Help from motorcycle dopers? I wanna get better and not die.

There is a lot of good advice here for you. We used the parking lot idea for Ms.Nic when she was learning to ride her bike. We had an old Walmart lot were the store had moved and we used that to do acceleration and deceleration, figure eight, slow left and slow right turns (both sharp and mild) and taking off when stopped on a fairly inclined hill type of practice.
I have heard many instructors give advice I don’t personally agree with so I’ll mention them here.
They say to always ride in the center of the lane. Bad advice. All the oil from other vehicles accumulates there and is the slickest part of the road.
Also, when following a group of cars down the road, make sure you can be seen by the on-coming traffic because occasionally the second car in the approaching group is waiting to pass and will swing out when the car in front of you goes by.
When traveling in a car next time, look at the pavement in front of you and look for the dark spots in the center of the lane up ahead. These usually are a depression or bump in the pavement that has caused the oil on other vehicles drop off and marks a possible bit of rough road for you.
Always hit Railroad tracks squarely and if they cross the road on an angle, change your lane position to allow a straight hit. If tracks are slightly higher than the surrounding pavement they can cause the front tire to side-slide when it encounters the smooth metal track.
And watch the other cars as if they are out to get you. Most aren’t but some are blind, stupid, stoned or they are trying to mess with you. I have had them look right at me and pull out at the last second.
When the traffic light turns green…pause a moment. The green doesn’t stop someone from running the light.
Watch were you park. A kickstand will sink into hot pavement.
Be safe.

I’ll just chime in to say that I’m in almost exactly the same position, plus about a week. I took the course a month ago, got my license a bit after that, and bought a bike about a week and half ago. So far I’ve ridden it about 30 miles, total. A few trips around town.

I stalled it on the way home (and almost dropped it. I was starting from a stop and turning through the intersection). Since then, I haven’t stalled it again, but I did run it off the edge of a road into some dirt one time (luckily, the uphill edge of the road) at about 5 miles an hour since I didn’t lean right for a really slow, really sharp turn. And it died on me the other day because I forgot to put the fuel valve in the right position.

I always wear boots, leather jacket, full helmet, and gloves that look like I should be headed into medieval combat. And I’m taking it slowly. The traffic around here is light, and I haven’t gone any faster than 40 yet.

Can I just third or fourth the safety gear? I live in LA, where it is fairly hot right now. And I swear to you, as many other motorcycles as I see on a daily basis, I’m just about the only person who wears anything beyond the bare minimum of safety gear. I’ve got a full helmet, gloves, and a mesh jacket with back, shoulder and elbow armor. Many of the guys I see around here are on the streets or freeways with a brain bucket, a t-shirt and jeans or shorts, and maybe half of them are wearing gloves.

I often wonder if all those guys are thinking how dumb and overdressed I look. But I quickly remind myself that being a little bit warmer and heavier is a hell of a lot more comfortable than missing a lot of skin. Gear up.

And perhaps more on point, like you, my wife and I bought a bike about a month after completely the MSF course and started hitting the road. If you passed the course, you’re probably ready to be on the streets. But keep that cautious attitude. It didn’t take me long to learn that there really are people out there trying to kill me, but being aware of your surroundings and keeping a level head can guide you through almost any situation.

Good luck, and have fun!

From my personal safety rules from my stint of 10 months on only a bike:

Don’t turn through standing water if you can at all help it.

Ride as far left as possible.

Don’t split lanes unless you’re confident no one could possibly think they could merge over (traffic is so slow).

Don’t ride in the blind spot.

Pass people on the far side of the lane if possible.

Remember you have a lot of power to get out of situations.

Don’t freak out if you fishtail - let off the rear brake.

Get some decent clothing.

Probably a bit obvious (after the first time you make a mistake, you tend to remember), but park so you can power out of uphill parking, and back down downhill parking. If the exit is downhill, enter head in. If the exit is uphill, turn around and walk it back into parking.

