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Originally Posted by Salshun I myself have never ridden a bike, but I would love to learn. The biggest concern I would have is learning to shift. I also heard that it's tricky when you have front and rear brakes knowing which ones to use and when. Also having a 250 with that much body work is cool. I know it's not the point I would want a bike with the cool fender work. It seems that most of the smaller bikes look like dirt bikes with no real body on them. |
Sorry, couple days behind the FSR, but figured I'd respond to this.
The hardest part of riding a bike is not shifting, or high speed manuevering, or braking. It's driving it at low speeds in parking lots and stop n go traffic. The most important skill you need to learn if you want to get a bike is "slipping the clutch." Basically at low speeds it's impossible to smoothly control your bike if you're just using the throttle, or throttle and clutch. You basically ride the clutch at an engine speed 2-3 times idle, and use the rear brake to control speed. It allows for far better control and stability. This is the kind of shit that's boring to learn and takes awhile to get used to, and people who skip courses tend to suck ass handling their bike at low speed, which is why so many happy assholes drop their bike.
Overall with a sport bike it's not hard to pick which brake to use: your front all the time, every time. Seriously, 90%+ of your braking power will be coming from the front, the rear is next to useless. And shifting a bike is far easier, IMO, than a car other than remembering what gear you're in at any one time.
But yeah, I've only got maybe 2000 km on my bike (2005 Yamaha R6), 700 from one trip to Jasper alone, and it still scares the piss out of me when I really open it up. And I have no idea what the cornering limit is on it, not even close. I've taken it out a couple times this year, but considering we got nailed with 18" of snow in mid-April, there's gravel and sand fucking everywhere and it's dangerous as hell. Already one dude dead, and several severely injured in Edmonton, and bike season just barely started.
I was thinking of going out and trying it on a track this year, but I think I'll wait until next year so hone my skills a bit more. Plus I don't feel like flushing the coolant and changing it to water.
I would highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend you take a course somewhere that teaches you the basics of riding a bike. Considering how fucking dangerous they are, it's stupid not to spend a few hundred bucks and a weekend learning how to handle one. The one I took even had it set up so that at the end of the second day you could do your road test. Half my class either didn't take the test because they knew they'd fail, or they outright failed. Some people just ARE NOT ever meant to ride a bike. They are just so poorly coordinated that worrying about a clutch, throttle, two brakes, shifter, and steering is just too much for them. They supplied the bikes (150/250 dual purpose and cruisers), and within 10 minutes of people hopping on bikes the first day, 6 of 20 or so had dropped them.
