Increasing from 30mph...!

[MR_W]

I don't remember ever having any issue with transitioning to the above 30mph stage.

Clutch and gears, that took me a week of practice every day to get my head round it.

[Hoggs]

A friend and I went for dinner today and she laughed when I told her I was learning.

and thus begins the start of you having biker friends and weirdo friends who don't understand

FYI biker friends will never laugh at you unless:

you can't start the bike because it turns out the kill switch has been turned on but 20 minutes later you haven't realised this

you turn up looking like you wet yourself because you forgot your waterproofs and got caught in a showerror

you run out of petrol somewhere (but we'll be laughing whilst we come rescue you )

actually we'll laugh athe you all the time...

but not for trying new stuff that you've always wanted to do and you're now doing because that's a dick move

[tuktuk]

30 will feel like your limit untill you push past it. Nice longish open road and open it up momentarily, come back down to 30 and feel like you could be overtaken by a mobility scooter.

[newbiegirl123]

The friend you mentioned, who laughed....she's just jealous because you are going to look super cool rocking up to places on a beast of a bike one day in your leathers and she secretly wishes she had the guts to do it herself.

If you are anything like me, after a while 30mph won't feel as fast anymore, but 40 will feel too fast. Then after a bit longer, 40mph will feel fine but 50 will feel too fast. And so on and so forth. And then one day you will realise you are speeding on a dual carriageway and have to make yourself slow down!

 

Thankyou Piglet! x

[newbiegirl123]

A friend and I went for dinner today and she laughed when I told her I was learning.

and thus begins the start of you having biker friends and weirdo friends who don't understand

FYI biker friends will never laugh at you unless:

you can't start the bike because it turns out the kill switch has been turned on but 20 minutes later you haven't realised this

you turn up looking like you wet yourself because you forgot your waterproofs and got caught in a showerror

you run out of petrol somewhere (but we'll be laughing whilst we come rescue you )

actually we'll laugh athe you all the time...

but not for trying new stuff that you've always wanted to do and you're now doing because that's a dick move

 

If the last few weeks of encouragement on here are anything to go by, then I'm looking forward to meeting these biker friends- thanks Hoggs!

[newbiegirl123]

30 will feel like your limit untill you push past it. Nice longish open road and open it up momentarily, come back down to 30 and feel like you could be overtaken by a mobility scooter.

 

Thanks tuktuk, hopefully going to push past it this weekend...!

[Lateralus]

It's encouraging reading for other learners too, like me! Have had a variety of reactions from friends and family too, including both laughing and bemusement (which I wasn't expecting) along with the concern about safety (which I was expecting).

[Hoggs]

If the last few weeks of encouragement on here are anything to go by, then I'm looking forward to meeting these biker friends- thanks Hoggs!

 

We'll see you at next year's rally then

[Westbeef]

The first thing I did when I picked up my 125 was turn onto a 70mph dual carriageway, literally I got the bike and within a turn I was on it. It was a little nerve wrecking but I just went straight up to top speed on the bike and felt fine pretty quickly! Maybe you could mention to the instructor you want to have a quick bimble down a 50 road to start? If you're doing 50, you won't even notice the difference between that and 60mph. From there you're lucky to get to 70 on a 125 . Maybe you could even ask if they would let you have a go on the bike's they'd use for a DAS to see how that feels for you.

[Joeman]

The first thing I did when I picked up my 125 was turn onto a 70mph dual carriageway, literally I got the bike and within a turn I was on it. It was a little nerve wrecking but I just went straight up to top speed on the bike and felt fine pretty quickly! Maybe you could mention to the instructor you want to have a quick bimble down a 50 road to start? If you're doing 50, you won't even notice the difference between that and 60mph. From there you're lucky to get to 70 on a 125 . Maybe you could even ask if they would let you have a go on the bike's they'd use for a DAS to see how that feels for you.

 

Yep, get out on a road where you're the slowest vehicle and you'll soon start to increase speed and keep up with the flow.

When moving with other vehicles your speed won't seem so high.

[someone]

I avoided proper dual carriageways for a long time. They frightened me simply because I knew I would be unable to keep up with the road speed.

But it turned out they are probably the simplest roads to ride on. Everyone else just changes lanes and overtakes, leaving me alone to do my own thing. Plus the bends are usually shallow, the lanes are wider, the total roadway is so wide that you get a lot of visibility even in a cutting, and you are not constantly checking a procession of potential hazards like in town. So despite the speed, they can often feel the safest to ride on.

They are much easier than on single carriageways which are narrower, so greenery besides the roads can create a tunnel-like effect reducing visibility, you are much closer to other, oncoming, vehicles, and which usually have tighter bends. And then there are the impatient drivers, who want to overtake no matter how dangerous. Such as not fully pulling out into the opposite lane so passing just inches to the right, merging back before having passed and, my favourite, doing that when racing to get back in lane before a traffic island so you get squeezed between them and a parked car, or whatever. In the end you have to spend almost as much time watching your mirrors as where you are going just to be ready for what they may do.

And not only that, you can boost your confidence on a dual carriageway by discovering as often as not that you are not even the slowest thing on the road. Once I ended up behind a car doing 40mph on the A23 which continued on as it became the M23 when I had to turn off.

If there is a suitable road near you I would definitely recommend asking an instructor to give it a try. Especially one that is fairly straight and comes out of a roundabout, so you can just join it then accelerate at your own pace without having to worry about braking for corners or holding up traffic.