I just took the motorcycle safety class, and successfully completed it and am now licensed to drive a motorcycle. That’s just fucking insane, because although the class was great and took a guy who had never driven a stick shift car and made him relatively competent on a motorcycle in two half day classes, I just don’t feel like the test was sufficient to say, “Yes, you are capable of driving on the roads”. Especially because I stalled out while doing the figure eights, and have never gone higher than second gear.
So, now what?
I feel like heading out on the road would be nuts. I just don’t feel that confident yet. So, how did any of you guys get from dangerous, yet licensed, to competent and confident?
Some lessons I learned.
Never assume a car sees you.
Always become concerned when a car is positioned to make a left turn in front of you. (assume #1 above)
Always watch the front tire of a car beside you. You’ll see the tire turn slightly if the driver begins to merge into your lane.
Get rid of the squeaky horn, get a real air horn… that wakes ‘em up.
Never speed.
Always wear a helmet.
Never ride in the grease in the center of the lane.
Avoid wet pavement.
Always slow down for an intersection, even if you have the green light.
Don’t just use your mirrors to see traffic beside you -TURN YOUR HEAD-
Practice, practice, practice, and don’t go beyond your boundaries of feeling safe. If you don’t feel safe going faster than 40 mph, stay on local streets until you are. If you don’t feel safe going around turns yet, take them slow until you get the feel of leaning.
Don’t let others (be it other motorcyclists in a group ride or tailgating car drivers) dictate how you ride. Yield and give way and assume that 75% of the drivers out there don’t see you, and 5% of those that do actually would like to run you off the road.
And wear your safety gear, starting with a full face helmet and gloves. If/when you fall, you will stick your hands out to catch yourself, and bare hands + pavement = really, really painful, ugly and generally easily avoided injuries. (I’ve ripped up a pair of gloves taking a pavement dive at 20 mph, and was VERY glad it was the gloves and not my palms/fingers).
And as for the full face helmet – check this out and decide if “looking cool” in a beanie and sunglasses, or (if your locality permits) even riding with just a bandana or do-rag, is worth the loss of your face if you take a dive.
The number one thing you can do to improve riding skill is to get a small dirt bike (the lighter the better) and practice riding offroad. There really isn’t anything better for improving your bike control skills. In fact, historically many top grand prix road racers have come from dirt track backgrounds. This is how I came into riding, myself. I grew up riding minibikes in dirt and graduating to the street wasn’t that big a deal.
Number two is to practice as frequently as you can. Studies have shown that people learn faster and retain knowledge better when they have frequent, short lessons rather than a few long ones. If you’re not comfortable on the street, then work on your safety course drills in an empty parking lot. Stick to quieter side streets and back roads. But get out there every day if you can. Once you get comfortable on the bike, commuting is a good way to sharpen skills because it gets you on the road often, and in various riding conditions.
This is important, it will save your life.
Before you make any move to switch lanes, or turn, make one last check over your shoulder to the side you are moving.
It is surprising just how much is missing from your mirrors, you can very easily lose a SUV in the blind spot, you look in the mirror, it seems clear, but for some reason you check over your shoulder - 'Holy shit! how come I never saw that ?
But, with just this class under my belt, and therefore 10 hours (about 25% of which was actually spent riding rather than standing on a bike), am I ready to actually head out on the road? I feel like a 17 year old first time driver again!
If you live in a quiet neighborhood where you can drive on streets where people are not going more than 30 mph, you should be okay.
I have had mortorcycles and my opinion is they are dangerous, I’m sure they have a higher accident rate than four wheel vehicles, although somebody could prove me wrong. Most of the problems come because many drivers are only looking out for cars and trucks, and fail to see motorcycles. They will see, for example, that their lane is block up ahead, and do a hasty lane change right into your bike.
Hey, I live in (or near, rather) SF too, and I just got a new bike as well. Granted, I’m not as new to the sport as you (had three months practice up in WA), but it was recent enough that I think I can provide some advice.
Find a large parking lot and practice to your heart’s content there. It’s what I did for days. I was lucky in that my father (who also rides) was able to ride the bike to the practice area, while I followed in the car, where we would then switch off.
Of course, it sounds your situation is a bit different, so make sure to find the easiest route from your house to whatever parking lot you decide on. Also, don’t worry about cars behind you; your safety is the most important thing right now, so don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with yet. Remember, you can always pull off the road if you need to take a breather.
Your first few times on the street will be quite nerve-racking, but that’s a good thing! Just remember to always look where you’re going, and not directly in front of the bike. It sounds cliche, but god damn is it true. You go where you look, so don’t freak out and look at what you might hit, otherwise you WILL hit it.
Start scoping out large, mostly-empty parking lots, then. Think church parking lots during the week, or movie theater lots early in the morning. Plenty of room to move around, some objects to avoid, and you can go as slowly and deliberately as you need in order to feel comfortable.
I recommend the book “Proficient Motorcycling” by David Hough. The chapter on delayed apex turning would help at least 80% of the riders I have observed.
