Rider Tips: Getting Your New Motorcycle Home.

[totalmotorcycle]

Rider Tips: Getting Your New Motorcycle Home.


I'd like to address the issue of what a newbie has to confront when he buys his first motorcycle and has no more experience than successfully completing the beginner's MSF class (if that!).

What should he do to get that scoot home?

Well, first, he should ask his dealer to deliver it. If that fails?

If he has a friend who already rides he could ask that friend to ride it home for him. That makes a lot of sense and allows him to graduate his riding experience one step at a time instead of via 'immersion therapy'.

I know, many first time riders do not have friends who ride or the ones they do have are not exactly role models, so often their only alternative is to ride it themselves.

So, here are some thoughts for those people to consider ...

Get familiar with the instruments and controls while the bike is still in the dealer's possession - engine OFF. Sit on the saddle and practice lifting the bike off the side-stand, kicking it back out of the way, balancing (get a feel for heft) and then 'find' the side-stand and push it into place and LOCKED. Use your eyes to do this!!! Do not rely on the feel of it - especially before you lean the bike back onto the side-stand. Again, use your eyes to confirm that it is properly in place and locked there before you let the weight of the bike rest on it!!!!!!

Now squeeze both levers and 'work them' (in/out, in/out) - engine OFF - to get a feel for how much pressure your hands have to use (and get used to.) Honest, you may be a 250 pound Mr. America, but by the time you get home from your first ride your hands (especially the left one) will ache! That will quickly pass as the new demands you put on your muscles condition them.

Then, insure it's in neutral and the side-stand is UP then start that engine. Again, squeeze both levers and hold them HARD. NOTICE, PAY ATTENTION, BELIEVE that it is because you have BOTH levers squeezed that you are in complete control and not in any danger. NOTICE, PAY ATTENTION, BELIEVE that no matter what happens out there on the road if you don't know what to do next YOU CAN ALWAYS SQUEEZE BOTH LEVERS and get out of trouble (or at the very least, minimize it.)

The MSF used 250 cc bikes. They are TAME and easy to maneuver. Your scoot will almost certainly be more powerful and heavier. That means that the little 'muscle memory' you have developed will NOT BE APPROPRIATE!!! You must learn all over again - that is, you need to find out how much braking energy is required to stop without skidding, and you need to know EXACTLY WHERE YOUR FRICTION ZONE STARTS.

So, engine running, do the beginner's MSF exercise - ease the clutch lever out until it just enters that friction zone and the bike tries to move forward. Allow the bike to move forward slightly, then squeeze that clutch lever and then use your legs to pull the bike back to where it started. Again, and again until you KNOW where that friction zone is.

Now, remember that you can only steer at very slow speeds - like when you are leaving the dealer's parking lot - but that thereafter you can ONLY counter-steer. 'Push right, go right' gets stuck in your brain and from then on that's how you steer. If at any time the bike feels like it is 'fighting you', not 'wanting' to make the turn you want it to make, then it is time to say 'push right, go right' and BELIEVE IT because at that time you are fighting yourself, not the bike.

Slow speed control is almost entirely in the left hand (friction zone) - while riding in a straight line the clutch lever belongs fully released, but if you are in a slow speed turn the odds are good that you should be 'in the friction zone' and using it to control your speed, NOT YOUR THROTTLE.

Turn your head and check traffic with your EYES, not your mirrors!!! (They only tell you about danger, they do NOT tell you it is safe.)

Keep your eyes UP and away from your instruments while riding. Danger is primarily in front of you, not somewhere between the speedometer and tachometer. You will have lots of time to get familiar with your instruments later. This time all you want to do is control the scoot and avoid dangerous situations. Shift conservatively - do not let your engine 'scream at you' or lug.

Do not enjoy the scenery on the maiden voyage. Pay attention to traffic, signals, how the bike 'sounds', and how it reacts to throttle and brake usage.

Before you know it you will be putting the puppy in your garage - mission accomplished.

[totalmotorcycle]

Please feel free to add your opinion and discuss the tip article above from Bow Cycle Calgary.

