Q-Ride with rtyuiop - day 4 - woohoo, a piece of paper!
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:11 pmHi 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
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
. 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...
) 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.