How many miles until you consider yourself an experienced biker?
It must take alot of miles before you become an experienced/advanced rider, how much have you guys ridden?
I just got my first bike this july, have only 350+ miles on the pavement so far.
you can’t call your self a combat vet till you gone to combat
So the way I see it your not an expert till you done it all and walked a way with the knowledge.
So experienced/advanced has noting to do with miles it has to do with Knowledge
June 4th, 2010 at 12:24 am
10 to 20,000 miles each Summer, for 30 Summers. and I’m always learning
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30 years riding and never a scratch
June 4th, 2010 at 12:36 am
ten times that maybe you wear out a few bikes maybe.. i have over 70,000 on this bike i have now ive rode for about 30 yrs or more… back when honda was just getting its start here first bike i rode on was with my dad and i think it was a 58 harley first bike i rode my self was a honda 50 scooter then a 305 honda a 250 honda a few four and three wheeler’s a 125 ktm a 125 honda and a missing a few but what i have now is a sportster been across country six times.. three to five day trips and im still not advanced.. but i have experience 350 miles you not got it broken in yet… i rode about that the day i got my harley longest trip was 900 miles one day.. and i’ll not be doing that again
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June 4th, 2010 at 1:26 am
19 years at 12-24K miles a year = moderately experienced.
I certainly don’t consider myself advanced.
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June 4th, 2010 at 1:45 am
… I wouldn’t say "x" number of miles. I would say that you should ride for about a year before you carry a passenger. Lots of folks ride 1000 miles a month, 12,000 a year. I would say that spending a good amount of time in a parking lot doing figure 8’s and circles, right hand and left hand circles and then getting them really tight will get you alot closer to being an ‘experienced’ rider. Getting a bunch of cones and placing them on the points (end) of of the parking spots (every other point meaning every two spaces) and weaving in and out of the cones will teach you the ‘push-push’ of the handle bars and teach you a lot of control. All of these things will apply out on the road and help you become a developed rider. We start off with a big bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The goal is to fill the bag of experience before the other bag runs dry….. get out there and ride, ride, ride….
crazy ed
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……Every Wed nite, a bunch of us, 20-30 of us, get together and weave in and out of cones for about 2 hours. About a third of us are very regular and are quite savvy riders. The other two-thirds tend to rotate every few weeks and all of us have achieved a years worth of ‘experience’ in just a few months. I/we have been doing this for about 10 years. Try it, you’ll like it! I also agree with others that say take the MSF (motorcycle safety foundation) course. You WILL learn something that can save your skin!
the crazy one
June 4th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Any riding at all and one would be "experienced", feeling "advanced" will only lead to a bad scene.
There is some advice from a man that has ridden more than I…..he pointed out that everybody that rides motorcycles will die riding, the best that can be done is to be as careful and alert as possible so we die of another cause first.
I am on my fourth decade of riding so things are going well.
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June 4th, 2010 at 3:04 am
30 years riding & never a scratch.. must be the luckiest person alive.. should buy a lotto ticket..lol
Me.. 40 years riding & counting.. thrown a few bikes away in the twisties,, been hit by tin tops a few times.. still learning…
Id say once you’ve thrown a few bikes down the road.. your starting to get an idea how to ride…
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40 years & counting.. the older I get, the better I was..
June 4th, 2010 at 3:36 am
Fifty six years of riding, about 1/2 million miles, can’t say how many bikes. Couple of run-ins with cars, who got on my side of the road at the wrong time, only one fall-off, rear brake locked on a curve. Done Land Speed trials, drag strip, dirt, and a little bit of road racing, plus a lot of highway miles riding like ‘Old Nick’ was afrer me. And still doing it! Seventy four years young, and still at it. Have not learned it all, still learning.
Tomcotexass
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June 4th, 2010 at 4:06 am
Im 44 years old started building and riding choppers when i was 18. Back then when cop saw a guy like me with long hair and a long loud chopper you got hassled!
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June 4th, 2010 at 4:16 am
I have something like 22 years riding. I am a very good rider with well over 100,000 miles under me, but there are people who have been only riding a year or so that are my equals or better. A lot of it depends on your philosophy of skill development. Some people are beginning riders for their entire careers. They learn the basics and never progress from there. If anything, their experience makes them complacent and effectively worse than when they started.
Some young riders take every chance to learn. They take classes, attend track days and take coaching. They learn from their mistakes and look to get better at every opportunity. They are better riders after a year than some people ever get.
The ideal rider will continue to improve and get better their entire career on the road. Every year they get a little more confidence and learn more respect for their limitations.
I guess all I am saying is that it is pretty much impossible to give you a straight answer.
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June 4th, 2010 at 5:03 am
I’ve asked the same question recently. I too, started riding in July, and I now have 700 miles under my belt. Freak Show is right, some people never progress. They ride the same streets, with the same people to the same places and never progress from that.
With each ride, i feel my confidence building and my skills increasing. Just go at your own pace, learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and listen to more experienced riders. We all start from nothing and build from there.
