How'd you learn to ride a motorcycle?

[Stig / Major Tom]

Happened upon a youtube video of people taking their first ride on a motorcycle.
Ghastly , ghastly stuff!
They hit curbs, trees, fences, cars & trucks, buildings, people, rocks, ditches, ....etc., etc.
Some even tried their first ride with a passenger on the pillion! Amazing.
Some started on a curve, some at an intersection, in a small fenced yard, in a small walled parking lot.
 
Just the worst places you can imagine - with absolutely no forethought from those who should have known better. The poor novice operator had to get it all sorted very, very quickly or he was going to meet an obstacle very soon. Of course most never got off the throttle when they got in trouble - or found the clutch, or a brake lever.

There was a lot of just hanging on to a runaway vehicle until it came to a painful stop - against something.

I honestly do not remember how I learned to ride a motorcycle in Los Angeles in 1967....so maybe that is a good sign that I, the student, and whomever, the instructor - did things correctly....or at least with no major injuries to self or bike.

I do know that the basic MSF course I took with my son a couple of summers ago went off without a single incident among any of the students. Several had never sat a bike before in their lives. Some of these were women.
No one dropped a bike, or collided with anything....and only one failed the course. (sure there were a few thousand stalls - but they were loaner bikes!)
I put all of this down to our very, very good instructors. There was a lot of classroom "chalk talk" , videos, and much time sitting the bikes before we ever explored where the clutch engaged --- and more time after that before we were ever allowed to fully release the clutch & roll off under power on to an unused Air Guard runway.

Your experiences?
Stig

[de dee]

 1948  WITH A RCMP HARLEY 74,  my buddy got a nice birthday gift from his dad ,( bribery)  trying to get him to join up in  the police force,  like father like son,  got his training from the police instructor, and he showed me what he did ,  it came easy for me as I rode my bike around the mountain roads for a few years before,  so I had good balance,. back in those days drivers Lic. is all we needed for moter bikes,  when I was in montreal que.  air force base,  road my buddys bike for a little while ,.  show him what the police training was,like,  then in 1993  took a coarse and got a bike Lic.  road my sons bike after he lost his Lic from speeding ,  650 Yamaha,  2010  took another coarse what a difference ,  and bought my own scooter,  downtown 300i,  2016  bought a frost- yager 200i  now praying for spring,.  de dee

[pipster326]

I bought a beat-up 2008 Lance Venice 150cc scooter, from my neighbor for $100, about 3 years ago. Like the videos,Stig watched, almost took out,said neighbors fence,as it was my first time on any type of motorized bike. Got my permit and started out in the Walmart parking lot, until I felt comfortable,before going on small rides around town. Did that for a good 6 months, before I moved up to the DT300i. Took the MSF course,this past July, and really liked riding the manual transmission bike. So now I am looking at a Kawasaki Vulcan S or new Honda Rebel CMX500, as companion for the DT. I know that I am fairly new, to riding, but I just love going out on rides, long or short. Counting down the days till spring!!!!

  Rich


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[xsel777]

I decided 3 years back that petrol for my Nissan xtrail was just getting too much, so I sold it, and having done some research on Scooters I got a Grand Vista 250 sight unseen.
A shop was selling it on consignment and they said it was fine, the rings done by them the year before.
I took a riding course so I could pass the driving test, money well spent.

Anyways, this gv had oil usage  issues. I had no issues with driving it at wot, so I definately added to it's problems.
I was a fairly proficient rider from the get go, as I had ridden bicycles all of my youth.
I dropped it once, still getting the handle on having the foot out ready for when stopping...😀
But just one quick story about this fall.
I used Q-BOND (super glue and powder) to fix the mirror which broke in the fall.
I was filing the compound down, mirror mounted on scoot, and inadvertently pushed the scoot over, breaking the same mirror again! Some new swear words were invented that day!
The neighbours came out  of their houses to inspect this spectacle, because I went totally ballistic for about  10 minutes.......

Moving on....

