Motorcycle lessons?

Question

Hi, I have a 125 motorcycle 'twist and go', and I am quite happy riding on my cbt certificate, (a full licence doesn't interest me at the moment), I have been riding for 4 years now, but I would like to have LESSONS on how to ride a 'gear' change bike, before my next cbt comes up in a year or so's time, so that I can take the exam on that kind of bike, as I would like to buy a 125 cruiser so that I can travel longer distances in more comfort! I cant find any bikes on the web that deal with 'twist and go' 125 cruisers, without them being a gear change bike...can anyone help please as I only want to learn HOW to ride them, and be ready when I take my next cbt

Answer 1

Can you drive a car with a clutch? If you can do that you can shift gears on a motorcycle. Its ther easiest thing in the world once you get it. It seems hopless at first and the CLICK!  The next thing you know you are riding like a pro. You gonna pop the cluth in heavy traffic while starting from a red light and kill the engine once in awhile at first but thats natural. The medium to larger bikes are rarely twist and go.

Answer 2

Try looking for a motorcycle riding course near to where you live. Have a look in the Yellow Pages or your Thomson Local. Most reputable training schemes offer you a bike to learn on so if you don't have a bike with gears they will hire you one. That way, you still get to ride your own bike but you will learn how to ride a bike that has gears. And as far as twist and go 125 cruisers are concerned, I think that Piaggio make them. I'm not 100% sure but you can look them up on the Internet.

Answer 3

If you've been riding for 4 years then you should already know most of the riding techniques, why don't you just wait for the CBT and ask to do that on a geared bike - All you'll need to concentrate on are the gear changes as you'll already be aware  of most other things.

The cost of a proper lesson to teach you this stuff will cost the same or more than a CBT.  I did my CBT having never been on a bike at all, yes the gear changes were awkward at first but by the end of the day it started to click into place.

Answer 4

Ask at your local training school for lessons in gears. just explain to them that you already have a CBT but you want to get a geared bike and your unsure what you have to do. Some schools will do this but there is usually a charge with it.

Gears can be different on bikes but most of them are built with 5-6 gears.

In general, when you start the bike first time it will be neutral

then pull your clutch (Left lever, again on most bikes) in and tap your left foot peg (Gear peg) down into 1st (Sometimes it can be up)

then slowly ease the clutch out and rev the bike slightly until you find the bike starting to "pull" away from you - that will be the bikes biting point

Keep doing that until you are confident enough finding the biting point.

Once you've mastered that, continue to ease the clutch out and then start to pull away on the bike, as you would with your twist and go, and when you hear the engine starting to rev louder - come off the throttle and pull your clutch in and then tap the gear peg upwards (Could be down) into second gear and then ease the clutch out and find your biting point again with the bike (the only difference this time is you will actually be moving) and then continue.

This is the same for all the gears going upwards and very similar to change down a gear or two. All you need to do to go down is come off the throttle, pull your clutch in and tap the gear peg downwards until you are in a suitable gear for the speed your doing and if your going to stop then come off the throttle and use the back break (Right foot peg) to slow you down (Try to avoid using the front brake if your not going very fast), pull the clutch in as you approach your stop point, tap all the way down into first and come to a stop and keep your foot on the back brake if you are on a slight hill to keep you still.

Thats probably the best I can describe it to you for know but I would recommend that you take some lessons with an instructor first.

Hope this helps