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So as suggested in this (or another?) thread I took the motorcycle safety course to help me decide whether to buy a bike and the result was that I learned that I love biking but also it’s a much deeper area of expertise than I initially thought. There’s a lot to learn and it will be a while before I’ll be comfortable commuting to work on the highway. So I’m the plus and the minus weigh equally and I’m basically back where I started. Can people recommend safety gear that I can get to make myself less fearful of imminent death if I or some rando on a cell phone screws up? This is my current list - [ ] Jacket with armor - [ ] Pants with armor - [ ] Retro reflective vest - [ ] Air bag vest - [ ] Steel toe boots - [ ] Initial tune up - the bike I’m thinking of getting is supposed to rev high in high gear and YouTube suggests I get it re geared so that I don’t run at 10k rpm’s on the highway - [ ] Ear protection - [ ] Louder horn - [ ] Engine guards - could help protect me from low speed impacts - [ ] Phone mount - for navigation without stopping, and its up to me to put the phone in airplane mode when I go to avoid distractions All that done I will probably be finding an empty parking lot to just practice going and stopping for the first few weeks.
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May 15, 2023 09:10
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Left off helmet and gloves because I already have them. Are motorcycle boots not steel reinforced or whatever? I guess I should have said “motorcycle boots” not “steel reinforced”? So you consider it safer if I need to navigate to stop? 10-4 on the rest, I’ll leave the gearing and horn. Anything not on the list I should think about?
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May 15, 2023 09:34
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Lmao are you kidding, LA looks identical in every loving intersection, it’s like navigating a hedge maze. Only native Angelinos can do it. But I do miss the days before GPS when you had to learn without being told where to go, so that’ll be my life. The bike I’m getting has ABS and based on my course when the wheel locks you don’t hear a sound. I’d rather know the wheel locked because it goes clunk clunk clunk, that will be both safer and help me learn and avoid the locking point.
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May 15, 2023 17:23
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Phones are specifically designed to grab your attention. People on the other side of the phone make money if they get your attention. I had planned to use the mounted phone only with the self discipline to put it on airplane/do not disturb mode before starting but this thread is of course right in saying why even take that risk? Your life isn’t worth avoiding a wrong turn.
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May 15, 2023 19:59
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So I just drive my new bike home from the dealership. One time it wouldn't shift all the way down to 1 at a light for some reason so I couldn't get it going and had to fiddle with it a little while there were cars stopped behind me, but other than that I did great! Some things I noticed: At first I was shifting at an RPM that is barely 1/4 of the way up to the red line. I think I was probably shifting too low? I dunno, I never got above third gear in my class. I'm not used to big engine go brrr right beneath me so I was shifting when I would normally shift a car engine, which you can't hear as well. But later in the ride I got a little more daring and started revving up to higher RPMs, and got into some unexpected but minor power shift situations. For example, if the RPMs are higher then when you shift up the engine brakes a bit so you end up slowing down for a second. I suppose I'll have to just get some practice in to avoid that. I remember having that problem at first while driving a manual transmission car as well. Unfortunately I live in the exact center of LA (the neighborhood is literally called Mid-City) so there aren't any large parking lots I can ride around in alone nearby.
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May 21, 2023 00:01
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Sagebrush posted:*ride my new bike *rode my new bike Thank you! Excellent advice What do you think about going out at night, sooner than drunk drivers but after the traffic has died down? Like 10:00. There are more likely to be empty grocery store parking lots at that time as well.
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May 21, 2023 01:49
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There’s never not traffic in this god forsaken place, but point taken I’ll practice during the day. It’s used but with 910 miles on it.
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May 21, 2023 05:32
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Yea I ended up saying gently caress it and rolling away in second and it worked fine. I get the sense that this bike (Kawasaki Versys X 300) has very forgiving gears. From my car driving days my habit is that if I’m moving at all I skip first gear and go directly to second. Seems to apply on the bike as well. There’s plenty of low traffic neighborhoods around me because LA is an endless hellscape of eternal surburbia so while I would prefer a large open space with no obstructions to get up to 30 and practice turning without danger of hitting anything I will settle for riding around the neighborhood.
