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I learned about riding from that.

  • Thread starter Thread starter One_Dude
  • Start date Start date
O

One_Dude

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I am a somewhat new 850GS owner and have been devouring these pages since last November when the Suzy came home with me, but this is my first post. It was in need of some minor work that I have completed and it's ready to ride; hopefully I am also ready. I am a longtime rider but have not done any riding for several years. In a fit of brain fog I allowed my wife to convince me to sell my Honda CX500 Custom and until recently I have been bikeless.

Years ago I worked with a couple of guys who were private pilots. They subscribed to a flying magazine that had a monthly section called "I learned about flying from that". They used to bring in their older magazines rather than throwing them away and while I'm not a pilot I really enjoyed reading that monthly column. It seems to me that the same subject could be used for riding bikes; hence the title of this post.

I'll start off and hope that others will join in. My first motorized two wheel machine was a Vespa motor scooter. I lived in Florida as a teen and put lots of miles on that guy. Most of my friends had either scooters or small motorcycles and most of us also had afternoon paper routes and we used the scooters and bikes to deliver. My route was 16 miles long, and I also rode to school every day. Well the two most frustrating details of the Vespa were that it was a two cycle and you had to mix the oil with the gas manually. Of course I always guessed at the mixture which led to serveral occassions with a lot of blue smoke. The other detail was that the kick starter was held on by two bolts that would constantly break. When the bolts were broken you had to push start the scooter. I had done this many times and one time I learned a real lesson. I usually put the scooter in first gear and ran along side. When I got up some speed I would pop the clutch. The motor would start and I would hop on; worked every time but once. On one occassion I mistakenly put the scooter in second gear instead of first. When I released the clutch the engine started an off went the scooter with me hanging on. Must have looked like a Keystone Kop movie. Since I was not able to keep up with the speed of the scooter my arms were pulled straight out which in turn pulled the throttle on more; hence even more speed. At a near panic I grabbed the front brake instead of the clutch and the scooter took a nose dive. Actually it stopped and I went over the handlebars; a few scrapes and bruises and part of my shin left on the front cowling, but otherwise unhurt. This happened right in front of my house. A neighbor lady saw it happen and came running out to check on me. I was too embarrassed to be scared, and just wanted to be on my way before the entire neighborhood had a chance to get a good belly laugh at my expense. Youth is a wonderful thing when it comes to absorbing bumps and bruises. I was more careful about my gear selection after that.

I learned about riding from that.

JR
 
Welcome to the club.
I have a 80' GS-850 that's getting ready to hit the road.
Ride safe.:D
 
Welcome to the forum, OneDude :)
Thanks for starting this thread, it seems like a terrific idea !!
Everybody, in all pursuits, whether it be flying, motorcycling or anything else, makes mistakes. Realizing that should make folks comfortable sharing their mistakes, but sometimes there is still a reluctance.
I haven't been riding motorcycles long enough (only 6 weeks now)to have any interesting stories though.
We can all learn from others mistakes, & sometimes, as in the case you shared, have a little chuckle with the education ;)
It really does work too - - - after reading a " I learned about _____ from that " story, one can recognize the steps that lead to an undesirable outcome & break the chain of events. It is almost as if the subconscious remembers the story & jumps ahead to reading the accident or incident report saying something like "" & even though the person involved had been educated on the results of such activity, they persisted & had exactly the same unfortunate experience "" . Thus, the person involved pauses for a second & double checks the gear selected, or whatever the case may be, & carries on unscathed.
Most times, the author, or person sharing the story of their mistake, never knows the benefit another reaps from having heard the story or having been taught the lesson without the undesireable experience.
So, here's my gratitude in advance :))

ps - I think this thread should be " stickied " when it gets more submissions !
 
ok, i'll bite..


when i was younger, when i was first learning to ride.. i was a horrible squid. shorts, teeshirt crappy helmet, and jersey's brown gloves.:oops: Mind you, i only have this 80 something seca 750 for a couple days and it needed alot of work, so i was "teaching" myself to ride on a buddies beat to hell cb750k. i ran into a guy who lived in the same complex as me, almost litterally.

he was a biker, i'll never know his last name, we all just called him "biker dan" he sat me down, gave me some tips.. but most importantly, he showed me a huge scar he had on his side and arm from road rash. he told me, "it doesn't matter if you look cool or not, when you go down, you are going down." i got the message, and sought out some gear. which at the time was a really thick russian tank commanders (DENIM!) jacket from the military surplus store, and a full face helmet from the local cycle shop, as well as some leather gloves.

While a major part of his message convinced me to be a safe rider, upon further reflection, i realized that it also made me realize that motorcycleing isn't an image it's an activity. you can't be a motorcycle rider simply because you wear the gear or are on a bike. it's a whole frame of mind.

I learned about riding from that. :)
 
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