Learning the wife to ride

Sign her up for a MSFcourse or the equivalent in your area. A smart man does't try to teach his wife anything!:caked:

 

Too bad that gal that dropped the NR750 didn't take a MSF class!!

 

LMAO and crying at the same time

 

What Legs said.

It's great that she wants to learn. Just don't let it be YOU who teaches her. Lots of riding schools around; invest the bucks and you might learn something too. My daughter took the course and brought back some good stuff, which made me a better rider. Her instructor even helped me with the ride test, gave me some excellent pointers, then took us all on a group ride.

Ride it like you mean it!

 

As said before: Have her take the MSF course to learn and see if she wants more. I went that route with my wife and bought her a Suzuki S-40 (650 cruiser) and she loves it.

 

I concur with most of what has been said here in that the impetus and burning desire has to be there to ride and do so effectively.

I also would closely and realistically assess your wife's athletic ability and reaction in stressful situations. You want to have fun not put her in a compromising position reaching for some ideal that may not be realistic. That said plenty of women are great riders and they certainly bring less ego...:yo:

When I ran a shop we saw all shapes, sizes and experience levels go down, so there's no rules. The course is a must though especially in an urban area.

Hey bones---how's Mondovi!!!:biggrin:

 

Hey bones---how's Mondovi!!!


Boring & frigg'in cold, still not enough snow to ride the sled:smow: anyone want to buy a 96' Arctic Cat Pantera 2 up cheap? Nothing sucks worse, can't ride the bike, can't ride the sled picked up a little VW tuner car to play with but it doesn't start when its this cold

 

I'll throw my $0.02... If your wife can't ride a bicycle, she has no place on a 700cc multi, dude. I really, really think a VFR700 is a bad idea. Too heavy, too powerful, and too RARE for a new rider. I think too many experienced riders don't realize just HOW MUCH they've learned over the course of their riding careers. We think it's easy because we've got hundreds or thousands of hours of experince, reflexes, and muscle memory built up, but it's not. A brand new rider can't just pick this stuff up from you and be a safe rider. They need professional instruction.

I learned this the hard way once... my sister's friend wanted me to teach her to ride. So I met her in a parking lot, we did some basic excerizes on balance, brake use, clutch friction point, etc. I thought she was learning well so I had her put it into first and start doing laps around the parking lot. That went well, too. Then I walked toward her path and raised my hand for her to stop. I sh*t you not, she litterally STUCK HER FEET OUT TO STOP THE BIKE. Needless to say, she dropped my '82 Seca 400 twin right on the pavement. D'oh. I had only myself to blame, too. I had no business teaching her to ride... she should have learned in the MSF course. And the worst part was that she felt so bad about dropping my bike that the lesson ended right there, and she was turned off from riding right then and there. If she had droped one of the MSF's Nighthawk 250s, it wouldn't have been a big deal for her!

Also, the "she doesn't even know how to ride a bike" thing is scary, dude. Go for a few bicycle rides with her. Get her used to two wheels. After a while, then see if she wants to take the MSF course. If she's still interested after that, get her a little twin-cylinder standard. Something like a Ninja 250 or a 500. That Seca 400 of mine was an awesome bike to learn on. And it was no disaster when it got dumped it in a parking lot!

 

I think Viffergirl summed it up best!

Listen to the women!

 

Got to agree with most of the tone of this thread. Not generally a good idea to teach someone you know well a new thing. The relationship gets in the way. Just like trying to teach your kid something, parents will know what I mean. Twenty odd years ago I started to teach my wife to drive a car. It went OK but after a while I saw the writing on the wall and decided it would be better for her to take lessons from a pro. We are still married so I figure I made the right call. It would be great if she wanted to learn to ride but if she did it would be straight to a motorcycle course not me teaching.

 

Good grief... Don't teach your wife anything. Don't tell you wife she can't ride. etc... What the hell? Why don't you all just put on your pink lace panties and have a group hug while watching Oprah?

If you are the best person to teach someone something, what does it matter if the person is your wife, husband, lesbian life partner or gay lover? If you can teach someone something, them freaking teach them.

I taught my wife to shoot. Until she met me, she never even saw a gun up close, she only saw them on TV. Now, she scary good at it. She can out shoot me easily with pistols. I'm still better with rifles but with a handgun, she's awesome. I used to make money teaching women to shoot in SC. $20/hour & 100% of my clients were women & no, before any of you pervs ask, it wasn't to meet women. They even provided the guns & ammo. I just taught them how to effectively kill defensless paper.

