i have the video and its great, if you get it and practice all the lessons you will be amazed, and might not even consider another level of rider training... best 50 bucks i ever spent (the video).

I have no advice to offer, but I hate when the running boards scrape LOL ... I just give it more throttle

polishdog wrote:
Anyone else here seen the video Ride Like a Pro? I am thinking this will be worth getting, maybe even signing up for a training course; $150 for four hours.

The cost for the new Ride Like A Pro is only $29.95. I took an MST course with my son's before I would let them ride. It was a great experience and taught them and myself skills that I never even knew I was doing, like Curt said, to push down and right to go right and push down and left to go left.

I bought the Ride Like A Pro video and now we go on a regular basis to a large parking lot near our house with some cut up tennis balls and compete (really practice, but they would be bored if I called it practice) on the skills in the video. My sons are some of the best riders that I have seen and it is because of that video. It does help to practice and we all need to due to the cagers on the street. Practice for the worst case scenario and enjoy the ride.

I have been riding for a lot of years and I have yet to scrape my boards! You might say i ride like an old man but I get where I'm going on my bike not in a car following my bike hanging from tow truck because I thought I could make that curve a little faster.

scrapping boards when your not intending to will wake you up. I was always taught in MSF school to start from the left edge of the lane and work your way to the right edge when doing a right hand turn, gives you a bit more breathing room.

Right turns were a bit unsettling, I figured it was because if I ended up going wide I'd be in oncoming traffic Know your speed, outside/inside/outside, AND LOOK THRU THE TURN And yes, you don't want an unexpected board scrape after a night of beer and enchiladas!

Well, I'm only 50 so I'm not old yet.

I might add my bike has been lowered.... it's the lowest bike I've ever ridden, and even in my sub have dragged those pesky things a few times. I've sought out some twisty 2 lane stuff just because I want to put the bike through some paces, I need to know how the bike feels/works so as to avoid any future surprises AND I want to be confident in those curves when a Winnebago/semi/wide load is coming the opposite way.

Up until a week or so ago I hadn't ridden in several years, so I can understand what the feeling of WHOA! is about.

I certainly can relate. Happened to me way back when I first started riding. After about 3yrs of riding, just started to get this paranoid feeling, like something was going to happen, especially at night, so gave up riding after dark. Not long after, was getting to me even day time, so gave it up and sold the bike. Till this day, no idea as to why my thoughts turned that way, it just did. Didn't have a wreck, no close call, just happened. Jump ahead 18yrs later, (mid-life crisis??) and decided to get back into riding. Man, what a push-pull my mind went into when I trekked into the first dealer to look at bikes. But I just kept saying to myself that my mind-set was not going to let that happen again. So here it is 11yrs later of riding (approx 210k miles worth) and there was only 1 time I had this feeling of something just ain't right, so, turned around, parked the bike, and hopped into the car. And I ain't giving it up for no one or for nothing....period!

Great topic...affects many of us. I can also recommend the books by David Hough...

- Proficient Motorcycling
- More Proficient Motorcycling

Roadkill1962 wrote:
Raindog--

I've been having the exact same feeling lately...it's really weird. Wide, sweeping turns (at any speed in either direction) that only a few months ago I wouldn't even have noticed making, now give me pause and I throttle back and sometimes just get convinced the bike is going over, when I KNOW damn well it isn't. My bike is perfectly sound mechanically, but the ONE thing that has changed in my life is my stress level.

Under A LOT of pressure at work as we're opening a brand new facility in less than two weeks, and a lot of the responsibility for making sure it goes right is on me. My stress level is 10 times what it was 6 months ago, and in that time I've noticed exactly the feeling you're talking about--almost to the point of micro panic attacks that last one or two seconds. More than anything, they really piss me off, because I KNOW how to ride and I KNOW my bike is fine. It's probably a good thing I have a full face shield on my helmet, otherwise the cagers would think I'm nuts as I actually yell at myself like "What the Hell's wrong with you? That's nothing! Stop it!"

Stress does really weird things to the mind AND the body. In my case, I can see NO reason for the doubt other than the stress increase in life is manifesting itself as a sense of being unsure. I still ride every day I can and I refuse to let it beat me... and I'm betting mine goes away after May 31st (opening day)...

Deep, huh? But stress is an evil bitch...and I can't wait to dump her.

Relax & enjoy the ride,

RK

This is an outstanding post. Right on.