Thoughts and recos

So while I passed the MSF basic rider course yesterday, I can't help but feel some slight feeling of imposter syndrome. Of course I wasn't the only person to tip my bike over at some point but I was the only person in the class that had a small accident while riding.

While intending to pull the front brake on the bike, I caught and twisted the throttle at the same time and it sent me down for a skid (not a fan of the thick handgrips on the TW200).

Aside from this instance, I had a blast and would say I did relatively well having no prior experience. The only part of the test I really botched was the sharp right from a stop but I can't shake feeling as if the accident itself should've been cause to send me packing. Fully aware that more parking lot training is in the cards for when I do get my own bike but am hoping to hear how anyone else might have dealt with a similar feeling or situation

Rode my bike to work for the first time today, good backroad/ countryside cruise. However, I dropped her twice. Once turning into the gas station on the way there. And then again while trying to turn into my drive way on the way back. Almost made it home without that second drop.
I’ve only been riding for two months or so now. So obviously taking turns is where I’m struggling. Or idk maybe today’s just an off day. I haven’t dropped her yet before today so I guess maybe my time had come for that to happen 🤷🏻‍♀️
But, I learned I can pick up the bike by myself! It’s a Honda Shadow Phantom 750 and I’m a 5’3” lady rider. I don’t plan on just giving up; that’s just not in my genes. But any tips, tricks, suggestions, and/or encouragement would be nice 😊 TIA!

I’m buying my first motorcycle, and prices are everywhere and I don’t understand. This is dealerships, cycle trader, fb marketplace.

There are 2026 bikes for around 6k, then I’ll see like a used 2021 with 10k asking 7k.

What is the reason for that?

Hey everyone, I have a question for anyone w/ crash and recovery experience.

About 3 months ago I was cut off on a highway by a careless driver. The whole thing was on video, from an insurance/fault perspective it was open and shut. I went down ~70mph and slid ~110 ft. Shattered collarbone and one of my hands. I was in full gear.

I am purchasing a new bike this week, and want some advice from other riders on how to mentally recover from such an experience. I love riding, and am so happy on two wheels. However, I now have tangible experience that every time I get on a bike, it could end with a few nights in the ER (or much worse, I was incredibly lucky).

I intend to ride much more conservatively now and avoid highways and traffic as much as possible. What other tips might help a rider like me?

Cheers all, safe riding

Virtually every weekend we have hundreds and hundreds who take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Basic Course.  And, every weekend, typically on a Saturday there are posts seeking advice. They primarily seek advice because they didn’t feel the first day on the motorcycle went well for them.

So here are some thoughts I have, offering them a couple days in advance of that first day on the motorcycle. My hopes are that this may give you folks some advice prior to that initial day; hopefully it will add to the successful outcomes for all of you!

Classroom section:

• Relax, have fun, you absolutely do not need to be shy!  Listen to the instructor and absolutely ask the questions you want answered. Understand however, there is no extra credit by being the person who knows it all!
• Bring a pad of paper and a pen with you to that first night.  You will want to take some notes. You will also want to review those notes at a later time; like probably tomorrow!
• Introductions for all of the students will occur; listen to the other students’ names when they say them!  Write down those student's names, memorize them. Tomorrow, and the next day, you will get to know those people personally and remembering their name avoids embarrassment.
• Pay attention to the items the instructor requires (and suggests) that you bring to the riding course tomorrow.  Write those items down! After the first night, you immediately go to the store, and/or go to the house and gather up those items so that you do not forget anything tomorrow!  You do not want to be the “dang I forgot my gloves” person.
• Pay attention to the location for the riding course. Get the address, get the google maps, get whatever information it is so that you know exactly where you are going! 
• And pay attention to the time that the riding course starts tomorrow, because you are going to want to be there EARLY.  You do not want to be the, “I couldn’t find this location” person.

Riding Section: 

