My girlfriend has seen how much i enjoyed my DAS and how obsessed I’ve become about bikes already, so now shes thinking of doing the cbt. Thing is, shes never even ridden a pedal bike and the one time I tried to teach her, it ended in tears (my tears of frustration:) ). What do you think - can you ride a bike, if you… can’t ride a bike?
BTW - picking up my new (and first) bike tomorrow - I’m so excited! theres just no point going to bed for a good few hours yet…
Their is a big difference in terms of weight from a motorbike & a bicycle. I think riding a bicycle helped in terms of balance for me, but everyone is different.
Congrats getting your new & first bike.
Just stay safe, because the roads can be hell especially on a rainy Friday (end of the week) evening rush hour, like last week.
Another pointer, I don’t like flouro bright waist coat thingy to say I’m here, but what I’ve always done is keep your headlight on, at all times when riding.
Enjoy your new bike & try to get some sleep.
I bet you are so excited this morning:D
I hope your new bike starts better than the one in your avatar;)
I can’t imagine that not being able to cycle will have much influence over your g/f’s ability to ride a motorbike.
Good Luck to the pair of you:)
Hang on! if ya cant ride a pushbike surely its silly to even try her on a motorbike?
ya dont think shes gonna have a prob with balance espesh when doing slow clutch controlled manouveres.
I say no.
Good luck picking up the new bike. Can we see pictures?
Practice and practice. the guys who run the CBT should not let her out on the road if they think she is unsafe, so will get her back to do another, so try and see.
Although I would get her to ride a pushbike first.
on my CBT this guy turned up with all the kit and had already bought a Fazer, it was sat in a garage
anyway he cant even pull away properly keeps losing his balance etc, we think its just nerves, then he mentions hes never even been on a bicycle before!!
they sent him home after two hours of trying to teach him to balance, told him to buy a twenty quid bike and learn to balance
IMO it will be so much harder without the confidence of knowing you can ride a two wheeled thingy of some sortoh and good luck with the new bike 
hmmm, interesting debate here.
the bike tyres are far thicker. I could ride a bicycle, but never got on well with the very slim lined racing bike tyres, prob is, you wont know until she tries…
I wouldnt go letting her experiment on your new bike though…lol
My Mrs has never ridden a pushbike (or she’s never told me about it if she has). She took to riding a scooter just about OK, but she’s never been superconfident. Mayeb this is her, or maybe it’s lack of prior 2-wheel experience.
I think whoever said “give her a go at a CBT” gave some good advice. It’s not too expensive (compared to her trashing your new bike on a car park somewhere), it’s in a safe environment, and the instructors should know what they’re doing.
I would think being able to ride a push bike helps you with balance, but I don’t think it would be impossible to start of on a small motorbike.
I would say find a good riding schoold and book in a lesson, see how she gets on. She may really like it and get the confidence to get on a push bike, get some practise and then go on a motorbike again.
Thinking about it, I seem to remember my son was riding his PW50 before we took the stabilizers off his pushbike:w00t:
Well I think, come summer, I’ll just try and get her balanced on a pedal bike. Its one of those things though that is easy to pick up as a kid but as an adult… plus which self respecting woman wants to be seen either a)falling off a bike, or b) using stabilisers?
Picked up my new bike this afternoon and have been riding all day in the rain and in the dark - both firsts. Set off to go to Portsouth just to find the M25 had been shut - filtered through traffic for about 40 mins (again, a first) before deciding to come home again. Not a fantastic first days riding, but I’m still grinning from ear to ear - the tuono sounds incredible!
The weight distribution is completely different between things like scooters and bicycles. Cycles are incredibly twitchy with all the weight (the rider) up top. They need a fair amount of forward movement for stability. I would have thought that learnign to balance o na scooter would be easier than learning to balance on a bicycle.
It’s that whole moving the legs up and down as well as balancing on 1 inch of rubber… I’d be inclined to think learning on a scooterr would be easiest first. It’s a difficult one!
You make cycling sound so naughty Mole;)
I would have thought it would be just as easy to learn, whether she can ride a push bike or not.
The main problem with learning to ride a push bike is that you have to provide the power yourself, as well as trying to balance etc… With a motorbike, it’s more stable and the power is there for you from the start. Give her a chance at her CBT, you never know, she might take to it like a duck to water! Plus, you’ll get browney points for showing confidence in her;)
RR
balance is a fundamaental of walking if she can walk, likely with time she can ride anything…balance is innate within us…for some its more finely practiced (thats most of us) and in some its more finely tuned, (thats likely to be the stunt riders and gynmasts etc) …both will help but my son who has a disability has learned with patience, how to ride, (infact I am buying him his second proper push bike today for his birthday) and his disability directly affects his balance so it can be done…
dont listen to anyone that says it cant…
Just get a good CBT instructor. If your lady is a no hoper, they will say so but probably just gently teach her to ride.
The Royal Signals display team only used to take soldiers that had never ridden a motorcycle before. They had nothing to un learn that way.
Not sure if that’s relevant, but I’d give it a try. Just get a good instructor.
Oldguy
(If your in S E London, try D G Rider training in Orpington. You ain’t going to get better.)
