 | Home > Off Topic > Learning to ride a motorbike |
 
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| LoveTheMud Member Since: 19 Feb 2015 Location: Weybridge Surrey & Pontefract West Yorkshire Posts: 411   
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Hello all,
Right, I have become increasingly jealous of all these defender owners who also own a motorbike...so much so, I have decided to get my licence. First and foremost, are there any recommendations for centres around Surbiton/Guildford area? - I have emailed 'Motorcycle Training In Surrey' so hoping they will call me back. Also, are there any tips or any advice one might share with a novice who has never even ridden a scooter before? Also, also worth mentioning I'm 34...and have no bike 
Cheers Mike  |
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16th Sep 2016 11:16am |
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| williamthedog Member Since: 29 Dec 2012 Location: south wales Posts: 3441 
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Yeah, passed my test back in 1983.
Easier test then compared to now and cheaper  |
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16th Sep 2016 11:31am |
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| Hairysteve Member Since: 15 Jun 2015 Location: Surrey Posts: 692 
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Lost my license on mine so have now stayed away from temptation
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16th Sep 2016 11:38am |
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| AJC Member Since: 30 Nov 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1364
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I'm 31 and have been riding bikes since i was 8 years old, i did my road bike test near 10 years ago now.
I had a Suzuki K7 GSXR as my first bike, i loved it but decided to sell it when i bought a house to help fund it, recently been looking into getting another, up until i lost a friend in a bike crash 2 months ago and now i wont have one ever again  |
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16th Sep 2016 11:40am |
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| T140 Member Since: 15 Mar 2016 Location: Ayrshire Posts: 173  
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do it you wont regret it, i passed mine 30+ years ago a lot more involved now, and i still have the first Triumph i got, a 1983 T140W i swapped a 1973 2 door Range Rover for it in 1986 i also have a 1000cc Yamaha. nobody is perfect but being Scottish is a start
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16th Sep 2016 11:49am |
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| Zagato Site Supporter Member Since: 08 Jan 2011 Location: Billingshurst West Sussex Posts: 5013
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I joined the small Yamaha XJR owners club where near one member a month was wiped out when the magazine came through the post
cars just don,t see you, you can get wiped out by someone pulling out in front of you anytime... I would love a bobber but really I know I won,t go into biking again, I now have kids, too much to live for, safer hobbies, you only live once etc.
My neighbour packed up riding also after his wife showed him this video... Think of all the people texting, putting on make up, on drugs,  , falling asleep, distracted by passengers or a phone call, looking at sat nav, angry or hyped up about something, don't know the rules of the road, blind bends, horses, joggers, cyclists, tractors, diesel,poo on the road the list goes on... yet you see bikers that have been accident free for decades and others who have commuted for years  |
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16th Sep 2016 11:52am |
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| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610 
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Your choice and that of your neighbour.....videos such as that don't influence me at all. Never mind 'think bike' the rider's hazard perception and speed from the video says it all! Wonder if your neighbour would stop going out at all if he were shown a few pedestrian incidents? Fear of 'what if' denies many of experiencing life's exciting opportunities. Kids are no excuse, riding pillion is a rite of passage in my household and the older children remember it with excitement and as one of life's great experiences. They have also actively encouraged the younger to follow their lead. My statement in my signature says it all about treating each day as your last. Also when children get to a certain age their priorities and desires change, often spending time with their parents is not high on their agenda. I have found a common exciting interest such as riding pillion/motorcycling extends the longevity of the infant child/parent bond and deepens it too. My nine year old this Summer.  Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Love the Mud you go for it! You may find there are more friends than you think have the common motorcycling interest, if not you'll soon have a load more friends/places to go and meetings on your agenda! Good luck and ride safe! If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!! Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! Last edited by K9F on 16th Sep 2016 12:21pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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16th Sep 2016 12:02pm |
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| Whirly90 Member Since: 01 Sep 2016 Location: Ampshire Posts: 406  
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I, along with most of my friends, had a bike as soon as i was 17. It was bought as cheap transport but still great fun until i could afford a car. I went back to bikes when i was 24, took my test and had a few bigger bikes until i was 27, then i met my wife. She wasn't keen on bikes and made it clear that she wasn't happy that i was riding one. I tried to convince her that i was a safe rider but she argued that it wasn't my ability that worried her, it was other drivers. When i met her i was recovering from a bike accident that wasn't my fault so my arguement fell apart really and, as i had other toys, i sold both my bikes. I'd love another bike but i drive 50,000 - 60,000 miles a year and see too many accidents and near misses, people don't see bikes and that makes them too dangerous for my liking.
