of caution and changed down into first before the corner to slow down. On top of that, I did not give myself enough width coming in to the corner. Other factors may have been the cold-ish tires, possibly too much air in the tires, the lack of revs at low speed making the Bandit just want to 'lie down' (in the words of another contributor), and not keeping my head up and looking around the corner to come out of it (though I think I was in too late for this to have helped get me out of it to be honest).

The result was a $4600 bill and about three weeks of not having our new toy to play with. (Lucky we had insurance; most people abhor their insurance companies but State have been nothing but good to us.) And a huge loss of confidence.

My lesson? Don't get cocky. Do more training. And don't assume you know your bike when it is new to you.

[bogan]

Because it was specifically designed to be that way - read the original post that set it up.

Unfortunately the original post and how it is set up has no power or control over the rest of the thread.

Make one. This is a lame excuse and you know it. It seems like only the other 90 % of kiwibiker is made up from a male perspective. But if you want to start a male sub-forum go for it! What's your excuse?

My excuse? well I don't have admin rights for a start, which seems to be quite valid and not lame in the least... Also, it's not so much that I want a new forum, but that the existing ones (apart from rant and rave and PD) should be more tightly moderated.

Good to see you're happy with the outcome of the training day.

[Katman]

The cause of my fall? By the end of the day I had come to the conclusion that the main reason was that I had got too cocky.

11 pages to get to the crux of the matter.

Not bad going for Kiwibiker.

[shflbm]

11 pages to get to the crux of the matter.

Not bad going for Kiwibiker.

Haha! Fair point. TBH this was kind of what I thought at the beginning but wanted to get other peoples' thoughts on regaining confidence as well as to firm up other influencing factors to the fall.

[Taxythingy]

Strangely enough... my profile seems to have changed to Scooter Boy. Not sure why - is it related to how many times you contribute to a thread?

You get the honour of being a scooter boy around the 30-post mark.

Glad the course has boosted your confidence. I went through one of the Ride-Safe courses a couple of months ago and found it really helpful. I'm now on the hunt for more carparks & the time to play.