My First Ever Motorcycle Ride ( + some noobie questions)

[VSG]

I've always wanted a motorcycle and said I'll get one when I get my own place.  Well last year I got my own place, so this year I needed to get a motorcycle! 

I finally found a 93 GS500 w/ 11k miles on it.  I got it yesterday and did the insurance/registration stuff today.

Keep in mind, I've never ridden a motorcycle before in my life.  But I couldn't help it, I had to go out for a ride (don't worry I am signed up for the MSF course next week).  I'm good at shifting/rev matching/etc in a car, so maybe that gives me some advantage over someone who's only driven autos before.

So after stalling once, I was off to a less than graceful start.  Shifting was a piece of cake... that is until I approached a stop sign.  Now I had to brake while shifting down through the gears.  I have to admit that was a bit overwhelming at first.  The first few times I either forgot to brake or forgot to pull the clutch.  So I ended up either doing a sudden stop or stalling out.     One thing I noticed was that it was a very good idea to shift into 1st before completely stopping - even if I left the clutch disengaged.  It seemed hard to get into first if I had stalled out in second or even if I was just stopped.  When I was moving I had no touble getting into 1st though.

For the past two months or so I have been doing a lot of reading about riding a motorcycle.  Countersteering was probably the thing that interested me the most.  Apparently, I made too big a deal about it.  Turning the bike just felt really natural and I didn't have to think about it at all.  I definitely noticed that if I pushed on the left handle, the bike would lean left.  But I didn't have to think about it.  One thing that made me smile was leaning in the turns.  there were a few sharp corners that I took at relatively low speeds.  It felt like the bike was leaning over quite a bit.  But I remembered reading "look ahead" and "give steady throttle through turns".  I did both and it felt like the bike was ready to do that again at higher speeds!

I tried some fairly hard braking with the front and rear brakes at the same time.  It didn't feel like I was coming too close to locking up either tire.  I'll be sure to try more of that and keep pushing it to get a feel for the limits.  By the end of the ride, things were starting to come together for me.  I was slowing, downshifting through the gears before the turn, getting a pretty good lean in the corner and then accelerating away.  Of course on the straights I had to run it up the red line a couple of times.    I can't believe this is considered a slow bike!

I plan to go out and ride for 30-40 minutes everyday after work until the MSF course.  I found a parking lot so i can practice slow speed stuff and there are plenty of roads with little traffic near my house.  All I can say is that I am so glad I finally got a motorcycle!


Now for some questions:

• Regarding the "reserve" switch.  I had it so that the longer part of the switch was at 180° and the short part was facing 0°.  I assume this is primary tank.  If I flip it the other way, that's the reserve and if it's vertical, it's off.  Is this correct?


• Should I leave it in the Off position overnight?


• What is the proper way to turn off the bike?  The kill switch or turn the key to off?


• If I was coasting and then got back on the gas, it was somewhat jerky.  Any tips to making this smoother?  The throttle seemed pretty sensitive.  Does it just take some practice? (I remember when the same thing happened to me in first gear with my first manual transmission car and I'm very smooth with that now)


• Anyone have some good practice techniques/exercises I can try out to improve my riding?

[jazerr]

Now for some questions:

• Regarding the "reserve" switch.  I had it so that the longer part of the switch was at 180° and the short part was facing 0°.  I assume this is primary tank.  If I flip it the other way, that's the reserve and if it's vertica, it's off.  Is this correct?

--------------------------Correct.

• What is the proper way to turn off the bike?  The kill switch or turn the key to off?

--------------------------killswitch, key, kickstand, lean, get off. And ALWAYS keep your hand on the brake when getting on and off.

• If I was coasting and then got back on the gas, it was somewhat jerky.  Any tips to making this smoother?  The throttle seemed pretty sensitive.  Does it just take some practice? (I remember when the same thing happened to me in first gear with my first manual transmission car and I'm very smooth with that now)

--------------------------Just takes practice. Also, the stock throttle and fuel controls on the GS are sort off binary--either off or on. so just practice.

• Anyone have some good practice techniques/exercises I can try out to improve my riding?

--------------------------stay in the parking lots until you take the msf. They'll show you what you need to know. Its important to build good habits. I've known people who rode for years but couldnt pass msf. they have bad habits. dont "worry" about dumping it. It happens at least once to everyone. Look where you want to go. dont ride tired or at night.

[/list]

keep the shiny side up, man.

