(This post needs editing, please forgive the grammatical errors.)
Last year at about this time (Oct 08) I decided it might be fun to own and ride my own motorcycle. I had come across a YouTube video of a test review of a Ducati Monster 696. Up until that time I knew nothing of motorcycles other than the impression that they were dangerous and pointless.
However, after seeing the video and checking the performance numbers, I thought "wow, I could never afford a car that can perform like that Ducati". The Ducati 696 is a middle weight performer, the base model of that company. And it was available for about $10,000 CAN.
From that time forward I researched and sought after everything I could find on the WWW that had to do with motorcycles. I researched sport bikes, cruisers, dual sport, tourers and even scooters.
The best site that I have found for researching bikes is MotorcycleNews It's a British site but has a short review of just about every kind of motorcycle out there. They are somewhat prejudiced in favor of sport bikes but it's a great starting point. My bike is known as the Yamaha XJ6 Diversion in places other than North America. Here, it's fully faired. This brings me to a point regarding naked bikes. Naked bikes look bad ass but they have little or no wind protection so if you want to blast down your favorite highway it might end up being a pain in the ass rather than bad assed. The wind blast will wear you down.
By late fall I had committed to owning and riding a bike by the Spring of 2009.
This post is to outline my experiences in this project, what I did right and what I did wrong and maybe to change some impressions of motorcycling that some of you might have.
I want to start off with a few suggestions:
1) When you buy your bike, also purchase a heated vest. There is nothing that kills the fun of biking like cold does. The cold is not only uncomfortable, it's unsafe. To ride properly you need to be flexible and you need to pay attention to every move you make. When you are cold, you are stiff and you end up thinking about how cold you are instead of the plan you have for your next corner.
The heated vest keeps your core organs warm and when they are warm they don't draw heat from your extremities, therefore your hands, legs and feet stay warmer. Believe me, regardless of where you live, you will sometimes be in a cold environment and you will really appreciate that vest!
2) Take a safety course OR pay someone you know that is an experienced rider a lot of money to spend at least 15 hours with you teaching all he knows about riding. I took a course that cost me $700. Basically their goal was to see that I passed my road test to get my license and that's about it. I would rather have given an experienced rider that money for 15 hours of 1 on 1 training instead of the 40 hour group course I took.
3) Plan to spend several hours a week riding your bike and not just to and from work. You only can get good (safe) by riding a LOT and in various situation, city and highway. It's a time commitment you have to make for safety sake.
4) Do not purchase an underpowered bike. Regardless of all the crap there is on the net about starting off "slow" and getting a 250 or a similar bike, just never mind that crap 'cause that's what it is. If you are committed to learning, your skills will grow exponentially. When you start, your bike will seem scary, intimidating. But you will learn and you'll learn fast. You will outgrow an underpowered bike in a matter of weeks and you'll be saying to yourself "I wish I had more power!". I guarantee it.
5) If you have a history of traffic convictions, if you commonly take part in reckless or impulsive behavior, if you are heavy drinker, if you have serious heath issues that effect your mobility or if you are submissive and like others to be in control, then motorcycling is maybe not a good idea for you. Conversely, if you are good at video games and/or are a control freak, then motorcycling might be your life passion.
After months of research I purchased a Yamaha FZ6R. It's a 600cc sports-tourer with 77 Horsepower. It's a great bike with good power but also docile in the lower rev range. YOU control how much power goes to the wheel. The bike will do only what you tell it to do. Do not be afraid of a powerful bike. Just use the power wisely.
Honestly, I would not consider a bike under 600cc unless you are a female. I say that not out of sexism but only because of the weight issue. My bike weighs in at about 470 pounds loaded with fluids. Occasionally, when starting out you will lose your balance with your bike and it will start to fall. You need a lot of strength to keep it off the ground in that case. It's happened to me three times and each time it took every ounce of strength I had to keep it from falling. And I am 6' 190 lbs.
Those are my five suggestions which I feel are critical.
Now you have to choose your bike.
In order to choose your bike you will have to really analyse why you want to ride. Is it for economy sake? Because you want to look "cool"? Because you want to learn a new skill? Because you seek danger? You want to go fast? Your friend has one and you want to join in the fun? You want to tear up the backwoods trails? All of the above?
Your reasons will dictate what kind of bike you choose. I would say 80% of all the bikes in my town are cruisers, Harley types with lots of chrome and loud pipes. The are probably the most comfortable and nicest looking bikes. If you are after looks and sounds then maybe that is the type of bike to get. The problem (for me) with a cruiser is that they are not particularly fast not do they handle or brake as well as a sport bike.
