My first ride after MSF!

[r311music]

Well as of yesterday, I am now legal to operate a motorcycle on public roads! I had my bike about a week before my class, and I rode around the parking lot a ton. However, today was the first day I actually went for an extended ride. For anyone from Orlando, you know how bad the drivers are here, so needless to say I was pretty nervous, but I had to do it soon. My bike was delivered with under a 1/4 of a tank of gas left. So ultimately I had to just get out there and put what I learned to use.

First off, I had a blast! This little bike packs a pretty good punch. What was supposed to be a quick 10min ride to get gas turned into an hour tour of east Orlando! I just had no interest in turning back so I kept going. Plus about halfway into my ride a R6 rider joined me and followed my path for quite a bit. He could have easily gone around me as many of the roads were 4 lanes, but he kept right behind me. So that was pretty cool and made the ride even more interesting.

While nothing went wrong, I still have quite a ways to go to becoming a "good" rider. My up shifting seems to be real jerky. Any tips on that? My downshifts are fine. When I up shift, I close the throttle, pull in the clutch, shift, then release and slowly add throttle. Should I be more aggressive on the throttle when I'm trying to increase speed fairly quickly? Beside it being jerky, I am getting blown away by pretty much everyone ha. I don't care all that much as once I get in the higher gears I catch up, but I would like to be able to do faster takeoffs eventually.

Also I have pretty much given up on the factory break in. 90% of roads in Orlando have speed limits of 45mph and higher so there is just no way of keeping it under 4k. I know it's a highly debated subject, but I can't imagine how anyone in this region could follow that for 600 miles without getting run over. So I'm pretty much doing the "hard" break in.

I already can't wait until work tomorrow as I will be riding my bike in! Then an extended ride after!

[Timon]

Welcome to the addiction.

You're right on adding more throttle when up shifting. Most of my up shifts involve clutch, release throttle, change gear, release clutch, 50%+ throttle.

Also as far as starting out you should easily be the first one out of the red light with no problems. Just make sure you rev it up a little higher when starting off.

[r311music]

Originally Posted by Timon

Welcome to the addiction.

You're right on adding more throttle when up shifting. Most of my up shifts involve clutch, release throttle, change gear, release clutch, 50%+ throttle.

Also as far as starting out you should easily be the first one out of the red light with no problems. Just make sure you rev it up a little higher when starting off.

Thanks for the tip. I tried it today and much smoother. And you are right about the addiction part. I'm already planning my next longer ride!

[Vampyre]

Where in East Orlando? I am near Aloma and 436. I meet with some riders every Thursday at the Steak N Shake near there.

[MrEmmortal]

I pull on the clutch lever enough to disengage the clutch. About half way down. Or two fingers still left on the grip. I found that helped my up shifts a whole lot.

[Felipe the Ant]

Try clutching and throttling in one motion. Also the faster you do the shift the smoother it'll be because the rpms have less time to drop

[r311music]

Originally Posted by Vampyre

Where in East Orlando? I am near Aloma and 436. I meet with some riders every Thursday at the Steak N Shake near there.

I'm over near the airport off 436 and lee vista. I'm actually planning on meeting up this thursday if the weather holds up.