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Just signed up for a BRC through Harley Davidson this weekend. The class is only $189 until the end of the month, gets you your motorcycle endorsement here in FL and also a free bike rental after successful completion of the course. I'm pretty excited to finally learn how to ride, even if I don't end up buying a bike anytime soon.
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Aug 10, 2012 03:44
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 21:46 |
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Skreemer posted:The Harley version (Rider's Edge) is the same MSF as everyone else gets with an added bonus, they try really hard to sell you a Harley Motorcycle and anything and everything they can that's Harley branded. Tour through the shop, talks from all the sales folks... It really is a fun experience other than just taking the class. Yeah, I figured they would, especially with the free rental. I'm not in a position to buy a Harley right now so I'm just taking this for the reasonably priced class really. A free rental is nice though, even if they have to try to sell me on buying one when I do it. I did know that the class was on the Buell Blast which I was a little bummed about, but I've never ridden a motorcycle at all, so in my head I'll probably just chalk it up to that and if I do get my own I'll be happy when it isn't shaking all over the place.
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Aug 10, 2012 13:43
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Just finished day one of two and had a lot of fun. I did pretty well at most of the skills, but the one thing I'm still having the occasional problem with is stalling out when getting moving from a stop. I think I'm just coming off the clutch a bit too fast. At first it was because I wasn't giving enough throttle when letting off the clutch, but now I think I'm just coming off a bit quick. Aside from that I think my skills lessons went pretty well. In general I think I just need to get used to the clutch and gear shifting. I haven't driven a manual car in probably a decade so I'm still getting the touch for it. I wish I had some time to just practice stop and go and shifting for a while so I could make sure I don't stall out any more. And to everyone saying the Buell Blast is vibraty, you weren't kidding. Doubly so in lower speeds in 2nd gear.
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Aug 11, 2012 21:18
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HotCanadianChick posted:I'm currently in the middle of my first day and having a similar problem with stalling out from a start, and I've been driving manual cars for close to 20 years, so it's definitely not just you. I'm starting to give it more throttle before I even start releasing the clutch at all and that seems to be helping with the stalling, but I still kill it every once in a while Yeah, that's generally what I've been doing and 80% of the time it's just fine. It's typically right after I do something really well and the instructor compliments me and gives me the signal to move along. I think when I get a compliment suddenly my brain relaxes too much and I don't consciously think to really ease into the clutch. I wouldn't feel as nervous, but I think it's because pretty much everyone in the class has riding experience and two people in the class are track racers who moved and just need to pass the MSF to get their endorsement. Three other people are in a similar situation and the other three aside from me all rode dirt bikes, so I'm the only one in the class with no real manual bike experience.
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Aug 11, 2012 22:49
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Abe Froman posted:I think its the just the Blast. I had the same problem during my MSF. The clutch on my Ninja 250 feels a lot better than the Blast's. The guys teaching commented that the clutch on the Buell's is sort of jumpy for a smaller bike so I'm sure that's part of it. They said they've taught on Rebel 250s in the past and liked those better, aside from the obvious size issues for taller riders. They said you could get into third gear on those in the range too. You'd be stalling hands down in third in the Blast, it comes close at times in second if you try to take a corner on the slow side.
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Aug 12, 2012 01:13
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Just got back from the second day of the class and passed the course. I did significantly better on the stalling today. I only stalled it once and it was because I forgot to downshift to first when I stopped between drills so when I went to take off it stalled. I got a 90 on the driving portion, largely because I took the swerve test at too low of a speed so I had to re-run it and I had to re-do the emergency stop because I had my fingers over the clutch during the run up. I got 100 on the written though, so that made me happy. Still not sure if and when I'll buy a bike but I'm glad to know that I can now. At the very least I can get my free rental out of it. I'm going to wait until October though because riding in the heat down here in FL is brutal.
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Aug 12, 2012 20:36
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Skreemer posted:Remember whenever you get on that next bike to practice a bit before you go. The friction zone is different on every bike you get on and as someone mentioned it will sometimes move as things heat up. I've never ridden one but drat near everyone tells me the clutches on the blasts are pretty horrid. On the Suzuki GZ250s and Yamaha eliminator 250s we have they are a right pain in the rear end to find neutral until the oil and everything is really warmed up. Yeah, I plan to do some laps around the parking lot to get a feel for the friction zone before actually going anywhere when I do rent one. The teacher said the nice thing about it is that they'll actually let you swap out for different bikes if you want to come back at different parts of the day and change it for another one, which could be nice to experience how different style bikes work. Ideally I'd want to rent one of the smaller sporsters if they have one available. The second gear thing was mostly just a lapse on my part. We were taught to downshift to first and leave it there when stopped so that you're ready to go. They teachers said most of the time that won't be a big issue but the Blasts will nearly always stall out if you try to take off in second.
