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Okay so today i bought a used Kawasaki KDX 200...i picked it up for 800 from a friend of mine....i have 20 acres of land...so i figure hell i can ride it around and learn before i go out on the street or take the MSF and ill be ahead of the game..so i get the bike home...i put my helmet on that came with the bike and im wearing jeans and a t shirt..not wise but hey i wanna ride... so i figure out how to do the gears halfway i still dont get it but i can get the bike going pretty fast...so here what happens i get going kinda slow paced(15-25) mph.. i shift by accident i think i dont know what happened but anyway the back end just went crazy fast and it like flung me off the bike face first...so my question to you...so what did i do wrong?! if i need to be more descriptive please tell me and ill describe what happened better.. i just feel like a moron for crashing it and i cant believe i did it.. ah it feels so crappy..

Young Lover wrote:so i figure hell i can ride it around and learn before i go out on the street or take the MSF and ill be ahead of the game..

Young Lover wrote:so what did i do wrong?

have you figured it out yet??

anarchy makes an amazing point. Take the msf course. I didn't and I regret it because it took me much longer than some friends of mine that took the course to become a good rider. Sure you can learn on your own, but why?

Would you buy an airplane and take it up in the air right when you get it before learning anything about it? No. You shouldn't try to ride a bike without anyone there to help you along. I did have my father and brother to help me, but the msf course would have equipped me much better.

Best of luck to ya with your riding.

dirtbikes crash, they are pretty good in crashes, thats half of what they are designed for. offroad situations are more complex and much less predictable and stable than pavement, if you crashed offroad, then you have nothing to worry about but how to pick the gravel outta your skin.
errr, sorry, what you did wrong was that you were wearing less than optimal gear for the situation, hope you were on grass. use the clutch, love the clutch, it is your friend, if the rear wheel wants to go crazy, you can pull it in and there wont be any power to the rear wheel.
as far as that exact situation that caused you to crash, well you were riding offroad, ANYTHING can and will happen offroad. thats a good thing cause you can get stable on your bike even when the terrain is not if you practice enough

Nothing wrong with dirtbiking before MSF. Just don't be suprised if the MSF points out some bad habbits you pick up. Odds are, you'll get them. Just remember, dirtbikes are designed to take abuse and be slammed around mercilessly. Don't be afraid to do so, all for the sake of learning your limits, the bikes limits, and how to push yours. Just uh, be careful shifting from now on If it makes you feel any better, the first time i rode a dirtbike, was the first time i crashed. Also the first wheelie, though that was on accident and i didn't land it while remaining on the bike

Young Lover wrote:so i figure out how to do the gears halfway i still dont get it but i can get the bike going pretty fast...so here what happens i get going kinda slow paced(15-25) mph.. i shift by accident i think i dont know what happened but anyway the back end just went crazy fast and it like flung me off the bike face first...so my question to you...so what did i do wrong?!

You don't know what you're doing and gave wrong inputs to the bike. "Get going pretty fast" is not really how you want to go about gauging things. Sounds like you need to learn how to regulate the clutch and throttle.

At least its a dirtbike, they are use to crashin' lol I crashed a time or two back in grandpa's fields.

Heh Dunno. You could have downshifted into a gear that locked your rear (engine had to accelerate too fast to keep pace with forward velocity)
Or tossed you into a tank slapper.
Maybe you pinned the throttle and dumped the clutch on your shift. Maybe you just ......


They can act a bit twitchy can't they?
Heh. mind the cowpies and briars. Go get some gear.