Most Important Things to Know For a Motorcycling n00b.

So, you'd wear the hi-viz every day

New to the forums so I'm not familiar with all the acronyms.

Please tell me what ATGATT means.:huh

Thanks.

all the gear all the time.

only fools ride with out helmets and gear.

I'm afraid of my bike.

Me too. Mostly when I'm riding it, but sometimes I think I catch it giving me evil looks as I walk past.

It is *very* important to intall the c-clip correctly on your drive-chain!!

a couple months ago I was eating up a wicked soft sand hill. I lost all power and the engine screamed to the moon for a second. looked down, no chain! found it on the side of the trail, nothing damage just the master link came undone.

getting it down from the hill was a PITA

Thanks for the clarification. I'm a firm believer in having the proper gear. And spend the money for the best that you can afford.

Dangerous items. Guns too. Just the other day, a friend of mine's rifle got annoyed at something, broke out of the safe, loaded itself and shot out a streetlight. He will have to compensate the city $500 for repairs.

The street light was asking for it in my opinion. Bastards, all of 'em.

As a total noob, here's what I learned about filling the gasoline tank on a motorcycle. Fortunately, I read lots of embarrassing stories so I didn't have to learn the embarrassing/painful/expensive way.

1. Get close to the pump.
2. Put your kickstand down.
3. Shut off your bike and open up the gas cap using your key.
4. Carefully put the gas cap down on something clean (or key side down) where it won't fall and roll away.
5. If you have a tank bag, you might want to remove it until you've filled your tank a couple times so you're sure you won't spray or dribble gas on it. Along this line, you may want to stand off the bike while filling it until you're sure you won't spill gas on your seat area - guys have reported gas in the undies is very painful.
6. Reset trip odometer if you don't have a gas tank guage.
7. Watch closely as you pump the gas in - unlike filling a car, you'll have to hold the handle the whole time. The flow should automatically shut off if the tip of the nozzle starts to get covered in gas. If it has a fuel vapor recovery slinky sleeve, you may need to crinkle it up with your non-filling hand so you can see how full the tank is.
8. Fill the tank almost full but leave a little room at the top so you don't accidentally overfill it, or slosh it if you bump your bike.
9. Slowly pull the nozzle out and give it a tiny shake to get any loose drops off so you don't dribble on your bike (or tank bag). Some people have recommended carrying a small towel to wipe any spills off the bike's finish.
10. Securely refasten the gas tank cap. Replace tank bag. Double check that you reset the trip odometer.

Besides paying for the gas and taking the time to have a little stretch and walk around, please let me know if I missed anything! I don't have an experienced rider to learn from, so I read a lot and some things I had to find out just through experience and asking around. Someone out there probably didn't know all this either - hope this helps!

Watch out for puddles of the slippy stuff left by cagers who obviously have tons of money to waste, throwing gas on the forecourt floor ;-)

He means dirt riding for older folks starting out will cripple them every time.

This is great advice for tourers, but for commuters - have your debit card ready (you don't need to carry it in your wallet where it is difficult to get to if you have a motorcycle jacket or pants with zippered pockets that you wear every day... I have two sets of gear depending on the time of year, so it isn't that hard to remember to switch the debit card over to the new jacket's pockets) so that you don't have to get off of the bike. When commuting, or just not needing to stretch in general, you can fill a bike up more (some bikes a lot more) when they are upright with you on them.

I've also had a bike that would leak fuel out of vents if filled to where it looked full while on its kickstand. That was a cruiser with its fuel cap off-center, so the fuel cap area of the tank was much higher than it would be once the bike was uprighted and rolling... and this led to seepage from the fuel cap as well.

I commuted about 22,000 miles for work last year on motorcycles, and I'd have to say that I got off of the bikes maybe three times to fill it up - and that was due to opening a new can of Sea Foam to put a little in the fuel, or forgetting my debit card and having to pay cash.

Having started motorcycling as an eleven year-old kid in 1966, who had been riding bicycles since a few years before that..... I cannot say that I remember what I wished I knew back then.

Maybe it was that my father had told me that the machine had several gears in my first lesson, instead of coming back a few minutes later and asking why I hadn't changed gear yet. That was my second and final lesson. It has all been the School of Hard Knocks since then, softened in those early days on the farm by spills into brambles and mud holes. With the exception of a couple of years when living in Japan, I have been riding ever since.

Where I live now (in Thailand), everyone rides from a young age, and it is also mostly the School of Hard Knocks, which sadly a few don't survive.

Going by what I see on forums, with a lot of people coming to motorcycling later in life, I reckon the thing they need to realise is that a motorcycle is not a car on two wheels. The dynamics of riding, and negotiating traffic are totally different.

don't use your mirrors
and if you feel the need to use them, know damn well what's going on in front of you
i'm not saying don't look in them; Do… but no longer than a split second.
If you're having trouble processing what you say in that second, repeat; but never stare

i missed a left hand turn once while checking if the guys in my group were keeping up;
this turned out to be a game of chicken between me in the wrong lane and an RV

Slow down when the car in front of you slows down.
Do not assume a car starts to drive slower to allow you to pass it very fast.

There's a reason he slows down - either there's an obstacle you haven't seen yet, he's looking for a parking space and will stop, or make a sudden u-turn. Make sure you know what it is before you try to overtake him.

Too many drivers crash or even kill themselves because they are in a hurry and immediately pass a car that slows down.

Very true. Indeed, motorcycling is NOT (primarily) a mode of transport! It is a"sport" and to be good at any sport you have to know the rules and practice, practice, practice.......

Cheers and enjoy the ride.

Edited

If you are not competing then riding is not a sport.

:huh Bad advice.

USE THEM MIRRORS and know what is going on back there!

(Just don't be stupid about it)

I always wondered about this comment. If golf is a sport, what is it if you're playing alone? (apart from a good walk spoiled?) :)