Advice for beginners

[neebelung]

When you first started out (or set out to learn how to ride), what is the best piece of advice someone gave you? And what did you learn along the way that you WISH someone had told you (that might have helped you or saved you some frustration?)

[dReWpY]

best advice i got- "dont die, i will kill you if you do!"

i love you pc

[Rider]

Originally Posted by neebelung

When you first started out (or set out to learn how to ride), what is the best piece of advice someone gave you? And what did you learn along the way that you WISH someone had told you (that might have helped you or saved you some frustration?)

Just about everything they taught in the MSF class was good advice. I still apply those riding techniques and principals today. Keeping a clear mind while riding can also save your ass. If your head is not in the game when you first sit on the bike, you're going to be in a world of hurt in a very short time.

[neebelung]

Originally Posted by Rider

If your head is not in the game when you first sit on the bike, you're going to be in a world of hurt in a very short time.

ABSOLUTLEY.

[dReWpY]

i was never really offered any advice when it came to starting to ride on the street. i started racing offroad, got a job at a mc shop for the discount and learned to ride streetbikes on old used bikes from the barn

[Beefcake Morris]

I wish somebody would have help me buy gear and how it should fit.

I can always say take the BRC MSF course. Did I "no" did the DMV thing. Then I got talked into taking the BRC MSF ridercourse, but I learn a lot at the BRC. Then later I took the ERC MSF course.

Now I work with a MSF RiderCoach school.

It does not take too much skill to actually get the motorcycle rolling and going down the rode. Being a safe, efficient and effective rider is an ongoing experience and anything that might improve my skills is worth taking.

[NeonspeedRT]

Best advice I could give a beginner...

1) Take the MSF class
2) Make sure to set aside money for riding gear
3) Check your ego at the door. Don't go out and try and buy the latest and most powerfull GSXRZX1000RR as your first bike.
4) Never buy a new bike for your first bike. You will drop it. Things happen.
5) Take the MSF class
6) Practice, practice, and practice everything you learned in the MSF class
7) Find some good riders to surround yourself with and support you. The key word being good riders.
8) Always ride your own ride. Don't try and keep up with anyone, don't try and show off to anyone, Don't try and break any land speed records. Any idiot can twist the throttle and go fast in a straight line.
9) Respect the bike always.
10) When you think you are ready for that GSXRZX1000RR and have outgrown your starter bike. Think again. Go take an ERC MSF class. Go do a track day. You will learn more about your bike then you ever thought you could.

[neebelung]

I was given the "mantras" of riding: Take your MSF class, wear your gear, and ride your own ride (all great pieces of advice everyone should be told).

But I was also (thankfully) warned that a 600 is not a "little" bike (when I first decided I wanted to get a bike, I wanted a then-new ZX6R 636, and was operating under the mistaken impression that it's "only" a 600 ).

As for what I WISH I'd been told? Hah, how friggin addictive riding is!!!!

[vabarber2]

The Course! GEAR!! Take it slow! The end!

[OTB]

..piece of advice or riding lore you were given?

Mine was; "Don't use the front brake; it'll throw you over the handlebars". this was in the days of transition from drum fronts to single solid disks; about 30% of the braking power of today's stuff. Sillyness.