2Wheeltips

By Dino Dogan

First time I rode a motorcycle I knew 3 things. Don’t eat the yellow snow, don’t piss against the wind and don’t up-chuck while wearing a full-faced helmet . Only one of these pertained to motorcycling.

My high school girlfriend got a brand new motorcycle for her birthday. I am pretty sure I’ve spent more time on that thing –the bike, not the girl- than she did. I believe it was an Italian-made step-up from a scooter that was good on the gas and soft on the ass.

I was unconscious-incompetent when it came to riding a motorcycle. In other words, I had no idea what I didn’t know and how much there was to know; but I managed to get around town and even survived to tell about it. Later, I rode on my friend’s 150cc Suzuki and 400cc Honda. Yup, schooldays were fun but then it came time to focus on career and leave this motorcycling nonsense behind. Yeah right.

In my twenties, I kept going back to the idea of actually getting my own bike for once; my procrastinating nature and the high entry cost kept derailing me but I didn’t give up. However, I had to wait a good 10 years before I would actually sit on my own bike...but I’m jumping ahead.

The “high entry cost” is something that many new riders don’t consider. You might put aside a few grand for the bike, but there are a slew of other “accessories” that go along with it. A good helmet will run you $100.00 and if you want to get really fancy you might spend $500.00. Then, there is a new jacket, pants, gloves, boots, insurance, registration, etc, etc. It adds up.

In my decade or so of not riding, I’ve learned a thing or two. One thing I’ve learned was to evaluate situations, and mine was as follows:

I hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in over 10 years.

My locale changed. I used to live in a small town sans highways; now I live in a metropolitan area with heavy traffic congestion and all highways.

I wanted the kind of bike I never rode before - a big heavy cruiser.

I wanted to avoid stupid, costly mistakes. I'm not talking about financial mistakes alone. I’m talking about human mistakes (especially this human) that can result in loss or damage.

All this pointed to one thing: I needed professional help.

A friend of mine – who just happens to be an avid biker and owns 13 bikes and counting – recommended I take a class. I found a class nearby (http://www.rider-ed.com/) and booked it. This was a Basic Riding Course that lasted two and a half days and had a 50/50 split between classroom training and real hands-on riding. It was definitely the right choice.

The guys teaching the class were amazing. Mike and Bill had a combined riding time of something like 800 years (a slight exaggeration strictly for a comedic effect). The curriculum was well thought-out, planned, concise, and marvelously executed by the aforementioned instructors (this is coming from someone who has spent 7 years teaching and was involved in countless curriculum evaluations and revisions).  I only brag to give weight to my glowing review of the class.

The class turned me into a conscious-incompetent. In other words, I knew how much I didn’t know, a step-up from my previous state of unconscious-incompetence.

So I started applying the same skill-set I had acquired over the 10 years of absenteeism from bike riding, to the art of motorcycling itself.

I’ve learned that anything worth learning is worth over-learning.

I knew that knowledge combined with practice is the ultimate teacher.

I knew that if you want to get good at something you must spend time with it – 10 000 hours , according to scientist who measure such things, in case you were wondering.

I knew that improvement doesn’t happen on its own; you must honestly examine your skills and re-evaluate yourself on an ongoing basis if you are to make improvements.

You have to devour any and all information that’s out there if you are to know what to look for when evaluating yourself. You may be the baddest rider on the block but there’s a whole world out there and everyone has something to teach us. DVDs, books, the Internet, etc, etc. All of these are great sources of information.

I knew -and this may be the most important point of all - that even though I've ridden before, I had to approach the learning process with the “beginner's mind”. I am sure I’ve acquired a lot of bad habits over the years and had a lot of un-learning to do - as well as learning.

Sidebar: Beginner's Mind is a Buddhist concept that I found applicable to all situations. It doesn’t pertain to motorcycling directly but if you want to learn more, leave a comment.

One last thing I’ve learned in my 10 years of not riding is to apply critical thinking to any and all information presented. I am talking about the expert syndrome. Beware of the experts.

Experts told us to buy stocks right before the market crashed. Experts told us to refinance our mortgages right before the housing bubble burst. Experts told us how to loose 20 lbs only to gain 30. Experts told us…

Experts have one goal and one goal only. They have personal interest in convincing us that they are indeed “the experts”. Unfortunately, when Dr. Phd is successful at convincing us that he is the expert, we disengage our critical brain and accept whatever information he feeds us without a filter. Never mind the fact that he is being paid to spin the information in his – or his benefactor’s- favor.

My point is this: opinions are like asses. Everybody’s got one and they all stink. Make sure you filter whatever information you gather from whatever source, even this one.

Fast-forward to now.

I own my own middleweight cruiser (800 ccs of Kawasaki Vulcan power) and have decided to ride all-year round. Trying to reach that 10,000 hour mark, I guess. I try to honestly evaluate my skill set and work on things that need improving all the time. I am always learning and hope it never stops.

That's my story. What's yours?