Learner Rider

Today my almost-new 2005 Honda CB-250 motorcycle was delivered by the kind seller who brought it around from a few suburbs away.

When I first went to see the bike I got myself all psyched to pay in cash and ride my new pair of wheels 10 or so kays across the inner western suburbs to home. Then I arrived at the seller’s place, looked at the slightly steep hill, took a test-ride around the apartments’ carpark and decided my 7 hours of experience would leave me with a pretty daunting ride home! Luckily, the seller wasn’t ready to finish off the financing and had left the rego papers at work, so even when I’d decided the bike was perfect, it wasn’t the day for me to ride off on it. A week later, the (NSW state) REVS certificate and other bits and pieces done, my bike was finally parked outside my place, I’d bought my riding gear, comprehensive insurance, and was ready to ride!

So, today, after 7 hours experience to date, not having been out of 2nd gear before (!), I finally got on my new bike and took a ride around the quietest, longest and widest streets on the block…. up & down, up & down…. for a good half hour at least, getting used to the controls and finally getting into 3rd and even 4th gears!

I quickly realised that it’s easier to ride at 40 or 50km/hr in a straight line, than it is at 10-20km/hr with stops, starts, and even small turns… (there’s actually a lot to say for the slow-speed skills you learn at the Pre-learner’s rider training course). So pretty soon, I decided the block had to be larger, but first it was time to take a break and catch my breath a little. This new experience, while not exactly daunting now, was definitely exhilerating!

After a little break, I expanded my path and was soon riding in some light traffic, finally reaching almost 60km/hr. The rest of the afternoon included some (very) slight hill starts, alot more clutch control on takeoff, which was great to begin mastering. On that point, while I think it’d be tough to bunnyhop a bike (like a learner driver might do in a manual car), it’s definitely handy to play with riding that clutch! Not a bad thing to know when to ride the back brake a little too - especially useful I find when taking off in a curve from parked into the closest lane.

After a couple of hours going round and round the (extended) block, I was getting bored of my little track, but given the much heavier traffic locking me into my little ‘hood, I decided it was time to ride back home and look forward to my next trip out tomorrow.

The next skill to work on is clearing the indicators!