You need to decide how much you want to spend. For me I didn't want to go over $10,000. Partly because I wasn't sure if I would really like biking and partly because I wanted a brand new bike and I only had so much money to spend. Having only $10K really limits your choices on a new bike. That may be a good thing because in the 13 - 20K range there is so much choice of really good bikes that choosing one would be quite a task.
As I alluded to earlier, I wanted the kind of performance I could not get in any car I can afford. The kind of performance that one can experience in a Corvette Z06 or Porsche 911 and then some.
The "middle weight" bike I chose will go 0-60 mph in under 5 seconds and can reach a speed of 135 MPH. That's pretty fast, at least in acceleration. Super Sport bikes can get to 60 in under 3 seconds and are electronically limited to 186 MPH although they could go faster. They are the fastest production vehicles on the planet. You just have to look at the size of the disc brakes on these bikes to know that they stop very fast too. Super Sport Bikes are racing machines that are legal for the street.
There are two classes of Super Sports. the 600's (Yamaha R6, Kawasaki ZX6R, Honda CBR600) and the 1 Litre Bikes (Yamaha R1, Kawasaki ZX10R, Honda CBR1000RR, Suzuki GSX-R1000). A nice compromise between the two might be the Suzuki GSX-R750. There are some others too, like the Ducati 848 and Triumph Daytona 675.
Well I am getting ahead of myself.
I am going to say this now: DO NOT PURCHASE A SUPER-SPORT BIKE IF YOU ARE A NOVICE RIDER. My entire experience this summer on my bike was a learning experience in order to reach the next level, that of owning and riding a Super Sport bike safely. That's my goal for the future.
I rode my bike 12,000 km this season and in every one of those kilometers I tried to learn something or practise a skill I had learned.
I don't know much about cruisers or Harleys so from now on anything I write has to do with sport bikes in general from a perspective of someone interested in performance over all else.
There seems to be the misconception out there that motorcylces are not safe. I spent most of my 55 years thinking that until I actually learned to ride.
Now I consider bikes to be safer than cars in most situations for three reasons:
1) Agility. Your bike is so much more agile than a car its like comparing an elephant to a gazelle. Your ability to avoid a sudden danger is much more enhanced on a bike than in a car.
2) Room: A car has about a foot of space on either side of it's lane. A bike has about 3 feet or more. This gives you a tremendous amount of options on where you want to ride, depending on the conditions. You can ride where its safest, you can adjust your position to where the view of the road is best. It's amazing how much room you have. Space +Time = Safety.
3) Awareness. If you were about to go hiking in the woods and the park warden warned you that there was a bear around how would that effect you? You would hear every branch move in the wind, every squirrel move in the bush, every leaf that fell to the ground. You would be looking over your shoulder every few seconds.
The increased vulnerability of riding a bike makes you just as aware. When riding, your level of awareness raises to a measure not seen since your pot smoking days. You see more, you hear more and you feel more. You look for danger. It's an amazing feeling and one reason I love riding and it's the main reason you will be safe. It's your built-in survival instinct.
The hazard I have developed most fear for is a loss of traction due to debris or obstacles on the road, especially on the riding line you have picked. It could be gravel, leaves, a pot hole, or the slippy tar strips they use to plug cracks. You need to remember that you only have two small wheels keeping you upright, two small patches of rubber. You need to think about traction ALL the time.
Riding is all about the laws of physics and how your body and your bike will interact. Every move you make affects your bike. You need to learn to communicate with your bike and learn it's particular behaviour. If I do this, then this will happen. Practise, practise practise. I've always thought that learning to ride was like learning a hard video game. It's rewarding to see yourself get better each time you play. You learn a little something with every game experience that you can apply the next time you start the game.
When I got my license and started to ride I was really awkward and I felt awkward when I saw other bikers whizzing by me.
MOTORCYCLING IS NOT A CONTEST! The term "ride your own ride" is one of the most important that I know. There will always be better skilled bikers than you. Unless you are in a race on a track it doesn't matter what other bikers do. The temptation is to try and match their speed in a corner before you've developed the skills to do so. So it seems obvious but: DO NOT RIDE BEYOND YOUR SKILLS. Failure to do so will earn you a trip to the emergency ward.
Fear Is Your Friend
When you start to ride and even if you are experienced you will encounter what I call "uncomfortable moments". This happens usually in corners where your body tells you that what you are doing may endanger your life. You get a shot of adrenaline and maybe a sense of approaching doom. Your body is telling you to take some sort of action to change the situation.
Listen to your body, it is trying to keep you alive! Cornering fast and accurately is the toughest and yet most rewarding skill to learn, I am still learning. The most common mistake is entering a corner too fast for your skill level. Or taking the wrong line, usually because you haven't made a plan for that corner, or thought about it too late.
Do not take any corner for granted! Every corner needs a plan and once committed to it, you need to start thinking about the next corner, especially if you are on a lovely twisty road. In my case I usually get into trouble, not by going too fast, but by turning in too late because my attention was elsewhere.
