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I know this sounds silly, but I really felt like somebody when I could do a U-turn without trailing my foot. I've seen guys in parking lots and group rides who say they've been riding 10+ years, yet they peddle around like Fred Flintsone when they're going under 10mph.

So, when you're perfectly comfortable with your bike at low speeds, I mean second nature sort of comfortable with not putting your feet down unless the bike is not moving, this is a good sign of mature experience.


Frank

[quote="JustJames"

Experience riders are the one who want to become a safer rider not a faster rider.[/quote]

i have to disagree. just because you may want to go faster does not mean you are not experienced, it means you know your limits know and you hope to someday be quicker/better. if this statment were tru there would be no such things as time attacks and such.

What is a time attack?

Apparently I am not experienced yet, because I still don't know a lot of the lingo.
I have 13,000km riding experience but I am still learnig, so I don't yet consider myself an experienced rider.
Maybe at the end of this season coming up though.

ZooTech wrote:

jstark47 wrote:bringing the Marauder home a few weeks ago, some kids near my house yelled "Wheelie, Wheelie!!"............ and I'm thinkin' ummmm... it's a cruiser with a very raked front, and maybe 40 hp max.... I don't think it could get it's front wheel up to save itself. Dumb kids.

Don't be so sure about that!

It's a stock Marauder 800. Power output ain't exactly neck-snapping....

jstark47 wrote:

ZooTech wrote:

jstark47 wrote:bringing the Marauder home a few weeks ago, some kids near my house yelled "Wheelie, Wheelie!!"............ and I'm thinkin' ummmm... it's a cruiser with a very raked front, and maybe 40 hp max.... I don't think it could get it's front wheel up to save itself. Dumb kids.

Don't be so sure about that!

It's a stock Marauder 800. Power output ain't exactly neck-snapping....

Indeed! Neither is a stock Vulcan 1500. Probably about the same P2W ratio.

ZooTech wrote:

jstark47 wrote:

ZooTech wrote:

jstark47 wrote:bringing the Marauder home a few weeks ago, some kids near my house yelled "Wheelie, Wheelie!!"............ and I'm thinkin' ummmm... it's a cruiser with a very raked front, and maybe 40 hp max.... I don't think it could get it's front wheel up to save itself. Dumb kids.

Don't be so sure about that!

It's a stock Marauder 800. Power output ain't exactly neck-snapping....

Indeed! Neither is a stock Vulcan 1500. Probably about the same P2W ratio.

Clutch, throttle, un-clutch.

And I'm experiance enough to know that crashing SUCKS. A LOT. And I guess i can pretty much ride my bike at most any speed without setting a foot down. Though I do, but in my defense, manuvering rocks can be a tricky thing.

i've been on motorcycles for 8-10 years, ridden maybe 10k, gone on a few 300 mile trips, taken the msf class, and i guess a few other other things experienced riders might say. But Im not "experienced". For one, i've never been in an accident or dropped the bike. Lucky I guess. Also, i've never ridden anything bigger then 750 cc and nothing really that heavy. If i were to get on a huge harley or something I'd probab ly feel pretty uncomfrtable with low speed manuevers.

But on my commuter bike (Nighthawk listed below), I feel really comfortable. I have ride in hectic city traffic, and highway traffic all the time. Can do a uturn no problems taking the feet off the pegs, etc etc. One thing I do it when i come to a red light, i get going really slow and leave enough room to the car in front of me, then i twist the forks, and give it a little gas, keeping my balance. Basically I see how long i can balance while barely moving, without having to put my feet down. I guess its not the safest thing to do on the road, but it gives you a really good feel for how your bike is balanced.

So anyway, yea i dont really consider myself experienced, and in fact, most of the time im riding i'f half paranoid, and always very defensive.

skinnyjoint wrote:[quote="JustJames"

Experience riders are the one who want to become a safer rider not a faster rider.

i have to disagree. just because you may want to go faster does not mean you are not experienced, it means you know your limits know and you hope to someday be quicker/better. if this statment were tru there would be no such things as time attacks and such.

Maybe you are right, but in my words I mean to consider to be safer then to just ride as fast as you can. It not like you will have to ride more than 100mph all the time to have fun or to show off your skill. Riding motorcycle in traffic it is not just about your ability but other factors as well. Experience rider will consider these facts and ride as fast as they can while they can safe themself if something unexpect happen. Heck I ride 80-85 mph myself not as fast as your crotch rocketers but I'm sure have fun.

Let me give you some example,

There was a guy on supersport, rode on cayon and tried to pratice delay apex since he read in a book also heard from experienced that to be a fastest way to ride twisty. But he didn't know himself he didn't have enough experience but he pround to be an owner of a super fast bike. The result he concentrated only the bike and his position , he didn't notice gravels on the road and he crashed. he blamed those gravel and his wide turn and claimed any experienced would have the same result as he had. I'd think if he were experienced he would have seen those gravels and tried to avoid it before thing happen.

Another example, I rode with a group of 12 bikes a couple weeks ago to Idywild. The road was cleared from snow but there also left off of sand/chemical to melt snow down the road (I did not and will not say I ever ride in snow). Our road captain is experienced enough to see it up front and maintain the speed fast enough to pass through these debris. I remembered in MSF we pratice making turn with Out-In-Out but also I've read someone mentioned the good turn is the trun where car can follow the line. Yup we didn't do out-in-out turn but we follow the tire track on the road to avoid all those debris. Yet there was one person who did the turn across from out of lane to inside of lane and crossed those debris, the result he got a little bit of fishtail (I'm not sure how experienced he is since that was the first time he rode with our group). This is show experienced / and skilled of my road captain, of course not me.

Those are the reason I considered experienced rider to be concern of safty more than speed.

DirtyD86 wrote:ive never ridden before and i dont own a bike yet either, but im definitely an experienced rider

Um, are you talking motorcycle rider? or otherwise?

slurp812 wrote:

DirtyD86 wrote:ive never ridden before and i dont own a bike yet either, but im definitely an experienced rider

Um, are you talking motorcycle rider? or otherwise?

it was a sorry attempt at humor, please forgive me