Motorcycle School?

[rrose070]

So, the Doll is going back to America end of next month to see in the arrival of his first grandchild. He'll be gone 10 days or so. I have this great idea to surprise him upon his return, by knowing how to ride a motorcycle. He's tried to teach me before, but I'm a panicky stopper. Does anyone know if there's a motorcycle teaching class in town? I couldn't use his bike, b/c it's way too new/expensive/pretty, so it would have to be a crappy bike, and an automatic. Anyone have any ideas? (Besides committing me to an institution)...

[shakya]

So, the Doll is going back to America end of next month to see in the arrival of his first grandchild. He'll be gone 10 days or so. I have this great idea to surprise him upon his return, by knowing how to ride a motorcycle. He's tried to teach me before, but I'm a panicky stopper. Does anyone know if there's a motorcycle teaching class in town? I couldn't use his bike, b/c it's way too new/expensive/pretty, so it would have to be a crappy bike, and an automatic. Anyone have any ideas? (Besides committing me to an institution)...

Dear Rrose this will strike a chord with all experienced well trained motorcycle riders, there are so many serious accidents in this country due to a complete lack of road-craft riding skills. I do hope that you find someone to train you properly, i have been riding in Thailand for a long time. I was trained in the UK, by police volunteers many years ago,it has stood me on good stead ever since, i am not in Nongkhai but considering moving there soon, i want to take a Thai- Ed course, good luck.

[rrose070]

I mean, right now I get around OK on a bicycle, but wouldn't his jaw just drop to the floor if one day I just up and took the moto into town? It would be priceless!

[Greenside]

I'd be surprised if you could find a class here or anywhere in Thailand for that matter.

All Thais can drive motorbikes and cars instinctively from birth and rightly regard spending money on unnecessary things like training, helmets, lightbulbs, brakes and tyres as nothing but a waste when they could buy a good quality lucky Amulet and some extra dark tint window material which would serve the same purpose and look way cool too.

[PeaceBlondie]

Good luck, Rose....you call your grandfatherly partner The Doll?

[rrose070]

He's too cute for any other name. So...now I'm thinking...ISHOULD START A BIZNESS! Teaching people how to ride motorcycles! (If I knew how)...Blondie, have we met?

[PeaceBlondie]

He's too cute for any other name. So...now I'm thinking...ISHOULD START A BIZNESS! Teaching people how to ride motorcycles! (If I knew how)...Blondie, have we met?

I don't know, Rose. I've been to many gay events where they know me by my real name, which is not The Doll. Parton me; do you call him Dollie?

[rrose070]

Parton granted. Yes I do...he'll probably kill me if he finds out it got out

[Donnyboy]

All Thais can drive motorbikes and cars instinctively from birth

I would imagine youre using the word "drive" loosely

ive tried several times to teach my gf how to drive a car, with no success. Im probably too impatient with her and/or the instruction isnt to her liking, just as well the panelbeater repairs are cheaper here

She has some knowledge but not enough to drive competently, and theres no way in hel_l i would let her loose on the streets till shes managed the basics well. Shes told me one of her friends is of the same skill level as her and has her own car. Now thats scary!!

[Dustoff]

~

Hiya Rosie-Doll..!

It seems I recall other threads about auto driving lessons but not for motorcycles.

I have been riding for some hundred years or so in several different countries but am still sometimes a "white-knuckle" rider in Thailand - a term that reflects gripping the controls so hard in something approaching fear that your knuckles turn white.

A mutual friend of our's, your's and mine, has asked about the same thing and I demured. I also just sold my big ole 750cc Honda but had another buyer who I turned away because he was a newbie and, like his wife, knew that it wouldn't be long before he killed himself.

Greenside is right, except for it being genetic, that Thais are grasping the handlebars of a motorbike sometimes before they can even walk and have huge experience in this nutso Thai world of riding on two wheels but still the fatality rate of motorbike riders here is awesome.

My wife, Tuy (who you know) went thru a full-on commercial driving school before I would buy a car and now she has talked me into buying a Honda Phantom which I am now going to have to teach her to ride due to the Honda manual shifter.

Please R, don't surprise D by being wrapped in medical gauze or worse when he returns! Perhaps greet him in a new gossamer nightie or something...?

Peace Blondie will be happy to show you how to put one on and I can show you how to take one off...

