What advice do you have for someone learning to ride a motorcycle? (German, brake)

[hevster1]

The only things I can add besides a safety course, proper gear etc. is also a racing school is excellent once you have some experience. Sometimes the MSF courses teach questionable things in my opinion like rear brake usage. Front brake is the most important brake. I will also add what i call hevner's rules:

Rule number one: Pretend you are invisible. No one can see you and they will act if you are not there.
Rule Number Two: There is none.

I have well over 200k miles on the street with no major tumbles while remembering rule # 1.

Good Luck.

[DDevil]

Completely agree with Rule #1.
And yes, they do teach stuff that one may find questionable like brake usage, changing gears while leaned in a turn, counter balancing, etc.

[Gunluvver2]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim21784

Stealth's point about a reflective vest is very good advice. I wear one when I've got to take my ride to the dealer for warranty service. The dealership is located in a congested suburban area with heavy traffic and I hate doing it.

A few words about safety gear (IMO):
A lot of the stuff on the market ranges from junk to not very protective. You have two choices in serious gear, high quality leathers with armor or fabrics with armor (either Cordura or Kevlar blends). Go to: Kevlar Motorcycle Apparel - the Best in the World for the best discussion I've found on the subject. Read everything on the site and make your own decisions. Good gear is expensive but well worth the cost.

You have, or will note that lots of riders eschew safety gear. Personally, I don't care what other riders do (except for the fact that "bloodspots" raise insurance and medical rates). I prefer as much protection as I can get.

************************************************** *****
Safety gear is great IF you have an accident. Just take in to consideration that IF that piece of safety gear is hot, uncomfortable or doesn't fit right it COULD be a distraction and actually cause an accident.

Money is an issue for many riders, especially the younger ones. In order of importance in safety gear with 10 being the most important I would rate:
10. The best helmet money can buy. Properly fitted.
10. A good face shield for the helmet or a set of quality safety glasses.
10. Good boots.
10. Highly visible clothing.
7. Gloves that allow flexibility.
7. A good leather jacket in a highly visible color. If Black get a reflective vest to wear over it.
7. Heavy Denim pants or Leather if practical.
10. Properly maintained equipment.

Remember safety gear is only good when you have the accident. It does NOTHING to prevent an accident and if your gear interferes with your awareness or comfort it may actually contribute to causing an accident. Situational awareness and constant monitoring of your surroundings is the most important thing. The FALSE sense of security that safety gear gives may convince you to do things that will HURT you. Don't let that happen.

GL2

[burdell]

Assume all the texting, talking, eating, drinking, shaving, make-up applying, newspaper reading drivers in the cars around your are the enemy and act accordingly.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by Gunluvver2

************************************************** *****
Safety gear is great IF you have an accident. Just take in to consideration that IF that piece of safety gear is hot, uncomfortable or doesn't fit right it COULD be a distraction and actually cause an accident.

Money is an issue for many riders, especially the younger ones. In order of importance in safety gear with 10 being the most important I would rate:
10. The best helmet money can buy. Properly fitted.
10. A good face shield for the helmet or a set of quality safety glasses.
10. Good boots.
10. Highly visible clothing.
7. Gloves that allow flexibility.
7. A good leather jacket in a highly visible color. If Black get a reflective vest to wear over it.
7. Heavy Denim pants or Leather if practical.
10. Properly maintained equipment.

Remember safety gear is only good when you have the accident. It does NOTHING to prevent an accident and if your gear interferes with your awareness or comfort it may actually contribute to causing an accident. Situational awareness and constant monitoring of your surroundings is the most important thing. The FALSE sense of security that safety gear gives may convince you to do things that will HURT you. Don't let that happen.

GL2

I'd add that for those in hot climates there is some very good ballistic jackets/pants on the market with mesh inserts that allow significant airflow, wet the T-Shirt you're wearing underneath and you'll be relatively comfortable in some pretty gnarly weather as well as protected.

[dude_reino]

Originally Posted by tonymanero

I'm not on the highway much at all, I'm a city rider.

