Total Motorcycle Community Forums

widmn wrote:I will take your advice. There are no slots in the course until the first week in Oct. I will polish the bike until then. Will probably be too cold to ride until spring. Thanks for the great advice.

look to see if there's a harley dealer in your area. they are usually more expensive but you can get in quicker. a friend gave me my bike last may. i called every community college within two hours and i was going to have to wait until late july or early august. called up the harley dealership 30 min away and was taking the class in 2.5 weeks. i had to pay double (250 rather than 130, but it was worth it to me.

I don't blame you.. I've got about 15 years on two wheels and gravel still terrifies me moreso than anything else on the road, even an 85 year old Alzheimers' patient at the wheel of a Mack truck. . .

I've been incredibly lucky in my life. . .one of the ways is that I fortunatly have never gone down YET. But I've come damn close twice; both times involved gravel. The one that sticks out most was the first time I met my [now]wife's parents. I met them and the plan was to go watch my [then] girlfreind play baseball.

I follow their car.
They hit the brakes for an amber.
I hit the brakes over Spring gravel and start to slide, then fishtail. Now my back end is swinging out and the bike is turning sideways.
Now the bike IS sideways, still sliding towards their trunk and I'm starting to sink towards the pavement.. ..

Then a magical thing happens.. ..
I let out the clutch I've been gripping with fright.

Bike instantly comes upright, too late to stop and I go around them, having to run the [now] red light.


I ran over gravel.
I slid on it.
I mismanaged it.
But I digress. . . .

The bottom line is that gravel and mud and all kinds of crap conditions are everywhere. I read a guy's post who wiped out by sliding on a CD that some knob just discarded on the road.

If you want this hobby, one must accept the danger.

Take the MSF course. I had a 05 Shadow Spirit, was awesome bike. I ride 1.8 miles every day to get out off my road.

Everyone's given you the safety advice part (and it is good advice!) but I'm still worried about your shiny new bike getting all dusty all the time . Going slowly I don't think you'll kick up too much gravel, but you sure will get the front underside of your engine all dusty. My advice is to just have the whole thing paved! Maybe a bit expensive, but anything for your new baby right? Haha! Maybe make yourself a little plywood trail down the middle to ride on? Or maybe you'll just get to wash your bike a lot. Good way to cool off from the NV heat?

Gravel roads and sand... Two things that love to mess with a solid ride.

DW's advice to keep your feet on the pegs is damn good. My cabin's got about 1 km gravel/sand road leading up to it that probably looks from above like a scared preschooler tried to draw a circle, all tight S turns up and down slopes.

So my first time riding out there I take it at about 20kph and the front wheel gets a little squirrely which is perfectly normal according to the Proficient motorcycling books I'd more or less committed to memory. No problem, but then around the second bend whose apex is lower than either the entrance or exit both tires start to slide to the outside of the curve. I may have been going too fast, I may have been paranoid but I didn't want my Shadow to hit the ground either so I jam out my left foot and punch the ground with it.

It hurt a bit but I made it around the bend without eating gravel so I'll call it a win. At this point it's just an embarrassing story because on the way out I kept my feet on the pegs, same squirreliness and same slide but it corrected itself without me having to kick the earth.

Feet on pegs, constant throttle and stand up a little (it forces your feet onto those pegs).

If you only ride in the rain there won't be much dust...

Just show up at every MSF course between now and when you can get in, you never know when they might have a no show and it might open up a spot for you...

lol I ride on whatever surface I need to ride on to get to the destination I want to. I have even riden on my companies grass to get to the parking lot because I didnt feel like waiting for some of the morons I work with to turn into the parking lot lol. riding in the yard, unless its wet, is easier than riding on gravel but if its wet and muddy its harder .

Oh and for those wondering the only time I have "almost" dumped my bike was when I hit a patch of ice turning onto another road. I tried missing it (saw it) but clipped the outside edge of the ice which brought me into the big part of the ice patch. Floored the bike and was able to get out of it but scared the snot out of me. I was puckered for a while afterwards haha. So needless to say if the roads wet in the middle of winter bike dont come out.