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16th Sep 2016 12:21pm |
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| GREENI Member Since: 22 Aug 2010 Location: staffs Posts: 10383
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I love bikes, but life preservation keeps me from passing my test. I'll stick to competing trials!
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16th Sep 2016 12:33pm |
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| Stacey007 Member Since: 25 Sep 2015 Location: Cheshire Posts: 3758
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I do like looking at a bike and those bad boys above look ace,
I have no desire to ride one. That video would not put me off, Speed was the issue in that simple. The caretaker has a BMW RR1100 ? looks mega in red with huge Brembo brakes, it has launch control and a Pit limiter... he said himself it's more about the bragging rights at the pub 
If I did have a bike again the BMW sit up ones like the long way round series, |
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16th Sep 2016 1:04pm |
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| hank Member Since: 12 Sep 2016 Location: South Wales Posts: 2301  
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Did mine about two years ago. Quite straightforward but takes a bit of time due to needing to pass four parts; theory, CBT, module 1, module 2.
Start off by arranging your theory test https://www.gov.uk/motorcycle-theory-test I don't know how old you are or whether you're familiar with hazard perception but it's easy enough just do some mock tests online to make sure you're au fait with hazard perception and get up to speed with the questions. After theory I did a one day course (about 5 hours) on a moped for the CBT - the guy said you'd struggle to fail unless you do something really daft. Then a further day's tuition on a 'big bike' followed by module 1 test the next day. Module 1 is on private land, not public highway. It's straightforward but make the most of the time you have to practice during tuition!! Your instructor will probably mock up a test arena so go through each of the manoeuvres until you can nail them all. I struggled getting up to the minimum speed (31mph/50kph) on hazard avoidance as the arena didn't seem big enough to accelerate to those speeds and for stopping distance. Your arena may be bigger but you really have to welly it. Module 1 manoeuvres detailed here https://www.gov.uk/motorcycle-test/module-1-offroad-test Then provided you pass module 1 you can move on to preparing for module 2. I had another day's tuition out and about on the public highway getting used to proper riding (or more specifically getting used to typical test routes!) ready for module 2 test the next day. Your instructor will tell you what to look out and things that people typically fail on in your area... https://www.gov.uk/motorcycle-test/module-2-onroad-test They love to see proper use of the 'lifesaver' glance over the shoulder so get in the habit of doing that from day 1 I started mine around this time of year, I would never try to put you off but the way things turned out I ended up doing module 2 in torrential rain. Perhaps to my advantage as it turned out as I was out and back again in 20 minutes. Also the examiners are generally enthusiasts so are not out there to fail you but similarly they can't pas you if you cock up so as I say maximise your time practicing during tution Against everyone's advice I went and bought an R6 as my first bike. Great fun! Recently had to sell it to fund a house move but I wouldn't think twice about getting another bike. |
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16th Sep 2016 1:18pm |
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| Zagato Site Supporter Member Since: 08 Jan 2011 Location: Billingshurst West Sussex Posts: 5013
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Interesting well rounded, well written article...