In that case have you considered a small dual-sport (like a KLX250S) instead of a sportbike? These sit taller so you can see and be seen better in heavy traffic, and the seating position is more upright and comfortable than a sportbike.

[AFSafetyDude]

Take the MSF Basic Rider Course!! Then practice...then once you're riding "on the road", ride as if you're invisible to every car/truck out there, because more often than not you are! You have to scan 360' every second you're behind bars(I love that saying)and be ready for anything!Most importantly, ride and ride often!

[catman]

Originally Posted by DDevil

Completely agree with Rule #1.
And yes, they do teach stuff that one may find questionable like brake usage, changing gears while leaned in a turn, counter balancing, etc.

Did you mean countersteering? I use that often; it's quite useful. It might be a bit much for a beginner course, though. Then again, maybe not.

[1%er]

Here's a prescription I'd give to a loved one who has a keen desire to stay out of the emergency room. In this scenario my loved one would perform the following BEFORE they purchase their first bike:
1) Take the MSF course
2) And then take it again concurrently with a totally different instuctor or take it again a month or two later (or take a non-MSF course i.e. there's a guy in Los Angeles who is not affiliated with MSF but offers his own private class, he advertises on Backpage and Craiglist)
3) Go to your local highway patrol office. Find a motorcycle cop. And take 5 minutes of his time to ask him 2 or 3 relevant questions (if my loved one is too dumb to know what to ask the cop, I have the specific questions he should ask the cop)
4) There's a DVD for sale online made by a motorcycle cop that addresses how to ride safely on the road. Buy it. And then watch it
5) There are two or three must have how-to-ride safely books that are a must read. They're available online. Forget the bible or the Koran....along with "Arrest Proof Yourself" and Bukowski's "You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense", these two or three how to ride safely books would be considered life instruction manuals that you will pass on to other family members on down the line. Read these books - and then read them again and again as if they were books related to your favorite religion
6) Understand that the inability to countersteer in a panic situation might cost you your life. Learn all you can about countersteering. YouTube has one great, relative video on said subject. Find that video and then copy it to your harddrive just in case it's taken down/deleted
7) Try to buy a bike with ABS brakes. Have you seen the YouTube video that demonstrates the stopping power of ABS brakes on a motorcycle? I have. And when you do you'll forever be an ABS fan. Don't minimize the importance of ABS brakes until you see that eye-opening, powerful video
8) Go to msgroup dot org. And then read the posts. And read some more. That forum is to motorcycle safety what Stephen Hawking is to the Black Hole theory
9) Go to YouTube. There are plenty of video tutorials on said subject. Copy some of them to your harddrive. Study them. Watch them right before you go to bed for the night
10) Read the book "Arrest Proof Yourself" and come to understand the following: When you ride you might get stopped by the police. Understand that police agencies are EXACTLY like corporations and gangs in that 1) there are many of them which means that yep, a few bad ones are sure to exist 2) some of them are kinda dumb and it is they who make bad decisions 3) know that the dumb ones are hard to pick out because they might look like you, me, a Hollywood movie star or any average person on the street - especially from the neck up (I just talked to a statuesque blonde cop who works at the Northern Division station in San Diego/La Jolla earlier this week. Boy is she HOT, what a turn-on, but even though she's leggy, sexually desirable and perhaps book smart, that doesn't guarantee she has an adequate amount of common sense
11) Create a folder in your favorite web browser and title it "Safety". Start bookmarking safety related data to that folder. And then, for the rest of your life, on occasion, go back to review some of the bookmarked data (plenty of good stuff out there online and be sure to go to the motorcycle forum that Craigslist has for little pearls of wisdom related to safety issues - use CL's search engine when you get to their motorcycle forum)
12) Completing the aformentioned tas)ks might take 6 to 12 months. After my loved one has proven to me that he/she performed steps 1 through 11, then and only then is my loved one is ready to ride. And be prepared to review all of the aformentioned data - from time to time - right on up until the day you stop riding or the day you die, whichever comes first

ABS brakes: Born To Ride News » Stop It, Now

[wankel7]

Big yellow helmet.