Just heard about the site so wanted to stop by and introduce myself. I’m Tania, living in Chiswick and riding a CBF600 through the traffic to central London on weekdays and enjoying the novelty of going over 30mph wherever I can at the weekends Very new to the whole bike thing as I passed my test about a month ago and my knowledge is limited to the absolute basics, so please bear with me if I ask lots of stupid questions!
Slowly getting the hang of things and loving every minute of it so far…well almost anyway. I had a little “mishap” on the way home last night where a momentary lapse in concentration and balance resulted in a slow speed drop in the middle of a junction on the A4 Having picked the bike up (which wasn’t much fun) and shuffling it out of the way of lots of traffic, I couldn’t get it to start again and just couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong.
Luckily at that point a knight on a shiny ZX7 appeared and gallantly offered some much-needed assistance. Imagine my complete embarrassment when he took a look at the bike and very kindly pointed out that it wouldn’t start because I’d left it in gear…erm, oops! Cue lots of mortified thank you’s from me As it turns out, the knight happens to be one of your very own moderators who had just been at your Cubana meet. So just wanted to say a massive thank you to him for being so nice to a totally clueless damsel in distress and I definitely owe you a drink for that one! While I’m at the bar, what’s everyone else having?
Anyway, looking forward to chatting with you all and hopefully meeting some of you soon. If there’s anyone working near Soho who wouldn’t mind me riding down to a meet with them some time, it’d be much appreciated. I’ll be the embarrassed-looking one wobbling along on the slightly scuffed CBF600
Try and make it a habbit when starting your bike to pull the clutch in. I cant start my bike without doing so anyway. Just remember, let it back out slowly, just incase it is in gear!
Welcome Tania, and sorry I didn’t get the Protection Against Newbie Thumping Sticks (P.A.N.T.S) to you in time, but I’m doing my DAS this week, so you’re by no means the most inexperienced biker on the site.
As for dropping it? Did that very thing today when f*cking up a u-turn. Felt a total burk as I caught my shoe on the foot peg or something and couldn’t get up off the road until my instructor came over and rescued me. Fingers crossed I don’t do anything quite so stoooopid tomorrow. And if you’re free on 6th Nov, do try to make it to Ace for the newbie meet. Lots of people know about it, hope lots of people will be going, so see you then.
Hey Tania, welcome to LB, and biking! Don’t worry about the mis-hap, we all have them, it’s part and parcel of owning a bike! We all started the same way as well!
Hope to see you out our bike meets and on our ride-outs!
I also ride a CBF600, had mine since March. I’m impressed that you managed to pick the bike up! I dread the day I drop mine (please let it never happen)as I don’t think I’d ever manage to get it upright on my own.
Very new to the whole bike thing as I passed my test about a month ago and my knowledge is limited to the absolute basics, so please bear with me if I ask lots of stupid questions!
Having picked the bike up (which wasn’t much fun) and shuffling it out of the way of lots of traffic, I couldn’t get it to start again and just couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong.
As it turns out, the knight happens to be one of your very own moderators who had just been at your Cubana meet. So just wanted to say a massive thank you to him for being so nice to a totally clueless damsel in distress and I definitely owe you a drink for that one! While I’m at the bar, what’s everyone else having? 
