How hard is it to learn to ride a motorcycle?
I may be the best one to answer this as I have recently learnt it.Before going ahead, let me tell you, like you, I could ride a bicycle and also no-gear scooters. Never owned a motorcycle and never borrowed from anyone.Since ages, I had this aim/dream to own a Royal Enfield Classic 350. It is a 350cc heavy cruiser motorcycle with a weight of around 200kgs. It is a heavy one. All metallic body.Now, after working and saving for 2 years, I finally could save enough money to buy it. I bought it and my father asked one person from the showroom to deliver it to our home. Which he did.I was so excited to ride it but I didnt know that.So what I did? I started watching YouTube tutorial videos for Beginners on How to Learn to Ride a Motorcycle. I watched till like 12–1 at night, watching random videos on the same things which gave me a lot of ideas to get started with. Yes, I would like to mention that I have like a week training in cars (I mean if there is any emergency, I can take you to hospital. Mind it, it will be a bumpy ride :p)So the next morning, I woke up at 5 and so did my father. As I learnt from the videos, I kickstarted the bull and slowly released the clutch to know the friction zone of the clutch. You will get to know all about them in the YouTube videos. I am not going to teach you here, obviously :pIt is now 1 month and I already rode like 800 kms on it. Yes, on the first day, the gear shifts will make some noise and might be bumpy but in a week, you will get used to it.Mind one thing. Speed isnt important. Get the balance. Get the gear shift your second nature. Work on those. Start - Change to 1st Gear from Neutral - Go a bit - Stop - Repeat. I had some difficulty in moving the bike in the 1st gear and so does many. Work more and more on that.Let me tell you one thing. Be responsible while riding a motorcycle. It is 2 wheeler and so are very risky. Be in a speed which you can control while in an emergency. Wear proper gear all the time.Enjoy Learning!If you need any tips or tricks, do let me know. I am not an experienced but learning everything fresh and so I can teach better. ;)Hope that helps.
How long was it before you were confident riding your motorcycle in traffic and on highways?
I agree with the others in that there's a difference between comfortable and confidence. Confidence often leads to overconfidence, which should be something that you never obtain while riding a motorcycle, because of the risks involved. As for myself, I live in a small town with low traffic, and it took me about two weeks to be comfortable on the city roads mainly because thats how long it took me to learn the clutch. I'd never driven a standard before so I had lots of problems taking off from a dead stop, and it was really embarassing/annoying for me when I would kill my motor at a light with a line of people behind me. Once I got that down, it took me about a month to be comfortable riding in any situation. The second thing that worried me was making a right, or even worse, a left turn onto a busy road without getting hit or making a mistake. I'd always perceived a manual transmission to be slower than an automatic when it came to situations that I needed to move quickly, such as this one, but after I had a firm handle on it it wasnt a problem. I've done my best to remain vigilant when riding however, and continue to build upon my experiences and what I've learned. The constant state of alertness that I have while riding has translated over to driving a car as well, and I'm now a much safer driver in general because of it. The best tip that can be said is what others have already mentioned: remain aware while you ride and never let yourself drift into complacency, like you can do so easily with a car (sometimes I think you can drive a car while being 75% asleep and get away with it). With a motorcycle you can not. Keep practicing and easing yourself into "real world" riding situations, and you should have it down quickly enough. On a side not, I love Triumphs, and I'm hoping to get a new Bonneville or America someday
Can you use a single carburetor in place of 4 carburetor motorcycle carbs?
Well I assume you COULD, but how easy would it be? I’ve worked on multi unit carbs for motorcycles before and I absolutely hate it. Trying to get all the carbs to perform in the exact same way is a pain in the **** and 4 times the work to rebuild and clean. I assume switching to a single carburetor might lose me a little bit of efficiency and power, but as long as it isn’t substantial it doesn’t matter. Also would probably need to create a new manifold. But how difficult or expensive would it be to just get a single, simple carburetor and tune it to the new engine? Does anyone already know of a cheap eBay carburetor that might work for this? The bike is an older (unknown year) Suzuki gsx600r engine. Came with carbs but I don’t even want to bother messing with them.
My mom is begging me not to buy a motorcycle. What should I say to change her mind or at least calm her nerves?