Your greatest threat is from cages. You need to develop what I have heard refered to as “spider sense”. You need to be thinking of what very stupid thing every driver around you and in front of you might do in the coming seconds, and what you need to do to prevent ( or at least lower the odds) them killing you when they do it.
Also, hang on to your current attitude. With 2-3 years experience, most car drivers feel that they “know how to drive.” It is almost as if they make a concious decision to stop improving…and that is pretty much what happens. Unless they take up racing, most drivers on the road drive as badly or worse than they did with 2-3 years experience. If you approach driving, riding, or flying with the idea that you will ALWAYS be learning, you will stack the odds in your favor. When another driver suprises you, think about what clues you might have missed, how often were you checking your mirrors…If you do something stupid, think about the factors that lead up to it, and how to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
I found the 2 most dangerous things to motorcycle riders are:
Getting too confident/cocky and driving dumb.
Not paying attention to dumb auto drivers around you.
If you keep your cool and drive safely and are aware of all the vehicles around you you can stay pretty safe.
Once you start to get too comfortable and 1 & 2 creep into your riding style you are looking for trouble.
Take your time and you should be fine after lots of practice on safe roads. Your attitude is much preferred to those that buy a bike and take it out on the highway with the attitude of “seeing what she’ll do.”
I may be over the top but my take on defensive motorcycle driving is not just that anything can happen. I assume their is at least one nut that wants me to wreck every time I go out.
Claim your part of the road but don’t fight for it. Even hitting a small dog can ruin your day and your bike.
I read that first paragraph, and decided to respond, “Well, I know how to drive,” before I read the second part. I guess you know first time motorcycle riders pretty well.
I was in exactly the same position as you (and I have a similar user name… hmm). Anyway, I never rode a bike before the class, got licensed despite what I considered poor riding performance, and bought my motorcycle a few weeks later in NYC and was very uncomfortable riding it home.
I spent the next couple of weeks riding around the city in heavy traffic which is not as bad as it sounds. Slow riding, lots of stop and go, which is good albeit annoying practice for using the clutch and getting used to the controls. I found that people (mostly cab drivers) quickly realized I was a new driver and gave me a little space.
Advice: Lots of practice. Don’t exceed speeds you feel comfortable riding, especially in turns. If you’re riding around the city, be wary of recent rain. There’s a surprising amount of oil on the pavement that accumulates from stop and go traffic. Oh, and watch your feet the first time you go through a toll booth! The ground is very slick, and if you’re not ready for it, your feet can go sliding from under you. The best advice I can offer, though, is always assume nobody on the road sees you – you’ll realize soon enough that your assumption is often correct.
Well, I did it twenty years ago by riding a lot, dropping my bike a couple of times, running up a ridiculous number of traffic citations and by getting laid up for five months after a drunk driver t-boned me. Except for the riding a lot I wouldn’t recommend that you do the same.
I’d say that the biggest risks for a rider are cars coming out at intersections, drunk drivers, drunk riding overcompetence and inexperience. I’ll second what has been said about always keeping an eye on your surroundings. Also, listen to what is going on around you. A lot of times I would hear a change in the wind noise before I saw a car in my blind spot.
In San Francisco, I’d suggest taking a few rides through the parks to get more comfortable with your bike. By staying in a park you won’t have to deal with sidestreets and you can get comfortable with making curves. Once you get more comfortable, take a few rides into the country.
Be careful in the rain and fog (both times that I dropped my bike were in light rain on old asphalt.)
Use your front brake. Some riders never learn to, but the bike’s weight shifts to the front when braking and you can get over twice as much braking power from the front brake as you can get from the rear.
Beyond that, stay off the streets on Friday and Saturday nights if you can. Most people on the street between 10:00PM and 6:00AM on the weekends are either drunk or otherwise impaired.
Finally, keep in mind that fear is a good thing. Enjoy the riding, but keep a healthy respect for what could go wrong.
This is true, but develop a habit of using both front and rear every time because you get more braking power with both together than with either alone.
This is so true for bikers and cagers. I observed this so often in my taxi driving days that I seldom venture out late on weekends anymore.
A thousand times yes. If you are really disciplined about keeping fully updated on what’s going on around you, this extra step will not be needed 364 days a year. But the 365th day is why they call it the “Lifesaver”.
Good on you for asking advice. I see too many young guys on a great new bike with a $300 helmet and in shorts, tee shirt, sneakers and no gloves.
I never ever leave the house without my full face helmet, gauntlet style gloves that go over the cuff of my jacket, long pants and sturdy shoes or boots.
My jackets have armor pads on the shoulders, elbows and hips. YMMV. Everything is vented so as long as you keep moving it’s not as warm as you think it is. I lived in SF one summer and you’ll be fine.
Practice where you feel safe is the reoccuring theme and I really don’t have anything else to add. I always say I’m not going to fall over and die, now some idiot knocking me over is a different story…