Most Important Things to Know For a Motorcycling n00b.

Use everything at your disposal, including vision, hearing, feel, and smell.

http://www.cycleworld.com/2014/01/1...-your-motorcycle-to-stay-safe/?src=SOC&dom=fb

I'm getting back into riding again after 20 years away from it. Purchased a dual-sport a couple months ago and have been riding a little in the past week.

I have noticed that my hands are 'falling asleep' when I ride more than about 15 minutes. I'm not squeezing my hands or have some type of weird riding position. I'm 6-2 and riding a stock height Honda XR650L, so it seems to 'fit' me fine.

Any advice? My brain has me going in the direction of bar risers to lift my hands and arms a little higher. I seem to be pressing down into the bars at the current angle of setup.

Input would be welcome...

Some beston grips from eBay might help a lot.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

May want to work on your core strength a bit. Your arms should be loose. Stiff arming the bars can cause problems with control input, as well as fatigue. Practice, practice. You should be able to "chicken flap" your elbows at all times. Also practice not having a death grip on the bars.

It is a natural "survival instinct" to grip the bars tightly. Doing so impedes the bikes ability to handle properly and creates hand problems. It is something you do not think you are doing.

Remember that the natural action of the bike is to be stable. Inputs cause the bike to turn. Good practice is to go somewhere and do figure eights. You will soon find insight into the dynamics.

I'm the same height as you and ride a smaller XT250 as a commuter. I'm surprised that you would find the bars of this style of bike to low. A natural position is a feature of this style of bike.

The plank seats of dual-sport bikes can create problems. There are often very hard which means you tense up right up your spine, and the other problem is they make you slide forward. As a bigger person you probably need to sit back on the seat to fit properly, but the seat is always fighting against you in doing this. These problems can be corrected with a seat cover or change of seat. Not saying this is the problem, just something to think about.

wear your helmet and keep your finger on the horn when passing cars weaving through lanes-which your technically not supposed to do, but will have to do anyway.

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'm going to try the risers and some Pro-Tapers.

Thanks for the ideas. My seat has been recovered, so I think I'm going to tear it apart in the next couple weeks and rebuild it. We have an upholstery shop pretty close, so maybe I'll go buy some high-quality, firm seat foam and give that a shot.

I had a DRZ400 for a while. The seat was a pure torture device. It wasn't because it was HARD (which it was hard), it was that it was narrow, giving no support. I would be in agony after 40 or 50 miles. It was fun to ride, but I ended up selling it because of the horrible ergos.

I had a Buell Blast once that suffered the same problem with a horrible seat. I ended up with a Corbin on it. Nice wide seat pan for support. The Corbin was hard as stone too, but the added support made it a 500 mile seat.

The stock seat on my Buell XB12s was horrible too. Really thick soft foam, but was miserable. I put on a factory "low" seat that has far less padding, but makes the seat effectively much wider. Much better support, good for a few hundred miles without much trouble.

You results may vary.

Sorry, didn't read the entire 100 pages of replies and not going into learning skills/motorcycle maint etc. IMHO number one survival rule is SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. #2 is: Don't put yourself into a scenario you're not skilled/capable of getting out of. Riding over your head is on parr with learning into a punch...never a good offense or defense. #3: Pain sucks.

Don't disagree....but! I'm currently teaching my 20 year old daughter to drive. She is up to a point of adequate driving technique, and a reasonable understanding of the road rules. But..... she lack appropriate SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. I keep constantly keep telling her to keep a greater distance, slow down approaching a heavy traffic spot, etc. But is seems without the potential situation having some real meaning due to a near miss or actual accident, goes in one ear and out the other.

Sort of a chicken - egg situation. How do they get situational awareness without actual situations making real the need to have situational awareness. While that experience may be an expensive trip to the panel shop in a car, it may be the hospital or worse on a bike.

Dunno the answer.

Years ago I had a girlfriend with a daughter like that. Her bubble was maybe 50 feet forward, and not at all to either side. Scared me to teach her to drive, but her mom was even worse. She finally totalled the car by pulling right out in front of somebody who was speeding through a red light. That she saw coming, and somehow thought would manage to stop in 20 feet before the intersection.
For MONTHS, she denied any responsibility. Every time it came up, she'd say, "But I had the green light, and that lady was speeding!" and I would reply, "You knew this, and pulled right out in front of her anyway." and she'd say, "But I had the green light!"
And one day we have this conversation, and I say "And you pulled out in front of her anyway." and after about a 30-second pause, she says, "Yeah, I did, didn't I. That makes it my fault."
Don't know if her driving improved, because that whole family was fucked up in many ways. "Dysfunctional" would have been a major step up, but that's another story. I got the hell away from all of them shortly after that.


1911fan

Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

Put as many miles as you possibly can on that bike. Experience Experience Experience

I started teaching my kids SA as soon as they could see out the windows of a car. Put lots of miles on with them in the car, and instead of punch bug of find the license plate games, it was more like a game show, I would quiz, where did that car come from? What potential hazards do you see ahead? If I slowed down when I saw something, asking them what THEY saw?

Worked well, all grew up to be excellent riders/drivers. My middle son to this day amazes me with his ability to see deer along side the road. And his only accident in 16 years of driving was a minor slide off a slippery road, that only damaged his perfect record.

Or bad luck. Or chance. Or...basically... life and anything that is out of your immediate control.

safest place to ride is where the cagers are not. the hills & twisties and or off road. cagers hate that kind of stuff. most mc accidents 90% happen at slow speeds. avoid slow speeds, city traffic, traffic jams, etc..

The UK study shows your information isn't just wrong, but laughable.

Things i learned (mostly the hard way) in my first 5 years of riding.

ATGATT ( all the gear, all the time) because its not IF you crash, Its When you crash! At least when you ride in the dirt.

If you are headed to the dirt, Have good tires. Period. 90% street 10% dirt tires, are useless for the places you really want to go. Once the front end looses traction, you crash. Its cheaper to wear out some good tires, than it is to replace that plastic you just broke.

Air down your tires when riding the dirt. This will add traction, and confidence. But remember to air back up when you hit the black top again. I carry a small 12v air compressor

Set up your suspension properly. Most adventure bikes have an adjustment to set up rear suspension height. Its amazing how much a rear suspension adjustment will have on the handling and feel of the bike.

Cagers don't see bikes, they will look directly at a bike, and not see it. This is especially true at night. Bikes with only one headlight are hard to see, when surrounded by all the other lights in the city.
Add an aux headlight. use it as a daytime running light. It will help you be seen.

Always assume that you are not seen by cars. Stay out of blind spots. Leave yourself an exit strategy in every situation.
Don't be afraid to flash your brights at people that you suspect don't see you. This will grab their attention.
Also, flash your brake light a couple of times when you are compression braking, in order to grab the attention of the people behind you.

When riding solo, Ride near the center line. This is the best place to be seen by other traffic.

slow down for blind corners. They often hide pot holes, ruts, or some other obstacle that you wouldn't want to hit.
Only ride at a rate speed that you can stop in time to avoid a collision.

Don't listen to your iPod when driving. It will distract you. When you ride on dirt, or surrounded by cars, You have a lot of things to pay attention to already, You don't need music to distract you further.

Not when on a two lane highway it isn't. Being more to the fog line will help oncoming vehicles getting ready to pull out and pass a better chance of seeing you. (And give you a better chance of avoiding them if they don't)

One should NEVER adhere to ANY hard and fast rule about lane position when riding. Be fluid and be seen.