learn to ride a motorbike

Lifelong ambition, to be a super safe motorcyclist

I got a second hand Yamaha lat month. The paint was all run down so I even bought some custom motorcycle paint and did the job myself. Now its all set and looks as good as new. All I need to do is learn to ride it. I’ve asked an old buddy to help out. Hope to start this weekend.

this was another thing that I was all gung-ho on wanting to do for a while but it never happened because it was never really necessary. Now I’m leaving Vietnam in less than two months so it’s even less necessary. But I hate the idea of having given up on something that I really wanted to do.

take a stunt bike course

Well, I’ve finally done it, and passed my bike test!
Did a 3 day course with BMF eastleigh,and am now the proud owner of a full motorcycle licence and have traded in my NSR125 for a gorgeous Ducati M600!
So I’m now looking forward to a (hopefully) lovely summer out on my bike!

I was riding motorcycles (as we call them on this side of the pond)when I was 17. Unfortunately, a neighbor kid stupidly got into my path one dark night and wound up in the hospital with multiple fractures in both legs. So ended my motorcycling days.

Another neighbor of mine, at the time, used to ride, also. One day a woman in a car ran a red light right in front of him. He hit her car broadside, flew off his bike and over the car, and when he landed on the other side of the street, struck his head on a fire hydrant. Even with a helmet on, he wound up in a coma for six months.

Another boyhood friend of mine was riding with a passenger on the back of his motorcycle when they hit a delivery truck. The boy on the back was catapulted over the head of the guy driving the bike and flew right into the side of the truck, breaking his neck and killing him instantly.

I could tell you more horror stories, but I think you get the point, right? While motorcycles are great fun to ride, even if you’re wearing a helmet, following all the rules and being as safe a rider as possible, you are still completely vulnerable to a potentially fatal accident. I had a friend who was killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle in New Mexico. Aside from the accident I had, described above, I had had several other spills prior to that, one while riding off-road, in which I was knocked unconscious. I was wearing a helmet at the time.

You think you’re going to live forever when you’re young, and that nothing bad is going to happen to you, but your whole life can change – or end – in a heartbeat when you’re on a motorcycle and when someone in a car doesn’t see you before changing lanes, it can all be over in seconds. Now, are you sure you want to learn to ride a motorbike? It could be the last thing you ever do.

But i might jus do it anyways haha

Still to start. Need to start into lessons – March, 08.

hi my name is james i am turning 16 in seven mouths and i was just wodering were u went to learn to ride a motobike.

I’m a legal Learner! I did my CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) certificate yesterday on a 125cc motorbike, which is the most powerful engine size you can legally learn on. I was given a dark-red Yamaha commuter-style bike with five gears and a nice short-travel clutch lever, so learning to find the biting point as I let the clutch out was actually very easy.

I did my CBT over the course of two days because of a problem with my head. It’s very large, and on my first visit the instructor found that he didn’t have a helmet big enough. After phoning his wife to bring an XL from home, I managed to force that on but it was still far too tight and after 2-3 hours I was finding it very difficult to concentrate. So we did everything except the mandatory 2-hour road ride in the afternoon that day (it just wouldn’t have been safe to do it with that helmet), and came back after a couple of weeks when I had bought my very own XXL Shoei Raid II (highly recommend by-the-way as a quality entry level Shoei helmet). We recapped what we had learnt in the last session and went straight out on the road, my friend Dave leading the way for the first half and then me leading the second. We were using in-helmet radios so we could hear our instructor’s directions and reminders to cancel our indicators, or which gear we should be in at any moment, plus the speed limits in the area, but we were unable to talk back to him as we had no mics ourselves. Before I knew it we were out on country lanes on the route towards Winchester and approaching 60 mph! It felt fantastic, the weather was lovely and sunny – about 9’C – though a little windy, but it was great for riding, we were lucky with the booking date. I had my visor up the majority of the ride until a fly hit me in the eye, at which point I found a slow bit and deftly lowered it in one quick movement with my left hand – but leaving a small gap at the bottom so all the fresh air could still pour in.

If anyone is reading this and is nervous about going out on the road – take it from me, it’s actually a lot less scary than you think it will be – especially leading the ride which I was terrified of to begin with. I don’t drive a car and haven’t got a lot of road sense, but I still felt very safe most of the time. I made a couple of stupid mistakes, but nothing scary and the constant stream of advice from your instructor makes it possible, you can’t really go wrong. If you aren’t good enough by the time the ride comes around in the afternoon then your instructor simply will not let you out on it. I certainly didn’t feel like I was ready but I picked everything up very quickly. I just had to keep reminding myself that it isn’t a computer-game – I can’t mess up because the consequences would be very real.

I did my CBT at Eastleigh BMF which runs from the Eastleigh Football Club carpark, Hampshire. Keep an eye on the weather forecast and phone up your local centre and book it. The next step for me is to find a learner bike on eBay. I’m looking to get a cruiser style bike like a Kawasaki Eliminator.