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June 4th, 2010 at 5:51 am
experience is not based on miles its more about confidence. even professional riders make mistakes so its all about control just dont get cocky
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June 4th, 2010 at 6:00 am
I have owned about 150-200 different motorcycles, over a span of 44 years. Today, at 58 years old, I have four off-road quads, a 150cc scooter, a Honda 250 Reflex scooter, a Honda Goldwing, and a couple of CT-70s. Oh, and a 250 shafty utility quad.
There are a number of things that must happen before you could really be called experienced.
- First you must ride enough that the actions and feeling of riding a motorcycle become ‘natural’, that is, your brain develops neuro-muscular programming for the basic operations which must become instinctive. Like shifting, clutching, braking, controlling the bike in a skid, even to the way to fall or crash w/o adding unnecessary injury to yourself. Sounds odd, but I developed this on the scrambles track of yester-year. If you are going to fall a lot, like you will racing, you can’t afford to get hurt each time.
- you need to expand this envelope to riding double, riding off-road, riding with a lot of heavy gear, riding in heavy wind and/or rain. I have ridden in all of that including ice and snow. Maybe most riders never experience this, but then you did specify ‘experienced’.
Option for the exceptional student:
I used to have a Trial bike. Google it if you aren’t familiar with it. Trials ppl are weird, they can spend an entire afternoon in one little place, off-road, practicing how to jump a log, or hop the bike around on the back wheel. Much like skaters do with their stuff. I was never good at this. <sigh> But it is like a graduate course in motorcycle control.
- Practice doesn’t make perfect, it only makes permanent. You have to make sure you are practicing CORRECTLY. This implies some professional instruction (of which I have had none, didn’t exist when I started riding). However you get the knowledge, you should do it SOON because learning is easier and safer than un-learning/learning.
- Safety is a large part of all I have mentioned. But there is safety that is not related to how well you can operate your bike, and that is the set of defensive driving skills you WILL pick up or die. You have probably have had this drilled into you for years. Good. Now you need to take it to the next level where it changes your personality… to where you ‘expect’ that car to turn out in front of you, and you KNOW that the car behind you will cream you if you use our brake, and you are gratified, not surprised when the dazed driver next to you decides he likes your lane better. If ppl need to take an exit, they will find they need to swerve around in front of you, apply their brakes, then take the exit. <sigh> It helps to think of yourself as a fella with a broken leg on a crowded bus. Welcome to the road, son.
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44 years of cycling.
June 4th, 2010 at 6:43 am
I know all kinds of riders and drivers. Professional drivers, not racers, who make their living driving. I respect a really good driver. That’s a person who takes their driving very seriously and responds/reacts as cool as ice. I know a ton of people who think they are great drivers and riders. You certainly don’t grant yourself that title, it’s earned by reputation and based on the respect you get. I know a few who fit that bill.
Often I see the ego driver. Where the real one has a quiet confidence and is more interested in talking about driving or riding in reference to other drivers or even you. They point out things without lecturing you or exposing some over-inflated views that are often majestic to the point that no one comes close to them….A real driver or rider who is advanced exudes an aurora around them that is only sensed by anyone who is aware enough to see it – no words are really necessary.
In other words when you think you know it all and can support that somehow with some crappy stats and you feel the need to qualify yourself? Then what you have is an "ego" at work.
Pay attention to everything, expect the unexpected, and scan and process constantly without ever becoming complacent. The more you practice good techniques the faster and quicker you will process information, it’s just simply a never ending job and you can’t afford a moment off….
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June 4th, 2010 at 6:50 am
I would say once you’ve become accomplished at the kind of riding you do. like is it more difficult to be an experienced cruiser? or someone who can ride the twisty’s well?
Not so much miles as risk management, and execution.
I’m not gonn bragg I probably have about 190 miles under my belt. personally I don’t think I’ll e fully confident until I fall atleast once, which I hope doesn’t happen on the street, maybe the track.
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June 4th, 2010 at 6:55 am
you can’t call your self a combat vet till you gone to combat
So the way I see it your not an expert till you done it all and walked a way with the knowledge.
So experienced/advanced has noting to do with miles it has to do with Knowledge
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June 4th, 2010 at 7:08 am
None of us ever stop learning, its what makes it so much fun, ride in all conditions and with different people, you’ll learn lots quickly and the rest slowly over time, enjoy the experience.
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Always happy to help the new riders, we where all there at one stage.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:24 am
you now have 350 miles of experience, congrats
there are others here that may have more, some may have less (right Kyle? lol)
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June 4th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Miles don’t matter, You never stop learning. The minute you start thinking you’re "Mr. Experienced" is when you will drop your guard and screw up.
I say the first time you take the MSF course should NOT be your last time taking it……..
Always stay alert and play the "What If" game when you are riding……
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June 4th, 2010 at 8:32 am
From all these comments, my suggestion is that u should always be learning and dont go over urself thinking ur the most experience rider or else u will kill urself from miss judging
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June 4th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Most of the bikers I know have the three crashes rule. Basically you are not an experienced biker until you have crashed three times (and survived obviously).
Their logic is that you learn from the crashes you have and you will not make the same mistake twice and it teaches you respect and to be aware of your limitations and those of your bike.
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