It's much safer to enter a corner too slow and apply power in the corner, than to go too wide either because of speed or poor line decision and then try to apply brakes or induce a greater lean angle.
Sometimes I will enter a strange corner much slower than I could have. I tell myself "what a weenie you are". But the next time I take that corner I know I can go faster and best of all, I might be a weenie but I still have all my body parts intact.
In the first few weeks of my riding I approached my bike with a measure of trepidation or a healthy nervousness because I wasn't smooth and my muscle memory coordination wasn't fully developed. This is natural and a good thing. It goes away and then you will stop thinking about how to ride a bike and start to enjoy the benefits of learning advanced riding skills, like high speed cornering.
Now when I get on my bike I have three goals in mind:
1) To avoid getting a speeding ticket.
2) To avoid causing myself or my bike harm.
3) To go as fast as my skills allow without jeopardizing the first two goals.
Let's face it, if you are thinking about a Sport Bike, you are not thinking about maintaining the speed limits. My entry level sport bike is much more capable than the speed limits which seem agonizingly slow. If a corner says 70kmh its safe to assume you can take it at 100km on your bike with safety to spare. it's just the way it is.
If you are never going to break the speed limits then you are wasting your money on a Sport Bike, buy a cruiser. I'm not advocating breaking the law, I'm just telling it like it is.
My theory on speeding is this: On any given 4 hour trip if you were to speed all the time you might have a 40% chance of getting a speeding ticket. If you were to speed 50% of the time, then that gets reduced to 20%. And so on. So I speed (and by that I mean going in excess of 10km over the posted limit) about 10-20% of the time. This reduces my chances of getting a ticket down to between 4 and 8%. I can live with those odds. I budget myself for one ticket per season.
You will be ticketed, it's just a matter of how many tickets you are prepared to take.
Speeding 15-20% of the time means I can still get my adrenaline rush every now and then. The nice thing about a motorcycle is that it can slow down almost as fast as it can speed up. Unlike a car, especially an automatic, a bike doesn't have the momentum of weight or a massive flywheel to keep it going after the throttle is turned off. Combine that with much more pronounced engine braking and you might find you hardly ever needing to use your brakes on the highway. The point is that if you suspect that white sedan coming around the bend, the one that looks suspiciously like a Crown Victoria is a police cruiser, you can slow down to legal limits real fast.
If you pick your spots carefully and assume every car out there is a police cruiser until proven otherwise, you may be ticket free all year. Good luck with that.
Sharply Focused and Dialed Into The Zone
Earlier I had suggested that if you were proficient in video gaming, then you might really enjoy motorcycling. Why? Well when I am gaming, nothing else in my world matters. All my concentration is involved in the game. A bomb might go off in my neighborhood and it wouldn't matter until my game was finished.
I don't multi-task. I do one thing, I give it all my concentration. I do it well and then I move on the next task. If you are a person who is able to focus in on one task, give it all your attention and the expense of everything else in your world, then you will be a skilled biker.
Because when you are on a motorcycle, that's pretty much what you have to do. Concentrate on that one task of controlling that bike and making sure it does what you want it to do. In a car you can daydream, you can be on your phone, some people even text message, you can listen to your stereo, you can talk with your passenger, you can scratch your nether parts.
On a bike, at least on a Sport Bike all or any of those things (if they were possible on a bike) would result in grievous bodily harm.
One reason I love to motorcycle is just the fact that I can and need to block out everything else in my life and concentrate on my bike and the road in front of me. On any task, whether you are bowling or writing a blog or a goaltender on a hockey team, or whatever you are doing, when you are "dialed in" you know you will do a good job, it just goes with the territory.
When I am on my bike, on my favorite highway on a warm sunny day there is no better feeling I have ever felt than to be "sharply focused and dialed into the zone".
It Your Fault!
I don't care what the Police Report says, or who had the right of way, or what the circumstances were. If you fall off your bike, it's your own fault. 99.9% of "accidents" are preventable. As a Rider is up to you to protect yourself against mistakes by other drivers or riders, your life depends upon it. The onus is on you to foresee all the hazards that may approach you and to have a game plan for the unexpected.
Gear
Ok, lets talk helmets. I'm not going to get into the debate over whether or not helmes are mandatory. In all parts of Canada they are. In British Columbia, where I live, you can get away with the skimpiest Beanie type caps.
The helmet you wear will be decided by the type of bike you have. If you ride a cruiser, or even a tourer, you will not have a full face helmet. That's just the way it is. And if you ride a Sport Bike you WILL wear a full face helmet.
Even you wanted to wear a full face and owned a cruiser, you wouldn't, you'd be laughed off the road. It's just a funny part of motorcycling.
