New rider.... | GTAMotorcycle.com

New rider....

jocelyn909

New member
Hi everyone - so I am just recently getting into this. I got my M2 in July 2017. Did the whole motorcycle course.

I won't lie, I wasn't great but wasn't terrible. I managed but I find myself not that confident...yet. I am always worried that I am going to stall the bike even just sitting at an intersection and in the back of the mind I'm like don't stall.

The time has come now and I will be buying a sports bike...either the R3 or the Ninja 400. I don't intend to go start riding on the highway yet but first practicing on residential streets then parking lots. However, I was wondering how everyone dealt with their first time nerves getting on that bike and feeling comfortable enough to ride on the streets.
 
Hi everyone - so I am just recently getting into this. I got my M2 in July 2017. Did the whole motorcycle course.

I won't lie, I wasn't great but wasn't terrible. I managed but I find myself not that confident...yet. I am always worried that I am going to stall the bike even just sitting at an intersection and in the back of the mind I'm like don't stall.

The time has come now and I will be buying a sports bike...either the R3 or the Ninja 400. I don't intend to go start riding on the highway yet but first practicing on residential streets then parking lots. However, I was wondering how everyone dealt with their first time nerves getting on that bike and feeling comfortable enough to ride on the streets.
Start out in parking lots that are empty and clean. Practice emergency scenarios in your head...like stalling with an impatient car behind you honking the horn. Have someone do it to you. Always remain calm. Move onto side streets from there. Stay clear of the highways 'til you've mastered your bike on the streets...you'll know this when you begin to get bored. Watch out for wet railway / streetcar tracks. Watch out for minivans, they often contain stressed out / distracted moms with yelling kids. When you are driving your car, pretend you are riding so you develop that spidey sense that keeps us all alive. Stay out of blind spots. Use your throttle to get yourself out of trouble...speed is your friend... use it to grab your own piece of realestate on the road. If you know any friends with dirtbikes it's the best practice you can get to become a great street rider. It's great for building confidence. YouTube "how to pick up a motorcycle" so you know what to do should you drop it.

There's a few things. Welcome :)
 
Hey I'm in the same situation as you.
Just got a Ninja 300 recently, rode it twice so far whenever the weather permits.

Riding on the streets was pretty stressful compared to the safe parking lot environment we did our M2 in.

On my day 1, I stuck to residential roads only with signs posted at 40km/h max. I took it out at times where there were little to no traffic.

Day 2 I practiced what I did in day 1 and afterwards I went on roads posted at 50km/h max (lucky for me I live right by these zones).

What I did was watch a crap ton of youtube videos on safe riding techniques, clutch, shifting.
I would say the first thing you should do is embed the clutch feel into your muscle memory by doing it over and over again 100 times on flat, up and down hill terrain.

I also wrote down scenarios for me to play in my head for me to practice on the road and I would practice those over and over again.

Hopefully my day 3 will be riding on 60km/h posted zones with some traffic.
I've got no experience other than the safety course for motorcycling..

Better to progress slow than to throw myself into something I'm not ready for.


Also if you're thinking of getting a Ninja 300 or 400, the clutch is super easy to use. I stalled an unbelievable amount of times on my safety course on the Grom, CBR250, but haven't stalled a single time on the Ninja 300. The slipper clutch really works magical wonders, it's really beginner friendly!

Keep us posted on your progression!
 
I planned a direct route to an industrial area close to where I lived at the time in North Mississauga. Went out early on a Sunday when traffic was light. Planned it so I had to make very few turns to get there (most were right-hand turns).
Started practicing in a factory parking lot and eventually moved onto the side streets. Again, focused on right hand turns and learning the inputs of the bike.
Once I was confident with the controls, I practiced left-hand turns.
Did a lot of starting and stopping and slow speed maneuvers.
Finally, when I got over the initial “excitement”, I hit the main roads and never looked back.
It takes a bit to get used to cars around you the first few times out.
Lots of good advice in the posts above. You will be fine.
 
You don’t mention how old you are or how much car driving experience... There’s a level of situational awareness needful in traffic. Especially more so on a motorcycle where the result of a collision is that much more severe than in a car. Parking lot practice will help with friction zone clutch skills and the other important skill is counter-steering/push-turning as the speed picks up more than a walking pace - this is what felt ‘funny’ for me back when I was new rider.

