First Ride on the Hawk
 

So i finally got to ride the hawk today..FINALLY.

I roll her down my hard sloped gravel/dirt driveway to the street. i jump on fire her up..let her warm..i am a bit nervous..i go thru all the checks in my mind. helmet strap, check my signals, turn off the choke, plot the course in my mind i am going to ride through my nieghborhood..after about3 or so minutes..im confident to go. I lean forward to adjust my mirrors..as i look in the left one there are 2 county sherrifs standing behind me arms folded with this straight on eye to eye contact look that is kind of like..put it in gear pull out, i dare you. lol

I lean back on the bike and start sweating bullets..i look at the sky for a couple minutes, watch the grass grow, and let the bike warm even more. finally the second officer walks up to the front door of my nieghbors house.. i see my chance. i pull in the clutch, shift into first. give it a little gas..pop the clutch and kill it.. lol.

I quickly restart it and take off. i stumble through my nieghborhood as awkward as a new born deer trying to walk. Dogs were considering chasing me but saw i was not doing so good and changed their minds. lol.

The sea foam seems to be removing some of the hesitation and the bike is switching between riding shoddy and rough and then cleaning up and running smoother then it was. I come up to the first stop and realize when i go to use the rear brakes i have been riding like a noob the whole time with my feet not on anything but hanging in the air. lol i take it through a few slow right turns feeling out those yucky tires. my confidence grows some..The clutch sucks monkey nuts though.. it takes almost the whole travel before it begins to engage and then it is all the sudden engaged.

I finally get back home see both cops waiting again so i just drive the hawk up my crappy drive way, park quickly and run in the house and hide. lol.

I think over my first ride and wonder how i made it home in one piece.

Omg i am way to rusty. i am fighting leaning with the bike..i am just absolutly at about zero skill level on riding. But it was all coming back to me quickly though. rustier then i thought but getting my legs back quicker then i thought i would.

Plan on riding alot this weekend once the rush hour traffic dies down. see you guys out there.

Don't want to sound preachy,but have you considered an MSF course to freshen up your skills?

It's Not a BMX
 

Funny story!! I got a few good laughs out of it.

Damn, it almost sounds like your only previous riding skills all came from riding a 10 speed as a kid....
Seriously though, take it slow. And like Steve said... the MSF Course will be your best friend on the road for many years to come.

+1 on the MSF course.....be careful out there!

yeah i am going to one of the classes offered out here where im from. it has been 15 years since i have been riding really. and yes it was all dirt.. cough cough and my dirt bike on the streets. and yes it did feel like the first time i rode a 10 speed.

do not worry you do not sound preachy on the MSF course. i would be a moron if i had any issue with the suggestion.

heres to safe riding.

Let me help jump you up the learning curve with one quick piece of advice.
When you are rolling down the road about 20 or 30, do this...
Steer the bars left slightly (pull the left grip back lightly)
You will notice you didnt go left now did you ?
Now turn the bars right a bit and notice how the bike leans left.
Once you can memorize this good in your early learning stages, you will become a much much better rider with 100% more control than other who dont get this lesson and spend 10 years riding down the street trying to balance the bike manually. LOL

THERE IS NO BALANCE. its all in the bars.
That bike could care less if it even has a rider or not.
You are only there to twist the throttle and turn the bars, not to balance.
Learn this and live longer.

i will work on this tommorow. any other advice i should work on?

Push your bars when cornering. I know it sounds counter intuitive but it works.

Push right, the bike will fall into the lean and go right.
Push left, the bike will fall into the lean and go left.

Also ALLWAYS look THROUGH your turn. If your lookin at the ground your ass is gonna end up on the ground. If your looking where you want to be, thats where your bike will go.

Ride safe bro...

making a right turn, push forward on my bars with my right hand so the front wheel is really headed left..lean right, turn right?

Absolutely. Like I said it sounds like the opposite of what you would want to do, but I swear its how to do it. This technique is called COUNTER STEERING. Look it up on you tube and practice it on your bike. It is effective for faster speed above 20 mph or so. When going really slow 15mph or less turning your bars like normal is good.