Edited September 21, 2009 by Dustoff

[PeaceBlondie]

PeaceBlondie used to remove his wife's nightgown; and then.....

[mcgriffith]

Rose, you'll do fine.

I walk around Ang Kaew reservoir (on CMU campus) often.

I see dads/boyfriends teaching various ladies how to ride a scooter (think Honda Dream/Wave) here all the time.

Go into the main entrance to CMU off Huay Kaew Rd., make a hard right on the 1st small soi. Zero traffic.

Go to the end, turn right for a dead end, or left to go to the dam and the reservoir.

I see guys instructing their daughters, wide eyed, in a Toyota Corolla on an almost weekly basis.

One thing to mention- always wear a helmet. Please. I do, and I've been riding daily for 40+ years.

See you on the road!

Once you drop the cage (that thing called an "automobile") you'll revel in the joy and freedom of blowing by the stacked lanes of smog-sucking automatons.

But be safe. Freedom has its costs.

[rrose070]

Ah, Ken...we already do the gossamer nightie thing (with helmet, of course) I see the sense of your post...that would really cap off a fantastic event, wouldn't it? Hmm...looks like there's nothing to avail me anyway. And that may not be such a bad thing, I suppose. I just got a wild hair, ya know?

[Blinky Bill]

PeaceBlondie used to remove his wife's nightgown; and then.....

Pee Bee, what were you doing wearing your wife's nightgown?

[IanForbes]

Learning to ride a motorcycle is relatively easy if you go to a big area and practise slowly. The best advice is to RELAX. The comment on "white knuckles" is one where the rider does NOT relax. When you are not relaxed you tighten up and it's harder to maintain control.

Remember one thing. There are only two kinds of motorcyclists...

Ones who have already fallen off their bike...

And ones who are GOING to fall off their bike.

The extent of the injuries depends on where the accident happens and at what speed. You CAN kill yourself at slow speed if you DON'T wear a helmet. Only the foolish do not wear helmets.

This is an example of a slow speed accident. It's called road rash and ALWAYS gets infected. If you EVER get road rash be sure to visit a pharmacist the same or following day and get a prescription drug.

[MacWalen]

I had this idea about Bangkok! I consider myself to be pretty proficient in riding a bike in bkk (40,000 in 4 years) with no serious accident.

It improves the quality of life in bkk tremendously, I do not know how people live in bkk without a bike, all other forms of transportation take ages and if people end up taking motorbike taxis they can just as well learn to ride themselves, much safer than guys who drink Thai whiskey while waiting for a customer.

Also it saves a lot of money! On 90 Baht I can drive about 120 km in town. Unbelievably easy to park, any pavement will do most of the time.

Riding in CM is a peace of cake in comparison to bkk so it should be easy to learn. Automatic bikes are easier to ride than bicycles. I have seen a lot of interesting situations on the road. Exciting stuff.

Walen - School of Driving?

Edited September 22, 2009 by macwalen

[Blinky Bill]

Been riding a bike (big ones) since my teens and had a few broken bones and bruises over the years including a rather nasty case of skun nuts when I t-boned a van on the old Ducati 900SS back in the 70's.

My injuries were nothing compared to some of those I've seen when I was a cop in Oz and on the streets in various countries, some included traumatic amputation and way too many ending in death.

I never ride (anymore) after drinking although I still ride like a lunatic at times. I always wear a quality full-face helmet (helps with identifying the deceased) and if on the highway plenty of protective gear. Despite all this, the most important rule to surviving on a motorcycle on the roads in any country is situational awareness.

[mcgriffith]

And a high visual horizon.

BB's right. You have to be 10 times as aware when riding a motorbike.

But of course, that is the thrill.....

[silverhawk_usa]

In Chiang Mai, you can go to the Chiang Mai Speedway (Go-Kart track) on Hang Dong Rd. You can rent the track at a very cheap rate, take a friend that you choose as an instructor and safely practice till you heart's content.

Here is an excerpt from my post on another website;

On a serious note, it was a good chance to give Thim some tips on braking and downshifting for corners, and we also did a number of panic stop drills on the main straight. I actually stepped in front of her on the straight and she had the rear tire literally smoking and the front forks completely compressed as she grabbed a handful of brake (thank goodness). For 80 baht each to use the track, it is a great way to teach someone how to safely handle a motorcycle. We also enjoyed her movements so much when she explained how she liked it when the back wheel slid from side to side that we had her tell us 4 more times.

