Easing On Down the Road: Basic Riding Course Day Four

I did it! I passed the course. After four days of classwork and range work, I have my waiver from the State of Maryland and I can go to the MVA at any time (for the next six months) and get my M Class license. Did it go perfectly? Nope. Was it enough to get me there? You bet.

So, here's how the day started. I showed up and was called a Motorcycle Mama by the instructors, as in "Oh look. Here's the Motorcycle Mama." I've never been sure on the exact difference between "Motorcycle Mama" and "Biker Chick," so I asked. "Well, a Biker Chick is stereotypical, bikini top and tight leather and not generally much of a rider," said Rick the instructor. "A Motorcycle Mama knows what's she's doing." I was flattered but uncertain I deserved the compliment. I was rather nervous about my ability to pull this off.

We started the day with more cornering exercises. I did pretty well and felt comfortable on almost all of them (the 90° turn, the 135° turn, etc.), except, The Box. The Box requires that you do tight, slow turns in a sort of figure eight. You aren't allowed to ride out over the lines or put your foot down to steady yourself. And it was going to be on the test. Yikes! The thing to remember with this exercise is to counterweight. Did I remember to do it? Nope. Not the first or second time through. Instead, I rolled the throttle (the exact wrong thing to do) and went traipsing way out of the box. The third time, I remembered to counterweight and lo' and behold, I did fine.

Then, we learned riding over obstacles (easy peasy as long as you remember to lift off the seat, roll on the throttle for the front tire but roll off the throttle for the rear tire). When I get my own motorcycle, I will need one that sits me farther forward than the GZ250. It was hard to pull myself up out of the seat at speed.

Next came stopping. The exercise was, "get into second gear as quickly as possible, go until your front wheel runs across these cones and then stop as quickly and safely as you can." Here's where they dubbed me a speed demon. "Slow down," Rich said. "You have plenty of speed. You'll meet the 15 mile an hour requirement, no problem. Don't make it harder on yourself than you have to." He was right, but I still sped up too much. I can already tell that throttle control will be one of my life lessons when it comes to riding.

Before the test, Rick gave me a few words of encouragement. "You like cornering. You lean great and you press perfectly. You're going to be just fine." Amazingly, very few of those words would have meant much before this past Monday, but today, they filled me with hope and a wee bit of confidence.

After more practicing and more riding, it was time to take the test. The first part of the test was the box, followed by a swerve, followed immediately by the full stop (quickly and safely). I went into the box pretty well and mostly remembered to counterweight. I did put my foot down once but then I tried to follow Rick and Les' advice. Don't let one mistake mess up the rest of your test. If you screw something up, just keep going. So, after I put my foot down, I made very sure that I didn't run out of the boundaries of the box (you'd fail the exercise if you did both of these things as part of your test) and then went on to the swerve. That part went great. Then, I rode over and did the stop. Rick told me that I was still coming in too fast and didn't need to be, but that I did fine.

The last part of the test was the 90° turn followed immediately by the 135° turn. They were looking for a slow going up to the turn, a look to the end of the turn, and under power for the whole of the tight turn. Then, we needed to roll on the throttle and come to a controlled stop at the end of the course.

At the end of my ride, Les gave me a thumb's up and I parked my bike next to Matt's (I tested second). As I rode by, Les called out, "Yep, Izolda. You wimped out." I asked him what he meant, and he said that the entire weekend, I'd been taking turns at speed and leaning and pressing really well, but then when it came time to test, I took the turn the slowest I had ever taken it. And, it lost me points. I did it pretty well, but not quite fast enough for what the State requires. Still, it was enough to get me there. Two out of the class did not pass, and I admit I am happy not to be among their number. They will have opportunities to re-test, which is great, but I'm sure they are not happy to have to come back and do it again.

In the end, I lost eight out of a fifteen possible lost points. So, I passed, but I admit that I would have felt better if I hadn't put my foot down (I don't think I really needed to; I just got nervous in the moment) and if I had sped up just a wee bit in that turn. I knew I had the turn. I was going to be able to do it, but I let the nervousness get the better of me and that bums me out. But then again, Rick's last bit of wisdom was, "Better a little slow, than a lot dead." Words to live by. Now, all I have to do is practice, practice, practice. And oh, did I mention, practice? Looking very forward to that. :)

In the end, I'd say the class is a really helpful to a beginner rider. You learn some really good lessons. If you don't have a qualified someone to work with you, then taking the class is a must. Plus, you get this card that tells your insurance company that you've taken a Motorcycle Safety Course, and sometimes that can lower your liability insurance.

Tomorrow, I go to the MVA and trade in my certificate for a new license. On it, I will have a C for car driver and an M for Motorcycle rider. Never has one little letter made me so proud.

