Average Dave

"Uh, how do you ride a motorbike?"

Not like this :)

Something I should warn others about, and I should have known better, is to learn to ride before you buy a motorbike (at least have your license, which I also didn't have). I am all for self-directed learning, but out on the streets mixed with traffic is a bit much. Thankfully the street where I live is fairly quiet.

Delivery was a mixture of feelings when the bike finally arrived. I could have technically driven it home had I had my license, but likely wouldn't have been a good idea. Once the excitement of having the biggest, most expensive toy I have ever owned fizzled out, the reality faced me that I had to learn how to ride it sunk in. With a massive 34.8" seat height, I could barely reach the pavement with my toes; even at 6'. The suspension has since relaxed quite a bit, and the confidence of practice makes the height very comfortable. I any event, with no previous motorbike, dirt bike, manual car experience I was a bit antsy about going out for the first time. I had no choice but to just give it a whirl.

I think the singular thing that helped the most was practicing where the clutch starts to engage the drive system. With no gas during any of the process, have the bike in gear and just slowly let out the clutch. When the bike starts to move you know that's where it engages. Practicing pulling in and letting out that position makes all the difference. The second and seemingly just as important thing for me to learn is that you can have gas and clutch at the same time. It's okay to "ride the clutch". On a car it's completely different and that's what tripped me up quite a bit. I would try and release the clutch just as I was giving it gas, which is ideal, but the bike is so temperamental I kept stalling it. The flip side of the coin is that there is so much torque that if you give it just a bit too much mustard the bike is likely going to leave you on the road behind. Which is exactly what happened not long after my first outing. Just a bit too much gas the front wheel cork-screwed when I hit the curb dumping myself and the bike - that's how you learn though!

While I had no training of any sort, I was fortunate to have a lot of practice time behind the bars. The more I rode the more comfortable I got. Having well over a decade of driving experience in all manner of four, or more, wheeled vehicles I was very humbled by the uneasiness I felt out with traffic on a bike. On the bike it felt completely foreign. Mingling with traffic was as new as drivers ed back in high school. It's all part and parcel of the experience however and what an experience it has been.

It's now a year later and I have more stories to tell. Stay tuned.