Subject: RE: 1st Ride!
Author: Greg Bender
Date: Mar 9, 2005, 7:22 AM
Post ID: 1718516123
Hi AJ,
Congratulations! You'll have many more fun rides to come, I'm sure.
1st gear will come with practice. You do need it and I use it every time
I start off (I think most loopers do?). When my Dad taught me to ride on
an old Honda CB125, he had me do hundreds of starts. That is the real
key to riding a motorcycle. It is so much easier once you get going, but
the slow stuff is where a person's skills either shine or not. It is
also where a lot of tip overs happen. So, find an empty parking lot once
the weather get's better and spend a saturday morning doing slow stuff.
The standard shift pattern since the mid 70's has been 1 down and the
rest up. When you have a heel-toe shifter, this means that you press the
toe end down to down-shift and press the heel end down to up-shift. It
does take some getting used to.
As for brakes, it depends on the surface you are riding on as to how you
go about braking (at least in the world according to Greg). Here's how I
do it:
1. On dry pavement - I use the front and rear brakes together and I
apply them at about the same time. Sometimes I get lazy and just use the
front brake - as it does the lions share of the stopping. But, for full
stopping power, you need both brakes.
2. On wet pavement - I use the front and rear brakes together, but I'm
careful as to how suddenly I apply them. This isn't so much of a concern
with my drum brake Ambo, but is much more of a concern on my disc brake
Quota. There's a lot of stopping power with the disc brakes and you
don't want to lock up the front wheel - ever!
3. On sand/gravel/grass - These are are slippery areas for street bikes
and a little extra caution must be exercised. I use the rear brake a lot
more and ease on the front brake - especially at slower speeds. What you
don't want to do is lock up the front wheel. When that happens, the
forks will turn sideways and the bike will go over (at least that is
what happens to me).
Last year right before I bought the Quota, I got a chance to ride one
that a local Minnesota dealer had. Up to this point I had been riding my
drum brake Ambo for quite a while and it had been years since I had been
on a disc brake bike. Needless to say, when I pulled back in the sand
driveway, I grabbed an Ambo-sized handful of front brake and immediately
locked up the front wheel. The bike went down, I went down, tons of
people saw me do it - it was not one of my finest moments. I had ridden
John Ulrich's Ambassador to the dealer as my Ambo had just chunked it's
camshaft timing gear. I'm pretty sure he had reservations about me
riding it back - but he never said a word.
AJ Huff wrote:
| Today I rode a motorcycle for the first time!!! |
Regards,
Greg Bender
1971 Ambassador
2000 Quota
http://www.thisoldtractor.com/gtbender