I traded the gv in for the XC 500 and haven't looked back since.
To get into scooters was my second best decision ever.
The first was my life partner(in case she reads this post)


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[CROSSBOLT]

You have all seen this before on here in bits and pieces so I respond to Stig's question with the whole tamale! I was about 7 years ahead of Stig and I was in San Diego with my first motorcycle, a Honda Hawk 250 (domestic) which was bought in Yokosuka (pronounced yo-koos-ka), Japan in 1960 just before the ship headed home to the land of buried plumbing, sit-down toilets and wide streets. Like the rest of you, I had ridden bicycles so this was just heavier and faster. I listened to all the "old hands" and got things like "never touch that front brake" and "I got inna jam and had to lay 'er down." Found out on my own that both of those were wrong and stopped listening to such. About '67 Yamaha put on this "rider course" for non-riders in the SD stadium parking lot. They were trying to catch up with "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" and were using experienced riders to teach folks how to ride on Yamaha supplied 50 and 70 cc bikes. Since all of the "instructors" were self-taught there were about a hunnert different approaches to the mission, mostly successful with some spectacular exceptions. One in particular was a middle aged woman bee-lining to the southeast screaming something about how to stop! She was landed unscathed by what looked like a human net of instructors grabbing bike and rider with about 70 pairs of hands. She refused another try. But that was the beginning for a lot of folks to be bitten by the bug of two wheels. All "instructors" got a T-shirt and I wore mine until it fell off. Had a 305 Yamaha and restored a 1955 BSA 650, rode all the bikes about 20000 miles and hung it up in 77 because of a company car  and an expense account. Forty years later we got a couple of 50s, then 150s and then attended MSF Basic rider course in the Tampa are when I was attending RV Tech school. This was about 2009 or 10 and this was the FIRST time I really had some proper instruction. Went into that BRC with the attitude of listen and learn. It worked! Those two guys had a good course, knew it well and taught well. Young girls who never drove a manual shift anything were doing really well on Honda 200 cc 5-speeds. One guy went down when he locked up the front wheel on the quick stop and two older women failed the test 'cause they were too slow in the timed corners. One of them did pass the re-take but she is STILL to slow in the corners! MSF is like flight school: it teaches you to stay mentally ahead of the situation as well as staying visible. Honestly, I do not know how I survived the early years with all the bum steers I got when starting out.

Karl

[Stig / Major Tom]

Interesting (and entertaining) reading Karl!
Thanks for posting.
Stig

[Tiny]

Car was just sitting collecting dust and sucking up money for insurance so I convinced the wife that I should sell it and get a scooter(150cc of course). Day I picked up my new scooter it was lightly raining and I got 10 meters from the shop and hit a Streetcar track at the wrong angle and dropped the scooter braking the right side mirror.  My first true riding experience. I really learned to ride by doing it thats it.

[GLV55]

Three years ago, my wife and I were walking in downtown Boise one Spring day and happened upon Scooters of Boise (yes, that's a shameless plug for our wonderful dealer). We went in just out of curiosity and, long story short, we both ended up with a scooter - hers: a new Lance Havana Classic 125; mine: a slightly used Kymco People 150. Our dealer strongly recommended the MSF course since we were newby riders. We rode (slowly) around the shopping center parking lot 1/4 mile from our house just to get used to the feel of the scooters. Two weeks later, we took the fist available MSF Safety course and got our motorcycle endorsements. This is our first time on any two-wheelers, and we love it. We are "born later" riders loving life on our scooters. On another note, it's very easy for us to tell just by watching other riders, who has had a safety course with professional training and who hasn't. I think it should be mandatory for anyone who rides on two wheels.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Three years ago, my wife and I were walking in downtown Boise one Spring day and happened upon Scooters of Boise (yes, that's a shameless plug for our wonderful dealer). We went in just out of curiosity and, long story short, we both ended up with a scooter - hers: a new Lance Havana Classic 125; mine: a slightly used Kymco People 150. Our dealer strongly recommended the MSF course since we were newby riders. We rode (slowly) around the shopping center parking lot 1/4 mile from our house just to get used to the feel of the scooters. Two weeks later, we took the fist available MSF Safety course and got our motorcycle endorsements. This is our first time on any two-wheelers, and we love it. We are "born later" riders loving life on our scooters. On another note, it's very easy for us to tell just by watching other riders, who has had a safety course with professional training and who hasn't. I think it should be mandatory for anyone who rides on two wheels.

