bikernana wrote:Hi Ladies
I'm a new rider that's starting late in life (51 years old). A month ago, my husband bought a vulcan 900 and I bought a blvd S40. I have to admit, I've always wanted to ride, but could never afford one and thought I wouldn't been good at it. I love it!
I have to ride on Hwy 101 to get to anywhere cause that's the cross street. So I learned quickly. I basically stumbled on this site by error, and thought wow! a bike forum for ladies only. I'm looking forward to many months/years reading great information on this forum.
Hi,
Not sure if I am replying to this correctly or not but here goes. I am a new rider (very new) I took the course passed with flying colors both written and skilled test.........I bought a harley 1200 custom sportster..... the sales man assured me it was the right bike for me so i trusted his word. he stated many of women start out on these bikes. I weigh 120lbs and i am 5'7 the bike fit me well but i ran into some complications.
I drove it home from the dealers, putted along in 3rd gear more or less for about 10 miles home went well mostly straight away only a couple of turn signal. I did notice the clutch was very tigh and having shorter handle bars it was rather hard for me to set in a straight position. On Monday 9/5 a friend of mine who has been riding for the last 25yrs asked me to go with him so i said sure, we got less than 1/10 of a mile from his place (he lives on a back road here in florida he was riding a bit ahead of me and i went to slow down put it in 1st gear pulled the clutch in to turn down the next street, the carb on the bike wasn't working right and the clutch was very tight as i am leaning forward to hold this 663 lb bike i turned onto the street the clutch got away from me almost like spring loaded and snapped out of my hand and the bike took off like a rocket ship thus my loosing control of the front end and hitting the curb and the bike landed on top of me.
I wasn't badly injured thank the lord pretty brused my entire left side but was ok no broken bones. my friend noticed in his mirror i was down on the ground he came back in a panic making sure i was ok and got the bike off me. No damage to the bike just me. after a few moments of collecting our thoughs we decided to take the bike back to his house as it was unsafe to ride. i got right back on that bike and drove it back to his place and parked it. I think I was more in a daze that it even happend, I wasn't afraid to get back on the bike. Long story short I ended up going back to the dealers showed them my many bruses and they are big ones and the manager of the Harley shop said i should of never been let on that bike because it was to top heavy for my body frame.
I got a different bike still a sportster same year but the difference with this one it is lighter in the front because it has curved down handle bars that are closer to me for better control. I have only drove it a couple of times since monday and not very far. The clutch on this new bike was loosend up for me but now it's to loose and when i try to take off from a start i have to let the clutch out to far to get the 1st gear to start pulling me to get my feet up off the ground to get going smoothly without having to throttle until after the momentum gets going. This is causing me to have a slow start and a little wobble as i have nothing that is pulling me unless i want to just throttle it and go.
Tomorrow I have to drive it down a busy main drag to the dealers to have the clutch adjusted once again. I am just a little nervous about traffic living here in tampa there is so much traffic and this slow starting with the clutch issue but it's something i have to face.. I am not afraid to ride as i said i got right back on after i dumped it. I really don't have anyone to ride with to follow to train (SINCE CRASHING THIS MAN FRIEND WILL NOT GO OUT WITH ME AGAIN MAKES HIM TO NERVOUS LOL....)so i have to do this all by myself. I am wondering where is the best places to learn on my own? a parking lot to practice stopping and starting, u-turns etc the bikes we used in class were much smaller than what i have and i could handle them with ease? local side streets for the stopping and starting? I love to ride as i always was the one in the back but at 48 I wanted to do my own thing and ride. I would like a few pointers if anyone could be so kind. Thank you for listening to my story.
great crowd here too!
to TMW.