Confidence Building
 

Morning,

Does confidence build with time / milage on the bike then susequently ability, or do you need ability first?

I've been riding nae on nearly 4 years and probably got between 6 - 7 K on the bike during that time with various roads weather, I don't generally think I'm improving as a rider, very causios in the wet, lack of confidence etc. (maybe you should be)

I generally don't do alot of social rides etc (due to family and work), which may be the issue, more for work, which used to be short distance <9 miles one way, but now I'm working over 65 miles away with a daily return journey of 130 miles or so, should this distance / milage pay off in the long term? The roads are a mixture of motorway and A roads.

Or would other rider experinace training be better such as IAM?

Re: Confidence Building
 

I'm still pretty new at this stuff but I'd say that confidence and experience comes from just riding a lot - I've become a better (car) driver from just doing that a lot, no additional IAM training or similar.

Re: Confidence Building
 

More mileage is more practice and you would expect to get better at anything that you practiced. Additional training of any sort helps ROSPA, IAM or just going back to your original school for a day of refresher training so they can pick up any bad habits you may have developed. I try to schedule some training every year, this year the day is to be mainly about slow control U turns and the like.

Re: Confidence Building
 

I had nocinfidence when I started. My dad's boss told me that it'd take a few thousand miles for me to be comfortable, and i'd spend the rest of my life getting quick.

Every time I ride, I learn something new or I reinforce a good habit (not dragging brakes into corners, that kind of thing). I've got 20,000 miles under my belt and 2.5 years riding my SV...I'm still a novice, I make a few mistakes still.

The trick is to recognise your limits, never ride at them but dont be afraid to ride close to them. The comfier you feel, the more confidence you'll have. You'll also learn how the bike behaves and responds to your input and other things, like riding position etc. Don't just blindly set youself a task of getting quicker, but try and understand how you can go quicker and how you can become safer

In any case, its not all about going fast - its about being safe.

Re: Confidence Building
 

I got my first bike on a Sunday in 1987, with very little previous motorcycling experience. On the Monday I was taking a 16 stone pillion into Central London (he had a full licence, don't know if you can still do this). First couple of runs concerned me, but as we did it more and more times and nothing had happened it got less and less of a worry.

I think that as long as you keep a positive attitude and as A*hero says, keep safe, you'll build confidence with time and miles

Re: Confidence Building
 

Yep confidence builds massivly with time/distance covered. ive covered well over 4k since january and have improved ten fold in that short amount of time. Yep i do still make mistakes but im still learning, just have to keep looking at what you done wrong and how you can change your riding to stop it happening again. Just get out and ride alllll the time!

Re: Confidence Building
 

I had been riding 4 months on my own when I went on a 3 day intensive riding trip with 9 others to the lake district led by the instructor who I passed my test with. I pretty much stuck behind him the whole time, following his lines. I soon realised that my riding had become monotonous alone and by watching someone I trusted and I knew would not ride beyond my capability, that by copying how he was showing me to ride that by the end of the trip my riding had improved dramatically.

Practise makes perfect :) It helps if you can watch an advanced rider ;)

Re: Confidence Building
 

i passed das and 6 weeks later started IAM I also did a 2 day honda mac course. I am not a natural biker and it took me a couple of years before I could say I felt confident on the bike. I also did a few track days at knockhill. Commuting is ok but its the same roads, same route - familiarity breeds contempt. Get out on the bike and do roads you dont know, read the road using vanishing point etc. Push yourself a wee bit, but not enough to scare yourself. Going out with IAM may help as they can point out any bad/dangerous habits you may have picked up without even realising.

Re: Confidence Building
 

Confidence builds with time and experience, doing the miles for your work will help, but they are the wrong type of miles, if you get my drift. You will gain more by riding for riding, removes the pressure of having to get somewhere. I've done some strange things, like "oh its 23:30, dark and raining, i'm goin out on th ebike for an hour" different conditions are good, and practising them when you dont have to be in them is good as well, rather than trying to get somewhere in the conditions, you are practising modifying your riding for the conditions, completely differnet mind set.
Imho practice and or training is always good, all it take is for someonre to say, "try this" and it could all click into place.

One last qualifier, confidence and competence are 2 different things, there are a lot of confident folks out there with questionable competence and vice verca.

Re: Confidence Building
 

Get yourself sorted out to come to the AR - a good few miles in a few days and you get to meet all these people giving you advice :)

Go on, you know it makes sense :)