March 5, 2012 2:50 AM PST
Ladies,
since you have taken the MSF, review the material learned, take yourself back to the range when the instructiors were talking about stoping. I have a very firm belief here that before you even start the bike up can your find the horm, trun signals, brake, clutch, shift gears apply rear brake, high beam/lowbeam without looking. This is about knowing your bike. If you are hitting the turnsignal when ya mean to hit the horm, that mean ya need more time to practice the where the controls are, if you have to look down to shift, then you need to sit in the driveway on the kickstand and runn the gears. If every time you have to take your eyes off the road to find these basic items then its time to just sit in the driveway and get familiar, I am dead serious here. It will make all the difference. Honestly it should only take a few minutes to learn them too. From here your issue is stopping, so can you pull in the front brake, as you hit the rear brake without looking, good can you also pull in the clutch and down shift to 1st good, no one should ever sit in neutral, just keep pulling in the clutch and hold it in. if you can that's good. Now, are ya looking 10 seconds ahead, making aware of what's three seconds ahead of you just like driving a car or are you looking at the car infromt of you brake lights? If your only watching the car infront of you, you are doing target fix ation, very bad thing and it will cause you to have to do quick and sudden stops. So, pay attention to the car in fromt of ya and the three in fromt of them, so if you see one hit the brakes or slow down you can begin to take action then like deacclerate, maybe down shift if need be, see car two hit the brakes slow down more cause ya know the car right in fromt of you will stop as well, its just the way traffic is and flow. So if you are doing all of this correctly the next question is what is it about stoping? One Do Not Look Down, look down go down remember that from class? Remember to look several seconds in front well keep eyes up be looking at reason stopping but concentraing on where you want to stop while eyes are up, pull the frint brake back while appling rear brake think smooth, do both evenly, keep eyes up at seconds in front of you be it a blue truck or the pending yellow waiting to turn red, then pull in the clutch keeping eyes up, as you down shift to first. If you are looking straight a head not staring but looking straight ahead then you will not have the front tire at any slightly cocked angle there for not throwing the bike off balance. If you can't to any of this them it time to only be in your quite development, big parking lot whatever ya got anywhere out of traffic. and go and practice looking to the horizan, not down or to the gears, or that sale sign on the corner but the horizon. Practice this first slow, then with some speed them step it up 10mph once you've accoplished 10mphs perfect several times then go to 20, 30, 40, 50mph. If you still can't do this then it might be one of several things, One retake the course there is no shame, two the bike isn't right for you, three you are not doing it right, or 4 this is the most unpopular thing to say but I'm going to say it, some folks just aren't ment to ride, its not for everyone and not everyone should be doing it. I'm not trying to be mean, this is about life, your life, the life of the person that you run into, your family and friends. A sportster has sport in it, which means sporty bike like a sports car, you wouldn't buy a corvette for a 16 year old as a first car, then why would you buy a corvette for yourself as first bike? So if you still have the import, go back to it, and ride around I suggest atleast 10,000 miles or so ride in rain, gravel, grass, grated bridges, mountain passes, flats, roads with some sand in them dirt roads, heat cold every contition that our beloved Mother Nature can through at you first to see if you can handle it with that volo, before ya even think about taking the "vette" around the corner. See I told y'all you wouldn't like what I had to say. But folks this is your life, spin the wheel and take a chance, you might come home or not. However, its better to have the odds in your favor then in mayhems favor don't ya think? When you've practiced more than you think you can ever practice its time to practice some more. I've been ridding since 87, and I've had my share of shit happen, but I can tell you I think I dropped my bikes throught out the years a total of 5 times, , I've owened each bike for years and had anywhere from 75,000 to 140,00 miles on them, so I knew when exactly how the bike was going to react each time, this I learned with time, the guys that have been riding their bikes can tell ya that, each bike is different as each rider is different, and change is constant but how both respoind in certian conditions are the same. When we drop a bike its rider error not bike error, so the rider needs to know what they are doing wrong so they can correct the wrong practice practice and more practice if ya gotta repeat the course reapeat it as a reminder, if ya gotta stay on that 650 for 10 years that's cool too it will take you everywhere you want to go anyway so who cares, if its gotta be a Harley cause everyone else has one, then ya might have that sportster for the worng reasons. If you took the learn to ride with harley of course they're going to tell you harley is the one to have its what they sell. Its not what you ride its that your ride, it is about the ride not the shine nonsense that goes with it. But if your asking cause ya really want to ride you will do it, it takes drive, and sheer determination. I wish you all happy Practicing. have a great one! "T"
I think that's a great idea to tape myself to see what's going on. I can get my sis to do it when I'm practicing.