Its the single most important aspect of bike control, and many people dont know about it yet.
Scary.
Pushing the right grip is the same as pulling the left, it doesnt make a difference, you are still turning the bars left.
Dont get lost in the wording.

I hope you take your time getting used to the bike. Having a motor that's not running cleanly and a fussy clutch makes learning to ride it a lot tougher.

All In the Wrist
 

It's also a good idea to "Keep your right wrist turned down" while you develop the proper muscle techniques to accurately control the throttle under all sorts of conditions, especially the bumps!!! Cruising steady in first gear at 25 mph + hitting an unseen obstacle could cause an unwanted wrist movement that will flip the bike headlight over tail... but you can probably already handle the bumps well enough from your previous dirt riding days. ;)

I have been on youtube for the last few hours. great education. and i will be carefull on the throttle for sure. keep any advice coming that you think this noob over here might need. better to tell me basic things and save me some issues then to think, "hey that is so basic i bet he knows.. remember i rode bmx, ten speeds, lol and dirt bikes. i got to be honest i must be one suck ass rider for all the years i rode because i never was taught countersteering or used it in the dirt.

Let me tell you a quick story about my past squidliness ..
I didnt even know or have a clue about counter-steering until my 1st road race as a provisional novice back in 1988.
I had been racing MX since a kid, and doing well in the intermediate class.
( I dont know how I had done it )
On my 1st day at the track, I was comming off practice to talk to my mechanic at the pit wall when the group from my shop comes up and starts saying that I looked like granny out there riding a tricycle.
Joe Vertichessi, a perrenial 750 class pirate who had a pearl pink GSXR with pearl green wheels ( sounds ugly, and it was smoothly uglyish) and knew how to ride pretty damn fast in his class walks up behind me and slaps my helmet on each side and flips open my visor. "You arent counter steering" in his heavy New Yowk accent.
I said what?
He comes around to the front of the Fz-600 and looks me in the eye.
Here I am wearing borrowed leathers that were too big, and this ugly yellow tank top with the track logo on it on the out side of my leathers
(provisional novice had to wear the yellow jersey on the outside of our gear as a visual hazard warning for the faster riders , lol)
"You look like you on a sunday ride , out there."
I say "Dude, ive never gone faster, longer on a streetbike, and Im still looking for cops on the side of the track ... and stop signs, ... and street lights ... "
He says" Look ... steer left to go right , steer right to go left ... ok? "
and slaps my visor shut.

Im thinking " ??" as I ride back onto the track.

I swear it didnt take but 50 more feet before the conversion was completed forever.

Since that moment, My MX speeds went up and I started placing in the top of the intermediate class.

And Im sure im still alive today because of this lesson learned, as not understanding how to truly have full control of the bike is a threat to life and limb.

Heres the classic fat guy and fat lady on harley or goldwing gets sucked under 18 wheeler on windy day ... That happens when the spode rider without the know how instinctively steers the bars away from the 18 wheeler when he feels like his bike is drifting toward the truck.
As you know now, this does the opposite of what the spode wanted.
and soon a rapid succession of events take place outside the control of the spode rider and his poor wife.

If you are still balancing when you turn, and dont understand this counter steering thing, your life is in danger.

Bleed the clutch / check the clutch cylinder master seal to get a better biting point - or you're likely to topple over in a tight corner if you can't put some power down.

A Short Video
 

Here is what can happen to a rider who does not know how to control a motorcycle with counter-steering. We can always learn from a bad example.

That video has less to do with countersteering and more to do with being an idiot...period.

Do yourself a favor and find a open parking lot or deserted road to work on your skills before working out the kinks in traffic. Get comfortable at slow speeds push/pulling the bars, slow cornering, leaning, braking...that kind of stuff. Learn at slow speed first.

Do you have riding gear? Funny story, I liked how you hid from the cops, like they wouldn't know were to find you.:rolleyes:

Lots of good advice here.I am not a certified MSF instructor,but have helped out teaching the course for quite a few years, just remember....
Push right, go right..
Push left, go left...
Ride safe and welcome to the addiction !

