Will it get any easier?....

[MidnightSerenity]

I took my lovely little bike out for a ride for the first time with the partner on Friday....only to find that I was so so nervous....to the point that I couldn't even remember to change down coming up to a junction!!!

We only really stayed on quiet country lanes so as to avoid cars etc (this being my first time out!). But when I did have to stop at a junction, I found myself stopping in 3rd Gear and then holding up traffic for what seemed like ages while I got down to 1st Gear....then proceeding to stall almost every time!!

I have to say that the car users were very considerate and gave me lots of room!! They more than likely thought I was a nutter!!

Is it ok to be this nervous?! :unsure:

[Warthog]

HA! The memories, the terrifying memories...

When I was 18 I did my CBT. I got the bug and got down to some serious saving. Somehting I'd never managed before!!

About a year later, ie a year since the only day I've ever spent on a motorbike saddle, I was picking up an ickle Yamaha RXS100 from Sanderstead MCs in Croydon with a journey back to West London in rush hour traffic.

It took me 15 minutes to pull out into traffic from the sideroad the dealer was on. In other words, yes, it is perfectly normal to be nervous and yes it does get easier. The learning curve to become a safer, more intuitive rider is long, but certainly the aspect of finding the controls, changing gear without really having to think about will come pretty quickly.

Just don't be put off as practice makes perfect, but don't bite off more than you can chew as building onfidence is far easier than re-building confidence because you took too much on!!

Chin-up: all will be well and you'll be truly hooked!

[LargeWayRound]

yes it will ..

Practice practice .. find a large car park close by , and practice your start / stops / gears etc .. and slow control ..
Then ease yourself into smaller roads , like you already did ..

It will get easier when controlling the bike (gears, clutch, indicators etc ) gets more second nature ..

Good luck ..

p.s. I still get nervous depends on the road but I just get on with it ..

[Lolo]

The hardest thing I have learned is being confident to ride how I want to ride even if in a group.

You are probably better than you think, but riding with someone else when you are new is difficult because, they make it look so easy, its only practice that will allow you to be a smoother rider.

Of all my girly friends, new to riding, that have fallen off it's always when they are trying to keep up with their partners or a group of riders and they have become flustered at juntions in the wrong gear on islands or corners.

If you take those extra few seconds to take off or to slow down to a junction so what, dont even give the drivers behind you a second thought they are not important, they can and will wait.

I should think Alun is glad your nervous on your first few weeks of riding. It means your thinking about everything I new rider not nervous would be a dangerous one I think

[Curzon]

Yes it will definately get easier with time!

What you are going through now is the same as every new rider goes through. It's all about familiarity with your machine, and your own self confidence. Both will improve over time, but the key to it all is practice.

Just accept that as a new rider you will make mistakes, and you will learn from them and improve. Just don't be to hard on yourself.

I remember struggling with exactly the same thing as you, i.e. changing down so you are in the right gear to pull away from junctions etc, but i got there in the end. I don't remember how exactly, just practice I think!

[Treadtrader]

You'll get it with some practice MS, don't worry about others, that's what the "L" plates are for.
Everyone gets nervous but within a few rides you'll be wondering what all the fuss was about. :cheer:

Just think how many total knobs you've seen on the roads, and they have a licsense.

[Highcliffe Jim]

Definitely gets easier. Similar happened to me whan throttle stuck open on a fizzy, going down the gears.... Thought I was in Neutral... and relesed the clutch sharpish like. Well, i was still standing but bike made it about 20 yards down the road.

oh to be 16 again.....:laugh:

[herman]

LargeWayRound wrote:

yes it will ..

Practice practice .. find a large car park close by , and practice your start / stops / gears etc .. and slow control ..
Then ease yourself into smaller roads , like you already did ..

It will get easier when controlling the bike (gears, clutch, indicators etc ) gets more second nature ..

Good luck ..

p.s. I still get nervous depends on the road but I just get on with it ..

Spot on LWR,exactly what I am doing with the wife and a mate's girlfriend that has just done a cbt. Go back to the basics and re-inforce them so when you ride in busier conditions it is all second nature. An industrial estate is perfect in the evenings and weekends, junctions,parked lorries for 'overtaking',emergency stops,etc. We will of course need pictures of your first stoppie on that Honda.

[davsato]

yes nerves are normal, the most important thing is not to let the nerves kill the fun! then before you know it you have learned to ride well. you will get better and learn something every ride. laugh at your mistakes and every landing you can walk away from is a good landing

[Bushman_uk]

I still get nervous especially before a big ride out, but once i'm on the bike , i just relax into it all.
It is a difficult hand eye co ordination game.
My first time and yes i can still remember, at the ripe old age of 13 on an ariel square four,bump start and i was in total control over the fields with my legs and arse flying up and down on the bike i even used the trees and hedges about half a mile across the field to stop me , a deliberate act to conserve the brakes. :woohoo:
The truth was i got it fired and it took of without me in the saddle and draged me across the field untill i hit the tree.
I knew from that point that i was mentally sub normal, because after that flight i had a grin for weeks and was bitten by the bug.
I found a brave soul ( Vivian Selby) who taught me to ride on a triumph scrambler, couldn,t believe how complex it was, shut the throttle pull in a lever foot to click a peg down , lever out throttle open , ouch on my arse again.
But the day it all comes together belissimo , as everyone says practice practice practice... at your own pace , then one day it will come, sweeping through the bends around the hedges and noticing things that you never saw before , then you become a biker ....