[manofthefield]

re petcock/fuel switch:

down is on
sideways is reserve
up is prime

Normally just leave it on, even when parked.  Reserve when you are low on gas (remember to switch back to on when you fill up).  Prime is only for when you've drained all the fuel out of the carbs or run out of gas completely

[AirStreamGS500E]

i just picked up the same bike yesterday as my first bike...lol. I thought the same thing..."this is considered a slow bike?" lol. It nearly snapped my neck when i ripped the throttle to 10k in second gear.

[pandy]

Welcome to GSTwin! 

I use the kill switch. You can leave the petcock "on"; no need to turn it off. It's better not to leave it in PRI, though, because you could wake up to a gasoline lake under your bike in the AM.

Practice will help with jerkiness, as will learning good technique during your MSF course.

You don't talk about gear. Hopefully you have at least a helmet, jacket, boots, and gloves (and pants would be good, too). It's amazing how much we can damage ourselves even keeping our speed low. Also, my boots have saved my ankles from heavy damage during my...erhm...one or two drops.... 

It sounds as though you have a good head on your shoulders, and we ALL know how it feels to be impatient. Keep to the parking lots as much as possible. If you must go out in any sort of area with traffic, the less traffic the better, because it's very easy to panic with a car coming at you even when you DO have experience.

Look where you want to go, because that's where you WILL go....(ask me how I know this... )....  Oh..and don't forget to put the kickstand down *before* you dismount....(don't ask me how I know this.....  )...

Welcome to the exciting, wonderful world of motorcycling. I remember my excitement as a n00b; I remember my first wave (I felt like a REAL biker after someone actually WAVED to me ; I remember to put my kickstand down now. 

[pandy]

i just picked up the same bike yesterday as my first bike...lol. I thought the same thing..."this is considered a slow bike?" lol. It nearly snapped my neck when i ripped the throttle to 10k in second gear.

Well....they're slow compared to a litre bike!  I'll never think of the Baby G as slow after seeing scratch and Bob Broussard ride. 

I think this was a .sig of scratch's at some point: It's not the bike that's slow; it's the rider.   Well...at least this is true in my case... 

Welcome to you, too! 

[spc]

hehe....... once ya'll are a little better at riding go test ride a race replica 600  doesn't matter suzuki gsxr, honda cbr, kawasaki zxr  all of em wil; dump your ass off the back if your not careful......the GS is a great learner. congrats on a good choice

[VSG]

As for gear, I'm in good shape I think.

Helmet, gloves with carbon fiber over the knuckles, boots w/ ankle, shin and toe protection, Olympia AirGlide jacket.  I have Olympia AirGlide pants coming in the mail in the next day or two.  I was a little nervous about riding without motorcycle pants, but I couldn't help it!  I just had to get out and ride at least a little

The roads I was riding on had very little traffic.  When I did encounter traffic, I think I handled it well.

One thing I was thinking about - as much fun as it is, I'm glad I didn't get a bike when I was 20.  I'm definitely taking a more mature approach to it than I would have even 4 years ago.

[spc]

As scary as it is I was way more immature at 18-19.   almost 22 now.  Damn glad I waited to get a bike.  Damn glad I bought gear

[Jay_wolf]

I started At the Tender Age Of 17 , On A Tzr 125c , Very Nice it was

[pandy]

Helmet, gloves with carbon fiber over the knuckles, boots w/ ankle, shin and toe protection, Olympia AirGlide jacket.  I have Olympia AirGlide pants coming in the mail in the next day or two.  I was a little nervous about riding without motorcycle pants, but I couldn't help it!  I just had to get out and ride at least a little

One thing I was thinking about - as much fun as it is, I'm glad I didn't get a bike when I was 20.  I'm definitely taking a more mature approach to it than I would have even 4 years ago.

This is true for me, too. I was a demon when I was a teen, and I likely would have killed myself. Now I'm a granny. 



Here's a cool site with some good n00b tips. You may have already found it! 

[Unnamed]

If I was coasting and then got back on the gas, it was somewhat jerky.  Any tips to making this smoother?  The throttle seemed pretty sensitive.  Does it just take some practice? (I remember when the same thing happened to me in first gear with my first manual transmission car and I'm very smooth with that now)

You might be bogging the engine. If you're slowing down in gear, your RPMs are probably dropping with your speed. I've found that when I roll on the throttle at less than 4000 RPMs it always feels rocky.


Also, when you're coming to a stop sign, it's a good idea to shift down to first, pull in the clutch, then use the front brake to finish stopping. If you want to do a 'rolling stop' you should do the same thing, just don't go so slow that you have to put a foot down. Every time you stop the bike though you should be in first gear and have the clutch lever pulled in.

