Just this weekend I got my first bike - a Honda XL750 Transalp. Winter is coming where I live, so when I saw a blue sky, dry roads and temperatures just over 0, I thought I could have a little ride. But that wasn’t the stupid, even though I forgot the keys after being completely suited up with thin jogging gloves and winter gloves.
There wasn’t any stupid during the ride, although I forgot the keys again after putting on the two pairs of gloves after a little break. Or that I kept hitting the hazard lights by accident, or the high beams.
The stupid was when I got back and rolled into the driveway. I wanted to slowly roll in and park in front of the wall of the garage. Had the clutch pulled and apparently twisted my wrist to get my thumb on the kill switch. The motor revved up so loud it scared the whole family out the house and onto the porch, where they witnessed me rolling towards the wall, bumping into it because I was so startled I didn’t remember to apply the brake and me falling very, very slowly and gently (almost with a certain grace, I hope) to the side.
As far as I could see, there’s only a few scratches on the bar end and the peg. Whew! But, I was told I bumped hard enough that the rear wheel lifted into the air! Hope that the fork and frame are ok!
Was a real downer after the nice ride, but I guess it’s true what I heard, that all riders fall at least once!
It’s cool man, mistakes happen in the first year.
I dropped my work ID at a light and thinking I could get it, accidentally dropped the entire bike. Luckily she’s quite old and also light, but man was I embarrassed while I knuckled the bike back upright. Guy in the car next to me just stared while I nervously laughed and said, “one of those days eh?”. 😅
Real talk, your machine can hurt you. Glad your ride went ok, nothing serious happened. Any bike while running is kinda like electricity, try to play safely. Engine off and neutral if you gotta roll it around manually? If you have access to an MSF course (though that may be a solely US thing), I’d very strongly recommend it.
I think MSF is a solely US thing, but there are for sure alternatives here in Europe. At least in my country to get a license you need to complete a certain number of hours with a certificied instructor, and they do teach different skills like body position, emergency braking, slow and high speed maneuvering, as well as eventually taking you out on the roads and practicing in a real commuting scenario.
One thing thats different (not sure if its not a law or its not enforced) is that each instructor will have different equipment. For example when I started lessons before covid cut them short right before my exam my then instructor would take me to a parking lot he had a deal with to use in the evening, and just had cones for exercises. My now instructor after I restarted post covid has a friend who has an events venue with a massive parking lot, cones, and even bluetooth communication devices for the helmets. So now we can communicate while im doing exercises and also while out on the roads… The amount of times I hear him in my ears yelling (in a joking way) “TRAFFIGATOOOOR” before I sheepishy switch it off is too damn high 😂
750 is a lot of CC for a first bike. Do carpark drills so you get used to the hardest part of riding; slow speed and manoeuvring. Especially that weight.
The bike only does what it’s told to do.
But don’t worry, you’ll fuck up more. Accept it. Each time you’ll get better and better. Not many riders out there that have a first bike and first few months free of physical (bike or themselves) and/or pride damage. Glad you shared. Just minimise the risk to others and train safely. Get better in no time 👍
I’ve thrown my bikes on their sides a few times. You get used to it :3
Good old whiskey throttle. We all do it when new. Better to fall in the driveway.
No worries, started riding last year, fell twice during that season. Is a normal thing when you start out :)
One importantl thing: get boots with crush protection. Not crazy like enduro boots but sth resistant. I hurt my ankle at the second tip-over and could not ride for four weeks, very avoidable!
I think your first doing a stupid is buying a 750 for your first bike!
Nothing wrong with a 750 for your first bike.
Depends on the 750.
This bike I think is definitely too much for a first bike. Tons of power and lots of potential for whiskey throttle.
But some of the cruiser 750s would make a good first motorcycle as they don’t make lots of power. Something like a Honda Shadow 750 would be a great starter bike with a comfortable ride and enough power to keep up and have some fun but not overwhelming.
The question I ask when talking about that is “Could accidently releasing the clutch while giving it gas to move from a stop lead to whisky throttle”, in this case it’s a bike that does 0-60mph under 4 seconds so… Yeah…
My friend didn’t believe me when I told her starting on a Honda Cbr500 was better than a Ninja 650 until she had that exact scenario happen that could have lead her to falling from an overpass had she been on a more powerful bike…
Not all 750s can do 0-60 in under 4 sec. I’ve known guys that start out on low powered bikes and lose interest.
