So you want to ride a motorcycle?

[Brian]

Originally Posted by Sargent

I was not familiar with that term. Thank you. I have many a new youtube video to watch.

Ahahaha yes.

[Finesse]

Originally Posted by alex.s

how to motorcycle:

step 1:
admire the motorcycle. you WOULD start it, but that requires getting closer than 6 feet to it. but it looks best from about 7-8 feet away. up close and you can see all those little imperfections that piss you off that nobody else notices. is that bent? it's hard to tell from this angle. better move a few feet to the side... ah yes, that looks better... hmm, i'd better look at it from the other side for awhile. is that person staring at me? i should probably go.

step 2:
put ALL of your gear on it. you already put the gear on, but now you need to take every single piece off, place it somewhere on the motorcycle, and then have a smoke, or do your thing while the motorcycle acquires your scent. once it's nice and musky with your stank, get your gear back on. make sure to put the gloves on before your helmet for extra safety.

step 3:
okay you're geared back up, all ready to go. now's the time to go back in your house and get the thing you forgot to put in your pack that you now have to take off but you can't get it off because your jacket makes it hard without unzipping first, but you have to take your gloves off to unzip the jacket without screwing it up. so once you've taken ALL of your gear off again, and you get the stupid thing you've forgotten into your pack. you get all your gear back on and head out the door.

step 4:
is that oil? proceed to tear down the motorcycle engine. inspect all bearing surfaces and clearances before reassembly with fresh gaskets and new fluids. make sure you clean up with kitty litter all that oil you spilled every time you try to do anything even after years of doing the same thing over and over. you've convinced yourself you will spill no more, but spill you do. typically with hot oil when nobody is around to hand you towels leaving you soiling an entire roll of shop towels grabbing for them frantically with a bunch of hot oil all over your scalding hands.

step 5:
okay, the bike is all back together, you're all geared up again, and you're off on your journey!......

I've done 95% of this

[rasta]

Originally Posted by alex.s

i know racers who can't ride bicycles so i dont think that's important.

if i could suggest to anyone how to learn to ride a motorbike it would be do it on a track.
teach them the basics (everything in msf) one weekend in a big parking lot, then the following weekend, go take two days at the track. have the newb follow you and don't go above 25%. no brakes at first. come back and discuss how everything felt. next session go back out and have them follow with no brakes at the same pace as before but then after the second lap have them take the lead going the same pace. leave looooots of buffer. slowly work in more acceleration on straights with very light braking at the end. keep increasing things.

by the end of the second day, they will know how to ride a motorcycle better than 95% of the people on the road.

I agree that would be an ideal way to learn, but that wouldn't be cost effective.

It's been a while since I took the MSF so I forgot what it costs, about $150ish? Bundling in a pair of track days would significantly increase the price. Many many people would be less willing to pay $400+ for a beginner's learner course and would forego the course altogether.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by Sirref

I do agree that having road-cycle experience can help but it's still a bit sketchy to ride without even knowing the basics that are required in order to have a motorcycle license.

Nahhhh. the transition from bicycle+manual transmission car to motorcycle is like a duck to water. Simple as that. Honestly, the MSF course just gave me a bike I wasn't afraid to drop. The first 2 exercises were sketchy for me, but once we got to the point where my feet were up, it was a cakewalk.

Bicycles rule. I won't listen to anyone who says otherwise.

[CycleCam303]

Bicycle experience is all I had. And yes I've been driving manual transmission cars for a little while now.

[CycleCam303]

Originally Posted by adouglas

I have never ridden a bicycle off road. It is in no way a requirement. In fact, dirt skills are in many ways the opposite of street skills (e.g. pushing the bike underneath you, relying on dabbing a foot to get around a corner).

You should take an american dirt camp or cornerspin class. They aren't that expensive and they provide all the dirt gear and bikes.

I just did a class this morning for flat track. A supermoto school to be exact. The body position is different. But the experience and sensations are exactly what riders need. In flat track body position is paramount while entering and getting to the apex of a corner. See when you sit back on the seat and don't push down and lean with the bike, you'll wash out the front end and it will be very difficult to recover from. Sit in the correct body position and really exaggerate the pushing it down while keeping your hips square, and you can achieve way more lean angle and balance the bike easier when you two wheel drift the thing.

It was raining today so traction was terrible. The loss of traction happens at a very low speed. This gets a rider understanding the importance of body position and being smooth and controlled with the throttle. It also isn't intimidating to try and control a sliding bike at these speeds. Its all about learning what breaking the traction limit feels like and being comfortable teetering on that edge.

How it translates to the road? You all quote Keith code all the time about rolling on the throttle and not chopping it when the rear steps out. But experience is really what settles SR's. Have you ever had a bike totally sideways and balanced the amount of throttle to keep the bike rotating around a corner but not completely lose the back end? That is where dirt track guys have such good skills. Real throttle control is needed to not high side and to control the angle of the bike.

Those experiences create a great base for traction feel. That does translate to every bit of street riding and on road track. You learn what braking at the limit feels like too.

I did some dirt track racing last year and realized there's a good reason guys like mark Marquez do flat track all the time.