Why Beginners should buy a cheaper used bike - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

aajones · 04-25-2004, 08:59 PM

I have never ridden in my life and because of finance options and such I decided to get a brand new bike (2004 Katana 600).

Well after purchasing I had an experienced rider ride it out of the dealership and we went back to where he had parked. In the parking lot him and some other friends who rode were showing me the basics of getting started.

I have ridden 4 wheelers and had the misperception that a motorcycle was similiar but quickly found out that I was dead wrong. For some reason I thought it would be similar to an automatic and you put it in gear and hit the gas but it isn't. It's like a standard and the first gear can be tricky for a beginner for no experience.

We decided that a bigger parking lot was in order since the one we were in was extremely small. So my friend rode the bike to a new parking lot and we started over again. I watched a couple friends start out in first gear.

People explain getting the bike going by saying you have to ease off the clutch and hit the gas at the same time and explain it that way. I have driven a standard car for years though so an easier way for newbies to have it explained is to push the gas (very lightly) and then ease off the clutch which is a little different then the way most people explain of easing off the clutch and pushing the gas.... start by pushing the gas and then ease off the clutch.

I also learned why people say to start out with a 250cc bike or maybe a 500cc bike. The Katana 600 is not a GSX-R or anything like that but it still has a lot of power and the gas is extremely sensitive which for someone who's never been on a bike before you can imagine trying to ease off the clutch and not gun the gas.... Anyone who hasn't ever ridden needs to either get in a class or buy a smaller bike.

Well back to the story of my first day riding.

I finally got it in first and was riding through the empty parking lot learning to turn and learning to maneuver the bike and gear up, etc... when a couple of my friends had to head out. The last friend with me lives about 100 yards from a school with a parking lot so he drove my bike over to his house and then I took it up to that parking lot to tool around with and get more familiar.

Everything was going great. I learned how to start and stop with few problems and learned how to turn and maneuver. While learning though I realized there were a few things I need to practice. I learned that on right turns I had a tendency to gas it a little since the gas is on the right. I also learned that starting is tricky until you get the hang of it and turning is tricky until you get the hang of it. I realized that even though I could do these seperately I might have problems combining the two. I realized that if I were stopped at a stop sign or light and had to turn right I might have problems, so I decided to practice.

I found the end lane of one of the ailes (spelling?) and was pretending it was the street where the stop sign was and the cross lane was going to be the street I was turing right onto.

Here's some lessons I learned:

1. Even when you are in a fairly safe environment (like a parking lot) you have to be aware of all your surroundings and if you are new and don't know your limitations then be extra extra aware.

To expand on this lesson let me give you the scenario. I kept practicing and practicing and became aware that this was something that was difficult for me. I realized that I had a tendency to gas the bike a little too much when I went into the turn.

There was a dumpster about 20-30 feet in front of me (I'm sure most of you are seeing where this is going). I went to practice a turn and gassed it a little too much and went barrelling towards the dumpster but I realized I could stop in time and I went to hit the front brake but because I was in a hurry and panicked I revved the gas even more and realized I wasn't going to be able to stop so I turned until I was angling to the right of the dumpster and hit my breaks hard hoping I was at an angel to miss the dumpster but I didn't miss. Fortunately I had angled enough to only hit the left side of my bike but the dumpster didn't even slow me down and now I wasn't thinking about the dumpster but the brick wall which was about 10 feet or so behind the dumpster and coming at me 3D like... I realized I couldn't stop (new tires suck) so I figured I could hopefully turn and miss the wall or at least have it to where there was little impact so I turned hard which leads into the 2nd lesson.

2. How to lay the bike.

I know many people who talk about laying their bike down and have read about having to do it in order to avoid a collision that would be more dangerous then laying the bike (like hitting a brick wall head on). I know the concept of counter-steering which I learned while practicing and basically for those who don't know if you need to turn your bike the key is to lean it and the best way to do this is as follows. If you are wanting to go right then you would push the right grip of your handle bar and if you wanted to go left then you would push your left handle bar. In relation to your tires though this is counter steering. You steer right to go left and vice versa. This isn't the best way to steer at slow speeds but is the best to steer at higher speeds. Anyways back to the lesson of how to lay your bike down. While flying towards the wall I steared hard right (meaning I pushed my left grip as hard as I could to point my tires right) and at the same time I pulled my brake as hard as I could. My bike immediately fell over on the left (so I didn't damage my exhaust) and nearly immediately stopped.

I didn't hit the wall and when I picked my bike up I realized there was minimal damage on it. All the damage was cosmetic and besides a broken reflector there wasn't really anything that bad. A few scratches.

This story is a waste for most experienced riders but for any new folks wanting to learn to ride take it from someone who found out the hard way and go get a cheap used bike to learn on. I got lucky in the fact that after all that (hitting a metal dumpster and laying my bike down) I only had a few scratches. It could have been a lot worse.

I also suggest educating yourself. I've been reading Motorcycle Proficiency by David Hough and actually read the motorcycle handbook by the DMV and got my learners permit and I've signed up for a MSF beginners course (unfortunately they are so full where I live I'm not going to get to take one for 2 months so it'll probably be 2 months before I actually get out on the road but parking lots will be busy until then..lol..)

If I hadn't done any reading though ahead of time then who knows how bad the accident could have been. The reading is what explained counter-steering and such to me. It also made me panick less then I could have and there are several things I did that probably saved me from serious injury. Protective gear is REALLY REALLY important. Even though I was in a parking lot and not going fast when I hit that dumpster I had a lot of momentum because of gassing the bike and when I hit the pavement it was hard enough to scratch my helmet and hard enough to put marks on my hands that were protected by riding gloves. Even if you are in a controlled environment don't think that you can leave your helmet or protective gear off.