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So I’ve been a motorcycle owner for a week now (10 days if you want to split hairs) and I’ve been thinking a lot about riding. I’ve learned so many new things in the past three weeks between the riding course and riding my own bike (and granted, much of what follows comes from riding a scooter in Vancouver for the better part of a year). I am quite aggressive in traffic on the scooter, completely the opposite on the motorbike. Level of confidence in my ability to control what’s underneath me. There are huge differences between the scooter and the motorcycle, some obvious, some not so obvious.

I’ve had to learn to take a moment to mentally tell myself which bike I am on and go over the controls for a moment or two before I leave…what is the rear brake on the scooter is the clutch on the motorcycle, not a mistake you want to make at road speeds. My sportbike doesn’t have a centre stand…my scooter doesn’t have a side stand…pay close attention to what you are on before you get off the bike or it might end up on the ground! On the motorcycle, I hang on with my knees and do important things with my feet….on the scooter…nothing going on in the lower half of the body. I wasn’t sure if I should ride the scooter while getting used to the motorcycle. After not riding the scooter for a week, I now realize I need to ride both consistently because, believe it or not, the scooter is more difficult to manage after riding the motorcycle. The weight is all wrong on a scooter after being on the motorcycle and it’s easy to forget that the centre of balance is completely different. The motorcycle may be bigger, heavier and more powerful, but it is actually somewhat more logical to balance because of the riding position…at speed…the scooter is definitely easier at low speed, but only because it is so much lighter and doesn’t want to leap out from underneath you at a minute pressure on the throttle.

Things I have learned:

• There are significant differences in attitudes towards scooters and motorcycles:
  • You can park a scooter anywhere and people think it’s cute, park a motorcycle in the same spot and people think you’re a jerk
  • Stop at a crosswalk on a scooter and people look at you and smile. Stop at a crosswalk on a motorcycle and people look at you and frown. Stop at a crosswalk in a car and people don’t look at you (unless you are blocking the crosswalk, then they stare at you with hatred)
• The passenger seat of a scooter is not as comfortable as the passenger seat of a motorcycle. The passenger seat of a motorcycle is not particularly comfortable.
• Contrary to popular opinion, scooters are not any safer than motorcycles
• Motorcycles aren’t dangerous, bad drivers are dangerous
• The most dangerous thing on the road is the vehicle with the left hand turn signal blinking, if that is you, know that you probably aren’t judging speed and distance as accurately as you think you are
• Drivers seem to automatically feel compelled to try and go faster than you to prove something (I’d say penis envy, but I don’t have one so I can’t really speak to that)
• The exception to the above – at a stoplight it appears to be less common for the car behind you to jump the green light or honk if you take more than a millisecond to accelerate, particularly if you are on a scooter…it does happen, just not as commonly
• Cars really hate you when you park a bike in a parking spot, but I’d rather be glared at than split a parking spot and have a cage knock my bike over because the driver has no concept of where the four corners are in relation to the world around him/her
• Cars like to come to a stop three inches from the back wheel of a scooter/motorcycle – really, we don’t even know each other yet….
• Ride a scooter and complete strangers want to strike up a conversation with you. Ride a motorbike and complete strangers want to strike up a conversation with you. Drive a car and no one wants to strike up a conversation with you (unless it’s a very special/unusual/vintage car)
• Ride a scooter in the winter and almost every motorcycle on the road waves at you, ride a scooter in the summer and almost no motorcycles wave at you
• Cruiser riders don’t like to wave at sportbike riders, however, they are more likely to wave back when a woman rider on a sportbike waves (ha ha, made you wave at a sportbike )
• Always expect the unexpected, assume every driver/rider/cyclist/pedestrian is your enemy
• Every driver should get on a scooter (at least) and spend a week in city traffic…. maybe then drivers would have more respect for the vulnerability of riders and drive smarter
• Drivers can’t park properly near bikes
• Motorcycles apparently have mysterious cloaking devices
• Wearing shorts and a tank top on a motorcycle doesn’t make you look cool, it makes you look like a brainless idiot
• Buses and crosswinds…. interesting combination …particularly at 90kph
• Motorcycles stop fast, cars don’t – remember that when you get into your cage and don’t follow so closely!
• Riding makes you focus, driving involves too many distractions (like coffee, the radio, the cell phone, children fighting in the backseat….)
• Driving isolates you from the environment, riding immerses you in it
• If you want to avoid running into something, whatever you do…. DON’T LOOK AT IT! The Law of Attraction (properly known as target fixation) will draw you towards what you look at, so look at where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go
• Shifting from first to second, or from second to first…sometimes puts you in neutral. The bike doesn’t speed up or slow down in neutral.
• Starting on a hill is not as hard as it seems – but you will still stall on occasion
• Don’t believe your idiot lights… sometimes the neutral light isn’t on, but you are in neutral. They call them idiot light for a reason…only an idiot believes them all the time
• When you crack the visor open on a full-face helmet, every speck of dust, floating seed and nearby bug will be siphoned straight into your eyes
• Drivers assume that all sportbike riders are speed demons, some of us actually obey posted speed limits!
• If you rev your engine next to me at a red light, I will let you think I will race you, then I will NOT go first and I WILL let you shoot into the intersection to find the red light runner in my stead. Thank you for being my stupid canary!
• Motorcycles are hard to back up
• “Spacious underseat storage” can be loosely translated to “You might be able to stuff a cell phone in there”
• Few motorcycles have a gas gauge – know how far you can go on a tank of fuel!
• You can’t think and ride – bad things happen
• Relax…… when you are tense you are at war with the bike, which means that you are at war with yourself since the bike will only do what you tell it to do
• Know your limit, ride within it, if you feel out of sorts, don’t get on the bike, find an alternative mode of transportation

I’m sure I’ll learn much more as I go…