Hold your ground, don’t let other car drivers push you (they will). Keep situational awareness of all the traffic up ahead, behind, everywhere. Keep an eye out for the risky situations they mentioned on your course (left turning drivers).

Here’s some begiiner routes to try: http://www.wingnutty.ca/

Welcome to GTAM
 
Don't over think it. Just ride. You have the basics from the course so just apply them on the street. Seat time is your friend. The more time you spend riding the quicker you will become comfortable. Btw, in my opinion the safest and easiest place to ride is the highway. Fewer thing to be concerned with. Basically I'm saying you will be fine. Don't worry too much, just ride.

Hi everyone - so I am just recently getting into this. I got my M2 in July 2017. Did the whole motorcycle course.

I won't lie, I wasn't great but wasn't terrible. I managed but I find myself not that confident...yet. I am always worried that I am going to stall the bike even just sitting at an intersection and in the back of the mind I'm like don't stall.

The time has come now and I will be buying a sports bike...either the R3 or the Ninja 400. I don't intend to go start riding on the highway yet but first practicing on residential streets then parking lots. However, I was wondering how everyone dealt with their first time nerves getting on that bike and feeling comfortable enough to ride on the streets.
 
What everyone said, ride your bike, watch out for the idiots...if you can find a parking lot, practice the m1 exit exercises on your new bike...it will be very different than your course bike if you get a 3/400 sportish bike.
At the back of this book you will find a bunch of exercises that are very much like your course.
have fun

http://www.msf-usa.org/downloads/street_motorcycle_tips.pdf
 
I won't lie, I wasn't great but wasn't terrible. I managed but I find myself not that confident...yet. I am always worried that I am going to stall the bike even just sitting at an intersection and in the back of the mind I'm like don't stall.

I had a very similar situation. I had no real prior motorcycle experience and the first time on a real bike was at the training course. I wasn't getting it and it wasn't going smoothly as I expect, but I really enjoyed it anyway. I must have been one of the worst one's at the course and I really believe they just past me any way.

It didn't deter me anyhow. I went an bough a bike. Watched a ton of Youtube vides and Ride like a Pro stuff. For me the right videos actually showed you the clutch position as they throttled. Instead of hearing about it could see it.

Once I had the bike I just puttered around my neighbourhood, just practicing 1st gear and clutch until I stopped stalling. 1st was really my biggest headache so I practice this and the clutch "friction zone" or riding the clutch. After this mostly everything else is much easier. I moved over to a industrial area to practice moving up in gears, 2nd, then third, adding more speed. During all of this I was also doing slow speed manoeuvring, simple U turn, left turn, right turn, full U turn, in and out of parking lots stuff. Things you would use all the time.Then slowly I moved onto a main road, real intersections, then more and more.

I still haven't gone onto any 400 series highways yet, kind avoiding them at the moment. But country highways no problem, and I found this great to practice other things away from the nonsense of the city.

You will get there, find what works for you, good luck!
 
Fwiw I hate highways and avoid them when I can. I can get pretty much anywhere I want on secondary roads. (I don't commute on the bike though, so I take my time).
Many of the worries are just in your head.
Get to a parking lot and practice.
What part of the city are you in?
And welcome to the forum!

Sent from the purple GTAMotorcycle.com mobile app
 
Hi everyone - so I am just recently getting into this. I got my M2 in July 2017. Did the whole motorcycle course.

I won't lie, I wasn't great but wasn't terrible. I managed but I find myself not that confident...yet. I am always worried that I am going to stall the bike even just sitting at an intersection and in the back of the mind I'm like don't stall.

The time has come now and I will be buying a sports bike...either the R3 or the Ninja 400. I don't intend to go start riding on the highway yet but first practicing on residential streets then parking lots. However, I was wondering how everyone dealt with their first time nerves getting on that bike and feeling comfortable enough to ride on the streets.

Some very good advice in this thread.

Currently i'm going through this with my GF as she did the course last fall and picked up a bike at the end of the season. It got too cold to do more then a few short sessions so once it warms up about mid-April we'll be in the parking lots again building her confidence.

If you or anyone else would like to join us drop me a private message, I'm happy to help anyone out. We're in North York.

I started on an R3, awesome bike.
 
Yup, practice makes perfect. Gain confidence in the lot first, before you hit the streets. Better to start with a used starter bike. Once you get a handle on the friction zone, it's relatively easier after that. Key is to learn how to ride slow, then riding faster would be a piece of cake.

