Q-Ride with rtyuiop - day 4 - woohoo, a piece of paper!

[rtyuiop]

Hi all,

I'm going QRide over the next few days, so thought I would post up any info I can think of in case it's useful for some other learner. This is all going from memory, so forgive me if I get anything wrong.

Today was my first day, and it was just a half day - for those not in Brisbane, it's overcast, soggy, and showery today, so an excellent time to get onto a motorbike for the first time! Didn't get too cold or wet though fortunately.

We spend about 4 hours (starting at 8am - on my week off! Oh the horror!) trundling around a nice empty car park. I was part of a group of 3 learners - one was apparently a professional cycle (pushie) racer a few years ago, and another apparently rode dirt bikes a bit, so I felt something like the village idiot - I might be the special project for this course! We donned gloves and helmet (interestingly, open faced - suppose it makes sense with learners in a carpark), and were all wearing thick pants and jacket. We were all on nice little VTR250s, two of which had throttle limiters on, meaning they couldn't get about 4000 rpm - the guy who rode trail bikes got the non-restricted one (glad it wasn't me!). Too my surprise I actually managed to fit onto the VTR without too much pain, so that is good.

After a quick lesson on which lever did what, we did a few laps of the car park in 1st - practicing starts with plenty of stalling. After everyone was happy with that (well, the others were, I was perfecting the art of the stall), we moved on to a walking pace ride in a straight line - I suspect they were trying to teach us something about clutches, and how they're not just the collective noun for eggs anymore.

That was all reasonably simple, and we stopped for a quick break as the rain started up. Afterwards we moved onto emergency braking, and actually got to use 2nd gear (woohoo!). That was again all fairly easy. We then moved onto what I am now going to call the dreaded figure 8s. QRide says you need to be able to do a figure 8 in around 13 seconds before you're allowed on the road (the road bit of the course that is). The others managed this fairly quickly, I was all the way up around 20 seconds in the first bit.

After that minorly discouraging effort, we moved onto the fun bits - a slalom and a swerve. I'd have to say that they were both fairly uneventful (in 2nd), but definitely more fun than the blasted figure 8s!

The last bit of the day for the group was starting and then going directly around a corner - so with the edge of the carpark a few metres away we'd need to turn in front of it. Was challenging, but not too eventful - this was where I was glad i had a throttle limiter on, due to giving it more gas when I should have just let the clutch out a little more, then catching on and dumping the clutch out faster than I intended...

After that the other guys headed off and I got some remedial practice - just tootling around was fun, and doing all the various bits and pieces from the day. Warren (the instructor) suggested doing the figure 8 in second which really helped - ended up being much smoother, and got down to around 15 seconds, so still more practice needed, but I was much happier with it.

Tomorrow we repeat all the same exercises in the morning in the carpark (no throttle limiter though!) and then go out on the local backstreets, assuming we and Warren think we're not a menace to society at that point! I think at the moment I need to get some more instinctual control of clutch and throttle before hitting the road, but hopefully another few hours in the carpark will do that.

I think after that the 3rd day is another repeat, with those going for their open license switching to a big bike - looks like they use a GS500 and an SV650 (gorgeous bike in the flesh!). Don't know if I'll get to that stage in the standard timeframe though...

Had far too much fun just trundling around the carpark today - can't wait to get out into some slightly more open spaces! Will also remember to get Warren to adjust the brake pedal for me - riding the back brake arond those blasted tennis balls for the blasted figure 8s my leg gets very cramped!

Cheers,

Danny

[ttc]

Glad to hear you went ok, warren is very patient
I was going to ride and have a look, but with the rain I decided my place was a better place to be

[seraph]

Rar, good luck, sounds like you're picking it up all right. Stress not, the skills will come -J.

[rtyuiop]

I wouldn't have gone out either Tanya... In fact I think this afternoon I will be either in a nice warm bed or huddled in front of the warm glow of the computer screen with the heater on!

Cheers,

Danny

[wags]

Well enjoy the sunny days from tomorrow!

It'll get easier too - low speed cornering is as hard as it gets, so if u can do figure 8's, you gonna have no problems on the road rides.

[ttc]

Hi wags by the way

Warren at ridesmart is pretty easy to get along with, you'll have no problems passing mate

[Nanna10r]

Onya Danny, Stay calm mate everything will come after that. Oh n dont think yourself less then the other guys. You never know it all & last man aboard the Steed always gets the Biggest Belt Buckle at the Rodeos.
Cheers Brett

[Shifty]

I did my Q-Ride through Ridesmart and found them to be good to deal with. I rode the CB250 as my 'learner' bike on the first day and then the GS500 as the 'big' bike on the second day. They didn't have the SV at the time - they had an ER5 instead. Perhaps they lost a learner along the way

[rtyuiop]

I think the SV might be Warren's bike anyway Shifty!