We had said we would stay at the track for about 1 hour or so; closer to 3 hours later they were showing us the “One More Lap” sign as they had some customers renting Go-karts. We agreed it was time to call it a day and go for some lunch.

Have fun and ride safely.

[Dustoff]

~

Binky has it right. The three rules are:

Awareness;

Awareness;

Awareness,

I have to admit that I did drop a bike once. Fort Lauderdale circa late sixties, arriving at my parent's house, my sister had a couple of really HOT girlfriends over and they were sunbathing in bikinis in the front yard. Mr. Cool rumbles up on his BIG BIKE and steps off (like the cool and hot dude that I am) and the crash I heard behind me was my bike hitting the ground because I didn't put the kickstand down..

They had to help me pick it up..

I have never been much into the helmet and leather (except to look cool) thing. The 'two kinds of riders' axiom is old and cute but not all that realistic. In 50+ years of riding big bikes in the States and many other countries, I have never put one down. As a helicopter pilot (30+ years, 14,000+ hrs), we never dressed for a crash because the rule was, "If you screw up, everybody dies." And please don't give me the conservative rider routine - after 18 months of combat and two decades of fire-fighting flying, I DO know how to have fun and work the edge of the envelope!

Whether you are a biker or a pilot or a skydiver or a police officer, it is all about being totally aware of what you are doing, and how vulnerable you are, every single moment. That, and that alone, is what will keep you alive and out of harm's way. The other stuff is just window-dressing and may even give you a false sense of safety/security. And it is frequently true that those who champion massive protective gear are speaking from their mistakes, not their skills...

Please, in all that you do, be aware...

[heybruce]

~

And please don't give me the conservative rider routine - after 18 months of combat and two decades of fire-fighting flying, I DO know how to have fun and work the edge of the envelope!

I'm going to give you the conservative rider routine--experience, awareness, and a long track record of good luck won't protect you from idiots and bad luck.

The car accident that rearranged my face almost 30 years ago happened a little before noon on a dry, sunny day when I was sober, well rested, alert, and the highway in front of me was straight as an arrow and empty. Unfortunately some joy-riders on a dirt rode in the woods next to the highway thought they could shoot across the highway without checking for traffic. I was wearing sunglasses and no seat-belt and it took the emergency room doctor four hours to remove most of my sunglasses and stretch the remaining flesh to fill in the gaps. What made it extra memorable was that he only doped me up for two hours. After irritating the stump of a severed nerve he brought in a couple of nurses to hold me down on the emergency room table while he finished the job. This was healthcare in the early '80's in rural southeast U.S.A. I wouldn't count on it being much better today.

It could have been much worse (the emergency room staff was amazed my skull wasn't cracked and it took the doctor a couple of minutes to find my undamaged left eye in the the goop of my face), but while I was recovering I kept thinking about how I would have walked away from the accident if I'd been wearing seat-belts. I've worn seat-belts ever since, and I always wear a helmet on a motorbike.

BTW, do you fly without wearing seat-belts? If not, why do you ride without a helmet?

Edited September 22, 2009 by heybruce

[Rasseru]

. . . after 18 months of combat . . . , I DO know how to have fun . . . !

Dustoff, I know you to be a delightful fellow, but that kind of observation makes you come across as, well, a somewhat sick puppy! My advice? Avoid telling people things that make it sound like you find it a joy to work at killing people.

[threedot]

I rode motorcycles in the UK before I lived in Thailand. I started on 125s and progressed up through 400s, 600s and finally fell in love with a large 750cc sports bike. After a lot of miles in all weathers, track days and several advanced riding school programs put on by police riders, I would now class myself as an above average rider.

All of this means nothing when your motorcycle gets hit from behind by a SUV being driven by a drunk driver, as has happened to me.

The point is that you can be the best rider in the world but you can still only minimize the risks attached with doing riding with good anticipation skills and machine control etc. These take time to build and Thailand is not a country I would like to try to build them. Learning to ride a motorcycle for someone else's benefit is probably the wrong approach. Coupling this with learning to ride in Thailand is IMO, a recipe for disaster.

[Dustoff]

I'm going to give you the conservative rider routine--experience, awareness, and a long track record of good luck won't protect you from idiots and bad luck.