[Crucialval]

Welcome both of you! I'm glad to you guys are geared up safely. You picked good bikes to start on it's also my first. These bikes are great and make good platforms for custom bikes.

[VSG]

Thanks for the info & advice!

When you guys first start up, do you let the engine warm up so that you don't need the choke on before heading out?  Yesterday the bike wasn't fully warmed up, so I still had the choke on.  I took off and about 30 seconds later, it stalled out.  I'm pretty sure I flooded the engine.  The fuel switch may have also been on prime .  That would do it, right?

I had a carbureted truck and could drive with the choke on as it was warming up.  So I figured I could do the same with a motorcycle.

I made sure the switch was on "on" (the long part of the switch with the little arrow on it facing down is "on"?), waited a little bit and it started up again.  Let it warm up and I was good to go.

You might be bogging the engine. If you're slowing down in gear, your RPMs are probably dropping with your speed. I've found that when I roll on the throttle at less than 4000 RPMs it always feels rocky.

I think that was partially the problem.  It definitely seemed a lot smoother at 5k+ RPMs.  That's something I really need to get used to.  My car has a V-8 so I'm very used to cruising around a 1.5k RPMs.  The other part will just be getting smoother in general.

[debtman7]

On the countersteering thing, one thing I'd point out as a fellow noob, while it is something you don't have to think about, you should. It does come naturally to anyone who has ridden a bike. However, at higher speeds it's not so natural. On a 50 MPH curve, or a 70 MPH curve on the freeway, it takes a solid push to get the bike to turn and if you haven't really programmed yourself to countersteer, you might not make that turn. Also in an emergency situation, you need to be really familiar with countersteering because a good solid push will swerve you much better than your intuitive steering will. While I ride, every turn and every lane change I try to consciously push in the direction I want to go so that it becomes completely natural, rather than just relying on my intuitive steering. There have been many motorcycle accidents where a novice biker swerved right into the thing they were trying to avoid because in a panic they reverted to turning the bars the direction they wanted to go, and I have no desire to do that

As for warming up, I've found if you warm up too long you'll flood it out. My bike is rejetted so now I can turn the choke off in 30 seconds or less on a warm day, but stock you might not get away with that. Before I rejetted the throttle was really touchy without a few minutes warm up. What I'd recommend is firing it up with the choke, then getting your gear on, turn the choke down a bit and take off. Once underway turn the choke off. You might have to leave it on a few blocks, you'll just have to experiment and find out. With stock jetting the bike can take a good 3-5 minutes to really warm up and give you smooth throttle response. Of course it warms up faster while you ride it, so if your bike lets you take off with 30 seconds of  warmup and the throttle works smothly enough, then do that.

[ohgood]

I've always wanted a motorcycle and said I'll get one when I get my own place.  Well last year I got my own place, so this year I needed to get a motorcycle! 

I finally found a 93 GS500 w/ 11k miles on it.  I got it yesterday and did the insurance/registration stuff today.

Keep in mind, I've never ridden a motorcycle before in my life.  But I couldn't help it, I had to go out for a ride (don't worry I am signed up for the MSF course next week).  I'm good at shifting/rev matching/etc in a car, so maybe that gives me some advantage over someone who's only driven autos before.

So after stalling once, I was off to a less than graceful start.  Shifting was a piece of cake... that is until I approached a stop sign.  Now I had to brake while shifting down through the gears.  I have to admit that was a bit overwhelming at first.  The first few times I either forgot to brake or forgot to pull the clutch.  So I ended up either doing a sudden stop or stalling out.     One thing I noticed was that it was a very good idea to shift into 1st before completely stopping - even if I left the clutch disengaged.  It seemed hard to get into first if I had stalled out in second or even if I was just stopped.  When I was moving I had no touble getting into 1st though.

For the past two months or so I have been doing a lot of reading about riding a motorcycle.  Countersteering was probably the thing that interested me the most.  Apparently, I made too big a deal about it.  Turning the bike just felt really natural and I didn't have to think about it at all.  I definitely noticed that if I pushed on the left handle, the bike would lean left.  But I didn't have to think about it.  One thing that made me smile was leaning in the turns.  there were a few sharp corners that I took at relatively low speeds.  It felt like the bike was leaning over quite a bit.  But I remembered reading "look ahead" and "give steady throttle through turns".  I did both and it felt like the bike was ready to do that again at higher speeds!

