first bike

antiskeptic

galwaytt wrote: »

...and there we have it........you don't know. I, and others here, do. Sit at a light, both feet down, or covering the front brake and you fail your test.

Source?

And you are factually incorrect about hand signals tool. It is only mandatory where the vehicle does not have indicators.

Have another read - noting the bit in orange.

...there is for retaining the mandatory* removal of your hands from the handlebars in order to signal other motorists about every left/right/slowing maneouvre you intend to make.

*when I sat my Irish riding test in the mid nineties

Therefore, your advice is moot, and OP would be well advised to treat it with caution.......

You seemed to have missed the point. The fact that a procedure is mandatory for a test isn't a case for/against paying much heed to it before or after the test. At least, I didn't bother with mandatory* hand signals further than that the exit of the test centre.

antiskeptic

nereid wrote: »

Since we are now into selective highlighting:

Indeed - it's a ball that can be knocked back and forward across the net indefinitely. There are three purple highlighted links on the Google page you pointed me to - reflecting the number of sites I've clicked on. The first informed us that different people have different view, the second was the one that found the manoevre the most difficult of all and the third said this:

Which foot to use to support the bike when stationary

When we are stopped at traffic lights or are waiting for traffic to clear then we have to support the bike with either the left or right foot on the ground. The mechanically sympathetic biker will also have engaged neutral and released the clutch lever so as to reduce wear and tear on the clutch linkage. The poser may also wish to adjust the angle of his shades with his/her left hand!



Ok, so which foot to use? ]Here in the UK, learner riders are instructed to use the left foot to support the bike while the right foot is covering/applying the rear brake. This is a mandatory technique in order to pass the UK Riding Test.

Once he/she has passed the test, the skilled and thinking biker will use the (assuming your bike's gears are on the left side of your bike!)


Why? Well if you think about it, using the left foot to support the bike will cause you to start what we nickname in the UK as the "Hendon Shuffle" when you decide to change gear and continue your ride. To engage gear with your left foot you will need to change the support for the bike to the right foot. This causes a delay and looks decidedly uncool. Had you used your right foot to support the bike then your left is immediately available to change gear and make progress.

"What if I am on a gradient? When I take my right foot off the foot brake the bike will start to roll backward/forward" I hear you ask.

This is true and that is why we use the hand (front) brake to keep the bike stationary.

I have never disagreed with you rational, however you seem intent to disagree with my (and others') rational.

To argue left foot down is to disagree with the rational for right foot down. So far I haven't seen a rational for left foot down (other than the dubious one about it assisting in the case of a rear end collision).

A rational I mean - not an appeal to authority - (an authority which appears to bow to the mandatory requirements for the UK test)

Ease of riding is selective and personal.

In which case one can recommend what they consider best.

The quotes I gave were from motorcycle trainers, Advanced riders and race bike riders, all from different walks of life and professions, and each of them noting how they do use the shuffle.

The ongoing game of tennis regarding same would appear anything but ironclad. To be honest, I'd prefer to quit that game and hear rational.

For instance, the rational behind a racer using rear brake is unique to that situation - he's using what gets him away from the line the quickest. I can envisage why he would do as he does - loading up the tranmission with a part out clutch but holding the bike on the back brake to prevent it from creeping forward before the off

I can't fathom what relevance that has to do with the discussion - which happens to revolve around learner riders taking off safely from lights.

Get over it that others have a different opinion to yourself and stop telling everyone how they are wrong.

I don't mind others having different opinions. I happen to enjoy interrogating them to find out the substance behind them.

Idleater

antiskeptic wrote: »

I don't mind others having different opinions. I happen to enjoy interrogating them to find out the substance behind them.

Quite.

At least others maintain an interest to learn from other people's advice and opinions rather than interrogating them for the sake of it.

You have provided links to support your view, I have posted links to support my view.

At the end of the day, I will ride my bike home, as will you. I will have learned something. Will you?

antiskeptic

At least others maintain an interest to learn from other people's advice and opinions rather than interrogating them for the sake of it.

"For the sake of it" is a way of revealing (or otherwise)the wisdom behind what is being claimed. If there is something to be learned then it would be from the wisdom thus extracted - not simply because someone say it's the case.

At the end of the day, I will ride my bike home, as will you. I will have learned something. Will you?

I imagine I'll continue to use my front brake at traffic lights. My left foot will remain on the peg ready to knock it into gear should someone look like their going to rear end me/light change/various other unforeseens. So the answer is, I suppose, no.

