Regaining confidence

[FROSTY:Me]

I would definitely recomend coming over and taking one of the trail bikes out. You will panic the first few times but slowly you will find your confidence increasing.

[The Pastor]

sounds like your on the right track.

Dont worry about not being good/ having enough experiance etc enough, and dont get caught up too much in all the kb bs. Just get out and ride - the rest will fall into place.

[MsKABC]

Here's another idea for you EOBE that's just occurred to me. Head down to the bucket racing next month on the Saturday (the practise day) and have a go at that. There will be a bike there that you can have a ride of, I'm sure. Speak to the guy who runs the show - he has a bike there to loan out. It will give you some time in the saddle in a safe environment on a small bike to build your confidence, and it's great fun. Who knows, you might like it so much you decide to take it up as a hobby!

[R6_kid:Me]

I think the best thing you can do is get your time on the bike up.

I had a similar incident on my R6, doing considerably more speed than you approaching a hairpin on a race track, quickly found myself with no front brakes just as I'd decided to leave my braking for the corner a tad later. Fortunately i got it under control and had a fair bit of runoff to use up and stop safely.

As soon as the problem was remedied, and and I was satisfied that it had been fixed, I tested it out and hit the track again.

The only way you are going to get over your two accidents is to have someone you trust check he bike over and make sure it's good to go. Then as frosty has said, ride it, but ride it relaxed.

What caused your brakes to fail is known, and has been sorted. And the suspension on your bike has been improved greatly. Now its a matter of getting more experience riding at 60-70% of your capability and slowly building that up, while staying within the limits of yourself and the bike. These limits can only be learnt with experience - there is no other way.

[zeocen]

Some people love motorcycling but don't take to it naturally like others do.

I love motorcycles and motorcycling but I was an absolute hazard when I first hopped on, when an angry car behind me decided I was going too slow he passed me and I had a panic and went into the curb.. at like.. 4kmph. It still scared the shit out of me, my old man told me to take a 2 week holiday off, sent me off to their beach house in Whangamata and the bike in the van for a 2 week holiday just for getting to know the bike.

It was awesome! Dead streets, wide streets, I even got confident enough to do a MIGHTY 50kmph!! Looking back I wonder how on earth I was so terrible, but we all were at one point, some worse than others (I would have to have been the absolute worst of the worst). I wasn't dangerous I was just absolutely lacking in confidence.

Now I'm having a blast on my Hornet, riding any conditions, it's my sole mode of transport and I wouldn't have it any other way! I tackle rain, hail, shine, wet roads, dry roads, roads that aren't even roads.. it's great!

All you need is time, this shit doesn't come naturally to everyone, but if you work at it you'll be rewarded with good times, I know I was.

Still reckon you should sell it though, I had a GPX250 and can attest to the "wtf" suspension you're talking about. Get a naked bike ;D

[MarkH]

and was coming home from the Coro loop after a week back in the saddle when the brakes failed and I hit a car.

Geez Roz, you are not having such a good run of it are you?

I think you need to do what you can to ensure the bike is safe & road worthy, there are people on this site that can carefully check your brakes and suspension for you and reassure you that they are safe. But if it were me I would take it easy and save my pennies for a better handling bike as soon as I could afford it.

One of the interesting points raised here (and elsewhere) is that I have only been riding a couple of months and only have a few thousand K under my belt. I'm not trying to be a proper hooner, but I keep feeling like I should be better at this than I am, that I should have more experience.

Don't be in such a hurry to be better, these things take time and a couple of negative experiences would dent anyone's confidence and increase the time it takes to become comfortable on the bike (except for me, cause I'm a natural - of course). Take your time and just remember - if you can stay alive on your piece of crap, think about how well you will do once you can afford to move to a bike that handles well.

If you were able to get a bank loan I would suggest something like Toto's hornet - I have seen him ride it and know it goes fine, I would have confidence in how it rides!

Finally:
Remember - "this too shall pass"

[EatOrBeEaten]

I would definitely recomend coming over and taking one of the trail bikes out. You will panic the first few times but slowly you will find your confidence increasing.

Will do. PM sent!

sounds like your on the right track.

Dont worry about not being good/ having enough experiance etc enough, and dont get caught up too much in all the kb bs. Just get out and ride - the rest will fall into place.

I don't think it's so much the KB BS (though it is there). It's a personal thing. I'm not good at admitting to myself that I'm not as good at something as I feel I should be. So I've no problem admitting my knowledge of bike maintenance is minimal, but riding them? I think I should be better than I am, and I'm on a fine line between confidence and arrogance anyway, so to get on something I've wanted to own for a quarter of a century and be aftraid of it is extremely off-putting!

Here's another idea for you EOBE that's just occurred to me. Head down to the bucket racing next month on the Saturday (the practise day) and have a go at that. There will be a bike there that you can have a ride of, I'm sure. Speak to the guy who runs the show - he has a bike there to loan out. It will give you some time in the saddle in a safe environment on a small bike to build your confidence, and it's great fun. Who knows, you might like it so much you decide to take it up as a hobby!

Great idea- the bucket track at Ellerslie isn't far from me anyway, and it looks great fun...

