How Not to Learn to Ride a Motorcycle, Exhibit A

John Burns
by John Burns

You’ve got a brand new Yamaha R3, and you want to share the excitement by teaching your significant other how to ride too. It’s a small lightweight bike that’s easy to handle, the parking lot is flat and safe – what could go wrong?


Uh-oh. Now you’ve got, as the English race announcers love to say, a “decidedly second-hand” R3 and an SO who’s not only angry and bruised but also missing a shoe. Where the hell did that land anyway?

We’re making progress, though, by wearing a helmet, and even gloves! Things could’ve been much worse. Signing up for a motorcycle safety course is the way to go: Ride somebody else’s bike in a big empty lot. Signing up for a professional course would’ve cost much less than fixing that poor little R3.

John Burns
John Burns

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  • Abaton7 Abaton7 on Dec 26, 2017

    Some people just do not have the coordination to ride a bike. Tried to teach my buddy to ride. The bike took off without him. He said "l forgot to sit down".

  • Wayne Nagata Wayne Nagata on Mar 23, 2018

    My first bike, Yamaha DT3 250. First ride ever, I simply got on, let out the clutch and rode off. What's so hard about that? But that did't stop me from crashing the first day out on a downhill jump; ). Bent headlight nacelle, brackets and broken head light later.

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