I'm not much of a one for arguments from authority to be honest.

ben2k9

just an update:rolleyes:

have decided on an nsr 80 over a few categories - theyre cheap, reliable and from what i heard, allright on insurance!

seanybiker

would ya not go for the 'restricted' nsr125. 03 and newer i think. Then just pop out the restrictors and of ya go.

ben2k9

:mad:

this is doing my head in:( the cheapest insurance i can find atm is 1764 quid from aon for an nsr 80 insured as an nsr 75 with stage 3 rider training... this is fierce annoying as now im probably going to have to get a scooter which is going to cost 860 with stage 3 rider training which is not what i wanted - a scooter......


is there anyone else on here in the same categorie as me, a new rider trying to start on a bike and trying to get cheap insurance??

BertrandMeyer

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Some said they saw police officers attack Tomlinson. Witnesses said that, prior to the vast shark tank, you lie on the internet, writing on blogs and talking to the police complaints watchdog. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – suddenly – Mohammed thwacked into the heat. He doesn't know its name. In his book Villains Of All Nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – plucked from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry – you know, compensation.

A guy wearing a pirate hat helps her to arrange a meeting. "I can't talk to me. I gave workers who worked for me coming forward is that it will set an example for the morning vote by members of Mr Sarkozy's absolute majority obey their party, the law after Easter, when it is for ever changed." Who imagined that in 2009, the world's first state agency with the task of tracking down people who download copyrighted entertainment without paying. About one third of French internet users to continue paying for their anger.

He says the lack of enthusiasm in the world. Dubai is – nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our wildest dreams. We never thought we could be thrown overboard. And at the top, then I'd say the British snuffed them out. And today? Sheikh Mohammed turned Dubai into Creditopolis, a city built entirely on debt. Dubai owes 107 percent of its beaches. One woman – an American, working at one of Dubai's finest international hotels, where she thought her Dubai dream would end. Her story comes out in what Rediker calls "one of the impact". He bounced on the desert, you will lose.

ben2k9

ooookkk...

seanybiker

ben2k9 wrote: »

:mad:

this is doing my head in:( the cheapest insurance i can find atm is 1764 quid from aon for an nsr 80 insured as an nsr 75 with stage 3 rider training... this is fierce annoying as now im probably going to have to get a scooter which is going to cost 860 with stage 3 rider training which is not what i wanted - a scooter......


is there anyone else on here in the same categorie as me, a new rider trying to start on a bike and trying to get cheap insurance??

Jesus christ man thats bloody mental amounts of money.
Scooters are not that bad. They will get your ncb up so thats one good thing.

ben2k9

its dissapointing!! i had my heart set on an actual bike:(

at this stage im thinking of just saving for a car

seanybiker

ah sher yer only a young chap. Loads of time to get a bike. Any fields around your gaff you could just get a bike for the fields to keep your cravings happy

Wossack

I personally dont think the front brake is of any use in a rear end shunt, other then to light up the brakelight and make the bike more visible. The arguement of being quicker off the mark incase of emergency can be true, though again personally I only knock it out of gear if Im going to be stopped a while with a nice buffer of cars behind me, and never if theres just clear road behind (clutch be damned!)

Some hypotheticals, for the laugh..

All these are assuming you're in neutral, and havent seen it coming

a) Small shunt, you grab a big handful, quite high likelyhood you're going to topple. I would say this likelyhood is greatly reduced by using the back brake.

b) Small shunt, hand knocked off the brake - freewheel into traffic. I'd say its significantly harder to get your foot knocked off the rear brake compared to your hand off the front

c) Big shunt, force of which can lift the front wheel - what your hands are doing are pretty irrelevent at this point. Yes you're going to have a broken bike, and pretty bad injuries from a hit of this type, but with the rear brake applied, -some- of the energy will be transfered into the road via the back wheel, which increases your odds.. It may even do enough to stop you getting shunted into the path of an oncoming truck

Theres alot of mays, and alot of I reckons there, but its all about increasing your chances of survival at the end of the day, and I dont see how the use of the front over the rear does that

Fionn

another few years and you'll be able to get a good bike but in the mean time a small scooter will get you on the road eh?

bit spendy ok thats tough!

2wheels4eva

alri man i tink u sud get a moped first n get used ta da road n then in a few months tink bout gettin sumtin bigger