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May 21, 2023 18:46
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Yea of course, I'm not taking off in second gear unless I have to. Rode around in neighborhoods for an hour today, not weird at all passing the guy walking his dog three times. Only stalled out twice. Getting the hand of easing up on the gas when you pull the clutch in so the bike doesn't go VVRRRRRR ANGY. Also revving up as you clutch back out so the bike doesn't angy in the opposite direction. Question: It seems like on the bike much more than in cars it's normal to ride with the throttle engaged at a steady state? I found I would only do that in the car on the highway, the car engine braking won't decelerate as fast if you're in a highish gear and going reasonably fast. But with the bike if I'm not throttling a little bit it brakes quite a bit I've found. My right hand's a bit sore now but if that's the deal I'll get used to it? (Or maybe my foot already got used to it a while ago and I'm now experiencing it again with my hand?)
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May 22, 2023 01:59
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Better yet don’t play stupid games. Third day out riding around the neighborhood. I haven’t dropped the bike yet! Roads are pretty empty in the hour between rush hour and dusk. I found a parking lot near where I live that is a theater/church parking lot so it will be empty except for predictable times. I did some practice with turning at “high” speed (third gear) and I have decided it will be much easier if I simply slow down first, so I’ll just be doing that. I also put in more practice with gripping with my knees and holding lightly. I wonder whether my paranoid thick racing tier gloves are just making it tougher to hold likely because they are stiff or whether I just need to hold lighter and stop making excuses. Here’s my plan: 1. Ride around my neighborhood until I’m good enough with the controls that I don’t forget to turn off the blinker and I don’t stall out to much. Duration: A few weeks? Maybe even a few days but better safe than sorry. 2. Ride it around to do errands, going a little farther. Taking it out a few times a week until I’m very comfortable with city traffic. Duration: another few weeks maybe? Or until I feel ready. 3. Ride sunset Blvd down to the pier and Wilshire back up to my house. If you live in LA you know what this means. If you don’t: it should be a fun ride with some twisties on the way there and chill city riding on the way back. Once I get good at this step I can maybe start going on group rides. 4. Do interstate practice runs at low traffic times where I get on at one stop and off at the next, then two left turns and do it again in circles. 5. Find a time the 405 is empty (like you know, northbound from Santa Monica to Sherman Oaks in the morning) and practice riding up and down it at highway speed, confirm to my brain that I will not die 6. Now I can start practicing things like lane splitting. Or not. Nothing will ever force me to split lanes. Maybe I’ll just sit behind this slow truck forever, where it’s safe. No it’s not, I should probably learn to split lanes at some point. This is far enough in the future that I don’t know what I’ll do from here on out. At each step I upgrade a bit of my gear, eg my leather become actual riding boots, my leather jacket becomes a rated armored jacket before I ever get near a highway, etc. How’s my plan?
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May 23, 2023 04:36
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ImplicitAssembler posted:Find a riding school, do a few lessons? I did, of course. And I intend to take more. They told me their second class should be taken after I have a lot of miles and practice on the bike. Toe Rag posted:Group rides are where people get into trouble. It’s really easy to get going too fast, ride too close, make risky maneuvers, etc., even if you’re not a new rider. I’d try to find a riding buddy first instead of piling in with a group of strangers. Maybe check around on one of those meet-up apps. Heard. I'll put off the group rides. I'm mostly interested in them for finding good riders to learn from, but you're making it sound like that's not actually how they work. Remy Marathe posted:Longer than both. Also I'd concentrate on riding skillfully, learning what that means, but not on somehow accurately predicting what your learning curve will look like before you've actually traveled it, that's nonsense. Fair enough. New durations will read "Well past the point that I think I'm comfortable, and then some." The 405 is mentioned because it's close by, and a possible route I would have to take to work. If you know the LA roads then I'll take a recommendation: If I live in Mid-City and commute to Woodland Hills, would you go north on city streets through Hollywood and get on the 101 there, or hit the 10 West -> 405 North -> 101 ? Is it safer to drive through Hollywood or on the 405? I've been going through Hollywood by car because it's faster by car.
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May 23, 2023 05:30
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Invalido posted:How's your hard braking game? Can you swivel your head around without the bike changing direction? Are you able to manoeuvre at a walking pace without putting your feet down and duck walking? Make a low speed u-turn at or very near full steering lock? Can you do a no foot down full stop for a second or two and then get going again? (- fun to practice at stop signs, but not at the cost of forgetting to actually look for traffic!) Good call I've been putting together a list of exercises I intend to practice in the parking lot I found: * Braking hard from 25mph - check for a trail behind me after to see whether I locked the brake * Swerving using counter steering at 25mph and I'll add * Riding at 5mph in first gear without jerkiness * No foot down full stop for one second (I haven't tried it but I'll tell you right now I can not) * [edit] and slalom! GriszledMelkaba posted:Just ride all the roads in the mountains between 101 and the ocean. They are the best and I miss the ability to be riding them in ~20mins from the LA basin. Where I'm at now it takes an hour+ to get to roads that are half as fun as those were. Is it crazy that I do it by taking Olympic -> 1 -> 27? It would take twice as long. I've never been on the 27, is it hard mode for biking? Vino fucked around with this message at 08:59 on May 23, 2023 |
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May 23, 2023 05:58
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Fair enough, I will not attempt to ride to work by any route any time soon. Thanks for all the thoughts, everyone.