I had different turn signals put on my bike so that they would also be running lights. The helmet also had reflective stickers. YMMV.

I love hearing that I’m not the only one in this position.

A good place to practice is a small industrial park on the weekend. Lots of road and not much traffic.

That said, some people never get comfortable with it. You’ll find out soon enough if you’re one of those people. No biggie. You are who you are.

Very worthy advice. I picked up my first bike and had to ride it 250miles home. At least 3 cars with trailers tried to kill me by switching into my lane until I realised that they just couldn’t see me in their mirrors.

I also ride with the headlight on, it definately helps visibility.

This depends on what type of road you’re on and what lane you’re in. On a multi lane road and if you’re in the far left lane then you don’t want to be all the way over. If you are then you will be harder to see and you have less room to move out of the way.

I’m going to have to disagree here, you don’t want to be right next to someone, but you don’t want to be on the far side of the lane where they may not see you. This is especially true if there is another car in front of you because you will hide behind that car.

I’m hoping you don’t mean fishtailing because you have locked up the rear brake. Letting go of the rear brake when it’s locked is the worst thing you can do because the tire regains traction and will throw you. This is not fun trust me.

If you’re traveling down roads that have intersections make sure to watch both sides for turners. As stated above just because you think someone sees you doesn’t mean they do. They could be looking right at you and not see you at all. So if you see two people who are turing and you happen to be behind someone try to move to one side first, I try the left, so that person can see you, then move to the other side of the lane so the other person can see you. You really want to do this when there’s a car in front of you and no one behind you.

If you’re on a road with more then one lane and intersections I try and go past the intersections with another car near me so hopefully they will see the other car and not go.

Yep. Check out this very informative (and a little scary) page on high side dynamics (a “high side” fall from a motorcycle is one where the bike ends up higher than the rider, instead of the more common and far safer “low side” fall where the motorcycle hits the ground with the rider on top).

Yet another push for proper safety gear. I know for a fact from experience that jeans do didly shit in protecting you during a fall at anything great than a few miles per hour. Full face helmet is a great start (I gave my fullface from my crash to the MSF teachers here at work, which they use to show people why the jaw protection is important).

Gear that should be required to ride:

  1. Fullface helmet

  2. Gloves

  3. Heavy leather jacket, or leather with armor, or ballistic nylon with armor (get one with vents if its hot (the road will tear your skin off whether its hot or cold). Also, the jacket should be long or fasten to your riding pants (My jacket pulle dup in back when I was tumbling, left me with roadrash across my lower back/spine.

  4. Riding pants, ballistic nylon with knee and hip pads or chaps (these would have been the difference of my walking away or not, which I didnt as the silver dollar sized holes in my knees prevented that)

  5. proper boots that cover your ankles, also steel toes are good ( id be missing parts of my toes otherwise), oil resitance and good traction are handy
    I must say, the places manufacturers put armor are the places you need it; back, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees. These are the places you will slide or tumble on.

Sorry for the graphic post, but I feel it needed to be said.

Taking the skilled riding course from the MSF is a great start to being a good rider. Check it out, its worth every penny.
Fry

I am planning on taking the advanced class, but I feel like I would get more out of it if I put in a few miles first.

I think the Advanced Course is suggested only to those who’ve already been riding for at least a year.

I don’t know how advanced their teachings are, but I can say is that you will learn a lot being on the road, so taking the class prematurely may not be a great idea, as it may be beyond your current riding level.

Thats why I reccomended the skilled course. Its for advancing your skills, not teaching you how to ride like a racer. They teach you how to drive over stuff, slow speed handling, emergency stops, swerves, and lots of safety. You may think you covered that stuff in basic, but not to this level.

A good example is I learned how to tip my bike over at slow speed and drag the footpeg while turning around in a tiny space. They had us do this in a figure eight turn.

The advanced class teaches about high speed cornering, braking, etc…
Fry