I tried some fairly hard braking with the front and rear brakes at the same time.  It didn't feel like I was coming too close to locking up either tire.  I'll be sure to try more of that and keep pushing it to get a feel for the limits.  By the end of the ride, things were starting to come together for me.  I was slowing, downshifting through the gears before the turn, getting a pretty good lean in the corner and then accelerating away.  Of course on the straights I had to run it up the red line a couple of times.    I can't believe this is considered a slow bike!

I plan to go out and ride for 30-40 minutes everyday after work until the MSF course.  I found a parking lot so i can practice slow speed stuff and there are plenty of roads with little traffic near my house.  All I can say is that I am so glad I finally got a motorcycle!


Now for some questions:

• Regarding the "reserve" switch.  I had it so that the longer part of the switch was at 180° and the short part was facing 0°.  I assume this is primary tank.  If I flip it the other way, that's the reserve and if it's vertical, it's off.  Is this correct?


• Should I leave it in the Off position overnight?


• What is the proper way to turn off the bike?  The kill switch or turn the key to off?


• If I was coasting and then got back on the gas, it was somewhat jerky.  Any tips to making this smoother?  The throttle seemed pretty sensitive.  Does it just take some practice? (I remember when the same thing happened to me in first gear with my first manual transmission car and I'm very smooth with that now)


• Anyone have some good practice techniques/exercises I can try out to improve my riding?

Congrats on a great bike to start on ! Also congrats on enjoying a long awaited dream. Kudos for wanting to learn and being impressed with what a motorcycle can do (instant smiles).

The new-comers always point out things that sometimes are forgotten with time. You did a great job of that.

I think you're going to have just as tough a time as I did when I _thought_ I was ready to sell my "first bike". I couldn't do it. I hope you can enjoy keeping it past the stage of the 'new' wearing off.

Hey, where the hell are the pic's of your new ride anyway ?!   

[VSG]

Debtman7, that's a good point about the countersteering.  I am thinking about it and using it when I lean in turns.  I guess I was expecting it to be a lot more confusing since at low speeds you don't do it.  It just has a natural feel to it though and was easy to pick up.

Ah yes, how could I forget the pics!

[Berowra]

VSG,

This may be telling you how to suck eggs, but I find the following worthwhile for practicing and improvement:

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/610E13AE-2105-404E-8A6D-AE01C68559ED/0/ctd_final.pdf

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/3263DD69-5ECA-4DB7-862B-D621E5703B86/0/discoversaferidingbooklet.pdf

and

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/48D66F4B-99A4-443D-936A-F5A269F8BDB3/0/right_line_031006.pdf

Hope it is helpful to you.

[VSG]

So I went out for my 3rd ride today and I think everything is becoming a lot more smooth.  A lot more fun too!  5k or 6k RPMs is a good cruising speed for 40 MPH, right?

I got my first two waves from some other bikers!  

I did run out of gas though.   It started sputtering, I flipped it over to reserve and then about 5 miles later it died. 


Different people I ask give me different stories.  So can anyone give me final clarification on this?  This time I'll include a picture.



Front of the bike is to the left of the picture.  On the left it says RES.  On top it says PRI.  On the right it says FUEL.  On the bottom it says ON.

In that picture the arrow is over the "ON".  So that means I am on the regular tank.  If I rotate it clockwise and the arrow is on RES, I'm on the reserve tank.  Rotate again and I'm on Prime (in what situation would I use this).  I can't rotate it again, so there is no "Off" position.

Is that all correct or am I wrong?   Sorry about this but the bike didn't come with the owners manual.

If I am correct, I did properly switch it to Reserve.  But why did my reserve tank only last about 5 miles?

Thanks again for all the help, this site is great!

[RVertigo]

Your reserve should be 1 Gal (40-60 miles of riding)...  I have a different Petcock, so... SEARCH NEWB!  OK... Sorry...  You seem too responsible to be a real newbie-squid-boy-maxi-stunta, so I have to give you some shaZam!. 

You can also switch to PRI if you're going to get gas, just don't leave it on PRI with the engine off, 'cause all the gas will eventually leave the tank (as previously noted).

4k-7k is "Cruising RPMs" IMO...  Usually more like 5k-6k.


If I ever figure out what's wrong with my fuel system (On == Res && Res == Res) I'll let you know.     People have directed me to the tube INSIDE the gastank...  It's IN the gastank?


Oh......  How much gas did you get into the tank once you filled it?  The '89-'00 tanks are 4.something Gal.