I visited the website of Scooters of Boise....and the site for Veronica's Scooter shop.
Pretty cool to have two scooter shops in your city.
And one of your shops just does rentals and servicing? You can even rent shop space for DIY servicing. Their prices for scooter servicing seem very reasonable. I can get dealer warranty work done here for all major brands of scooters made by motorcycle companies....but prices are through the roof, with long wait times. Not far away is a Vespa dealer. (which is like visiting a Bentley dealer)
Anyway, what you have in Boise is Pretty cool - I am envious.
Would be interested to hear more about your experiences with your scooter shops.
Stig

[GLV55]

I visited the website of Scooters of Boise....and the site for Veronica's Scooter shop.
Pretty cool to have two scooter shops in your city....Anyway, what you have in Boise is Pretty cool - I am envious.
Would be interested to hear more about your experiences with your scooter shops.
Stig

Boise and the Treasure Valley is a great place to live. Scooters are starting to catch on pretty well around here (finally), but mostly the 49cc bikes for buzzing around the metro area. Scooters Of Boise (S.O.B.) is a full service shop selling the full line of SYM and Buddy/Stella scooters and has a service department as well. (They previously sold Kymco, but were just having too many issues with their NW area rep. Getting SYM parts doesn't seem to be a problem - I had to replace my front brake assembly (under warrantee) and they had the new parts in 3 days.

S.O.B. is owned by two ladies, Kathy and Kitty, and their sales guy is Ryan, who is fantastic. He's the one who steered us (no pun intended?) to the correct scooters for us and made sure we were getting the best fit for our riding needs, not trying to up-sell us or put any pressure on the sale. All the scooter buyers there are treated like family by them.

I haven't had any direct dealings with Veronica Scooters, since they mainly rent the 49cc scoots. However, one of my former students bought herself a Honda Metropolitan after renting one from VS. She loved her experience and just had to have one (I taught her well).

[Tromper]

1st time, on my uncle's farm with a little white Honda 100 of some sort.
2nd time, bought an old Jawa moped and rode it 'til it blew up.
Most recently (many moons ago), took the class and bought a Burgman 650, & rode the wheels off it.

[Scooter Dan]

As a young teen ager I rode my bicycle several miles to a local shopping center in Stanton, Delaware. Sears had a detached auto tire, oil and lube shop that also had a small retail section and sold mopeds. I'd take their mopeds riding all day long around the parking lot and never got caught. I guess you could say Sears taught me how to ride by providing me a free bike to use. Funny, never remember running out of gas.

[Scooter Dan]

As a young teen ager I rode my bicycle several miles to a local shopping center in Stanton, Delaware. Sears had a detached auto tire, oil and lube shop that also had a small retail section and sold mopeds. They parked them outside during the day as I'd take their mopeds riding all day long around the parking lot and never got caught. I guess you could say Sears taught me how to ride by providing me a free bike to use. Funny, never remember running out of gas.

[manoverboard]

OK, I know I'm an old fart, but growing in the 50's my neighbor 2 houses down raced dirt track. Every time he fired the bike up was like a siren call to me. I ran over to watch him tune and tinker. Best part was letting me sit on it. I remember to this day his words of wisdom to me about the Murphys Law of Motorcycle Riding: the one piece of protective gear you fail to wear will be the one part of your body that will be injured! At age 11 I found a minibike that wasn't running and was thrown away. Well, within a day (with the help of my racer neighbor) it was running. Within 2 days it was gone. My parents were anti- motorcycle, and my Dad sold it when I was in school. Not to be deterred in my teens I rode a lot of my buddies bikes. And at one point had my own, but kept it at a friends house. I almost got caught by my parents a few times when I was riding it because of being a small town and not many roads. I moved out of the house at 18 and have had many, many bike since then. Still makes me smile inside when I'm riding....

[wheels]

'75 bought a new Yamaha RD350.
Guess you could say I learned by reading most of the cycle magazines.
They had riding articles by Hurt, Condon and a few others.

In '14 I broke my lower leg bones on a dirt 250cc bike.  Never wanted to ride in
the dirt, after the fourth day bike slipped in the mud and down I went.  My mistake
, should have kept the power on but tried slowing down with the bike fishtailing in
a deep ATV rutted trail.
I took my first dirt riding course after that, lol, waste of money.  Got rid of the
bike after my riding group decided not to ride the T.A.T.

Honda gives out a booklet on riding techniques and drill routines.   Newbies and Oldies
should definitely do the drills, especially if you haven't ridden in a while.