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May 23, 2023 06:25
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Took another spin around the neighborhood. Didn't have much time so I didn't go to that parking lot, but I did just ride around some. There was a moment when I was drifting too far to the right unexpectedly and felt like I almost hit something and insta-panicked. Everything was fine but I can definitely feel my confidence in my skills outrunning my actual skills. The bike has a feature where putting the kickstand down kills the engine and I think it's a big contributing factor as to why I haven't dropped the bike yet. What other factors other than "forgot to put down kickstand" might contribute to dropping the bike? Edit: hope you folks don't mind me live-blogging my learning adventure in this thread.
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May 23, 2023 23:05
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I am learning that when people say “drop the motorcycle” they don’t mean “oops it fell over while you were dismounting because you did a dumbo” but rather “your rear end were riding it and now both it and your rear end are on the ground”
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May 24, 2023 08:23
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I will never drop my bike I have declared it to ensure that it remains true.
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May 24, 2023 21:39
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OK sounds like consensus is that dropping is when the bike isn't moving. That's fair. Went out for some riding today, I didn't drop it but I did manage to smush my crotch a little bit when i braked too hard coming back into my driveway. Nothing I can't walk off. The parking lot was in use so I just rode around the neighborhood practicing taking turns, braking with hand and foot, remembering to turn off the signal, that sort of thing. I tried the "No foot down full stop for one second" challenge while I was at stop signs and I will tell you what, that seems like it's impossible. The bike starts to tilt over as soon as you get below 5mph. I can do a slow roll and start back up again but I don't see how a full stop for one second is possible. What am I missing?
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May 25, 2023 04:21
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YEA YEA I spend the whole ride reminding myself to hug the tank like my life depends on it and the second I pull into my driveway I forget and it's crotchy smushy time OK I'll practice
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May 25, 2023 05:31
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Not that I don't have a bit of work to do on it but I actually feel like I control the bike pretty well at low speeds. When I come to a stop it's left foot down when I stop, left foot back up when I go, generally very little (but not no) waddling involved. I have pretty good balance and I have ridden a lot of bicycles. I'll still practice of course.
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May 25, 2023 08:47
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The way you describe hopping around on a bicycle makes me think we would be friends
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May 25, 2023 09:40
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Went out to ride my bike around the neighborhood but something felt weird or foreign, like i hadn't ridden in a month. It wasn't the bike, it was me, something was off today. So I made four rights and went home. Guess today's lesson is don't ride if you don't feel comfortable.
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May 27, 2023 05:43
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Went riding today. No problems like yesterday, but different problems. The empty parking lot I found last time was chained off this time. I’m going to guess that I’m at the mercy of someone forgetting to chain that thing up every so often. Not many better options around here. So I’m not sure where I’m going to be able to reliably do drills. There are some shopping center parking lots but they are likely to only be empty after dark, and then I’m sure there will be private security patrols. I mostly ride in one lane roads but there is one two lane road and coming back home I was making a right onto it and I saw no cars in the right lane so I decided to turn into that. I was looking right while turning right, which is good, but as I was completing the turn a car appeared in the right lane right next to me. No idea how it go there, my guess is it changed lanes? I had to swerve into the turning lane that was thankfully there. So that’s the most eventful thing that’s happened in my bike journey so far. I’m much more confident than before but for as long as I still have moments of having to remind myself which control is what I’m looking for I’m definitely not ready to graduate to anything more than neighborhood driving.
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May 27, 2023 23:08
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This was the intersection https://www.google.com/maps/@34.048...i8192?entry=ttu  I was making the right turn represented by the red arrow. Now that I look at it I think maybe it wasn't that the car was too far right but rather I was too far left because I remember swerving right into the turning lane and the only way I could have done that is if I was too far left. Seems like a very dumb mistake to make, the sort of mistake I would never make in a car. But when I'm on a bike everything's different and I have less muscle memory to rely on and more controls to think about and I suppose it makes even simple things like turning into the correct lane harder.
