More Road Time, and some lessons

Stopped at a parking space near a residential park. Had to check the GPS to see where I was. 

Got back out on the road with the SV650 today after work. I actually had to work myself up before I could get the courage to get on the road again. That drop, even though it was very calm and controlled, still shook me more than I thought it did.

Once underway I made about an 8 mile ride around the neighborhood. Yes 8 miles isn't much on a motorcycle, especially considering I stopped twice, but I'm taking it very slow.

I expanded on the route I took last Friday. I did a long loop around the neighborhoods surrounding my apartment. Got onto a night curving straighaway that got me up to 35mph ( flying I know!) in third gear. I went up a hill, which included an incline hill start from stop. I had my first experience with a long downhill, and a long uphill.

I even did my first stop light, crossing a major street, and had cars next to me. After my first lap through the residential neighborhoods, I got ambitious and headed towards the main street. This street is on another hill, incline. I ended up being at the light, with no cars behind me ( fortunately). There were cars next to me though. I was nervous waiting for the light to change. When it did, I almost stalled it but I clutched in a bit to give the carbs some time to get the fuel and then let it out once the revs came up. I even made the left turn into the AAA strip-mall. Woots.

I went back and did the loop once more ( but without passing my apartment and heading to the main street again). It was a new experience being around cars on my sides. Up to now, my only experience was having them behind me ( which feels sooo much closer on a bike than in a car), and a few times, having them in front of me.

Lessons I learned today:

Parking lot = First gear:

When heading back into my apartment's parking area, I was in 2nd gear from the decent climb up the hill. I figured that I could probably stay in 2nd gear, all the way to the parking spot. This would have been true, had I kept up the speed I was going. Unfortunately right before the ramp into the parking lot, I slowed down to less than 10mph. 

At some point I was going slow enough, that I had the clutch all the way out, no throttle, and in 2nd gear. The bike promptly stalled when the revs got low enough. Since the clutch was all the way out, that LOCKED the tires. I skidded to a halt before I could even think to pull the clutch in. 

This could have been a very dangerous situation if I was leaned over in anyway, or if I was going faster. Fortunately I was straight up, so after it stalled I simply skidded to a halt, nothing hurt but my already beaten pride. If I was leaned over enough, I would probably have dropped the bike or worse slid out. Had I been going faster, I could have been propelled over the bars. Though this is a fallacy since if I was going faster, I wouldn't have stalled out in that situation anyway.

Lesson learned: If I'm in a parking area as tight and slow as my apartment's, its time for 1st gear. 

Grabbing is bad:

On the hill during my first or second lap, I was trying to make sure I didn't stall. I was at a stop sign, on an incline, and no one behind me. I was feathering the clutch, and trying to keep the revs up to not stall. I kept the revs up a bit too high and grabbed a handful of throttle. This jumped the revs from a manageable 1.5-2.5k to a hurried 3.5-5k. I had to hold on to the bars in order to keep on the bike. This of course caused me to yank on the throttle even more. I regained control pretty quickly, and let off the throttle. 

It wasn't that dangerous because I did still have the clutch half-way in. If the bike really did get away from me, my instinct would have been to grab the clutch as well, which would have stopped the surge of torque. 

It would have been much more dangerous had I been on a 600cc inline-4 supersport, or worse a 1000cc superbike. I could easily have wheeled the thing and gotten into some major troubles. Thank you Reddit, and everyone that told me to start out on a small bike. Yes a 250cc bike would be lighter and more manageable, but I don't think the 650 is that unwieldy, and my back appreciates the larger frame. 

Conclusion:

I'm slowly building up confidence in my clutch control, and overall control of the bike. My stops still leave a bit to be desired ( they're not all that smooth and I tend to put my feet down too early). I also haven't had very much sustained riding. Most of the riding I've been doing have been short bursts, since there's not a lot of long uninterrupted straightaways in residential areas. I don't think I'm quite ready to tackle a major street yet, but I do think I should try stopping less. Today I stopped twice, once to look at the map to see where I was, and another simply because I didn't know what else to do. I think it might help if I try actually having a goal to get to, instead of just riding around. 

Its certainly coming along.