The best way to convince someone that motorcycling is safe is to use the facts. It is a common belief that motorcycles are death traps and riders are just 2-wheeled organ donors. This is such a common belief that few bother to question whether it is true or not.There are several good places to get facts about motorcycle risks from which to make an informed statement. The classic source is the Hurt Report, named after Dr. Harry Hurt who was the principle in the study. This is rather outdated in my opinion and really only relevant to the area around Los Angeles. A better place to get data is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Looking at the numbers right off the top it seems that motorcycles are in fact death traps. However, if you start breaking the numbers up and looking at crash statistics within groups you find a different story altogether. If you ignore the unlicensed, unhelmeted, low mileage riders, crotch rockets, and single vehicle accidents you get a good idea of the risk that an experienced rider faces. It is much lower than what people expect.I've been riding for 20 years. My first vehicle was a motorcycle. I am a high mileage, licensed, safety gear wearing, continually educated, well trained rider. My risk factor is lower than the average person riding around in a car.The key is that you need to be well trained. The motorcycle is not just a bigger bike. You need to take the basic rider's course, but don't stop there. In the last ten years that course has become a dummies course that just gives you enough to get a license. Unfortunately, it leaves people with this false sense of confidence that gets them into trouble.You must self educate to be safe on the bike. Take courses, but also read and practice technique. Total Control by Lee Parks, Proficient Motorcycling by David Hough, and a subscription to a monthly magazine that includes safety articles like Motorcycle Consumer News is a good place to start. In twenty years I've had fewer accidents on my motorcycle than I have in cars, and my mileage in each type of vehicle is roughly equal. In fact, until I had kids my motorcycle miles far outnumbered my car miles and I still had more fender benders, slide outs, accidents, and near misses in the car than on the bike. With the proper training you can be safer on the motorcycle than in a car.
Can I ride a motorcycle with herniated discs in my lower back?
Depending on the treatment, severity, and your tolerances, you should be able to ride your motorcycle, though you may have limitations.I've had three lower back surgeries for herniated and bulging discs (L4-S1) and numerous other procedures (steroid injections, rf ablation, etc). Due to being in pain every single day, sometimes it makes it hard to WANT to get on the bike even though the pain actually decreases some for me when I do. Even if only temporarily.Differences I've noticed riding between now and before the injury.I can't ride as long as I used to. I can only ride about an hour or two before I begin to stiffen up and hurt enough to need a break. To be honest, car rides aren't much better.My body position during spirited rides isn't quite where it should be due to limited range of motion.I do expect to suffer a bit during/after extended rides.Maintenance is harder when I need to get on the ground. Then must ask for help getting back up.The vibrations (high frequency on my super sport) seem to help with my pain.So why ride?It is still worth the extra pain for me.900+ miles in two days riding through the Ozarks in 2015. There were times I had to stop and lie on the pavement for 15-20 minutes. Yep, still worth it.Local rides don't have as many twisty roads and that seems to make the lower back stiffen more quickly since I'm not changing body position as often. But yep, still worth it.I say you if riding is your passion and you can do so safely, give it a try. I had my doubts I would ever be back on a super sport after 3 back surgeries enjoying the twisties.Happy healing. Happy riding.
Why does my neighbor leave his motorcycle running?
James is right. Anything more than about 30 seconds is overkill on any non-vintage bike. The best way to warm the engine is to place a small load on it, but not rev it hard until warm. He could ride away but just keep it in a higher gear than normal. Basically, yes your neighbor is being a bit of a jerk. A old riding buddy I used to meet early on weekend mornings would push his bike about 100 yards up his street so he didn't wake his neighbors with his aftermarket exhaust. A pain in the hindquarters, to be sure, but no more than being woken up at 5 am when you want to sleep in. Maybe your neighbor isn't aware that he's waking you up, or is convinced that a long warm-up is necessary for his bike (this is a pretty common misconception, as evidenced by the comments above). Give him the benefit of the doubt and let him know that just because he gets up at 4:30 doesn't mean you have to. If he changes his ways, he's not a jerk. If he doesn't, he is. Here's an article talking about warm-up procedures (read the last five paragraphs): http://www.americanrider.com/output.cfm?id=1021933 *EDIT* Reading your add'l details, he's just a jerk. If you like South Park, you may enjoy this (usual parental discretion and foul language warnings apply): http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1312