It just proves that Sport Bike Riders are way smarter than the Cruiser Dudes. They would love to ride with a Full Face on but know that the unwritten rule says you can't.
Most people would conclude that a rider wears a helmet so that, in the event he is in a crash, his skull will be somewhat protected against severe trauma.
While that may be true it is not the cheif reason why I wear one. I wear it for comfort.
The Full Face helmet I wear isolates my head and most of my senses from the hazards that come with hurtling through the air at high speeds. Those hazards being wind, rain, stones, and most importantly Bugs. Just think about driving your car without a windshield for a moment. Sure, most Cruisers have some form of windsheild, but who wants those, they are an incredible drag on your bikes performance. And they still do not protect you like the Full Face does.
Even in a low speed accident, if you fall on your face, there might be a lot of painful and expensive dental work that needs doing. Your face is fragile, most of us like the way it looks as it is. If you want to keep it that way, the Full Face helmet is the way to go.
If someone would absolutely guarantee by some divene intervention that I would never fall off my bike I would still wear a Full Face helmet for pure comfort of riding.
I can't tell you the amount of times a massive insect has been splatterd on my visor. If that bug had hit my bare skin or worse, my eyes, I would have been in serious pain or distracted enough to fall off my bike.
I also like the Full face cause it makes me anonymous to others on the road, it look evil and badass, and for a Sport Bike Rider, thats important.
The Icon Airframe Seventh Seal Helmet
I have one peice of advice for those purchasing a Full Face helmet. Make sure it fits very snug, almost to the point of being uncomfortable. Don't forget that helmet will need to travel through the air at high speed and the last thing you need is to have it bouncing around. I have the Icon Air Frame Seventh Seal Helmet and I'm really happy with it. But there are lots of good helmets out there, just make sure the fit is excellent.
Ear Protection
When I started riding I didn't wear any ear protection, I wanted the hear "everything". Well, unfortunately, "everything" includes a lot of buffeting wind noise which I rate right up there with a wailing baby, a whining cat and the theft alarm installed in my Mustang as one of the truly annoying sounds in my world. It can be very tiresome and pretty much eliminates what you really want to hear, which is the sound of your motor, the heart of your bike.
So get some earplugs. I've tried many and I've settled on the waxed cotton plugs as the best for me. They form nicely to your ear shape and you can drive them deep in your ear to the point where all harsh noises are silenced. The result is that you're able to hear your engine clearer as in runs up and down the rev range, and really, is there a better sound in the world than that? Because the wax attracts dirt, they can get pretty skanky after a while so you need to change them after every 5 to 10 rides.
Jackets
I made a mistake when I purchased my first jacket. A $400 mistake. Ok, well I still wear it around town but it's no good on the highway. The first jacket I purchased was the matching one for my Helmet, the mostly textile Icon Seventh Seal Arc Jacket.
There is nothing actually wrong with the jacket. It offers great protection and looks badass cool. It just is too loose and baggy for the highway. I bought about a half size too big, thinking I could wear layers of clothing underneath in cooler weather. A great idea in principal.
Remember that air is your enemy. The easier you can slide through that air, the more stable your bike will be. A loose fitting baggy jacket will act like a sail at highway speeds, making you think you are riding into a headwind or crosswind or mixture of both.
Get a tight fitting heavy leather jacket if you intend to ride on the highway! The next jacket I bought (also about $400) was the Joe Rocket Blaster 4.0 Jacket. The difference is like night and day. The JR slides though the air like a hot knife through butter. I felt like I was on a different bike, the ride was so much more stable. The tight fit and heavy leather might not be quite as comfy but you'll appreciate the benefits of a jacket like that as soon as you get up to highway speeds.
Gloves
If you've ever watched motorcycle racing at the highest level, like World Superbikes or MotoGP you will see the best riders in the world fall off their bikes. They know, during the course of their season that they all will fall once, maybe more often and mostly at high speeds. That's why I think motorcycle racers are the bravest people on earth.
The big difference between them and us is that they have learned how to fall, if they haven't they would never have made it to the level they are.
If you watch them fall, you will notice, without exception, that none of them use their hands to break their falls. Quite the contrary, they keep their hands away from contact with any hard object. They know that, without their hands and wrists being in top notch shape, they will not be successful.
On a motorcycle, your hands are used to communicate with your bike, they are your most important body part in riding your machine. They have a big job to do. They control braking, shifting, throttle and most of the steering input. Thats pretty much everything to riding a bike.
When you choose your gloves there is a compromise to be made (unless you have the major bucks to purchase the best gloves out there). You want protection, but you also want dexterity.
The first gloves I purchased were Icon Long Merc gloves. They have a ton of protection and thick leather and I think they look cool. As summer approached I began thinking of maybe a lighter glove.
To be continued....