"According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, your chances of dying on a motorcycle are 35 times higher than in a car, calculated on a per-mile basis. I always knew that, but it didn’t matter. I was a motorcyclist, and to a rider, risk is part of the package, in the same way that rejection is part of youthful love. But that was then. Today, I am something I thought I could never be: an ex-motorcyclist. My garage doesn’t have a bike in it, and for the first time in memory, I can drive past a motorcycle dealership without stopping to ogle the machines. What a long, strange trip it’s been. As a boy, motorcycles roared endlessly through my imagination. They were the perfect vehicle – fast and elemental, stripped down to the mechanical rudiments of wheels and engine. Motorcycles were poetry – Steve McQueen and Lawrence of Arabia both rode them. My motorcycle career began in my teens, when I rode the cobblestones of Belgium on tweaked-out 50-cc Suzukis and Hondas with lowered handlebars and rear-set foot pegs that made them feel like Grand Prix machines. By my twenties, I was a motorcycle racer, riding 750s on the track. Motorcycles were to me what Catholicism was to the Pope, or what the guitar was to Keith Richards – an article of faith. I rebuilt a Yamaha motor in a university dorm room, read every motorcycle magazine I could get, and dreamed of the day when I’d have a trellis-frame Ducati. I knew that motorcycles were dangerous, but considered myself immune. For nearly 20 years, I lived a charmed motorcycle life – in thousands of rides, my worst street crash was a slide that left me with a couple of minor scrapes. I did crash several times on the race track, but that was part of the game – if you didn’t crash, you weren’t going fast enough to win. On the street, I was invincible. Then came the summer morning that changed me. It was 1986. My wife and I had a new baby, and we were out of diapers. I’d worked the night shift in the newsroom, but duty called – I saddled up my new Yamaha FZ-750 and headed out to get a package of Huggies. The ride would be short, but still a welcome break from the grinding routine of work and child care. My Yamaha had sticky tires, a racing pipe and clip-on handlebars like the bikes I used to race. I decided to take Spadina Avenue so I could run through the curves just north of College Street. I clicked down a gear and banked into the first section, carving through it like a low-flying plane. Then it happened. Someone had dumped a load of gravel at the exit, and I was going too fast to miss it. My training and race experience meant nothing now – I was a prisoner of physics, sliding out of control into oncoming traffic. I missed two cars, but clipped the back corner of a TTC bus. The crash left me with a scar on my left shoulder and a slightly wonky right thumb, but I got off lucky – had I hit the bus squarely, I wouldn’t be here today. My bike was a write-off. Amazingly, my wife didn’t order me to stop riding motorcycles. And yet I knew that she wanted me to. But I rationalized. I was a skilled rider with a keen awareness of the risks. I could beat the odds. I sold my wrecked Yamaha and started saving up for a Ducati. But somehow, the Ducati never arrived. Part of the reason was financial; we had two kids to raise. But there was more to it than that. A couple of years after my crash, my elementary school buddy died when he went off a cliff on his Honda during a dream-ride trip to Montana. My cousin ended up in hospital for nearly a year after a car turned left in front of his Yamaha XS-650. One of my former racing pals hit the wall at the track and suffered a life-changing head injury. But I still wanted a bike. Or so I thought. Each winter, I planned the bike that I’d buy that spring. My wife held her tongue. And each spring, there was no bike. Then my buddy bought a new Suzuki GSXR-1000, one of the bikes I lusted for. He lives in Georgia, home to some of my favourite twisting roads in the world. I’ve driven them in everything from Honda Civics to Lotus Exiges, and blasting through the curves of Cloudland Canyon and Sarah Chapel Road never fails to heal what ails me. Now I was about to experience them on the GSXR, a bike that epitomized sport riding. It was a newer, better version of the bikes I used to race, with more power, better handling and vastly improved brakes. This was going to be great. I returned three hours later a changed man. I knew that my bike days were over. In a Lotus or a Porsche, the Georgia curves were a playground. I’d driven them for 20 years without incident, and not once had I felt like I might die. On the GSXR, I wondered whether I should update my will – as I arced through a sweeping, high-speed turn with a jagged rock wall next to it, I realized that a mistake would have