My wife, the perpetual beginner

[dbuzz]

Originally Posted by blk-betty

Totally agree....but with clutch levers, they are pretty much the same in terms of distance from the grip and pull effort regardless of style and size of bike, at least on anything capable of sustained interstate speeds.

Clutch levers are weird things ... on some bikes they are light ... on others are heavier. Clutch pull feel is one of the things that needs a tick in the box when I am shopping for a bike. The clutch gets a lot of work on my commute with slow speed stuff for slipping past cars etc so that means so do my poor lil finger muscles. Mind you that aint such a bad thing as now I don't get any cramping or hand fatigue problems from holding in the clutch and staying in gear at lights.

[WDG]

Originally Posted by viverrid

Did you notice that NOWHERE did I ask anyone for advice? Go fook yerself.

Okay, now I get it... So apparently, that means this is just one of those piddling "Let me tell you how stupid my wife is" threads. Guess it must make you feel like a big-shot to disrespect your wife like that. I'm sorry for her. I would never do that to my wife, and from what I've seen so far, I don't get the impression that many others here would, either.

No sense reading any more of this pointless drivel. Hope it works out for her in the end.

[viverrid]

Originally Posted by blk-betty

Totally agree....but with clutch levers, they are pretty much the same in terms of distance from the grip and pull effort regarless of style and size of bike, at least on anything capable of sustained interstate speeds.

I don't consider her bike to be suitable of stained interstate speeds, but now I'll get criticism from people who have ridden them cross country. It will get up to that fast but it's wrung out and such a light, low-powered bike with knobbies is not what I'd choose to ride with the tractor trailers.

The issue is that as a clutch wears, the engagement point (with standard cable freeplay maintained) moves further away from the lever. With my typical male hand size and riding experience, I could ride her bike with the clutch the way it was. If it was just me riding the bike, I would not have replaced the clutch for thousands more miles. But with her hand size and lesser experience, the engagement point had gotten too far away from the handlebar grip for her to have good control over the lever.

She hasn't gone out of the driveway with it yet, but the new clutch is obviously much more user friendly for her.

We were BOTH frustrated over her seeming inability to clutch with THIS bike when she'd ridden 5 other clutch bikes before. SHE couldn't understand why she couldn't do it, and also at first I couldn't understand it either. When we finally figured it out, it was such a relief for BOTH of us. It has a new clutch on it now and that clutch operates just like it would have new off the showroom floor. The freeplay is as specified in the manual and everything about it is now per OEM stock.

[Foot dragger]

My mom learned how to fly airplanes,even got her aerobatic rating,she used to ride motorcycles and learned it pretty well.

She cant figure out how or why gears on a bicycle work,after many years its still a mystery as to which gear does what for cruising or getting going from a stop,just leaves it 1 gear.

Some people dont get it,and maybe never will on certain things.

Motorcycles can be this way,if all the "unused" articles of clothing and bikes bought for the wife to learn on were put up for sale it would be a huge amount of stuff. Bikes look like a fun thing,and they are,but it takes more then a whim to learn how to ride one. And the willingness to fall down once or twice.

[viverrid]

She says her goal is to regain enough proficiency with this bike that she can attend the MSF-ERC on her own bike. She was saying maybe this Fall ("Fall", is that a pun?) but I have doubts as to that timing since she isn't going back out on the road until September.

A major issue is getting her & the bike there (and then back when she may be tired after doing the class all day). The ERC is given at the same location where she took the BRC. The way she knows to get there, it's about 43 miles each way which includes 30 miles of interstate highway. When she took the BRC she drove there in an SUV, used their range bike, and drove home.

She's never ridden on an interstate and doesn't want to. There's a different route on local roads that's actually a lot fewer miles but no time savings, but she's not familiar with the route and that is an issue for her. It also involves a lot of riding pavement and some areas of heavy traffic, neither of which she wants to do either.

She has been talking about trailering her bike to the class but she's never loaded or unloaded from the trailer. She's saying that if I loaded it, maybe some of the guys at the class would unload it for her. And then load it agains at the end of the class. She's only ever driven with the trailer for about 15 miles "just to try it" and has never backed it or even maneuvered it in a parking situation. So I have some doubts about the trailering idea. Anyway, she hasn't even signed up for the class yet (generally a couple of months' wait list around here) so it's not something that needs to be decided right away.

[viverrid]

Originally Posted by Foot dragger

.... And the willingness to fall down once or twice.

Well that's okay with us. It's other people who are saying that since she fell she should not ride.

We ride dirt (though now she's going to stick to dirt ROADS and leave the trails to others, like me). If you ride dirt sometimes you fall down. I figure I've been down more than 1,000 times. I dropped my new 2012 DRZ on the very first day I had it, getting hung up in gnarly rocks (on a washed out public ROAD, not a trail, LOL!) that really I should not have been riding in with stock gearing & tire pressure. And I have thousands of dirt miles on DRZs, having also had a 2002 back in 2002 to 2007.

When I go out to ride trail, I pretty much expect to crash every day. Not that I want to, but it's par for the course. Having greater experience, I normally don't crash on maintained dirt roads. My wife not having as much experience, she probably will every once in a while, primarily from inexperience preventing complete recognition of surface conditions.

