Getting Learners - After Valuable Road/Riding Tips

[rastuscat]

But if you dont know what you dont know how do you know you need to know it?

I hear ya. I did a cornering course on Friday with an instructor I respect. He point3d out some things I hadn't considered.

Small improvements are still improvements.

[OddDuck]

Not riding so much, more the bike... a lot of entry learner riders go old and cheap since it's a learner bike and the plan is to step up in capacity / power as soon as it's legal to do so.

That can mean that the bike's got old tyres. Old rubber is hard and skiddy, also tends to let go without any warning once pushed (like in a high angle corner or while braking). If the tyres are older than 5 years it's usually a very good idea to change them even if they aren't visibly worn. It's spendy, but rubber is cheaper than crash repairs and hikes in insurance premiums...

There are DOT codes on the sidewall for date of manufacture, there's usually a little area in its own rectangle with 4 digits, these stand for week-week-year-year. So 3612 would mean the 36th week of 2012 for example.

+1 to formal training. You need to know your countersteering and trail braking, these are definitely best taught professionally.