Confidence Building

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

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

Come to the AR it was great last year and my first time. Do it for sure.

Just keep riding and doing lots of it, would also help to out with someone who is experinced and can give good advice and tips. Its working for me slowly, I'll do my IAM at some point but as with everything you gotta make time for it.

As I have been told there is subistuite for exprince, miles on the bike and yes my confidence/skill is improving but I have a long way to go yet. I have done about 15 500 miles so far on bikes, so 13 000 miles on the SV.

[keith_d]

IMO it definitely gets easier with miles. I completed my DAS in February and have racked up 3.5k on a mix of commuting and longer rides. I started off completely cr@p, and now I'm only mostly cr@p.

I'll be among the slower riders on this year's AR so I'm expecting some feedback along the lines of, "just go and buy a pushbike!" But it'll still be a good opportunity to see how other people ride and pick up a few tips.

Keith

[Binky]

I was quite nervous when i first started riding, particularly on my first org rideout, as i didn't want to do anything dangerous or have people think i was crap.

Since then i have done a massive amount of miles, considering i don't really commute on it properely. I've done a lot on my bike, motorways, country roads, night riding, wet riding, track days, euro trips.

Best thing to do is vary where, when and how you ride and it will build up your knowledge of what your bike and tyres can do. Then it's just your ability that dictates how far you can take it really, once you know what the bike is capable of though.

One thing, don't go out of your comfort zone. As long as you still enjoy it, who cares if you don't feel like you;re progressing. Unless this is the reason you aren't enjoying it anymore.

Message: just mix it up, what you do on the bike really.

the suggestion of coming along to the AR is a good one - when i did it last year, it helped me, Especialy when you are following lots of people, you can use them as an example of where to be on the road etc. I found it especialy usefull because when I did a Biksafe course a month before the AR08, i was left feeling quite deflated about my riding.

Anyway, miles = experiance = knowledge = confidence.

[dizzyblonde]

Five years and several thousand miles later, up and down the country and abroad, my confidence is still growing. It got slammed down to the beginning last year on a small off. I don't ride too much, its my only form of transport, I ride all year to and from work,then on some serious mileage trips, but my experience is stuck at 'experienced novice' stage, because I don't go out mid week and rack up the miles on little jaunts to push personal training as it were.
Some say a bikesafe course would help, but then others that have been out with me say that it wouldn't really help, as all those boxes are ticked. I'm safe and predictable, but don't push my limits often. I'm not frightened of speed, but when theres too many factors in sight, I slow down...my little blonde brain can't take it
In some cases it takes a lllllllong time to gain experience!!

[STRAMASHER]

Being "very cautious in the wet" will keep you alive and upright!

I have been riding 18yrs nearly everyday and and still ride like a lil' old lady in the wet. "Rain stops play" is what I have got in my head and its served me well after offs after sliding down the road after locking the front and a couple of lowsides in my 1st couple of years on the greasy wet stuff.

Whats the rush? Everytime you park your airse on the seat and go you will be improving your riding and confidence. Bit by bit.

Do a track day/night. You will see/learn how far off on the road you are from the limits of lean and braking. Brings your knowledge up of riding your bike within say 10laps of Knockhill. (That it is one of the funnest things you an do on a motosickle is by-the-by.)

Some great advise posted, I agree that the same road bit, so I've started to shake the route up a little to try and take in some B roads as well, it's proving to be tricky on the mind as the mind set when fininshing work has always been get home quick as poss (safely) so going slightly longer will probably slow me down but experience wise and ability improving would be great, just a mind set I suppose.

Does confidence breed ability or are they intertwined?

I was hoping to get down to the AR but holidays are nil as eldest daughter starting school and she needs to be picked up etc etc. lame excuse I know, I have been on various rideouts ala GMI & II and our annual Ice cfream runs, and still trying unsucessfully to get one on some more, OH isn't very bike friendly and kids generally take priority at weekends as I don't see them that much during the week.

Experience will help but I found I got to a certain (not very good) level and then didn't progress very well. A motorcycle is a complex beast with many things woking counter intuitively. I'd bought into big bikes because once I'd passed my test I could and this allowed me to go fast but without the skill to negotiate bends properly so I adopted a 'point 'n' squirt' technique of riding - Brake like hell for the bends, trickle round then gas it like hell out. All the acceleration made me feel good but I know I wasn't riding well and I'd keep getting caught out feeling I was going too fast into bends when I obviously wasn't (others were getting round quicker).

I made the decision to go back to a smaller bike, hence the decision to get the SV, and accumulate as much knowledge as I could reading and listening to any information, experimenting (to sort the wheat from the chaf - there's a lot of garbage around) and finding what worked this has alloed me to understand much better and so analyse my riding and then improvment came much more quickly. Without this understanding was unable to analyse my riding and so the more I rode the more negative I had become.
Maybe this is just the way I am though, I have to understand things to make them work - Probably due to having no natural talent.

My riding no longer feels so exciting and I don't get home feeling like I've 'just survived another'.

I'd recommend concentrating on (conter) steering and why you shouldn't panic.
I have a document I found on a web site some time ago which I found very helpful I can e-mail you a copy if you like.

Originally Posted by Alpinestarhero

Every time I ride, I learn something new or I reinforce a good habit (not dragging brakes into corners, that kind of thing).

As to wether that is a bad habit or not I would suggest is a personal opinion. I drag brakes round corners all the time. Have done for years upon years and it has never caused me any issues. I do it both in the wet and the dry.

Originally Posted by gerbrox

Does confidence breed ability or are they intertwined?

I would say not. I would say experience builds confidence. Confidence helps you to progress. I have seen plenty of riders with an abundance of confidence and had no ability at all.

concentrate on been smooth! Speed comes when smoothness is maintained

Once your smooth and fast, you wont need to worry about confidence.