Starting out/born again - the hints and tips thread

[Sunny]

While I wait for the roads to dry up, and thinking I really should have done the ACF50 thing to the new bike already , I started thinking about all the things you pick up by osmosis/kind people off forums helping you with when you first start riding.

Things like adjusting and lubing your chain, putting RainX on your visor to help the rain roll off, covering your new bike with ACF50, daily/weekly checks, etc, etc.

So, what are the obvious/less obvious things that you think all new bike owners/born agains should know/do?

[KungFooBob]

Riding BMW's makes you stink of piss.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Buy a bike that suits your ability and age

[Skub]

Buy a bike that suits your ability and age

I don't want one that slow.

[KungFooBob]

Buy the fastest, most powerful bike you can afford, you won't get bored of it as quickly as a sensible bike.

[Horse]

This is the reminder list I used to give back-to-biking trainees, as a laminated card


Clutch Biting Point – it must be instinctive.

Head & Eyes Up –
Trust your hands and feet, they know
where they are;

Look where you want to go

‘Wrist down’ on the throttle

Drive Through Corners And Roundabouts –
Slow in, Fast(er) out.

Brakes, then Gears, in a straight line.

Always Stop With The Bike Upright.

Feet Up In Tight Turns –
Rear brake only

[Sunny]

I always liked 'wide in, narrow out' for bends.

[Sunny]

Here's a practical one: check your tyre pressures fairly regularly.

My first bike handled terribly, though because it was my first bike I didn't realise that. Months later, for reasons that escape me now, I checked the tyre pressures and there was 12psi in the front Game changer

[Rockburner]

Slow in, fast out.

If you're pushing on, on a nice biking road... Just remember, there's another idiot just like you coming the other way.

You don't have to learn everything the hard way, keep your eyes and ears open, but don't believe everything you hear...

Learn to ride the bike, offroad, then learn to be safe on the road.

[Cousin Jack]

If you're pushing on, on a nice biking road... Just remember, there's another idiot just like you coming the other way.

Especially that ^. And he could be driving a ton and a half of M5 BMW.

[wull]

Riding BMW's makes you stink of piss.

That’s why I sold mine

[Noggin]

Slow in, fast out.

If you're pushing on, on a nice biking road... Just remember, there's another idiot just like you coming the other way.

You don't have to learn everything the hard way, keep your eyes and ears open, but don't believe everything you hear...

Learn to ride the bike, offroad, then learn to be safe on the road.

My SDad said something along those lines to me once soon after I got my first bike (think it might have been the second, but my riding did change dramatically from then - mostly cos it was summer and dry!! )

I can't remember exactly what I'd said but was about a bit of road where I'd seen bikes using the hatched lines bit to overtake cars and keep a pace up - so I had done the same quite often. I know, all sorts of wrong, but it was also on my commute each day

SDad said "Just remember, you might meet yourself (someone riding just like you) coming the other way" - Damn that made me think!! And I didn't use the hatchings again!!

[Cousin Jack]

Last week I was riding a 'good biking road' fairly quickly. But it was OK, the road was wide enough that even a truck coming the other way would have room to go past. And that was fine -until I met another bike overtaking that truck.

No contact, no foul, but it made me slow down a bit, just to give me a bigger margin if it happened again. Which it did, 1/2 a mile later, only it was a car this one was overtaking.

[Buckaroo]

Watch out for damp leaves and man hole covers. Especially on corners.

Park facing up hill and avoid soft ground / use a side stand foot extender, piece of flat stone or a piece of timber to keep the bike upright.

Washing up liquid is a good visor anti mist wipe.

[Bigyin]

The list Horse put up is spot on for things to work with....... its almost going completely back to basics as its CBT stuff in the most part.

Knowing Sunny, and having ridden with her in the past, her riding ability is way, way above basic but i get where she is coming from after a break from bikes.

For "born agains" who i see a lot of who rode as as 18-20 year old and come back to bikes as a 40-50 something as the kids are now grown up and they have some disposable income. Some already have a full bike license they havent used in 30 years and buy something like a Triumph 1200 Tiger and scare the shit out of themselves with the power even in an ADV bike never mind a 180-200 BHP superbike

[Horse]

Washing up liquid is a good visor anti mist wipe.

A pinlock is better.

Mr Sheen or Pledge on the outside.

When you wash - carefully - the visor, wash the helmet where the visor contacts. Grease = misting.

Park facing up hill

And that includes camber at the side of the road.

use a side stand foot extender, piece of flat stone or a piece of timber to keep the bike upright.

If you get one of the plastic 'pucks', drill a hole in it and tie a length of string. Then, when you go to ride away, pick the bike upright, pull up the puck, put it in your pocket.

[ZRX61]

Buy a bike that suits your ability and age

Says the guy who owns Kawasaki's...

[Horse]

I always liked 'wide in, narrow out' for bends.

The 'record' was 33 years away from bikes. Getting around the corner was the priority

[Horse]

... the kids are now grown up and they have some disposable income. Some already have a full bike license they havent used in 30 years and buy something like a Triumph 1200 Tiger and scare the shit out of themselves with the power even in an ADV bike never mind a 180-200 BHP superbike

Yup.

"I was made redundant, so I've ordered a Kawasaki 900" (whatever the sporty one was).

So we put him on a K1100RS for the road ride.

He hardly opened the throttle,then said it wasn't very fast.

[ZRX61]

Always Stop With The Bike Upright.

In my younger days I was quite adept at locking the rear wheel of some Kwak, sliding the rear wheel to the left while leaning the bike to the right, flipping the stand down before I came to a halt & just leaning it over onto the stand without putting my feet down...

Mate tried it one afternoon outside a pub (in front of at least 20 people) & managed the entire performance apart from the bit about flipping the stand down, leaned the bike to the left & did the worlds slowest highside into a hedge.