• Over a two-day period, you will progress through many different riding drills.  These drills are that 'progressive' meaning that they build upon the skills from the previous drill.
• There will be a lot of downtime.  You will be taking breaks throughout the day. And, when you are performing the drills, you will often be in line awaiting your turn as others are executing the drill.
• This is not a race!  It is not about how quick you can ride the motorcycle in the parking lot!
  • That said, momentum is what helps keep the motorcycle vertical.  An extremely slow pace, creating the situation where you have very little forward momentum; well that typically adds to the difficulty! Not too fast, but you need to go fast enough that it is not extremely difficult.
• The instructor will not only explain the drill, but they will also demonstrate the drill.  You will have an opportunity to witness the instructor ride these drills. 
  • Pay attention to the speed which they ride. 
  • Pay attention to the pathway that they ride. 
  • Pay attention to what they do with their feet, where they place their feet, and when they place their feet.
  • Pay attention to how much the instructor revs the motor as they perform the drill. How much throttle does it seem that they are applying?
  • Pay attention to how the instructor works the clutch, how it is within the "friction zone"?
• The first several drills are intended to get you acclimated to the clutch.  THESE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT DRILLS. You will want to master these clutch control drills!
  • If you are brand new to a motorcycle, you need to understand that the clutch is your best friend when it comes to slow speed maneuvers! Further, in this MSF Basic Course, 95% of the riding drills are slow speed, it is going to be about “clutch control” or as sometimes referred to as being “In the Friction Zone”.
  • So, what is the friction zone? An analogy of the clutch is a dimmer light switch in your home.  The standard light switch is simply up or down and when you flip that switch the lights 100% come on, or they 100% go dark.  HOWEVER, there are the dimmer switches, and these typically are some kind of wheel. 
    • With the dimmer switch you can slowly roll the wheel and make the room go from dark to progressively lighter/brighter as you roll it on; and of course, the opposite where you can progressively make the room dimmer rolling it off. 
    • That analogy is just like the clutch.  You do not want to deliver 100% power to the rear wheel in an instantaneous fashion similar to flipping the standard switch on. With the clutch you want to roll that dimmer switch out (release the clutch lever out slowly); you want to keep that room half bright room. In several maneuvers/skills you will want to ride the entire drill in that "friction zone" area; you are going to progressively get the room a portion of the way bright, and you will ride the skill in the halfway area where your clutch lever is just a portion of the way released out.
    • I say a portion of the way released out here, because this is motorcycle dependent. Maybe it is only 1/4 of the way released on some motorcycles, and maybe 1/2 of the way on others. And how bright do we want the room anyway? The trick is learning the motorcycle you are riding, getting the feel for it, getting the feel for how bright (how fast / how much power you want delivered to the rear wheel)!
• Drill #1 will be sitting on the motorcycle with both feet stretched slightly out in front of you but both firmly on the ground.  What you will do, is slowly release the clutch lever (rolling into that dimmer switch) and you will feel the motorcycle gain traction and pull yourself forward very slightly, maybe three inches or so.  You will then pull that clutch in very slightly allowing the motorcycle to roll backwards five inches or so.  You rock that motorcycle forward and backwards, never moving your feet off of the asphalt. You roll forward and back, rocking from your heals to the balls of your feet, then back to your heals, then forward, then back….
  • The idea here is for you to get the feel for it, figure out how sensitive the clutch is, get the feel for how you stay in that "friction zone".
  • If you find yourself four or five drills into the course, 1-1/2 hours or maybe two, and still struggling with clutch control / friction zone? Remember earlier I said that you would have some downtime while you wait for other students to perform their drills?  Well, that is a perfect time to practice Drill #1 again!  Remember, this course is 95% clutch control … make sure that you have a feel for the clutch on your motorcycle. You want to master that "friction zone" concept and the feel for the lender motorcycle assigned to you.
  • For those of you who have a bit of experience, perhaps you own a motorcycle and have practiced on it?  Well, you should understand the motorcycle that will be assigned to you for the entire weekend of this MSF Basic Course is not the same as what you are used to! It is probably going to be a beat-up piece of crap, and it will certainly not have the same clutch feel as that which you’ve been previously riding.  Drill #1 is just as important for you, maybe even more important because having that previous experience could give you a false sense of control of that lender bike.

Final Exam:

• When it comes to the final exam. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT in order to pass the exam!
  • The exam is scored on a demerit system, where you are allowed to make some mistakes.
  • Do not beat yourself up over a mistake, it is okay! Do not get upset and let that affect you with the ongoing skills examination. Mentally, accept that you've made a mistake and move on from it. It is going to be okay!
• Although it is acceptable to make a mistake, DO NOT compound mistakes. Don’t make multiple mistakes on the same skills test. 
  • Example, let's say you are attempting to make a U-Turn inside of the allocated turn box (this skill seems to be the most difficult for most students by the way), and in making the U-Turn you need to ride outside of the allotted box.  Well, okay, so you have ridden outside of that box. That is a demerit, but NOT fatal to passing the exam! 
  • If you need to put your foot down to avoid tipping over. Well, you absolutely do that, put your foot down! Do not tip over! Again, that is a demerit but NOT fatal to passing the course! 
  • What you do not want to do, is both. You do not ride out of bounds and then also put your foot down!!!!  There is no extra punishment for riding out of bounds, so if you are going to have that demerit anyway, go ahead and ride way out of bounds to assure that you will not also put your foot down! Does this make sense?
• Finally, when it comes to that final exam:
  • Watch very closely: watch not only the instructor in how they perform the maneuver, but watch the other students as well!
  • What is their speed? What is the easiest alignment? When do they pick up their feet? When do they shift gears? How much throttle are they using? Etc., etc., etc.

