NEWBIE MISTAKES!!!! - Page 3

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ORIGINAL: holycrapitshassell
the horn, geez, that little bastard is so easy to tap when you're using the blinker. most of the time i look for the friendliest looking person around and wave at them, so it looks like i meant to honk, lol

I am going to try that technique as well.

my newb moment cost me a little

i took the bike out of the dealers lot, and went down the road and had to make a right hand turn. well its all good until i mix up the clutch with the front break ON the turn, the whole bike just slides from underneath me and im on the ground, nothing bad wasnt going too fast about 20mph maybe 25mph. now i have a cracked upper fairing and thats about it. the stupidest thing i have done yet.
the blinker and horn pisses me off a lot, happens on a regular basis when i wear my gloves.

I would say +1 on just about all the minor infractions. Fortunately for me, my hometown is small enough if I do honk my horn I probably really do know somebody in waving distance.lol. Anybody every put their kickstand down in some loose gravel. A restaraunt near my house I used to work at has real loose gravel for a parking lot. I ride in one night to visit them and didn't quite get the kickstand down all the way. The gravel decided to correct my mistake my quickly pushing it back up into the stow position, me to the ground, along with the bike. THANKFULLY nobody saw because I never would have lived it down. When I first got the bike I currently have I rode all the way back to my buddies house (a 20 minute ride) with the blinker on. Best part is they were behind me and just let me ride with it on. Its also kind of funny to see somebody new to riding try to wave for the first time at low speeds. They don't know wether to shit or go blind when that hand comes off the bars and the bike starts doing funky things. I've definitely had a lot of close calls too. Riding to my buddies house while I was on leave from the sandbox, it was a nice cold misty night and I didn't let the tires get as warm as I should have for the weather. Going around a curve on some newer asphalt the moisture had gather and bike just started to slide into the curve. I grabbed 2nd, kept her low, and attempted to ride out of it. Luckily for me somebody upstairs didn't want to see me in a bike wreck that night cause I shoulda been in that ditch. Thank The Man, for dumb luck.

The first night I got my bike I had to ride it home for about two hours to my house. My buddy drove me up there in a company truck and after we got on the freeway toward home. I took off and made some distance between the two of us. I checked the gas before I left and figured I had enough to get home. Well I didnt and i had to pull over on I-5 in norther cali. at night no less, I didnt know what position my reserve tank switch was. Turns out I was trying to start the bike while the petcock was in the off position, I proceded to do this untill the battery died, so finally my buddy in the truck notices me on the side of the interstate and pulles over because he thought I dumped it. The two of us loaded it into the back of the truck by LIFTING it, he pulled the front in while I put my index and middle fingers on each chain tensioning bolts on the end of each side of the swing arm, we didnt happen to have a ramp with us, and we get home safely. Then I look in the manual later and figure out what position the reserve is......I still forget what it is though....I think its straight forward. That was new though, other than that I usually end up riding with my blinker on for a few blocks each ride, and I always cruise on the freeway and try to hit that mysterious "7" gear. I hope someone got a laugh out of that.....my buddy sure did.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HighRevver
Yea i have heard of this, in the MSF course they suggest taking a crushed pop/beer can with you and throw it down under your kickstand.

quotes may not work properly but the sentence says....Taking a crushed pop/beer can with you...

Hahhahahhahaha "yes kids, if you'll notice a good crushed beer can will do good for keeping your kickstand from sinking while you slam down a few more beers before you hop back on your bike and run it into a tree...here let me show you some videos"

lol


anywhoot: +1 blinker (i have stand light) +1 on trying to find a 7th gear and/or a 0 gear---hit a parked car before, whoops---slid into a burger king on oil once---hmm that wraps up what i'm going to share for now

so i left the petcock off when i was coming back to lunch from work.....you know what happens next. however, i killed my battery tried to start it again, and yeah.....that really sucked!