They must not have been that interested in the first place then, I started with a 200 before moving to a 650 then 700 then 1000 and my 200 is still one of my favorites!
If the only reason you want to ride is to go fast then you should own a track bike and then go for whatever size you want, you’re not sharing the road with kids.
I’d say it wasn’t really financially sound! I told my driving instructor that I was interested in the Transalp. He just shrugged. The bike is a bit lighter and has a little bit more power than the CB600F I had in the driving course. At least during the test drive I felt right at home on the Transalp!
Hey man i had a 750 for my first bike. Never got into an accident, never had issues with power or control. It can be done ya know?
(My first bike was an '82 Virago lol)
This is a predominantly American Men’s thing, as far as I can tell. Many get the biggest bike they can, fail to learn to control it, and then go around chest thumping.
Meanwhile the best rider I know, a professional test rider, spends his weekends teaching Moto Gymkhana on a 125.
Part of the reason bigger engines are desirable in the US is because to get anywhere other than local riding you’re going to be on quite a bit of long straight highway at high speeds. I can drive for 15 hours straight at highway speeds and still not leave my state.
A 250 will be absolutely tapped out to the point of being unsafe because you have no reserve power. And that seems unnecessarily hard on the vehicle.
A 500 will typically be usable but uncomfortable because it’ll still be high in the rev range and vibrating.
On the longer stretches doing maybe around 75mph I even find myself wishing my 800GS could chill at some lower RPMs (currently around 5k maybe a bit more at those speeds), whereas my brothers 1400 with 2/3 the horsepower of mine just chugs along at those speeds (no tach but I think about 3200rpm is what I calculated and that sounds about right). When I pass him he says mine sounds like a mosquito.
Except that OP is in the UK.
While you might want to go in straight lines most of the time being able to handle corners first is a good idea, plus things like emergency brake and swerve techniques to avoid accidents … the European test only checks if you can emergency brake from 30mph, stopping from 75 with enough technique to feel like your eyeballs are being sucked out of your skull takes practice.
Hell, I remember one American on Reddit who swore up and down that you shouldn’t use the front brake to emergency stop - for people who really love motorbikes extra training is a must, and that starts with a small bike you can drop a lot while learning how to use the whole tire and how to handle a bike when the front wheel locks, etc.
Edit: as for your BMW, why not just add a tooth to front sprocket?
Except that OP is in the UK.
I was responding to the “American Men’s” thing.
Hell, I remember one American on Reddit who swore up and down that you shouldn’t use the front brake to emergency stop
That is an unfortunately common erroneous belief. The only upshot is mostly it’s non-riders that push it. It is addressed in the MSF course that 60-80% of braking should come from the front. The only real hold outs on that front though are old cruiser riders that never took an MSF because they were grandfathered in, and they think if you touch the front brake you will immediately stoppie or lose traction. Given the weight distribution of their bikes the rear does more than with others but they should still be using the front.
Edit: as for your BMW, why not just add a tooth to front sprocket?
When I take it off-road there have been cases where I wanted 1st to be a bit lower so I wouldn’t want that any higher. I swear a while back I had found some two speed sprockets rear drives but I haven’t seen any for this bike. That would be an option.
Sorry, I didn’t check the context before responding. The MSF course is even lighter on road handling skills than the European test, no?
S’all good.
Yeah the MSF Basic Rider Course doesn’t go on the road. It’s an evening of classroom and two mornings of parking lot drills on 125-250cc bikes
Of course there’s 50 different states so 50 different ways of doing it but for Texas, if you already have a car license then you do the weekend MSF and then go to the DPS office, fill out some forms, and then they re-print your license with the “M” class added.
There are also MSF BRC2, Adventure Bike, and Advanced Ricer Course but you have to seek out those. I’d like to do them but the nearest place that does those is 80-100 miles away (“the other side of town”) so I’d have to stay two nights in a hotel since I ain’t driving after a full day of those involved courses.
Heh, when I lived in the UK I travelled 200 miles a few times to go on advanced courses.
It’s paid off many times for me, as an example last tuesday I came around a blind bend with a bit of speed to find a big fat boar looking confused in the middle of the road. On the advanced machine handling course I did a few years back we covered emergency swerves at high speed (up to 70mph), and I just went around the back of the boar … without that training I’d have probably hit square on.
A 750cc isn’t that big of a bike… I started riding at 6 years old with a 50cc dirt bike but the bike I have now (and the last one I’ve ridden) is a 2300cc Triumph.
