Hello all, I’m a new rider from Marlborough – I passed my Mod 2 in August. I’d been learning on and off for around a year; unfortunately I had a complete mental block on the Mod 1 with my U turn more times than I care to mention, so I put training on the back burner for a while, but started again this summer and passed Mod 2 first time – I’m so thrilled to own a bike (a CBR600F).
I did Mod 1 on an ER6N, and Mod 2 on a brand new Gladius, which made the ER6 seem really clunky - and the CBR, too, is very different to the Gladius, which I loved riding, but I wanted something with a fairing. My boyfriend also rides - he’s a bit more of a veteran and has been riding for over 20 years. If you see a girl on a red, white and blue CBR wearing the world’s most dated Dainese leathers in hideous 80s colours (Ebay bargain until I can afford newer), do give me a wave.
Incidentally, how long did it take other newbies to progress to doing big, long ride outs? I’ve only had the bike 4 weeks so have really only been pootling around locally so far, just trying to practice my skills and get used to the bike - I'm still doing the odd idiot newbie thing like leaving an indicator on occasionally, or stalling whilst pulling away etc. It's all falling into place but for now, much longer, faster rides (motorways particularly) still feel a little bit out of my comfort zone, so I’m happy just riding out for an hour or two locally on my own – luckily we’re still having some fairly decent weekends and there are some lovely roads nearby.
Did you start off slowly, or just go for it right away and ride hundreds of miles in one go? I would be interested to hear how others ‘started out’.
