Monday, May 17, 2010

Stalled progress

2nd attempt at practical 1 and I still have yet to pass.
I cant complete the cornering. My bike keeps stalling whenever I try to change to gear 2 because I cant get my bike going fast enough.
Got to go for practical 1, again. Damn it.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Off to a bad start

Went down for my orientation session and practical 1 today. It started to drizzle and I ended up having the entire lesson in the rain :(
Started of with the orientation, what to do, etc.
Then we were allowed to fiddle with the bikes. The bikes in the center are Yamaha YBR 125s, they actually look quite cool. Quite heavy though.


Motorcycles are different from bicycles, the left lever is the clutch and the right is the front brake. THe rear brake is controlled by the right foot and the left foot shifts the gears. So many actions to take note of.
There is no indication of the gearing you are in and in 1st gear, one must "half clutch" or the engine stalls. That is the most annoying thing. A intuitive action is to let go, but that would kill the engine. Grr..
Stopping was annoying. We were asked to ride around in 3rd gear but have to stop in 1st gear. This invovles braking slightly, clutching in, closing the throttle, then kicking down the gears before braking at the desired point. Co-ordination problem man.

Worse thing is that I keep bringing my cycling habits in... I normally apply the rear brake first before applying the front. We're supposed to apply both brakes at the same time on a motorcycle but with minimal use for front brake, hard on the rear brake.

Because of the rain, people were crashing on the circuit. Does not really instill confidence in a 1st timer watching these people crashing.

Have to attend practical 1 again.