Agree with what's been posted here. Some rules of thumb:

You go where you look, so look where you go.
Heads up, knuckles up.
When in doubt, throttle out.
ATGATT (all the gear, all the time)/dress for the crash, not for the ride.

Don't be afraid to go slow. If it feels too fast, it probably is. Doesn't matter how much you impress someone, they still won't pay your hospital and repair bills.

My two cents. I can't believe countersteering isn't intuitive to most people. I remember figuring it out when I was about 8 years old riding a bicycle.

Also, it's a myth that when cornering the front wheel is turned in the direction opposite of the way the bike is cornering. Countersteering initiates the turn, but the wheel and bars are still turning in the direction of the turn. If you don't believe me make a simple dial indicator out of a piece of wire and attach it to the steering stem nut or to the top triple. You will see that when going around a right hand turn the wheel is indeed turning right and vice versa for a left hand turn.

You can see how countersteering works with a bicycle, too. Push it along by the seat, no hands on the bars, and gently lean it to one side. The front wheel and of course the bike will turn that direction.

Here are the important things I've learned.
1). Watch the wheel and not the driver. - When a car is pulling out across your path watch their wheels. If the wheel moves they are coming. Just because they are looking at you doesn't mean they see you.

2). Slow at intersections to glance around. - Someone might be blowing that red light.

3). Bend your elbows. Locked elbows strains your wrists, reduces stability, and can create front end wobble.

4). Relax your grip. Seeing as it's a new ride you are probably white knuckling the bars. Keep a good grip but relax enough to feel what the bike is doing. This will also keep your fingers from going numb on longer rides.

5). Look where you want to go. Someone said it but it's worth repeating. Practice looking at where you want the bike to go. When you see something in the road you want to miss, look at the path around it and that's where the bike will go.

Cheers and enjoy getting to know your bike.

blah blah blah....... take a MSF course. I don't care if you read volumes of tips and tricks, you need hands on experience with an instructor telling you what to do and what not to do. If I were you, I would just put the bike away until after you go and take the class.

I did exactly what you are doing, dicking around before you take the class......well I totaled my bike within 2 weeks because I didn't know what I was doing. Please don't do what I did! I speak from my own retarded/embarassing/expensive experience!

Yeah i had a chance to ride today and i just watched videos instead. Also looked up when the next class i can attend is being given and what the requirements are to enroll. 250.00 not bad for what is offered.

i am probably still going to dick around some because of the clutch but i hve not left second gear or went over 30 on the bike yet. i am going to go out and practice countersteering though because the next class i am available for is a little over two weeks away.

You don't by chance live out in the 909 in Fontucky, do you?:rolleyes:

Just kidding. Seriously, take an MSF course. Learning or relearning to ride on a bike like the SuperHawk is one thing, but to be doing it in the 21st century with all the lousy, distracted drivers out there is another. Back in the '60s when I learned to ride, about 90% of drivers were responsible and paying attention. Today it's about 10%.:eek:

Sounds like you've ridden before, but had some off time. Take it slowly. Riding around the neighborhood is a good idea. Keep the shiny side up.;)

ps: My wife thinks you're a great writer.

Lol well i do live close to fontucky now that you ask. like..very close. but where i live compared to those hooligans is like night and day in the mentality. i wouldnt be caught dead living in fontucky..err i guess by the logic though i could be caught dead there. hehe.

On the wife note.."if by chance she ever reads any of my post and they have offended her, tell her i am sorry but my meds have not fully kicked in that day." take all my writing witha grain of salt or two. some days i am really a decent human being, others days im just a sarcastic dick faced cocky asshat. usually with out any forwarning or reason, other then the wind blew the wrong way. i think its called Bi - Polar.. but to me it is called the best, most exciting way to live each and every day to its fullest potential. at least in my mind,, because that is where we all live. in our minds framed by a skull that has sensory organs to connect to the outside that other people are living in.

5150, No offense at all, she just appreciated your account of your first ride on your SuperHawk. She's just been riding for 4 years, and she's a retired high school English teacher.