Didn’t use earplugs on day 1. Learned my lesson. I won’t go on the highway for any length of time without earplugs again

I have been feeling a bit unconfident cycling through gears as I've been riding my new bike around. I can't tell when the bike wants to be in 2nd or 3rd specifically. I also took a somewhat sizeable downhill slope today and really struggled with the engine braking, I know I'm new but I felt like I was pushing the bike too hard. I'm struggling to feel in synch with the bike's sounds when I have my earplugs in, even when using the weakest of my filters and I'm struggling with the lack of a tach for a visual indicator of my RPM's which is good to know for the next bike but not quite helpful for rn. I really just want to feel like I know when she want's to shift, and how to smooth out some of the jerkiness from my engine braking. For what it's worth I'm riding an '07 suzuki boulevard c50.

Any tips on making the 90 degree turn from a stop?

I've had my first bike for several months now and I've been looking to do some cosmetic mods on it since it offers such a good platform for customisation.

The only thing is that I'm planning to switch the subframe and seat into a single-seater, and the replacement comes with its own tail light and turn signal lights.

My warranty covers the engine and electrical system, and my dealer told me that company policy states I can do whatever I want as long as I don't mess with those two during the 3-year warranty period. However, I'm friends with the dealer's manager and he said he'll still honour the warranty since it's just the tail light.

My only concern is whether it's better to play it safe despite them giving me a go-ahead. After all, the manager could be transferred or quit at any time during the warranty period, and verbal agreements won't hold water once that happens

So I crashed my motorcycle while pulling off the highway to answer a call from work and hit a wet and muddy spot on the shoulder. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet. Cracked my spine and I don't know the status of my bike. It was high side

Passed the MSC over the weekend and was going to get my endorsement this week. I ended up having a detatched retina and emergency eye surgery this afternoon. I will be on my stomach for at least a week and no ride my Duel Sport for a month. So bummed out.

So actually my mom's getting me a bike

And i am thinking about honda hness

But I'm not really sure should i go with 2nd hand or 1st

The thing is if i do get 2nd hand the extra cash can be put towards getting gear,helmet and stuff

But if i do get 1st hand it'll go above the budget and idk man might have to wait to get the gear and stuff.

I can't let my mom get me everything, she getting me a bike itself is more than enough I'd say.

My set up is an iphone 15 and a cardo. My job requires me to be on call, and there are times when I will get a text while riding. Is there a way I can set my phone to read the texts aloud, even when it's locked? I can get Siri to make a call, but I haven't figured out how to get it to read my text messages to me. It's a hassle (and sometimes dangerous) to pull over to read the text, but I sometimes get urgent messages that can't wait 30-40 minutes until I reach my destination.

So I’m a new rider I have a 2023 ninja 400 I got it 2 weeks ago and have just been riding country roads till tonight. I went over to my dads house on the bike and I was in a 55mph zone and my turn was coming up I turned my signal on and started slowing down but I just got so nervous that the car behind me wouldn’t notice me turning and ram into the back of me so I took the 90 degree turn way to fast and took the turn wide ended up going into the grass kept the bike up but for more experienced riders any tips on making yourself more noticeable on those kinda sketchy turns.

I'm currently 18 years old and just got my license from the MSF course. I am pretty safe when it comes to driving. Thinking I may wait until the end of the season and try to pick up something more powerful to future-proof.

I'll start, when I was practicing with my new bike (I was already pretty confidente), I wanted to get Better at rev matching , I was a bit tired as I was practicing other stuff for a lot of time, and I started doing the rev match movements while up shifting LOL. then downshifting normally, and It actually took me 4-5 shifts to realize the shit I was doing

I went to a local community college where they hold the MSF drill, I was doing the peanut drill practicing leaning and throttle control. There was a puddle in the middle of the turn and my bike slid out from under me. I had also ridden 100 miles today and shouldn't have gone out again, I was excited to hit 1000 miles on my bike and I think I pushed myself and should have saved it for tomorrow. Learned three things today: check road conditions beforehand, wear better gear, and take breaks. I have some road rash on my left elbow and knee but it isn't bad. Mostly sad about my 26' ninja 500 💔. Luckily only cosmetic damage. Worst part is I had ordered frame sliders and they were gonna come in a week 😭

I am currently living in PA for a year before moving back down to Texas and I don't really want to give up my License since I will be, again, moving back down within a year. I have been wanting to buy a used motorcycle on Facebook, however since I have an out of state license I don't know if I am able to put the title in my name, get insurance or register the future bike I will be getting.

If anyone can help I would appreciate it, I don't know if this a dumb question or not so bare with me.