[RMZMZM]

Originally Posted by Luke

Laws, you say? Starting here:
http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/ATV/Rider_fit.shtml

2 points:

1) I don't see where this law prohibits the use of non-oem parts or other measures to assure proper fit (which is what I was addressing).

2) Laws to protect children from poor parental judgement are a different argument.

[dbuzz]

Originally Posted by viverrid

I don't consider her bike to be suitable of stained interstate speeds, but now I'll get criticism from people who have ridden them cross country. It will get up to that fast but it's wrung out and such a light, low-powered bike with knobbies is not what I'd choose to ride with the tractor trailers.

The issue is that as a clutch wears, the engagement point (with standard cable freeplay maintained) moves further away from the lever. With my typical male hand size and riding experience, I could ride her bike with the clutch the way it was. If it was just me riding the bike, I would not have replaced the clutch for thousands more miles. But with her hand size and lesser experience, the engagement point had gotten too far away from the handlebar grip for her to have good control over the lever.

She hasn't gone out of the driveway with it yet, but the new clutch is obviously much more user friendly for her.

We were BOTH frustrated over her seeming inability to clutch with THIS bike when she'd ridden 5 other clutch bikes before. SHE couldn't understand why she couldn't do it, and also at first I couldn't understand it either. When we finally figured it out, it was such a relief for BOTH of us. It has a new clutch on it now and that clutch operates just like it would have new off the showroom floor. The freeplay is as specified in the manual and everything about it is now per OEM stock.

aha !!! so you wrecked the clutch then blamed the missus I am feeling more and more empathy for the lass

So how far do you run the tyres down to??? the canvas?

[bobnoxious67]

Originally Posted by viverrid

... When we finally figured out that we could blame something mechanical for my wife's inability to ride, it was an immense relief to our ego, and supplied me with more endless fodder for arguing on the interwebby...

[viverrid]

Originally Posted by dbuzz

aha !!! so you wrecked the clutch then blamed the missus

Watch out when you strertch so much, you'll strain yourself.

Bike was bought used, I only put about 1,000 miles on it before she asked me to give it to her.

At that time the clutch was pretty much the way it was when I'd bought it. It had wear but wasn't worn out for use by a person with typicsl male hand size. I guess you missed the part where an MSF coach agreed that they sometimes did this same added freeplay with their range bikes, for students with small hands. On this thread MSF instructors are viewed as gods, so God had blessed the added freeplay.

[viverrid]

Originally Posted by RMZMZM

1) I don't see where this law prohibits the use of non-oem parts or other measures to assure proper fit (which is what I was addressing).

The regulation linked to pertained to persons UNDER 16 and RIDING QUADS.

There have been a number of incidents around the country of small children getting on big powerful quads and then getting killed when they flip the quad over. We had something like that happen in our state, kid goes to play at a friend's house and they end up taking the parents' quads for a spin, the visiting kid had never been on one before and ends up dead. I testified at the legislative hearing, against the new law proposed by the dead child's parents (through thei state legislator) that tried to ban children under 16 from riding ANY motorized vehicle including motorcycles.

Thr problem is that since a stationary quad sits there on its own 4 wheels, it is too easy for a kid who is way to small to operate it properly to climb up on it, start it up and get moving, and then be unable to control it. Not as much on a motorcycle, the kid would tip over trying to get on.

Not much relevance here but hey that's okay, anything to find something to criticize.

[viverrid]

Originally Posted by RMZMZM

1) I don't see where this law prohibits the use of non-oem parts or other measures to assure proper fit (which is what I was addressing).

There are plenty of threads on ADV about which bar risers to use, lowering (or raising) footpegs, etc., so if this was illegal, a lot of ADVers would be in trouble. It's funny how when it perrtains to my wife's bike, stock is sacred, while on other threads people are congratulated on their bike modifications.

[Jim Moore]

Pazzo, ASV and some others make some pretty trick adjustable clutch levers. I'd be alitle surprised if they made them for dual sprots, but it might be worth taking a look around.

[PSYCHO II]

Originally Posted by viverrid

Watch out when you strertch so much, you'll strain yourself.

Bike was bought used, I only put about 1,000 miles on it before she asked me to give it to her.

At that time the clutch was pretty much the way it was when I'd bought it. It had wear but wasn't worn out for use by a person with typicsl male hand size. I guess you missed the part where an MSF coach agreed that they sometimes did this same added freeplay with their range bikes, for students with small hands. On this thread MSF instructors are viewed as gods, so God had blessed the added freeplay.

stretch.... you've been stretching so hard lately. Sit back and smell the roses. Time will ultimately decide the path for all of us. Don't try and force the path for your wife.

[viverrid]

Just checkin' back in to congratulate all of ya for keeping this thread going.

Not much to report yet but wife will be riding again soon. She's working this weekend, so probably after. I have not been riding either; I had chemo on Monday and that kinda messes me up the rest of the week. Just coming out of it now, hope to ride tomorrow.

She's the one who asked me to keep the bike for her and not give it to one of the kids (who would merely have given it to his GF).

It's funny, people post on ADV all the time about their crashes. There's even a popular Face Plant subforum right here. But my wife falls down once at about 10 mph and for some reason people say she shouldn't ride. And yet others post about their get-offs every day.