My first street bike was 550cc and my favorite street bike was a 1997 750cc Suzuki Intruder but it never felt like a big bike at all … Certainly not compared to this Rocket 3.
You didn’t go for a Boss Hoss? That Rocket must feel tiny.
I’ve been riding about 20 years, last summer I had one of my kids on the back of my Rocket
3III, in a busy downtown tourist area with lots of people around. Got off balance starting from a stop at an intersection and it went over, also slowly. (No injuries.) Mistakes can happen no matter how much experience you have, pick it up and ride on.I have a rocket 3… That fucker is HUGE… Haven’t ridden it in something like 6 years but it sure does take up space in my garage nicely.
I’ve had to pick it up off the ground four times, the most notable of which was at the end of a 14-hour 800 mile trip. I believe it’s about 800lbs wet; thankfully I had already unloaded all my gear from it. Took me like two months worth of riding it before I felt confident enough to open the throttle more than 1/4.
The only time mine’s ever been laid down was in the back of a U-Haul after moving it halfway across the US.
I’d already unloaded everything else at a storage unit and was driving the bike (strapped in) to the house…
Well, I went around a curve a little too fast and the straps broke…
Bent my handlebars a little bit… I’ve actually only ridden it once since then to move it from one house to another.
Most memorable ride on it (so far at least) was white knuckling it from San Diego to the Inland Empire shortly after I got it at night without proper eye protection … That was … fun
If it’s 6 years old, or older, then you have a Rocket III. The Rocket 3 is the new more svelte version that came out around 2019.
I suppose you’re right, mine is a 2007. I was just shorthanding it.
You understand that III means 3, right?
It’s a branding change, he’s right.
Right or not, it’s stupid.
How do you think I’ve told people the name of my bike verbally all these years? “Rocket eye eye eye”? No… Because that would be fucking stupid.
The most hated pedant is the one who’s right.
They’re completely different bikes. So the difference in the names makes a difference in which bike you’re talking about. It may be pedantic, but it’s still significant. Verbally you’d say “old Rocket three” or something similar to differentiate that fact.
Just looked up the Rocket 3. A 2.5l 3 cylinder engine putting out freaking 221 Nm?? That thing is a monster! 😳
Mine is a 2007, so “only” 2.3L. Was riding with a friend this summer, headsets, told him I was going to pass someone. We were going about 60MPH, I just opened the throttle a little and went around. “Man, you just disappeared!” I didn’t even drop a gear. Later in the ride, I showed off and hit the rev limiter in 2nd and 3rd.
“hope the fork and frame are ok”
Don’t worry, it’s a motorcycle made for it
You sound like a mess. Take some time to learn your machine. Not in a driveway and not in freezing temps. It’s clear you need to take the MSF course.
Yeah I feel like one, too. I took a course for the unrestricted A license here in Europe, so I had a few rounds in an empty park swerving around traffic cones. I think the problem was that I was using the thick winter gloves for the first time and kept fat-fingering.
If you’re in Europe and passed your A test you’re about ready to start learning how to actually handle a small bike.
Get extra instruction, and start doing Moto Gymkhana. Consider getting a cheap small and light bike like a CBF250 or Duke 125, and learn to really master it.
Your instructor probably shrugged when you said you were getting a TransAlp because he knew there was no point in telling you not to. He’s seen umpteen people pass their test and then go out and crash right away.
European tests requires you to be quite good at both high and low speed(along with a theoretical test, and a test in traffic) maneuvering with the bike size you’re getting your license for. Unrestricted is at least 650CC and at least and 40kW or more. You’re not passing the tests if you’re not adept at maneuvering the bike.
I’m well aware of what the European test requires, since I have a European license.
It teaches the bare basics to be on the road and not die on a normal sized bike. It is the starting point from which to learn how to handle a bike properly.
If someone has just taken their test they are not ready to handle a 650 to it’s full potential, never mind a tall 750 like the new TransAlp. Getting a smaller bike and finding out how to scrape the pegs at 30kph in Moto Gymkhana is a good start for the road, for adventure riding trials is the best.
Learning to ride in the winter isn’t ideal, you’ll probably have a hard time gaining the muscle memory to ride properly.
I’m still struggling with some things after my last winter commuting, as a new rider and having done training. Having the rear tire slip out daily while leaning has turned me into a chicken-strip generating machine.