I feel this lack of confidence issue is because of automatic cars. I learned to drive on a standard transmission and had no problems with the friction zone on the bike. Same concept.
 
Industrial areas (isolated/segregated industrial parks, even better, if you're near to one) on weekends is are your friends right now - real roads, but much less traffic on the weekends, and often lots of buildings with large empty and quiet parking lots that you can practice on.
 
Lots of great advice in this thread already. The one thing I'll reinforce is @FLSTC's point about not letting car drivers push you around. Know which tyre track you should be in to both be seen, and not allow cars to "share" your lane with you, because he's right, they will. When I drive a car, I'm pretty laid back, but not on my bike.

But most of all, relax, get comfortable with your new bike (congrats!), you're in for a world of fun! I felt exactly the way you did when I first got my licence, had zero experience. But I took the same approach you are, and I absolutely love riding now! Welcome!
 
I've helped more than a few friends who were new to riding build their confidence on the road so I'll share what I did. Only you will know if it works for you. I would go meet them at their place and tell them to ride wherever they wanted, at any speed they were comfortable doing, stop as often as they needed to and I would ride behind them in the blocking position to keep cars from getting close to them. If they stalled, I waited and blocked the traffic for them or directed the traffic around us until they were able to restart the bike and pull away safely. We would stick to low traffic areas until they were comfortable and then build up slowly. Over the course of 3-5 rides like this their confidence grew to the point where they were comfortable in just about any situation. Having someone behind you giving you a buffer between you and the general traffic can be very calming. If you have any friends who ride, ask if they will do this for you.
 
First time I rolled my bike off the back of truck, I tried to take it for a quick ride around the block. Probably stalled 15 times in my driveway, and ran all the stop signs so I didn't have to come to a complete stop.

Second time I rode it, 6pm on a Friday night in June 2016, I was going to ride it to a big parking lot 10 or 15km away from my house. Probably stalled 3 or 4 times on the way there, only to just do a big circle around the parking lot and leave. Not enough of an attention span to ride around a parking lot. Stalled once leaving the parking lot, and now I've maybe stalled the bike 2 or 3 times since then, mostly due to the choke. I find playing around in traffic fun. I'd take riding downtown over a straight country road any day. A supermoto is more of a city bike though.

The DRZ doesn't really like above 115kph, so I try to stay off the highways. If I am I usually am just going up one or two exits. First long drive was up the 115 and then east to head to the cottage. Even during 'rush hour' thats a pretty chill road to cruise on. That would be a good road to get used to the speed on.

Sundays are the best days to find a lot to practice in. Most business parks are empty on Sunday, or atleast for me those there don't care about wheelies and stuff.
 
you may find when you start riding your own bike you'll stall less, you'll get use to its particular 'engagement' point. It will probably be less pooched than the clutch on a bike that sees a new pilot every weekend.
you should be able to slowly let the clutch out and get the bike rolling with no throttle, on a level surface, this will teach you where the clutch begins to engage and how fast or slowly to release it.

Everybody has already said it , stick to quiet side streets till you get comfortable, with no cars behind you just practice pulling over to the side, stopping and getting going again. It becomes a reflex pretty quick.

And dont be afraid to take the time to be comfortable, the traffic behind you can wait, the blowing horns wont hurt you.
 
As many others here have said. Relax, don`t worry. Everybody has to start from somewhere.

Next time somebody blows a horn, get off your bike, ask them to start the bike whilst you blow their horn. Lol, of course.
Tbh, I have found that most cagers are patient. Enjoy the bike, the perfect moment will come.
 
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Lots of good advice. As your confidence increases remember to ride your own ride as you build your skill level. The first 2 years of riding is, statistically, a relatively dangerous period for new riders. Don't get sucked into trying to keep up with others, ride at your own pace.
 
Suggestion: It looks like you are looking at small displacement new bikes with fairings. The small displacement part of it is good, the "new" and "fairings" parts of it are not. Get something small, used, cheap, and naked. Dual purpose bikes are good (no fairings). Used bike with fairings already scratched and cracked, and therefore CHEAP, is good. Ninja 250 is a great starter bike.

Beginner bikes are easy to sell a year down the road after you have some experience.

My first bike was a used 1984 Honda 450 Nighthawk. I bought it for $1600 in 1988 and sold it for $1300 in 1989.
 

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