Ja nee kyk... there are MANY opinions and even facts on this.
One thing I still don't think is a good idea is that in SA you can go buy a damn GIXXER with a learners license. lol.
Some life experience cos I'm almost old now... lol. Also, read my signature... I've seen too many people killed over the years because of silly mistakes.
Lemme start with this: there are exceptions to every rule. We all have that one friend who rides like a lunatic, wrecks bikes and somehow has never even visited casualty... But for every one friend like that there are probably 10 (or more) who have either hurt themselves BADLY or died from an accident (even a small one).
- Two types of riders, those that have not yet fallen and those that are still going to fall
- It's a good idea to start with something cheaper/less plastics to fix.
I dropped my SV650 the second day I rode it... At standstill.. Broke the clutch lever shorter and cracked the fairings... Luckily no scratches, so I used a soldering iron, cable ties as "welding rods" and QBond to fix it.
When you are still learning the chances of you dropping your bike are higher. Anything from a slightly uneven road surface to a little bit of oil... even if your foot slips...
Remember you are holding 170+ kg up and if it gets past a few degrees science is activated and you are picking it up off of the ground... lol.
- something light and nimble if you are commuting is great. Dual sports work lekker for seeing "over" cars and their handle bars tend to be higher than the mirrors of the cars... You CAN commute on sport bikes, I commuted 120km (one way) on a GSXR 750 and didn't really get a sore back or wrists like many others complained about.
- ALWAYS ride within your ability on the roads... if you go for a burn with buddies and they are chasing fast... let them go... meet them later. There are
NO runoff areas on the road, a stuffup EASILY means hospital time or worse... on the track you might just dent your pride and have a few laughs about it later.
- get decent friends who will chill and take a relaxed ride instead of calling you a wussy when you don't want to give it stick. If you feel uncomfortable back off... you can ALWAYS ride harder as your skill progresses... You can't get undead. In the words of Slim Shady "You've only got one shot".
- don't drink and ride, jy soek moeilikheid. Just don't do it.
- PRACTICE... PRACTICE... PRACTICE... practice "silly" things like emergency stops... swerving around obstacles... you want it to be second nature when stuff goes pear shaped...
There's no ABS there... the traffic "concertinaed" and I almost hit the back of the bakkie... The chirping is the front wheel losing grip, me letting go of the brake, reapplying brake (losing traction again), releasing etc. I'm not an amazing rider, but I practiced often and because of that I avoided an accident... Through reflex I even changed down gears whilst performing that emergency move, everything becomes second nature the more you practice it. The less "stuff" you need to think about when riding, the more you can focus on riding.
- Hit up a couple of track days... It will teach you a LOT about your bike and will show you just how capable the bike is and will increase your confidence a LOT and make you a safer rider. Also a GREAT place to shake off the cobwebs and hit some topend speeds.
- If you're going to show off... you are going to fall
- get gear... as good as you can afford... you don't have a R500 head... don't buy a R500 helmet. I have a function ankle and knee because I had padded riding pants and decent boots when I had an accident like 10 years ago.
- even if you pop to the shops... grab your gear. Just make it a habit. I feel weird if I take my bike off the trailer at the track and ride it through the parking lot to the pit without gloves on, it just doesn't feel right without gloves. lol.
- if you lanesplit (it's legal in SA) wees lekker. Too many guys end up in bad situations because they get impatient cos a car didn't want to let them through fast enough. Guys have literally been shot because of roadrage incidents... Just rather get out of there. Don't smash mirrors. Someone who was so-so with bikers now has a grudge... with everyone so uptight (lock down isn't making this any easier on ANYONE) you don't want to escalate stuff on the road... especially when you are soft and squishy and going up against tons of metal that you've just pissed.
At the end of the day you can choose to be
RIGHT (the dude wandered into my lane cos he was on his phone and therefore I felt justified in smashing his mirror) and dead... or to avoid the situation by just moving on.
Read twist of the wrist by Keith Code, it's pretty cool. Always try think what you are doing because many other people aren't thinking.
You are basically invisible on the road so act like it... Not saying it's right that cars often don't see bikes, but there's some science involved in why this happens and if you add ridiculous speeds (like 160km/h through a suburb) to this it increases your chance of getting dead a LOT.