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Aug 12, 2012 23:40
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While we're talking about new skills. Is it normal for one direction of turning to be more natural in your "dominant" direction? I'm right handed, but I've noticed that when it comes to turning and balance going left is way more natural to me in a whole bunch of things. With ice and inline skating turning left has always felt more natural to me. At low speeds with simple turns it's not an issue, but when leaning and more weight is involved I'm way more comfortable going left than I am right, this goes for skating as well as riding. I can turn right just fine, but for some reason, it feels way more natural to turn left. Does anyone else notice this? I had no real problems in the course or the testing with going right, in fact most of the turns were to the right in the test, but it was in my head wondering why that is during the riding portion.
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Aug 13, 2012 21:55
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Wulframn posted:I am planning on taking it when it cools down - like in January. It will have been about six months and the cooler weather will be nice. Taking those classes in the heat of the Florida summer is no way to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Oh I can attest to that as I just took it three weeks ago in Orlando. It was goddamn miserable, mostly given the fact that I don't have any jackets that breathe at all. A couple people had armored mesh jackets that they said help a lot. I sweated buckets during that whole class and kept getting sweat on my sunglasses and having to clean them. Plus anytime you get off your bike to go huddle up and discuss something, you'd come back to a lava hot seat, accompanied by the instructor saying "those seat warmers are free of charge with the class."
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Aug 26, 2012 18:13
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HotCanadianChick posted:
Yeah, a couple people wore long sleeve shirts. I chose a jacket just because I could unzip it/take it off when we weren't on the bike without taking off the helmet.
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Aug 26, 2012 19:46
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Jackets? Who said anything about jackets? Wear your thinnest, lightest, most breathable long sleeve shirt. I wore an old silk button up dress shirt that was missing a button when I took my class a few weeks ago. You don't need to wear a jacket for the BRC.
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Clevermuldoon posted:Clutch control. But it was more of a buildup of anxiety. She'd have trouble doing an exercise then the group would be waiting behind her which would stress her out even more and cause her to perform worse. Yeah, if you get anxious, that's just going to get worse because you feel rushed and then you're going to not focus on just how slow you need to let the clutch out. I had a similar problem my first day on the range. Day two I only stalled once and it was because I forgot to downshift to first when I came to a stop and the Buell's we were riding will pretty much stall out in second from a stop every time.
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Sep 18, 2012 14:26
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 21:46 |
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yergacheffe posted:I had the same feelings as you after the MSF. The motorcycle was a lot of fun, but I was still uncomfortable about going out against real traffic because I felt I wasn't completely in control yet. Everything I did seemed sloppy to me--changing gears, acceleration, braking, and turning. I never rode a motorcycle before the MSF so who knows how bad I was actually doing. After I got my bike, I putted around in the neighborhood for a few hours and drilled these basics. This helped me get more comfortable with how a motorcycle generally handles as well as how my particular bike handles. I found that at the beginning, I was concentrating very hard on how to actually work the bike, and not as much on where the bike was actually headed. As I started developing the muscle memory to control the bike, I could then start diverting more of my attention to where I was actually going. I was the same way when I first got on the road too. Not so much because I didn't feel fully comfortable in class, but it had been almost two months since the class since I'd touched a bike when I first got one on the road. My first (and still only road experience) was the free Harley rental I got with my BRC from the dealer. What I did was immediately take the bike across the street into an office park and rode around their pretty much empty streets for about 10 minutes until I felt good cycling up and down through the gears, stopping and taking turns a different speeds. Really those 10 minutes were all I needed to feel comfortable on the road. I didn't really get a slight nervous feeling again until I got into a little bit of heavier traffic going 50mph. That was mostly just because my perceived speed going that fast felt like I was doing 80mph. But after a minute of that it all went away. Coming to a stop on an incline still made me a little nervous by the end of the day though. I never messed it up, but I had to focus a lot.
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Oct 26, 2012 19:25
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