Easing On Down the Road: Basic Riding Class, Day Three

Today was the first day of the range work for the Basic (Motorcycle) Riding Class I'm taking. Was it tough? Parts of it. Was it fun? All of it.

I did have some trouble with bits and pieces but mostly, I feel like a bad-ass. :)

We started by getting in touch with where things are and worked the process of starting the motorcycle. Did I get everything right? Nope. The first time I tried to start the bike, I was a little nervous and forgot to engage the clutch. The bike stayed nice and dead, and I felt like an idiot. Once I engaged the clutch, all was well. 

Having driven a manual transmission car for many years, I am familiar with the idea of clutch and gas and how the two work together. So, it wasn't too tough to get the hang of starting off from standstill. Engage the clutch and there's power to the back wheel. You start moving. Roll on the throttle a little and you are good to go. My trouble came when I tried to roll on the throttle without using the clutch to mitigate. I would jerk forward.

Here's the thing. As I suspected, I am fine with foot first, hand second for a car. But, hand first, foot second, and rolling the throttle instead of pressing on the gas gave my brain a good shake. It will be a while before I'm completely used to it, for sure. Figuring out the way you do clutch and throttle is an art form. They should give PhD's on exactly what needs to happen. After a while, I finally started to get a real inkling. Actually, starting was easy. I got how to release the clutch and get into what they call the friction zone, pretty easily. But in moments where you're breaking and you need to clutch and release the throttle at the same time and moments when you are accelerating and you need to use the throttle? They can be very tough.

I liked that the instructors said that the bike would tell you when you were doing things right because everything would feel smooth. And conversely, you'd know you were doing something wrong if things felt rough or jerky. Once I got the hang of the transitions, things got a lot more silky. 

One of the biggest things I had trouble with was maintaining good control while going slowly. Consequently, I also had trouble knowing exactly what to press or lift or squeeze once the trouble started. So, if the bike started shaking, I sometimes didn't know what to do. I ended up drilling into my head that I need to engage the clutch and it helped. The biggest trouble I had was when I came up on the people in front of me, too quickly. If they were going slowly, and I got to them, I had trouble getting my brain and body to engage and do what needed to be done to fix the problem. That will need to be something I learn from practicing, but I think it's vitally important. I didn't necessarily need to stop in the moment, you see. I needed to slow down and I needed to know how to do that right when it needed to be done. Thinking quickly when you are unfamiliar with the controls can be a challenge. Big time.

The parts I loved. 

First, I feel like a bad-ass. And here's why. When I was borrowing gear from Yermo, he showed me a pair of riding boots that had big plastic tabs on the sides. "These are for when you lean over far enough that you scrape along the ground," he said. "Cool," I thought at the time. "But I'll never need those because I don't ever plan on leaning far enough over to scrape anything on the ground." I couldn't be more wrong. Today, I leaned over on some of the turns to such an extent that I did indeed scrape my boots. And now, of course, I know I'm going to need those very cool boots. As a side note, both instructors commented on how well and how far I leaned to take some of the turns.

Second, Riding at speed. Yermo and Duncan have both told me that once you get some speed, the bike rides straight pretty much by itself. And yep. That's absolutely true. And I love riding at speed. Everything was tons easier - maneuvering, shifting, turning, pressing, etc. Moving around the cones in slalom style felt easy, natural, just a joy. And I was able to press into the handlebars pretty easily to get around those babies. What great fun. And a side note pressing into the handlebars. It sounds completely counter-intuitive to press the handlebars in the direction you want to go, but it is absolutely what you need to do. And you don't turn the handlebars when you press. You just press out and a little down against the grip. That was confusing to me until I figured it out, and it got lots easier.

Third, looking at where you are going and pressing into a turn (I have the feeling lots of people don't really believe that pressing into a turn [counter steering] will turn you at speed, but boy is it an accurate description of what happens.) I love this. Also, you don't look where you are. You look where you want to go/turn. Doing that somehow automagically makes the bike go towards where you want to turn.

One of the exercises was to ride the perimeter of the range and shift from second to third and back again multiple times. This exercise really helped get me used to shifting. I had been trepidatious about shifting and my ability to shift up or down or whatever, but some time spent riding while doing it over and over again helped tremendously.

Challenges:

Getting used to how to break properly was a challenge. All four limbs need to be doing something and doing it in the proper order. Yikes. And then, you have to remember to first engage the front brake (right hand) and then once you feel the forward momentum, you need to squeeze progressively more. 

Seeing other people fall. One of the women in the class locked up her front wheel on one of the quick stops we were required to do. The bike went sideways, and she flew through the air. She said she was okay but wow, it looked scary. 