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May 28, 2023 20:53
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Yes I will chalk that one up to my own dumb fault. Went out riding today and I paid more attention to proper turning speed and ending up in the right place after the turn. The one parking lot was open so I did some quick stops, counterturning, 3m 5mph slalom, and tight circles. Engaged my ABS for the first time on the quick stops, only on the back brake though. For some reason I could never brake hard enough to engage it in the front brake. Didn’t want to try too hard because I prefer being behind the hand bars. The tight circles were maybe 4 m radius, and for some reason were way harder turning right than turning left. It made my right hand sore making so many micro adjustments in the throttle. The slalom was kinda easy actually, so easy I wondered whether I was doing it wrong. After that I went out on some city roads to get more practice maneuvering around cars. Skipped to the head of a line of cars waiting at a light because the path was very wide and the light had only just turned, so I knew it wouldn’t start up again as I was trying to go up. And nothing bad happened! So that’s good.
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May 29, 2023 21:31
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My 300 has basically the same chart, I ignore it and use the rule of thumb from when I drove a car that 10 mph = 1 gear. The manual also says I can use the entire RPM range as long as I don't go red. But I believe the recommended is for the first 1000 miles while you're breaking in the bike, my bike is only 900 miles so I haven't gone above 6k rpm.
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May 31, 2023 18:26
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Went out riding today, and today was the first time I was more excited to ride than scared. It was really fun. I felt completely comfortable even in non-residential streets. But also I wasn't paying as much attention, and I was having to remind myself to check for dangers. E.g. one time I made it all the way into a busy intersection before I realized I hadn't checked to make sure all the red light cars were actually stopped, like I usually do. When you're just following traffic your brain just autopilots sometimes and forgets to do the extra safety checks. I'm still having a problem with my right hand cramping up but I think it's because the gloves I bought are the most protective mondo safety racetrack gloves available and they are very thick and restrict motion somewhat, so I think my hand cramps because I have to hold those gloves closed. My hand is getting used to it though. I plan to dig into the data (hey do you like motorcycle crash/safety statistics?) and try to determine how much different types of gloves reduce crash injuries, and depending on the answer I might get a pair of lighter gloves for city driving. Same thing for boots, I'm still wearing my regular walking boots, I don't have motorcycle specific boots yet. I also have noticed that when accelerating I tend to almost subconsciously lean forward and down. I'm not really doing it on purpose, more because it feels fun. Is that bad? I'm keeping my outings brief and nearby for now (you know, when the wife wants peaches from Ralph's, who am I to say no? You gotta make the lady happy. What's that? You didn't want peaches? You wanted blueberries? ok brb) because despite the new confidence I don't feel the skills have caught up. But in a few weeks I think I'll be ready to try a longer ride, maybe to the beach or something.
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Jun 3, 2023 22:49
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If this isn't them it's pretty close https://shop.ducati.com/us/en/motorcycle-clothes/gloves/leather-gloves-speed-evo-c1.html
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Jun 4, 2023 01:14
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Kk. They are pretty dang hot though, I feel like if I stop to get gas they’ll be so drenched in sweat I won’t be able to get them back on
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Jun 4, 2023 04:26
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I FAILED THE WRITTEN DMV MOTORCYCLE TEST  I thought I wouldn't have to take it because I took that course and I didn't realize there was a handbook to study from until like 20 minutes before I had to take the test. There was a bunch of stuff on the test like "If someone is merging onto a highway that you are on then should you" "Speed up" "Change lanes" "Adjust your speed" and the answer was "Adjust your speed" :| I'm so angry I waited two hours at the DMV and now I have to go back tomorrow.
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Jun 6, 2023 22:21
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Thanks for commiserating all, now I feel slightly less mad at myselfOMGVBFLOL posted:i needed a second try but CA gives you three before making you come back tomorrow They told me only once per day unfortunately, or else I would have gone to my car and read the entire manual before coming back in to take it again, and probably missed my whole day of work in the process. T Zero posted:There are a few websites that have DMV practice tests online. You should check to see if there's one for your state. If nothing else, you'll have a more thorough read of the rules of the road than you would have otherwise. In the time I had I took the example tests on the CA DMV website, and I did fine on them. :\ the actual tests were harder. I'll just be reading through the manual tonight and try again tomorrow. Just so you guys don't think I'm exaggerating  This is from the handbook. They had this exact image on the test with approximately the three answers I said above. Please explain to me what "Adjust your speed" means and how it isn't completely ambiguous and therefore a poor test question. I've been in this exact situation in a car many times and the best answer is to not adjust your speed, because if you try to be polite and slow down and the other driver is slowing down to get behind you then you both come to a stop and everyone is confused, and if you try to move ahead and the other driver is a speed freak and moves ahead too then they run off the road. Just chill and let them do whatever, turns out people never actually need help merging onto the highway. On a motorcycle I would probably do the same except watch to make sure they're not trying to merge into me, and if so be ready to maneuver. OK I'm done I'll stop complaining.