[Jas0n]

This is pretty much the exact situation I'm going to be in - riding home with my bike with only msf experience. I'm quite intimidated, almost scared. Mainly because the dealerships main road has a lot of busy traffic and multiple lights. Not to mention I'll also have to get on the freeway for about 10 minutes!

However...
My dad has a 1976 pickup, Except I'm not totally sure how he'll get it in there. Hopefully the dealer will provide straps and help us move it on the truck (we dont have a trailer).

Then when I'm at home I can learn at my own pace by circling around my development and at least around traffic I am familiar with.

But hey, maybe the msf course will provide enough knowledge for me to actaully WANT to ride it home. That would be very sweet.

[Grendel_Sprite]

Thanks for starting this thread! My wife and I are in this situation right now. Fresh off the MSF course, we bought our bikes last weekend and now we have to pick them up this weekend and ride them home!

We are both scared and we've been discussing strategies all week. Should one of us ride and the other follow in the car to "block"? Should we ride together? Should we just pay the dealer to deliver them? To complicate matters, our dealer is in the middle of a fairly busy downtown and we have to drive through a "big box" shopping area to get home.

What we finally decided to do is "manage the risk", just like in some of the other potentially dangerous situations we put ourselves in.

Firstly, we both want to ride our bikes home. Hopefully, pride will not goeth before a fall in this case. We decided to ride together, more for moral support than for any other reason. It's only 5 miles home, but we are planning the trip in great detail. We will know which streets we will ride on, how fast we will go, where the turns are, safe places to stop if we feel uncomfortable, etc. We will also drive the course in the car a couple of times. This planning goes a long way toward making us less scared.

Wish us luck!

[PatArmyRet]

Great advice!

If there happens to be a quiet neighborhood or empty parking lot nearby, spend a little time riding around and getting familiar with the bike before heading out into busier traffic.

[flw]

I lived too far from the dealer and only had the MSF under my belt. I had city, country and Interstate to go home with the bike and no pickup available or friend with trailer. So I paid them to trailer my bike to my home. Best decision I made.

[BMK]

I was lucky. My brother-in-law was a very experienced rider, so he drove to the shop with me to pick up the bike. He put the very first miles on it riding it home while I drove behind him in the car.
The other advantage to that is that he was able to watch for, listen for, or otherwise detect any little problems with the bike as he drove it home....things I wouldn't know to be watching out for. (Luckily, he didn't find any)

[blair]

Delivery delivery delivery.

You just paid 3-500 bucks for MSF class and several thousand for your ride, you might as well shell out $40-50 to have it handed to you in a place you feel comfortable getting on and doing the small steps over again. And, more importantly, where you know that if it's just not feeling right you can get off, pull the key out, and walk back home to sit and think.

[superskip]

Shortly after I finished the MSF course I found a very good condition used bike at a very low price - guy just wanted to be rid of it. But it was almost 100 miles from my home. I seriously considered riding it home, decided not to, and kicked myself afterwards for missing out on a very good deal.

Ive come to realize that I made the right decision - no way was I ready for that kind of trip. (I should'a just handed the guy my cash deposit and called a local to flat bed it home for me, but it was sold already a few hours later before i figured that out.)

A few miles over lightly trafficked roads would'a been ok I guess, but otherwise it might be better all told to just pay someone to deliver your bike if you're completely new to mc'ing.

[halouis]

it was about 9 months after i took the MSF that i finally got my bike. the bike i ended up getting was 45-50 min ride from home. with a couple miles of gravel roads on both ends. no way i was gonna ride it.

fortunately for me, i have an F-250 pickup with a wide heavy duty telescoping ramp on the tailgate. parked the truck in a way that the ramp angle wasn;t very steep on both ends of the trip to get the bike home. 4 ratchet straps to tie her down and i got her home nice and safe.

if i didn;t have that option, i'd have paid someone to get it home for me. i re-learned in my own time with no extreme circumstances and glad i did.

GREAT INFO though in the original post.