Once when working about 1.5hrs from work I was heading home on the 500r and it was raining so hard the rain was falling nearly horizontal. Anywhoot I am fine with that so I'm still doin 60-70 up a hill and the bike starts lagging on me so I kick it to reserve and realize I should have just around 35-40 miles left....well no! I go about 22miles and damn if that thing didn't stop running :)
About 20miles to my exit I am sitting the the pouring rain waiting 2 hours for a buddy of mine to find me and bring gas. I was soooo wet by the time I got home (this is in dress clothes, mind you)
Ok that's all....work time

rolling burnout having had the bike 2 days (first one 00 929) 2nd gear pinned out i decide i could just sit down an let go of the brake lever ... bad idea now i limp

Well two days after getting my bike home I went home at lunch to go practice riding it. I did fine around the neighborhood and I was going to park it and it stalled on the driveway and I wasn't ready for it so I dropped it and it broke the right mirror and scratched the fairing a little nothing to bad but pissed me off. The horn thing i do all the time. The last time I went ridding with some friends I accidently honked and they pulled over and aske what was wrong. I felt stupid. Oh well looks like i"m not the only one on the horn thing.

Ok, horn thing often, blinker thing at least once every ride, but my most embarrassing moment was the day after I got the bike, my buds wanted to check it out. So I roll to their place and their all out working on his truck in the driveway so I decide to go into stealth mode and hit the kill switch as I roll into the driveway. Well, after everyone "oohs" and "ahhhs" for about 15 minutes, I'm about to head out with them all standing there ready to hear it fire up. Nothing. Kick the stand up... nothing. After about 3 minutes of cranking, my bud says "kill switch?". I say a few choice words and thank God above I opten for the tinted shield as she fired up and I took off, leaving their laughing asses cracking up. Still haven't lived it down... and BTW, I don't use the kill switch anymore...EVER!!!

This happened to a friend. Just got his bike, his brother (note Other non-expierence person involved) kept hounding him to let him ride it. My friend gave in and told him he can take it up and down his drive way. About the third time he went to make the trun to go back down the driveway and accidently hit the gass and lanuched himsef into the ditch on the other side of the road. Bike had minor skuffs, bother had major embarrasment.

I did this my first year. I bought a project bike, mostly cosmetic. my shifter lever was bent but usable, just the same i bought a new one. Well i put it on at night, and did not get to do a test ride. Well my brother (not what you are thinking), well I told my brother that if he would come down the next day I would give him a ride. I pull my bike out and he jumps on the back. For some wild reason i told him to get off and that i wanted to take it for a test ride first. Good thing I put the shifter on backwards so down was up and up was down. I must have looked so stupid.

I have also had my bike fall over, because i was stupid and parked it in a dirt drivway during mud season in vermont. This happend my first ride this year. Luckly mud is soft and i did not hurt my bike.

-bj

yeah leaving the blinker on for a while was a funny one, and once i was reaching for my turn signal and i hit the horn by accident and i was like oh dam, there was in car in front of me, it was pretty funny now that i think about it

I still forget the blinker....the kickstand thing happened a few times, both forgetting to put it down and forgetting to pull it up before putting the bike into first. Oh, and I stalled at lights a few times when I first started riding.

On my first bike (2005 ninja 500), I commuted to work on the interstate and about
halfway home, it sputtered out and I end up having to pull over in the shoulder. This
was embarrasing because I just passed a bunch of cars thinking I was all bad then
they see me on the shoulder 2 min. later. It took me forever to realize I needed to
switch my tank to reserve. ( ninja 500's don't have a gas indicator )

my first newbie mistake: i bought a suzuki

lol just kidding, i loved my Kan-o-tuna, and have fond memories of her

Other than that, i've tried to put the bike in gear with the kickstand down a couple times

My first (and so far only) mistake: I was in the MSF class riding a 350 (the only one they had--everyone else was on a 250) and when we stopped for a break on the first day, I shut the bike off, got off, and the bike fell on my foot. I forgot to put the sidestand down. There I was in front of about 20 people pinned to the ground by the bike for about a minute until the instructors could come over and pull it off me.

ha when i first started when it came time to take off from a light i would get nervous and sometimes stall, talk about looking stupid ha. good topic

Blinker light, occasional stall-outs, and almost going into the trees after being distracted by two very attractive women walking down a jogging path.

I used to leave the blinkers on....I tryed to ride off with the bike and my disk lock was still on...forgot to strap my lid...forgot that the bike will turn off if my kickstand is still down when I put it in gear...