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Jun 6, 2023 23:38
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Another short (because after five visits to the DMV I am still unlicensed!!  ) ride to the UPS store. I have a modular helmet so rather than take it off I have gotten to the habit of leaving it on if it's a short stop in the store. But standing in the store I almost backed into another customer. That's something I would normally never do. I consider myself to have excellent situational awareness and generally always know where everyone is in a room that I'm standing in, and I always know when someone's pulling up behind me. The combination of not being able to hear as well and not having as much peripheral vision because of the helmet caused me to not notice that person had walked in the store and stood behind me. Also it's been happening a lot that I look in my bike's side mirrors at a stop light and notice a car stopped behind me that I hadn't realized was coming. So today's lesson is that the helmet impairs peripheral awareness and that I can't assume that my awareness will be as good as when I'm in a car, and I need to develop new habits of looking to my sides and rear and make sure I'm aware of cars in those directions.edit: If a dog chases you, get off the motorcycle and pet it. It probably is just sad because nobody wants to be its dog friend. Petting dogs makes them happy, this is widely known.
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Jun 7, 2023 02:05
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I'm learning so much from this thread
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Jun 7, 2023 05:19
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Sagebrush posted:Nope, turns out in California the correct answer is always "the middle of the lane" regardless of the situation. Yep, this is one of the ones I got wrong. California says you only have to avoid the middle of the lane after it rains when it hasn’t rained in a while, which in Los Angeles is basically one day per year. Edit: this contradicted what was taught in my California motorcycle safety training course, by the way! Ok I guess I wasn’t done complaining Edit2: Please Mr Sagebrush, something in the above dog discussion needs to be a new thread title Vino fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Jun 7, 2023 |
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Jun 7, 2023 07:13
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I was told in class to park in first gear so that the bike doesn't roll away on hills.Remy Marathe posted:This makes sense in bad test design logic. Yea I agree with all this, and I was thinking about it as I took the test and the test still confounded me because so many of the things in the test conflicted with what I was taught in the course, or were too ambiguous for me to guess properly. Going in for it again today if I can find the time somewhere in my day, wish me luck.
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Jun 7, 2023 18:09
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I PASSED
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Jun 7, 2023 23:37
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Thank youuu Yay I’m a thread title
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Jun 8, 2023 05:12
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My insurance took forever to come in and I got bored of riding around the neighborhood so I didn't ride for a week. But it came in yesterday and I went riding two big circles around the city streets. I did some lane splitting for the first time and it is super scary. For some reason I'm worried that every car I pass will veer into me for no reason. Also it has happened more than once that I'm going like 5 under the speed limit like the responsible driver I am and some LA Tesla dude will pass me in the oncoming lane. Academically that seems fine but in the moment it feels like something that shouldn't be happening.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:20
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Yea I guess I actually didn't split a lane, I just rode in a margin up to the right of some cars that were stopped at a light. There was no lane to my right. I'll stick to just doing that for now, which is just as well because there are relatively few roads around here with two lanes to split between. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing more than that yet because in a two lane road with a turning lane there are four possible places to split up to the front, and I don't loving remember which you're supposed to do in which situations so I'm only splitting if there's no right turn and I'm going straight because then it's obvious.
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Jun 23, 2023 19:24
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Shoulder is perhaps not the correct word. There was a long line of stopped cars trying to turn left onto Highland on the red line, generally nobody wants to continue on Edgewood. There was one narrowish spot between a parked car and a stopped car that freaked me out. I took the blue path. Did I do a bad? (Yea looking at this again there was no stoplight or sign, it was just heavy 5:00 traffic. That's whatever.)
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Jun 23, 2023 21:40
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 07:15 |
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Yea Edgewood/Highland should be near the top of the LA city planners big list of failures. OK so you're telling me that if it's a one lane road with no turning lanes then legally you can't lane split up to the front? But you're also implying that most motorcyclists do it anyway? I can't find any resources online about it and the DMV handbook doesn't go into specifics. (For the record when I got to the part of the road where the car can opt to turn right I did slow down in case that person decided it was time to veer off south.)
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Jun 24, 2023 00:11
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