Well, day 2 progressed OK at the start. More figure 8s, braking etc. with the added exercise of emergency braking when Warren signalled, rather than whenever we felt like it.

No throttle restrictors on for any of us today, so lots more fun - definitely a few woohoo! moments doing laps of the car park, even though it was all relatively slow.

Anyway, sadly when we got to doing turns straight after a start, I fell off . Did a couple and was feeling OK about them, but on the 3rd attempt I lost it a bit, let the clutch all the way out and forgot about it. Found myself speeding up and heading towards a tree and a truck, panicked, and grabbed too much front brake while turning...

Anyway, damage to my jeans where my keys where, a probably major bruise there in a few hours, a bent gear lever and one dead crash knob later, my confidence was down too much to go on the road ride this afternoon (was pondering whether or not to go anyway).

While the others had lunch before hitting the road, I got back on the bike and went for a bit more practice, which felt OK. So I haven't psychologically scarred myself!

Anyway, after riding around with no throttle restrictor today I'm definitely up for a bike purchase once I convince myself I'm relatively safe. And I think my tossing up between how big a bike to go for will be put to one side for a while - I'll grab a 250 for a few months, which will at least be cheaper.

So it's all good - three things are making me feel better: one of the other guys went down as well (just before me!), I managed to do a perfect shoulder roll and landed on my feet, and I now have Nando's for lunch...

Cheers,

Danny

[Aussie Ninja]

Its not if you'll go down its when. So now that that's out of the way you can get on with riding. If your thinking of getting a 250 for a few months then upgrading, don't. You'll be ripping yourself off several hundred dollars. I don't mean grab a new ZX-10, but unless you don't think you'll be able to stop yourself from cracking open the throttle all the time a zzr-600 or earlier zx6r is just fine in my opinion. You control the bike. It doesn't control you.

[seraph]

Buck up, champ. Don't buy a 250 if you want a bigger bike. Your skills will improve too quickly to waste the money. Everyone falls (some more than others ) but good on you for getting back on again and smart move for not going straight out into traffic if your nerves were shaken after the scare. When you are on the bike and in traffic, your head has to be on straight, not distracted or thinking of anything else, otherwise you don't give yourself the best chance at it. Cheers -J.

[Barrabob]

Keep punting it around the carpark till your happy with it theres no rush, I learnt to ride one on a farm when i was sixteen and moved up to a pineforest soon after that so it could take a few laps of the carpark to get it all happening.

Did my qride in a day a few years ago now but i had had a fair amount of road experiance beforehand including a fairly bigish smash when i was younger.

Get whatever bike you like for a first bike I had a 250 and found it a great thing to get back on the horse so to speak nice and light and easy to park and not too fast till your head comes up to speed but you will probably be wanting a bigger one inside six months anyway.

Damn low speed manouvering tests are a bugger of a thing but i am sure they will be telling you all the right things.

[mile636]

I did the Qride about 10 months ago... and I was thinking about getting a 250. Lucky I didn't. I got a 2002 zx6r "636". Its my first real bike and its all going sweet. I recommend this bike to anyone who is starting to ride, but is not nuts. Don't waste your money getting a 250. If you do you'll regret it.

mile636

[Glen]

I think the SV might be Warren's bike anyway Shifty!


Anyway, sadly when we got to doing turns straight after a start, I fell off . Did a couple and was feeling OK about them, but on the 3rd attempt I lost it a bit, let the clutch all the way out and forgot about it. Found myself speeding up and heading towards a tree and a truck, panicked, and grabbed too much front brake while turning...

Very common thing to do Danny and good on you for getting back on the bike straight away. A lot of students do exactly the same although in NSW we do the take off and turn at the end of the day in what we call a simulated road ride. The thing to get used to is to look where you want to go, not where you are going, so practise turning your head through corners

Get yourself a 250 even if it is for a relative short time. If you've never ridden before you'll improve at a much faster rate and if it's second hand you won't drop much dough.

Jump on your bike close to home for say 20 minutes to half hour every day and gradually build on your skills and confidence by lenghtening the time and the distance that you travel from home. Stay off really busy roads for a while and work you're way into it. Ideally get yourself into a carpark and practise all of your exercises that you've just done.

Have a ball and stay safe.

[Shifty]

This is why I always recommend people get a cr@p bike for the first few months (regardless of capacity). That way WHEN you drop it the experience will be a lot easier to deal with!

Good that you got straight back on the horse and didn't give up. they say there are two types of motorcyclists - those who have crashed and those who are going to! so, you now fall into the first category and can enjoy years of accident-free motorcycling!

When you get your license & a bike and want someone to go riding with, without the pressure of a big group, let me know as I'm always keen for a ride and am happy to go at your pace.

Good luck with the rest of it!