When is Graduation?

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pinger05 · #1 Unread post by **pinger05** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:14 am

When does a person graduate from being a beginner motorcycler to a novice? I dont want to rush myself since I ask really dumb questions worthy of a biginner.

Personally I think graduation is when you come to a stop sign on the side of a hill, with the road sloping steeply to the left, and you stop without dumping the bike and start without stalling it.

Anyone else have suggestions?

poppygene · #2 Unread post by **poppygene** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:45 am

That's a pretty good indicator, Pinger!

Here's another:

Commute on your bike from your home in Buford, GA via I-985 to your day-job in downtown Atlanta for 6 weeks straight. If both you and your bike live through it, you're no longer a beginner!

pinger05 · #3 Unread post by **pinger05** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:54 am

poppygene wrote:Commute on your bike from your home in Buford, GA via I-985 to your day-job in downtown Atlanta for 6 weeks straight. If both you and your bike live through it, you're no longer a beginner!

If you are talking about doing that while Atlanta rush hour is happening you are CRAZY!!:shock:

I drove that route through downtown Atlanta in an armored 4X4 F-350 super cab (it was a miltiary vehicle called a 6-pax) that was raised nearly 6 inches higher than the standard F-350 with 20 inch wheeles and I felt very naked.

You are a very brave man!

BuzZz · #4 Unread post by **BuzZz** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:46 am

When you surprise yourself by emergency braking to avoid a cage that pulled out in front of you, brakesliding around the nose of said vehicle, then power wheelying away from the danger zone, only to pull a 180 on the back wheel to return and pummel the cagedriver into paying attention, your almost there.....

poppygene · Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:46 pm

pinger05 wrote:You are a very brave man!

Nooo! Not me, Pal! Like you, I've been through there during rush hour

(Yeah, could I pick a more insane time? Well, at least I learned from it.) but not on a bike.
I'll ride to work here in bucolic Asheville on occasion, but since I drive a company vehicle that's pretty rare now. Forget about Atlanta... those people don't take prisoners!

pinger05 · #6 Unread post by **pinger05** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:40 pm

poppygene wrote:Forget about Atlanta... those people don't take prisoners!

I try to forget but I still have nightmares of a six hundred pound Porche trying to bully my 2 ton armored Ford.

muz · #7 Unread post by **muz** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:04 am

i don't know that there's such a black-and-white line between beginner and novice. I only have a year of riding experience and haven't even really started asking all the dumb questions yet!

So far I've been lucky enough not to drop my bike - although I've heard of very experienced riders dropping them on their first ride of the year. Coasting up to a stop light and forgetting they were on a bike and not in a car, forgetting to put their foot down! brain fart!