Motorcycle Journal

Ok, I know the old saying “it is just like riding a bike”. Well let me point out that riding a motorcycle is not just like riding a bike. You just don’t hop on and go. You have to constantly ride and keep proficient in order to keep your skills up.

Too many times we see people who post on message boards that they “used to” ride about ten years ago and that they are jumping into it again with a C90, a VTX1800, a ‘Busa, a C50, a M50, or even a S40. The point I am trying to make here is not about the size of the bike, it is about staying proficient.

Here are some points I want to stress.

1. If you store your bike for the winter, do not think that when you hop back on it in the spring that your skills will be the same as you left off. They are not. Re-familiarize yourself with your bike. Go out and practice your emergency maneuvers. Take it easy in the curves and even going down the road. As much as you would like to think you are the best rider and you can pick up where you left off, you can’t……. Why do you think there are so many more accidents at the beginning of the riding season versus the end?

2. If you rode in the past as a kid on a dirt bike, it is a different animal than on the street. Don’t let a dealer talk you into a bigger bike than you need. I rode enduros and dirt bikes. Made the transition to street bikes and the dealer sold me a VL1500LC as my first street bike. Not good. But because I ride very safely and with a level head for the most part, I survived my first riding season. Bigger is not always better.

3. I hear this a lot. I rode bikes back in my younger days in the sixties, seventies, and even as late as the early nineties. I can ride, where’s my bike?

A. Guess what, traffic is worse than it used to be. A lot more people in a hurry and the incidents of Road Rage are at an all time high. It doesn’t matter if you have the right of way. They want you out of their way and a lot of the time their philosophy is they are bigger.

B. Well another thing is your skills decrease as you get older. Do yourself, your family, and the ones you care about a favor as well as fellow motorists. Take a MSF course. Get yourself good updated gear, read Proficient Motorcycling by Hough, practice locally in parking lots and build your skills close to home. My dad has finally come around to thinking that maybe he needs to take a class and get his license updated. Now if I can convince him to get rid of that 35 year old helmet and get some newer technology.

4. Just because you can balance a bike doesn’t mean you can ride a bike. Too many times noobs are to quick to want to get a bike that they can ride and hit the highways and the bi-ways. Make sure you are able to effectively maneuver at low speeds before you take it out to the streets. Then take it slow and build your abilities at a reasonable rate. If your buddies are willing to let you, as a noob, ride with them at 70-100 mph; re-think who your friends are.

5. If you have had an extended break from riding (two months or more, pretty much) then don’t be so quick to throw your bike into 2up mode. Get re-acquainted with your bike and get back to being comfortable with the bike before asking your favorite gal to go riding with you.

6. If your riding partner has been off the bike for an extended time take it slow with them until they start feeling comfortable riding with you again. Don’t rush them or you might be riding solo from that point forward.

I just wanted to remind everyone to take it easy if you have been off the bike for even as short a time as a month or two. I have noticed that some of the curves I used to scream through with the Intruder 1500 last fall, I now see myself slowing through the turn on the Wee-Strom, which is a heck of a lot more maneuverable than the LC.

I am taking it slow myself, I want to live to ride another day, when my proficiency is back up then I might take that curve a few miles faster than I am right now. But for now I am happy just getting out and re-acquainting myself with my bike.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 2:27 am and is filed under Motorcycles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.