Final thoughts:

Now, all I need to know is can I pass? Will I pass? And how long before I get my own motorcycle? I can definitely see how the right one is incredibly important. I know for myself, the Suzukis we are using in class will not do for me. I'm going to need to lean forward more because the straight up and down sitting, absolutely doesn't work. It makes me slouch and more than an hour doing that will kill my back. 

As I gain experience riding, I will get a better idea of what I want in a bike. Do I want speed? Do I want comfort? Do I want maneuverability? And what trade-offs will I make for any of these? I'll answer these questions much later, but they are already flitting around in my brain. Luckily, I have experts in my corner who will help me find and nurture my motorcycle and my motorcycling habit. :)

All in all, though, I wouldn't trade today for the world (and big thanks to Dayle for dropping by and taking pics). There's a freedom to riding that I didn't realize I was missing. Various friends have said, "You're going to feel free when you are on the bike." "Sure," I thought. But boy, I didn't really know until I leaned into a turn. Freedom isn't quite it, though. It's more like soaring. 

Tomorrow, we finish the range work and do our test for getting the waiver to get our M Class license. With luck, my next post will start with the words, "I did it!"

Easing On Down The Road: Basic Motorcycle Riding Course, Day 2

Last night, I had the last class session for the Basic Riding Course. (To see the post on the first class, go here)

The relaxed vibe continued. Les, the instructor talked us through the rest of the concepts in our MSF booklet. We talked everything from blood alcohol levels to skids, to swerving. And again, we watched videos on how to do what needs to be done for the various topics.

In order to get the most out of the class, I volunteered to do everything Les asked us to try. No one else was standing up and I figured that I might as well try it now. So, when I asked about the feeling of shifting the clutch from first gear up into neutral or from second gear down into neutral, he asked me to get on the bike (a Suzuki GZ250. See below for a similar bike) and try it. I did, and it was relatively easy to feel the shift from second into first, but not so much from the other way around. See, the thing is that to switch from second down to neutral or first, you press down with your foot on the shifter. In fact, to go down to any lower gear, you press down, like you do with a manual transmission clutch. To go up in gears, you press the clutch with your left hand, and then you place your left foot under the shifter and lift up to either get into neutral from first, or go up any of the gears from there on in.

Here's my problem: I owned a manual transmission car for years. So, I know exactly how to use my feet and hands to press the clutch, place the car into the gear I want and then use the friction zone to engage the gear and ease on the clutch. So, that "split your feet and hands" thing is not hard for me at all. What I think will be hard? I'll need to split them into doing different actions from those in a car. See, while in a car, the clutch is what you first press with your foot (and always down, never up). On a motorcycle, the clutch is on the left side of the handlebars. It looks just like a left hand brake on a bicycle. So, my brain will need to adjust to thinking of the thing that looks like bicycle brake actually being the clutch. And I will need to start thinking of engaging the clutch as something I do with my hand rather than with my foot. And the exact opposite thing happens with the shifter. On most manual cars, the gear shifting is done with the hand. On a motorcycle, the shifting is done with the left foot. So, while I know exactly how to shift the clutch on a car (left foot first), and change gears (right hand second, here in the USA), my brain might rebel at the thought of clutching by using my left hand and then shifting with my left foot. About the only thing similar to a car is that braking (rear brake) is done with the right foot (while the front brake is similar to a bicycle in that it looks like a bike brake on the right hand side of the handlebars). Likely, I will need to start thinking of this as a whole new animal, and myself as a complete newbie in order to make heads or tails on how to do this. I'll keep you posted on how I do.

The other thing I tried were the beer goggles. No, really, they had them. They are these bizarre goggles that simulate how you see when you are drunk. Les asked for volunteers, and I tried it. He put blue tape on the floor and first he had me walk it without the goggles like I would if I were being tested by the police. Without the goggles, I did fine. Then, I put on the goggles and it was like being in a disturbing classroom-looking Fun House. Everything was weaving and woozy-ing. I walked the line and was told I did pretty well, but while the line I walked was pretty straight, I wasn't terribly near the actual tape. And the thing is that the goggles only give you impaired vision. They don't impair your judgment or your physical movements. So, add those in because of actually drinking alcohol, and it's a recipe for some bad times.

In the end though, I did what I came to do. Les administered the 50-question multiple guess test (only three guesses per question) and we all took it. How did I do? I passed. 100%!

I feel proud. On Saturday, we start the range work. We'll be on the GZ250s and we'll be practicing starting, stopping, turning, swerving, and whatever else they need to throw at us to make us street legal. Luckily, I have friends who are willing to coach me on how to progress as a rider and one friend in particular has been gracious enough to line up a motorcycle for me to use to practice and improve. So grateful to Yermo Lamers of Miles By Motorcycle for this.

The coursework itself? Pretty easy. The range? I'll let you know Saturday.