First Big Bike Lesson

Blog Date - Sept 2015

Well life can be complicated at times, it can be hard at times and also feel terribly unfair. Such is how I feel with my eldest child having suffered an unsuccessful botched operation. On top of that one of her kittens had a terrible mishap and died while my daughter was in hospital. So to put it mildly I have had a horrendous few days which has left me feeling both physically and mentally drained. Straight on the back of all this comes the day of my first big bike lesson and I am so, so tired and so, so stressed. Not quite the lead up I would have chosen but it is what it is and today is the day. 

I anxiously watch the clock until it is time to get out my bike and ride. I have to be honest here, I do not want to go. I am so tempted just not to bother because I am so tired. But I have already paid for this lesson and I would not get my money back if I cancelled now and it is the thought of losing money that makes me decide to make myself go.  It is quite a ride from my house to Wigan Rider Training. It will take about a hour and half. My lesson starts at 11am, I really don't want to be late so I am ready to leave at 9:10am just in case. I am at least lucky with the weather as it is dry today. As I ride along I try very hard to be positive, I really do hope I prove myself wrong and that I actually enjoy the lesson. I wish myself the very best of luck. 

I manage to arrive early, yes that is right despite what Ren tells you in all his posts I am not always late. Ok he is right in so much that I used to be late and I rarely arrive early but I have made vast improvements lately and usually arrive on time these days. Being 45 minutes early however is a strange thing for me and I am not sure what to do with myself. Luckily there is a cafe right next door to the training centre so I can kill some time having a bite to eat and a drink. I decide to do some writing in the cafe otherwise if I am not careful I will start to overthink the lesson ahead and work my nerves up even more. 

Eventually I spot Steve arriving and I hear the sound of distant bells tolling as I nervously shuffle out of the cafe. Steve is a tall imposing figure, he tells me he is a upfront man. He will tell me as it is. If I do good he will tell me, if I do shit he will tell me that also. Well that seems fair enough to me, I prefer to know where I stand and I take to Steve straight away. I like his manner, it suits me. I prefer honesty rather than false nicey nice. I am honest back with Steve and explain how nervous I feel. No use pretending now is there.

We start with a ride out on my own 125cc bike - Zen - so Steve can properly asses my riding and any bad habits or good skills I may have. I feel really shaky but it helps that I know some of the roads we ride down. After some road riding I have to do a U-turn and an emergency stop. Steve said he very happy with my current level of riding, this makes me smile. I know deep down I can ride, after all I have covered some 17,000 miles on my little bike but it is good to hear someone say it. We return to the base to swap my bike for the MT07... dah dah dahhhhh.   

Time to swap my little Keeway Zen...
...For the big Yamaha MT07

I take the MT07 onto the pad. I find it hard to control at first. I tend to control the speed of the 125 more with the throttle but with the MT07 having much more power it requires much finer control with the clutch. It likes to keep a lively engine otherwise it will stall so all the slow speed has to controlled carefully through the clutch and back brake. I ride around the pad practising stops and starts and slow speed control.

It is going quite well but my left thumb becomes very painful and begins to throb. I injured my thumb a few years back by bending it backwards while camping. I may have broke it I am not sure. It sure swelled a lot but at the time I just got on with it. But now whenever I do a lot of clutch control it can swell again and cause me quite a bit of pain. I am also becoming very tired. With all the stress over my daughter and very little sleep of late it is all catching up with me at this most inopportune moment. Maybe it is due to this tiredness but I suddenly make a stupid beginners mistake. For no reason I can fully explain I decide to grab the front brake while making a simple slow speed stop. Of course the bike is not going to forgive me acting like a complete novice and rightly throws me to the floor in disgust.

Steve remarks it is such a shame as I was doing so well up to that point. He then tells me to grow a pair and get straight back on (once he ensured I was no way hurt that is). He may be a bit gruff Steve but he has a big heart underneath. I then proceed to complete some figure of 8s on the MT07 which are surprisingly easier than on my 125, before finally calling it a day. I am so tired I am relieved to get off the bike. But I am not finished yet, I still have the long long ride home yet to complete on my own bike. 

Steve said I had good balance, good clutch control and that I listened well to his instructions. I should, he said, give myself a pat on the back for a good first day. Despite his positive words I do not feel too confident myself about the day. In one way I had been pleasantly surprised to find the MT07 was much easier to handle than I had expected. In that it was lighter than I had thought it would be and it turned easily into the figures of 8s. I did struggle trying to keep its engine lively with just the right amount of throttle, clutch and brake. Changing gears was also a challenge as it felt completely different compared to my Keeway. I had to listen to Steve's advice and adapt my foot position so that I kept my foot to the side of the gear lever and not place it straight back on the foot peg like I do on my 125cc. 

Thanks to feeling at ease with my instructor Steve my nerves were not as bad I had feared they would be. Maybe it was the tiredness but I just feel a bit unnerved on the way home. Despite making a good start I am still very uncertain if I can succeed and get a full licence. My tiredness shows even on my own bike on the ride home because I even make some slight mistakes I do not usually make on Zen.

Maybe my tiredness and stressed out head overshadowed the day. Part of me knew it had gone ok. Part of me knew it was in fact better than I had hoped it would be. But part of me still clings onto my nerves getting the better of me and my lack of self belief and confidence. It is hard to be elated when I all want to do while riding my own bike home is slip into bed as soon as possible and try and catch up on some much needed sleep. Like I said at the beginning it was not the best of times for a first big bike lesson, but I survived it and now some sleep ahhhh. zzzzzzz 

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