- - - -

BTW, do you fly without wearing seat-belts? If not, why do you ride without a helmet?

I am not a big believer in luck but agree that there are lots of idiots out there. The fact is, however, that if you hit something/someone while operating a vehicle of any kind, you were either going too fast or not paying enough attention (we can perhaps discount a meteor dropping out of the sky in front of you that you never saw coming - for me it was the branch of a tree but I mananged to maintain control).

If you were so aware, did you not pick up that something was amiss with the driver of the other car? It is always easy to put things onto "the other guy" but if you had slowed down and given them LOTS more space, would things have gone differently? I don't mean, ever, to be insensitive Bruce and I am truly sorry to hear of your misfortune..

Fly without a seat belt? Laughing.. Yeah, in a steep descent, I can just see myself plastered to the roof while attempting to maintain control of the aircraft..

The seat belt is not to protect you when you fly into something (the mountain just rips you to pieces anyway) but to keep you from floating around the cockpit..

And nope, you can't draw me into a helmet discussion (he wrote as he got sucked into it anyway). This is not my thread but even if it were, I would avoid it because helmet discussions always become an emotional, not a factual, free-for-all. If you wear a seat belt in a car Bruce, why do you not wear a helmet? The fact is that a higher percentage (per vehicle) of automobile drivers/passengers suffer head injuries (sound familiar?) than motorcyclists. The great majority of motorcycle fatalities are crush injuries and other disasters where a helmet would not make any difference anyway.

A bit simplistic but when skydiving, I always get a kick out of folks who wear a helmet - not gonna do much when/if you hit the ground at 120mph..

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm not stupid and know that there are other circumstances and I DO wear a small skull-cap stainless steel helmet (covered in black leather for coolness-looking) when I ride in town among the "idiots". It is too late to save this ugly face of mine but god forbid that anything should happen to this brilliant brain..

Dustoff, I know you to be a delightful (you forgot brilliant) fellow, but that kind of observation makes you come across as, well, a somewhat sick puppy! My advice? Avoid telling people things that make it sound like you find it a joy to work at killing people.

NO! Not YOU, Rassy! LOL

Read my post again to get the drift, eh? I wasn't a killer - I flew ambulance helicopter - the point was that I am no stranger to HOT flying and motorcycling.

[Blinky Bill]

A bit simplistic but when skydiving, I always get a kick out of folks who wear a helmet - not gonna do much when/if you hit the ground at 120mph..

Helmets do help with free fall collisions........sometimes.

This is BB in his younger daze. Note the lack of helmet.

[gpdjohn]

Thai motorcycle driving lesson...

applies for vehicles as well...

[Dustoff]

A bit simplistic but when skydiving, I always get a kick out of folks who wear a helmet - not gonna do much when/if you hit the ground at 120mph..

Helmets do help with free fall collisions........sometimes.

This is BB in his younger daze. Note the lack of helmet.

Wow.. Nice legs dude! What are you doing on Saturday evening?

I really liked your comment that helmets help identify the deceased..

My little brother flew with me for a while, worked as my refueler, and I corrupted him. He just hit 200 freefall jumps and his wife hates me. MY Thai wife on the other hand, stepped unhesitatingly into space with him at 20,000 ft and is ready at any moment to do it again. Next time I am going to fling her out without a parachute and we will see how THAT goes...

Oops, okay, this is supposed to be about Thailand, right? While I am having trouble getting the image of dear Rosie in a nightie and helmet out of my mind, perhaps she could consider taking ultralight flying instruction here in Chiang Mai? The skies are a bit less crowded than the CM streets...

[eek]

^ but how's the parking?

motorbike school...bah! Im still regular plain ole driving school-less. Now im still just trying to get through upgrading my bicycle for a scooter. No wafting nighties for me. Good luck with it rrose!

As for Blinky...i sincerely hope you had a soft landing..

[MacWalen]

Thai motorcycle driving lesson...

applies for vehicles as well...

Love this one!

[rrose070]

Ack. Boys, boys! I'm already a helmet afficianado, having enjoyed a wonderful flip around Samoeng a handful of years ago. Landed on my head, and thankful for the helmet. But seriously, there are no motorcycle riding schools around? I really need to look into this. DON'T STEAL MY BIZ IDEA, GUYS....Anyway, great to hear from you Da Dus, we gotta have you over soon! (and all my other new super cool friends that I haven't met yet)...