Education

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 925 times

How did I learn to ride a motorcycle? I decided to learn on my own. It was May 8, 2000 when I decided to take my first lesson. My roommate had a Yamaha R1 that I decided to learn on. If you're not familiar with motorcycles an R1 is one of the fastest sport bikes today. From the past I knew how to change the gears and balance it, but my only problem was turning. I rode the motorcycle up and down the streets until I got the hang of it. Someone in the past told me in other to turn a motorcycle you will have to lean to the side that you're turning the wheel towards. My fear is how about if I lean to far and the motorcycle falls down sideways. I had to cut my lesson short because I had to get ready for work. The next day May 9, 2000 my birthday, I decided to take the motorcycle on another lesson once again.

This time I didn't want to ride just around in the neighborhood I wanted to take it out on the main roads. So I decided to ride to a friend's house about 10 minutes away from my house. I got to his house and I'm their showing of the motorcycle to him. I then decide to show him that I know how to ride a motorcycle. Out of know where I got an urge of confidence to speed to speed it up. I got it up to about 70 mph on a straightaway. I then proceeded to slow down, so I pushed on the back brakes and downshifted the same time. That was the biggest mistake I made because 90% or more of your braking is your front brakes. The back wheel started swerving and I lost control of the motorcycle. It fell and sledded in one direction and I sledded in the other direction. My friend and his neighbors ran to see if I was okay. Without looking at my own self I ran straight to the motorcycle. I picked it up and pushed it to my friend's driveway. While in the driveway I started examining the motorcycle. While examining it there was on thing going through my mind is what am I going to tell my roommate. The front brake handle broke off, the flaring was scratched up, and the right mirror broke off. Unfortunately I had to ride the motorcycle back home. When I got back home I had to get ready for work. I went into the shower and turned the water on. Once the water touched my skin it felt like my skin was on fire and burning up. My right arm and both of my knees were scratched up due to the accident. I went to work that day, but I had to leave early because I was feeling too much pain. On the way home I stopped at Walgreen's to get something to put on my scars. By the time I got back home my roommate came home and I had to tell him what I have done to his motorcycle. After telling him and showing him the motorcycle I know he was very upset. If it were I on the other hand I would fought that person. I apologized and told him I will pay to get it fixed. That same night he stripped the motorcycle by taking the flaring off. The next day we went to a couple of body shops to get different estimates. Since the color of the motorcycle is pearl white, red, and black. They will have to paint it all over because they wouldn't be able to match the pearl white color up. Each body shop we went to their estimates were between $1200-$2000. We decided to go with the body shop that had the estimate of $1200. My next problem was to come up with $1200. After a couple of days I came up with the money and he got his bike a week later. There was on lesson I learned from all of this. That lesson was not to touch something that doesn't belong to you. Since he got back his motorcycle I haven't touched it. I don't plan to get on another motorcycle unless it is mine, so if I drop it I don't have to worry about it being somebody else's. Although I know how to ride a motorcycle now I'm still planning on taking the course to receive my motorcycle license.