I rushed right into getting my license. I was moving to FLorida in a couple weeks and had basically pissed all summer away without learning how to ride. I didnt have a bike at the time so I hopped on my dad's old beater- 1979 Suzuki GS750. This think was a tank. I was nervous just to make a regular turn in it. After only a week of riding I went to take my test. I had practiced a lil bit to do the figure 8s and cones and stuff but I was still really squirrely on the thing. I took my test and couldnt even stay in the box for the figure 8 and didnt stop on the line when they asked. To my amazement the guy passed me. He told me to pull around to get my license. I then proceeded to stall the bike out 2 times before i even got out of the test area. The guy looks at me and says "Good thing I already signed the form to pass you". I felt like such a dumbass. That incident pretty much scared me off of cruisers for the next 40 years. 2 weeks later I moved to Florida and bought my CBR.

My 1st bike was a CB900 custom and I took it to the Honda shop to have it looked at. It was on a trailer and the truck was parked uphill. I had strapped it down by the handle bars way to tight. I leaned over the front to pop the straps loose and the right side let go faster than the left. I had it pulled down so hard it shot up like a rocket and I didn't have it in gear so it took off back down the trailer on it's left side with me between the bike and trailer. It wouldn't have been to bad but it was one of the 1st warm days of the year and the honda shop was full of people looking at bikes.

its not fun when yur sitting at a red lite going straight and someone pulls up next to u and tells u yur blinker is on and they are laughing. don-i have a couple holes in my driveway like it my wife to figger out that they were coming from my bike, hence me not allowed to park on the driveway unless i have something under the kickstand and our driveway warrenty doesnt cover that so they wont fix it for free :(

It looks like I've done all the classics...

The very first day I got my bike (I had just drove 400miles to get it). All my roommates were standing around as I start it up for my first test drive. Starts up great, I let it warm up and click it in 1st, it dies. I did this about 4 times with my roommates erupting in laughter every time and me thinking I just got totally ripped off, until I put the kickstand up.

Everytime I get on after not riding for a couple days I forget to buckle my helmet. So when I come to a stop light I frantically try to get it strapped up with my gloves on. It never works, but I always try.

The blinker always gets me, and I always manage to accidently hit the horn as I'm pulling in my driveway. The roommates always rag on me for it.

I'm constantly "checking" to make sure I'm in 6th.

A couple days ago I shifted down into first, coming to a stop at a red light. The light ended up changing while I was still goin about 30-40mph. Without thinking I dump the clutch, locking up the back tire. Totally scared the crap out of me.

A couple times I don't downshift early enough and I'm still in 6th when I hit the light. So I'm sittin at a light tryin to get the bike into first. I must look ridiculous, rolling the bike back and forth and hammering away at the shifter.

A couple weeks ago I forgot to shift the bike back to first all together. I stalled it 3 times tryin to take off before I figured out what in the heck was goin on.

I'm a pretty conservative rider. But sast night, I'm cruising along on the highway when this HUGE harley full-dresser passes me and stares me down the whole way. Naturally, I hammer it. at about 104mph I get to the bridge that crosses the CT river and huge gust of wind just blasts me from the side...I almost took a swim.

I refuse to go to CycleGear on the weekends. I know as soon as I get around a bunch of riders its gonna be the time I forget to go to first.

Geesh, when I go and list em like that I look like a pretty pathetic rider. Guess all this time riding dirtbikes hasnt helped too much. Its a whole new ball game when you're watching for cars, stopsigns, and lights.

got you on the helmet thing supersteve. i always put my gloves on first, then its a pain to strap on my helmet with my gloves. i often forget to strap it too, so i am trying as quick as i can to slip that nylon strap and feel for it with gloves on!

I had my bike for all of 4 days. Me and buddy of mine were going to ridin for a couple of hours...Long story short as I was coming to a stop sign i noticed that i was not in a low enough gear. When I got to the stop sign and getting ready to turn. I was in 3rd or 4th gear...the bike stalled and I was trying to change gears and hold the bike up at the same time. I went over real slow onto the curb not damage to the bike thank the bike gods for frame sliders...luckily a couple of riders helped me get her back up.
I was ssooooo embarassed...I laughed afterwards. Man ridin is fun when you're in motion..but that stoppin thing gets you everytime.