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Oh my god I'm terrible  I am terrible at motorcycling even by the standards of someone who is having trouble. I'm seriously shocked at how much trouble I had with virtually everything. I kept accidentally giving the bike gas on the throttle when doing the slalom or even turning and I loving ran my bike into some shrubs. I was fine and so was the bike, but it almost seemed like an exclamation point on the day of "Oh my god, I'm bad at this and I don't know if I'm ever going to be good at it." I don't know...
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Aug 19, 2012 03:23
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 11:31 |
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Sorry if this post is lovely, I've been on a motorcycle for 10 hours doing exercises and testing so I'm not all there. I should clarify that I'm in Canada so I was doing something called the Motorcycle Skills Assessment. The actual course I was doing had exercises significantly harder than the actual MSA test. I passed the MSA test today but it was kind of close. (I can ride alone on the streets now during the day). While doing some shifting-up-shifting-down-uturn exercises my instructor pulled me aside and:  "Did you crash a motorcycle or bike at some point in your life? Are you doing this course to make someone else happy?" "No." "I just... I CAN'T get you to relax... You have a death-grip on the handlebars and your upper-body is extremely tense making it hard for you to steer or counterbalance, and you're squinting your eyes after you make a mistake. You need to relax."He was the reason I was anxious and tense. It wasn't fear of dropping the bike or crashing or speeding up or slowing down or shifting or braking, it was because he was staring at me and criticizing me constantly. I have pretty serious anxiety problems and OCD, and the more mistakes I made, the more he stared at me and got on my case, the worse I did. It wasn't his fault, obviously he's just doing his job as an instructor and he's good at it, but I really just can't learn and execute when I'm wound up like that. I was so shocked and disheartened with how I did the first day because I've always been really good at things requiring balance and coordination. I skateboarded and played hockey for years and I was great at them, and I was suddenly doing lovely at something right off the bat and quickly became the remedial member of the class and it hit me in the balls .That being said, I did all the actual lessons now and I got the piece of paper, and I've learned a shitload. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go for a road-ride with my class for a couple of hours but I'm really hesitant to do it because frankly I just don't want to. I know enough about myself to realize that I have to feel this stuff out on my own in an empty parking lot for a while now on my own bike, and take it to some easy back-roads near my house that I'm comfortable with and work on what I need to work on alone or with a friend. He feels confident enough to put me on the road in the class and I did a lot better near the end of the day, but I don't feel confident enough yet personally to do it.
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Aug 20, 2012 04:01
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Yeah. If it's not fun, don't do it. It's not like dieting and weight training. I think if you take a break and give it some time, you'll start to feel differently about it and remember that it is fun, and you'll want to do it, and you can take it slowly from there.  ) but the actual riding was fun. When the instructor wasn't around I felt in control and confident on the bike, but as soon as he returned I tensed up.I don't know if it was my bike or what (Honda Nighthawk) but shifting up was goddamn hard. It was literally hard, as in I had to loving crank my foot up to not end up in Neutral from first. Is this pretty typical? When shifting, do you typically lift your entire foot up?
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Aug 21, 2012 22:50
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