serious consequences. I suddenly felt like an egg balanced on a spoon. Risk is an interesting subject, and there is no better lens to examine it through than the motorcycle. Historian Jeremy Packer concluded that there are four basic approaches to motorcycle safety. The first is to quit riding. Then there’s Risk Flaunting (epitomized by riders who refuse to wear a helmet and wear T-shirts that read, “You only live once”). Then there is Risk Valorization, where risk is accepted as an unfortunate but controllable component of a desirable activity. Packer’s fourth approach is the one that used to be my mantra: Hyper-Reflective Self-Discipline (which I will refer to as HRSD). The HRSD approach is based on constant training, scrupulous maintenance and personal scrutiny. It is embraced by countless riders, including many of my favourite motorcycle magazine writers. Among them was David Edwards of Cycle World, who once declared that motorcycles aren’t actually dangerous, and that a smart, well-trained rider could “become almost bulletproof.” Then I started noticing the magazine writers who’d been involved in serious crashes – like Andrew Trevitt of Sport Rider magazine, the author of countless safety and riding technique articles who ended up in a wheelchair after a car pulled out in front of him a few years ago. Reading his post-crash blogs was heartbreaking. Even in a wheelchair, Andrew remained a motorcycling advocate. But I realized that my motorcycle days were over. I used to argue with the “donor-cycle” critics, and I still love motorcycles in an aesthetic and philosophical sense – they are beautiful, pure and engaging in a way that few cars can manage. (As one of my friends recently noted, you don’t see many motorcycles parked outside psychiatrist’s offices.) But the risk-reward ratio tipped somewhere along the line. Today, I love cars more than ever. I enjoy going fast in a machine that has inherent stability and crash protection. And I like riding with my wife next to me. Today, I realized that it’s been 26 years since the motorcycle crash that began my slide away from the two-wheeled faith. Not once in all those years did my wife order me to stop riding. Instead, she just waited. That’s one of the reasons she’s the smartest person I know. For more from Peter Cheney, go to facebook.com/cheneydrive (No login required!) Twitter: Peter Cheney@cheneydrive E-mail: pcheney@globeandmail.com Globe and Mail Road Rush archive: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-life/cheney/ Report Typo/Error Follow Peter Cheney on Twitter: @cheneydrive |
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16th Sep 2016 1:39pm |
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| salesman Member Since: 01 Sep 2014 Location: The Yorkshire Dales God's Country Posts: 72 
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Been a biker / motorcyclist since I was 16
never been without a bike and have been lucky enough to ride almost every model of bike produced over the last 40 years Thanks to working in the motorcycle trade I have rode in almost all disciplines of biking, Trials, Track, Advanced instructor etc, I still enjoy the Road and off road on two wheels. In the last 15 years I have covered almost 300.000 miles Touring in the UK and Europe leading touring groups and travelling alone with my wife. I wouldn't change it for the World, I have found over the years that bikers and land rover owners are very much the same breed and many own one of each, or more... Biking and Landrovering its a way of Life [img] Click image to enlarge [/img] |
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16th Sep 2016 2:21pm |
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| LoveTheMud Member Since: 19 Feb 2015 Location: Weybridge Surrey & Pontefract West Yorkshire Posts: 411
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A very interesting article - Thank you for that.
Whilst I heed all warnings, and I appreciate the time taken by many to highlight the very real risks to riders, and I realise that anything can happen to anyone at anytime, and that this seems especially likely on a bike, I still yearn to do this. My idea is to ride the North Coast 500 on a BMW 1200 GS Adventure, much like the one mentioned by Stacey007. Once conquered, I want to ride around Norway and the fjords. So I will still do it. Sensibly. Also thank you to Hank_Marvinson for the step by step run though, very much appreciated. i absolutely love the bikes posted on here too! Just incredible machines! As a side note, I currently throw myself down red and black runs in any weather on my down hill mountain bike. So i'm probably a little bit mad as it is! |
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16th Sep 2016 2:21pm |
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