My first registered bike and first fright zzr 250
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:25 pmHi! I'm new here, and to riding, relatively anyway - I just got my first proper road bike from SCM, a 2002 ZZR 250, the gold and white coloured one. She's a lovely bike, being very patient with my fumbling around. I've been riding around the streets near my house - not really fast, I'm hovering between 25 and 45.
still learning to do all the basic things, not stalling, doing nice smooth u turns instead of the 8 point tippy toe/neutral flounder around, and getting used to the bike.
the first real fright i had was coming down the road towards my driveway, and i discovered someone has parked a car right up almost over the entrance, which was alright, but it meant i should have slowed down a little more to do the very sharp right angle turn into the drive - so in the end i rode around the car and into the driveway but a bit too wide, and the front wheel ran off the concrete onto the grass for a few inches, then stupidly i tried to turn back onto the concrete [the wheel had sunk into the spongy grass about 2 inches and was scraping on the edge].
i wasn't going fast at all, but when the front wheel tried to turn onto the edge it kind of flipped the bike over to the left, and i had to jam my left foot on the ground behind the gear lever, and grabbed the front brake, it kind of pivoted around my ankle and ran across the other side of the driveway and stopped - but i didn't drop it!! i have a bump on my ankle and it really hurts, i'll be wearing my new boots more often now.
but woohoo! i didn't drop it, and it was sure about to tip right over. its hard to explain what happened but basically i didn't slow down enough before turning in the driveway. this seems to be the only time i'm running into trouble, my slow turns, uturns and everything are like magic when i've slowed down enough.
quite a few of the roundabouts i've come across i just go straight through or turn left immediately for example - but i guess practise makes perfect.
[i even rode down to the local woolworths and parked and bought a frozen cheesecake and some clankers! the car park was an education, all i have to say is that people, i.e other cars, seem to be really nice to me with that L on the back of my bike. Everyone has been patient and kept out of my way at least]
still learning to do all the basic things, not stalling, doing nice smooth u turns instead of the 8 point tippy toe/neutral flounder around, and getting used to the bike.
the first real fright i had was coming down the road towards my driveway, and i discovered someone has parked a car right up almost over the entrance, which was alright, but it meant i should have slowed down a little more to do the very sharp right angle turn into the drive - so in the end i rode around the car and into the driveway but a bit too wide, and the front wheel ran off the concrete onto the grass for a few inches, then stupidly i tried to turn back onto the concrete [the wheel had sunk into the spongy grass about 2 inches and was scraping on the edge].
i wasn't going fast at all, but when the front wheel tried to turn onto the edge it kind of flipped the bike over to the left, and i had to jam my left foot on the ground behind the gear lever, and grabbed the front brake, it kind of pivoted around my ankle and ran across the other side of the driveway and stopped - but i didn't drop it!! i have a bump on my ankle and it really hurts, i'll be wearing my new boots more often now.
but woohoo! i didn't drop it, and it was sure about to tip right over. its hard to explain what happened but basically i didn't slow down enough before turning in the driveway. this seems to be the only time i'm running into trouble, my slow turns, uturns and everything are like magic when i've slowed down enough.
quite a few of the roundabouts i've come across i just go straight through or turn left immediately for example - but i guess practise makes perfect.
[i even rode down to the local woolworths and parked and bought a frozen cheesecake and some clankers! the car park was an education, all i have to say is that people, i.e other cars, seem to be really nice to me with that L on the back of my bike. Everyone has been patient and kept out of my way at least]