I taught my wife to SCUBA dive. She didn't even want to try it until I purchased her an introduction to SCUBA package, and took her diving. She effectively knew how to SCUBA dive safely before she ever took her certification class. She loves it & we SCUBA on every warm weather vacation we go on.

I taught my wife the basics of riding before she took the the course I purchased her. The only reason I didn't teach her entirely is I could not give her the test to get her license. Only a MSF instuctor or the NJ DMW can do that. She actually had to take the road test to get here license since the one on one coach was not MSF endorsed. I also wanted to make sure she had the drive & desire to ride. I also didn't want to buy her a bike unless I knew she was in it for the long run. For that reason, I purchased a bike that I like as well and would ride even if she didn't want to ride it. I will most likely become a USAF Rider Coach this year. Up until this point, I never had enough time to do so. Now, every squadron in the AF is going to be tasked with teaching thier own to ride. You have to take a 3 week course given by the MSF to be a USAF Rider Coach.

I taught my wife how to do basic maintenance on the bikes. She can now change oil, lube chains, take wheels on/off & other basic stuff. I literally put my life in her hands with some of these tasks. I have no problem at all trusting her work.

Why did I teach my wife all this stuff? Because I am an excellent instructor (a skill I picked up in the USAF) and she had the desire to learn. It made no matter to me that my student was my spouse or a woman, I was the best person for the job & my student has yet to fail even at a single thing I've ever taught her.

If you're good at something, run with it, it doesn't matter if it's your spouse. If your spouse has a problem with you teaching him/her something, there are probably much larger problems in your relationship.

KC-10 FE out...
lane:

 

I feel that some of the best riders start on dirt. That's how I started when I was young and I feel that riding on a variety of terrain prepares you for real world situations on the street. When my girlfriend decided that she wanted to learn to ride, I helped her pick out a super clean used TT-R 125 trail bike. It's light, short, and she wasn't learning the basic operation of a motorcycle along side of a bunch of idiots in cars. She rode quite regularly for one season and the following spring, enrolled in the local MSF course. She bought herself a 250 Ninja and has been happy with her progression. She's tried the VFR, but the ergos are a little too stretched out for her. I'm not riding the Ninja anyway so that's fine.

 

Wow!, I wish I was as sharp as KC 10.

<message edited by Reg71>

 

Hey legs I'll tell you this once & once only & will never reply to this or anything else you write to me.

Ahem... <message edited by Reg71>

lane:

PS For EVERYONE else, in case it wasn't clear, the reply was a joke, not an insult to anyone. If you took it as an insult, I apologize, except to legs.

 

Who knew such a simple little poll question could invoke so many view points, opinions & feelings:grouphug: Thanks for all the replies & view points & just for the record for the second time the not being able to ride a bike thing was a joke. I have found some used MSF Honds Nighthawk 250's, I may try to pick one of those up for her to start off on. If it doesn't work I have two kids coming up on driving age that could learn on it too, so not really win/win if it doesn't work out w/ the wife learning to ride but the down side isn't terrible either. It will just mean I'll "have" buy a two up tourer; the new Victory "couch" currently has my interst peaked.eace:

 

Dirt is the way I started when I was 15. I did all the things you want to do on a bike in the dirt - and lived to tell about it. It's the way to go. A good MSF course is a must for anyone switching to street riding - regardless of gender.
I'm thinking of purchasing a good trail bike for the summer. That is after my bike trip to Wisconsin with my boyfriend. He's got a BMW 1150. But, my VFR has more pony's (hp) than his bike. Naa naa. :tongue:

 

LOTS of wisdom in that post

I tried to teach my wife how to ride. She dumped the clutch, nailed the throttle, and we both got body slammed. Of course it was all my fault

 

In 1977 I bought my wife a CB400F. Bad idea! Her first ride went from the curb in front of the house directly across the street, over the curb on the other side and crashed in the neighbor’s yard. Less than 10 miles on the bike

It was difficult for me to teach her and after much frustration with her lack of progress I threatened to sell the bike. That motivated her and she became an excellent rider. She started roadracing and her skill set just took off.

After about 10 years of not riding we recently started up again. I was at the motorcycle shop picking up a new set of tires for my 1979 CBX when I came out of the parts department to find her signing the paperwork for a Nija she had just purchased. It took her about 100 miles to get back her form. In retrospect I wish I had someone else teach her. I'm not too patient and she probably would have learned faster from someone else. She really enjoys riding and it would have been a shame is she had missed the experience.