Teaching to ride, learning to ride

creative words or images - your own or by others - that express for you the feeling of motorcycling
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Skins
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Teaching to ride, learning to ride

Post by Skins »

:cool:



I watched him, 200 feet away, threading his way through the few cars in the near-empty parking lot. He would have to make a turn soon. Which gear was he in? Was he using the brakes? He seemed to be slowing down OK. He went through the turn and started heading across to the right, picking up speed. He looked really big on the bike, wearing one of my jackets. I wondered if I looked like that on the bike. I wondered about the lump in my throat.

Better start thinking about what I’m doing. What should I tell him next? What does he need to know? What do you need to know to ride a motorcycle? He had made another turn and was heading back towards me. It looked like he was coming in. He had a bit of trouble slowing down, not because he was going fast – he’s a very careful guy – but just because slowing down can be tricky when your riding experience can be measured in minutes.

He stuttered to a stop in front of me, pulling in the clutch just quickly enough to avoid chain snatch. Should I try to explain chain snatch? How do you explain chain snatch? I don’t even really understand chain snatch. Starting off and stopping can be tricky to begin with, can’t it? Even when you’ve been riding for years, starting off and stopping can be tricky. Add just a little complication, a bit of a slope, a loose surface, unfamiliar surroundings, and …

That was it for today. I climbed on the front, and he climbed on the back. The little GB400 was having to work hard with both of us on board now. Ten years ago he was so light, and so good on the back, that one day coming up the big bend of the hill on the way home, I actually put my hand back there to see if he was still with me. As we set off for home, he yelled in my ear “How long does it take before you can ride well?” I yelled back “Four or five years, maybe more. Some people never learn to ride well.” And instantly I thought to myself, “That wasn’t the right answer.”

A few days later, working on the Paso, I thought I had a better answer. So I rang him up – he lives at his mums place down the road – and said “You know when you asked me how long it takes to learn to ride well? Well, I think I gave you the wrong answer. I think the right answer is, it might take a year or so till you start to feel good about your riding” He said “Ok, yeah, I see” and I felt a bit better. He knows I don't always explaining things properly the first time. I went back to the Paso with tears in my eyes. It’s so important to me, William learning to ride. If he ever does make it onto a real road, riding along with me, it will be the climax of forty years of riding for me. To feel that elastic band of love between us, vibrating, stretching and pulling, to see our movements mirrored …

I’m not pushing him to do this. I try not to push him to do anything. I only want him to do it if he wants to – and his mum doesn’t want him to ride a motorcycle, but we can handle that – so it’s by no means a sure thing. But it is looking surer all the time. We’ve had a couple more lessons since, and they’ve gone OK.

My dad only taught me one thing when I was a boy – but it was something that’s been incredibly useful to me: the clove hitch knot. If you want to tie a rope to something, and trust your life to the knot, the clove hitch will do it. He didn’t seem to want to teach me anything else – he didn’t seem to like me. I’m so glad we had those years living together before he died, so we could learn to like each other, and make things OK. I am making sure, dead sure, things are different and better, much better, with William and me, and if I can bring motorcycling into that better picture for us, that’ll be great.

Motorcycling’s such a wonderful thing. It’s a moving thing, a fluid thing. You’re always learning. And I love learning. It’s just that I hate being taught (I was expelled from college). Maybe that’s got something to do with dad not wanting to teaching me anything. And why teaching William to ride is so important, just as it’s been so important to teach him, teach him, teach him without pushing him, since he was a little baby, lying in his cot, and I started teaching him understand and to talk. He says he can remember – and he was two months old – feeling and hearing “SQUEEZE the little finger, SQUEEZE the little toe”.

Motorcycling’s such a wonderful thing. It’s like life. Like in that Texan’s work Faster posted in Aiming for the Apex, “A moment to reflect on what we do.”

The best way to go around a corner is with the power on. The power on from the instant you turn in. But you can’t do that every time. So you have to learn other ways.
Last edited by Skins on Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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redpaso
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Post by redpaso »

Thanks for sharing that with us Skins. As a parent it is something that I can really relate to, especially having a 17 year old daughter soon to embark on the world of motorcycling, I really know that "lump in the throat" feeling that comes with the new experiences we pass to our kids.

Beautiful, thanks
Redpaso
"My favourite peice of Ballet is a long sweeping corner"
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fasterdammit
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Post by fasterdammit »

I'll second that, Erskine. That's fantastic. Granted, my girl isn't quite 2, and I daydream about the days - if they ever happen - of riding together, and eventually side by side like my father & I have.

I think someday, maybe four or five years from now, when William has been riding for a while and is as enamored with riding as you are, you should show this to him. Save it somewhere in hard copy for you both; it's something that - as son - I would treasure should my father ever give to me.
Just because you're not dead doesn't necessarily mean you're living, either.
1988 Paso 750 #753965
1997 Monster 750
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Skins
paso grand pooh-bah
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:00 am
model: 750 Paso
year: 1988
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Post by Skins »

:cool:

Thanks, Jake. I tried to look again at the images of you and Sydney in "Starting young ... I swear this isn't posed" in Apex, but the images wouldn't show. I suppose you've told her how special Ducatis are, and how they've got that special desmo thing inside by now, eh?
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fasterdammit
paso grand pooh-bah
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Post by fasterdammit »

Oh yeah - my buddy who is hosting the pictures changed things around. Forgot about that - there, the images are fixed now.

We haven't discussed the inner workings of Ducatis just yet, but I did find this for her:
Image
And although you can't see it, there are pre-TPG era Ducati logos on the side panels under her legs. The headlights are right, but it looks pretty close to a Paso, I thought ...
Just because you're not dead doesn't necessarily mean you're living, either.
1988 Paso 750 #753965
1997 Monster 750
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KillerB
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Post by KillerB »

Hey, faster, I got the same bike for my son because I thought it had Paso qualities. He seemed to like the slight slope on my driveway this past summer.

Regards, B
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