Like riding a bike, or not....

I am currently learning to ride a motorcycle, and today was day 2 of the MSF Beginning Rider's Course. Yesterday was pretty much just class time, where we reviewed things like different kinds of bikes, gear, etc. Today was instruction time on the bike.

For anyone not familiar with how it works, classes like this are essentially sponsored, and the students have donated bikes to ride for the class. This particular class is held at the local community college. There's a large blacktop area where a series of exorcises take place to learn the fundamentals of how to ride.

I must say, this is honestly one of the most difficult things I've ever done. It's so much more difficult than learning to drive a car, even one with a manual transmission. There's typically at least 4 things that you have to be able to do simultaneously for any of these exorcises. It's going decently enough but there's some things that I need serious work on. One of these is keeping my head up and not looking at the bike or ground at all. It's amazing how much the bike has a tendency to want to follow your eyes (and if they're looking at the ground, down the bike wants to go). I've done enough sports car racing to understand how to look through a corner, but motorcycles take it to a whole different level. Another issue is my throttle modulation. I stall a lot.

I had one nasty spill while I was out today. It was really just a stupid moment on my part. Towards the end of the cornering exorcise, while I was leaned into the turn, I grabbed the front brake. I know damn well that it is something you absolutely cannot do. It was just a weird reflex to not giving the bike enough throttle or lean and realization that I was going to end up going wide. As soon as I went down I knew exactly what happened, and pretty much cussed myself out for it.

The end result is a bit of rash on my right wrist, from a small gap between my gloves and jacket. The heel of my left hand is sore, from putting it out as I fell. My big toe on my right foot also hurts like hell, from getting jammed between the bike and the ground as I fell.

The way I see it, it's a good thing to do this kind of fall on a practice range with a donated bike rather than on the streets on my bike, so long as I learn from it.

Hopefully things go smoother tomorrow, as the skills test will take place at the end of the day.

Eyes up, ease in the brake, eyes up, relax, eyes up.