Today, Mr M (the "friend" from previous blog) came around to my place for a coffee and he decided we should take advantage of the dry road and just go riding! Like Mr W, he told me I need to get my confidence up by just riding. Getting hung up about the mini hill start at my place and the scary roundabout isn't going to get me anywhere. He emphasized the importance of being able to do them but at the same time, I need to ride to actually make some progress.
Before commencing on the ride, a bit of background of Mr M and myself! He is one of the few people I know who has been riding even before I started contemplating doing my Ls. We met up through diving and has since been friends! =)
Anyway, Mr M recommended we do a few laps around my place just to get warmed up and if he reckons I could get on the road, he'd take me, otherwise, we'll just keep practicing around the block. I managed to do the right hand turn before the roundabout a little better now and at the roundabout too. Sometimes I can do it at a more "normal" speed but sometimes, still like a turtle. But there is progress and that's what I'm after!! I can also now go all around the roundabout... not just to do a 3/4 round. Not great, but again some progress there.
Mr M than decided we go onto the main road to test my skills and see how I'd cope. It didn't go too badly so we continued down Anzac Parade through Kensington, Kingsford, Maroubra, Malabar and eventually to La Perouse. It was a fairly smooth run.
On the way back, Mr M took me to one of the steepest hill I've ever seen to practice hill starts! Surprisingly, I actually did pretty well!! No stalls and no roll back. Again, progress!! =)) Thank you Mr M!
We took a slightly different route to get home and went via Botany Road, Page Street, Banks Avenue and eventually back to Anzac.
The total ride was ~30kms! =D That's more than I have done in the last 3 weeks! YIPEE!! (doing cartwheels as we speak!)
But before I get too excited... a few good things and some of the learnings from the day:
Good
1) I have a little more confident than last week
2) I can turn left and right a little better than last week
3) I can officially say I can manage riding on the road and changing lanes when following someone.
4) Braking is much much smoother! Like MUCH SMOOTHER. heehee!
5) In slow traffic when there is a long line of cars and the lights keep changing red 3-4 times before I actually get past it, I can actually control my bike fairly efficiently. No need for feet dragging on the ground so I was fairly pleased.
6) I can now take off from the lights at a more normal speed!! Woohoo!! Less wobble wobble before finally riding and more Whee! Off I go! Still the occasional stuff up which you'd read about later on though...
7) Slightly better throttle control
Learnings:
1) I need to remember to turn off my indicators. I forgot to do this a few times today and it could be dangerous!
2) Cars will try and take you out! Be prepared to stop and give way and look out for yourself!! - A car that kindda looked like a loaf of bread indicated left but he didn't see me and started to move into my lane... his girlfriend noticed me and he immediately swerved back into his lane. I have to admit it was rather scary!
3) When changing down to 1st gear and getting close to the red lights, I don't have to release the clutch to try and ride the bike in first gear before pulling clutch back in to stop again... just let the bike roll forward with the clutch in and slowly put the rear brakes and front brakes to come to a complete stop before the lights. (not sure if I'm describing this right, but whatever I was doing, it felt a lot easier and made some sense)
4) Look where you're going. ALWAYS LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING!!
5) Keep practicing!!
6) Still over revving in 1st and 2nd gear but I'm beginning to learn where those points are and to feel it on the bike too
7) I took off on a flat when lights turned green but than stalled mid traffic in a 4 way cross street. It was really really really scary!! I was glad I did not panic at all (so again progress here and I attribute this skill to scuba diving). I started the bike and took off again. Issue here was no throttle and I let go of the clutch too quickly
And a few other random points:
1) Wind is scary!!! Almost felt I could be blown away at some point today!
2) Don't like helmet hair... but riding is too much fun.
3) Hands get really tired - This will probably go away with more riding.
4) No more painful jaw/ear or squished face - YIPEE!
Before I finish up... THANK YOU again to Mr and Mrs V, Mr C, Mr S and Mr M for taking me out riding. I don't think any of you fully understand how much I appreciate this!! Still a very long way to go but slowly slowly getting there! =)
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