Thanks again to all the advice and thoughts on this. Like zeocen the bike is all I got in terms of transport, I can't have a holiday from it so I'm just going to have to suck it up and learn to love the headstrong bitch..

[MSTRS:Me]

I don't think it's so much the KB BS (though it is there). It's a personal thing. I'm not good at admitting to myself that I'm not as good at something as I feel I should be. So I've no problem admitting my knowledge of bike maintenance is minimal, but riding them? I think I should be better than I am, and I'm on a fine line between confidence and arrogance anyway, so to get on something I've wanted to own for a quarter of a century and be aftraid of it is extremely off-putting!

There's your problem, right there.

As others have said, some of us are naturals and some are not. Either way, only saddle time will improve your skills. Get out with a mentor, have a go on Frosty's dirt bike, try the bucket thing...it will all help. And when (cos you will) you get something wrong, don't beat yourself up about it. Accept that you are still learning (aren't we all), work out what went wrong and how to avoid it in future, then get on with things.

[FROSTY:Me]

One tiny bit of final advice for ya --JUST FOR RIGHT NOW.
STOP THINKING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This isnt a standard bit of advice but after talking to you for awhile you and I think alike. You are overthinking the problem.

For a bloody good laugh read back some of my race reports from a few years back --I would beat myself up bigtime so I know what you're thinking

[Headbanger]

Sell the bike, And buy another,

A bike that has tried to kill you twice doesn't deserve another chance.


And practise stopping without using your front brake, not wanting to be too blunt but you could have avoided your last accident (merely going by the post about the incident) by standing on the rear brake and down shifting to scrub off speed....Though if it had been me I would have picked a line and nailed it....

[MarkH]

Sell the bike, And buy another,

A bike that has tried to kill you twice doesn't deserve another chance.


And practise stopping without using your front brake, not wanting to be too blunt but you could have avoided your last accident (merely going by the post about the incident) by standing on the rear brake and down shifting to scrub off speed....Though if it had been me I would have picked a line and nailed it....

I agree with buying another bike, but am unsure about the rear brake thing. In my experience when you don't have enough time to take evasive action the rear brake wont stop you fast enough. I find that I can stop MUCH faster on front only than rear only brakes and even faster on both. If the front brakes aren't working then you have no way of stopping fast unless you hit something.

[The Stranger:Me]

Sorry Stranger I disagree with you. The ZZR/er250/gpx250 have an extremely soft front end -stupid soft.

Hmm, sounds dangerously close to agreeing with me there Frosty.

Lets think this through. She did a full coro loop with no problems. So you have sorted the issue.

No sir, band aided it at best. It's sure as hell not right, significantly better perhaps - which given the starting point really isn't saying a lot.

Im pretty confident its phsycocymatic

Sure, I do agree here, but as a huge amount of riding is in the head, confidence in your bike and your gear is a huge part of it. Not happy with something - fix it. Which is what I am advocating, either by selling it or spending some money on it.

I am absolutely certain you could ride around most any problem you are likely to encounter, but that is my point. You have the experience necessary to ride around the problems.
Did you practise and emergency stop on the bike?
Not only is the suspension soft as shit, but the hydraulic control is useless.
I found as soon as the forks bottomed the front wheel locked up. This can be done quite safely from as little as 15kph, at 40kph it's real doodle to bottom the forks and lock the front wheel. It is the first bike I have ridden where I could do this at will. It's not a problem for me or you to do this, however, I wonder at it being acceptable to have a noob doing that, yet that is exactly what is going to happen if she has to do an emergency stop - like it or not!

The oil level was at 150mm and according to the manual should have been 135mm. This wouldn't have help matters for the first bin. I upped the oil grade by 2.5w, lengthened the spring spacers by 10mm and set the oil level to 130mm in the end. We could do more still, but without the correct springs and possibly emulators I sure as hell wouldn't trust it.

Anyway, that's my rant over. As always love you Frosty.

[Headbanger]

I agree with buying another bike, but am unsure about the rear brake thing. In my experience when you don't have enough time to take evasive action the rear brake wont stop you fast enough. I find that I can stop MUCH faster on front only than rear only brakes and even faster on both. If the front brakes aren't working then you have no way of stopping fast unless you hit something.

I was suggesting she practice it in the event she needs it, Not make a habit of it. Ignoring a functioning brake when you really really really need one could be a tragic mistake.

[MSTRS:Me]

Not only is the suspension soft as shit, but the hydraulic control is useless.
I found as soon as the forks bottomed the front wheel locked up.
The oil level was at 150mm and according to the manual should have been 135mm. This wouldn't have help matters for the first bin. I upped the oil grade by 2.5w, lengthened the spring spacers by 10mm and set the oil level to 130mm in the end. We could do more still, but without the correct springs and possibly emulators I sure as hell wouldn't trust it.

Is that it's big problem...the current ones are too soft?
A pair of custom springs are not that expensive. I know of others who have had a springmaker work his magic for around $150.

[FROSTY:Me]

Mstrs--the ZZR/gpz just seems to have a generic shit front end.
I remember one of the first Wensday night mentor rides telling a lady with a brand new GPX that her front was orrible.
EXACTLY the same symptom you describe stranger.
I even suggested to Shaun that he do an aftermarket suspension kit