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Not strictly a GS story, but my GS is somewhat involved, and the newbie rides a Suzuki Savage, so I figure it's close enough. 
A buddy of mine decided to pursue her interest in bikes. This may have partly been because she saw me having fun with my GSs, but mostly due to her own personal interest. So I've been encouraging her in all the right directions as much as possible. (In fact, though not critical to this particular story, she is now the owner of what's left of my GS650L. She's interested in motorcycle mechanics as well as riding, so she took Eric the Half a Bike off my hands to finish dismantling and learn how the inner mechanicals of bikes work in the process.) She's ridden with me on my GS a number of times, and had an absolute blast. The only way she could think of that would be better than that was to be riding her own bike.
After taking the MSF course last year, she bought an '85 Honda Shadow from a friend from Florida who brought it up to Mass. for her. Evidently, Florida doesn't care if a bike is remotely safe to be street legal, since this bike needed a LOT of work before it would be safe or legal in Mass. She ended up dropping it right in front of her house because the throttle stuck open and she lost control. Not so much her fault as the bike's, but talk about taking away what little confidence she had in the first place.
A month ago, she bought a brand new Suzuki Savage 650 thumper. At least she'd be able to trust this bike! But she's been scared to get on. The few times she's tried, she had a lot of trouble making the left hand turn from a stop at the end of her street, and became rather intimate with the bushes on the far side of the road. She got frustrated. Upon hearing of a friend's plans to take the MSF course, buy an SV650 a few states away, then ride it home, she was about ready to give up on riding because she sucked so much.
Fortunately, other friends and I managed to beat some sense into her.
One of her main problems was that she's learning to use a manual transmission *and* learning to ride a bike all at the same time. It was a bit overwhelming for her. Fine, I said - I'll bring my Civic over, which is second only to my Miata as the best shifting car I've ever owned, take her to a parking lot, and have her practice shifting in the more familiar environment of a car. Independently from this, an e-mail list she's on organized a group ride literally in her backyard, specifically geared toward new riders getting on the road. So I went to Mass this past weekend. I finished my planned modifications to my trailer to allow me to carry the bike on it, hooked it up to the Civic, and drove down there. This way, she could practice shifting my car, and I'd still have my bike along for the ride. Despite one of my three tie-downs breaking just after crossing onto the crappy roads of Massachusetts (fortunately, the rear - I was out of backups, and limped the rest of the way there on the two up front), I made it there Friday night. I bought two new tie-downs before heading home, and had no problems at all for the return trip.
Saturday, we took my Civic to a parking lot, and I gently, patiently guided her through the process of shifting. My occasional weekend job is an advanced driving instructor for newly licensed teenage drivers, so I like to think I've learned how to teach clearly, patiently, and always positively even if the student isn't doing so hot. My buddy had no such worries. During the entire drive - first several stop 'n' go laps around the lot, then around some roads she was familiar with - she stalled precisely once. ONCE! That's about how often I stall occasionally. She can drive stick. She just had to believe she could.
Sunday, we all met at an excellent local restaurant and, well, talked bikes. The group made its way to a local office park to practice in their lots. My buddy and I did some weird vehicular shuttling and convoying so that I could ride her Savage over to the lot (note: a 6'0" tall rider can fit on a Savage, but he looks pretty ridiculous ), and also get back to her place to pick up my GS to bring over. I wanted to practice, too.
One of the guys along for the ride was an MSF instructor. He pretty much took her under his wing, and put her through a bunch of parking lot exercises he made up on the fly. I was off doing other things, but I could see from what they were doing that these exercises were addressing each and every problem she'd told me she was having. This guy was good. Soon she'd become pretty confident in her riding, and was leaning through the slalom even more than I was. She even scraped a peg.
Meanwhile, I ran through a few things on my GS. We were there, might as well play. The GS was the oldest bike there, the next oldest being an '85 Honda Shadow. The bike and I got quite a few compliments throughout the day, ranging from how good it looks to a lot of "I got started on a GS, that was a great bike!" Though I have to admit, a test drive I got to take has me hooked on a new dream bike, and it's not a GS - not even a Suzuki. I may not be able to afford a Triumph Legend for a little while, but man, that bike was fun!!! 
A few times, security guards for the office park popped outside to check out what we were doing, but they left us completely alone to play. They could've kicked us out at any time, being private property and all, but I think when they saw we were serious (all wearing helmets and gear of some kind), practicing low speed maneuvers, and not doing burnouts or wheelies, they had no problem with us being there. Pretty cool.
After that, we went for a nice, easy, slow group ride out to an ice cream place a few towns away. I ended up right behind my buddy in line. She did just fine on the street! Of course, some pressure was off, because safety exists in numbers, and the rest of us were all looking out for each other - especially her, knowing this was her first real street ride. Made it just fine, and she was thrilled. After people started taking off, her housemate (an experienced SV650 rider who also came along just for fun) and I sandwiched her between us for the ride back to her place. She definitely got more and more experienced and confident along the way. At one point, I actually had to drop a gear and punch it to keep up with her! (Consider me on a GS550E against a smaller rider on a smaller 650 Savage - she should be able to smoke me in a drag race someday!) She more than doubled the miles on her almost new bike that day, and was so thrilled about it.
Then yesterday, she rode to work - her first major solo ride. I'm so proud of her.
One of the guys from Sunday's ride took a ton of pics and posted them to the web - http://www.iisc.com/Chicks-on-Bikes if you're interested (it's not just female riders, though there are plenty ). There's some great shots of me and my GS in there, as well as me on the Triumph. 8) And plenty of shots of my buddy - she's the one with the day-glow orange helmet on the purple Savage. I wish I'd had something like this when I first started riding. The MSF course is excellent, but this was an excellent way to make the transition from a classroom to real life environment on your own bike. It worked for her.
A buddy of mine decided to pursue her interest in bikes. This may have partly been because she saw me having fun with my GSs, but mostly due to her own personal interest. So I've been encouraging her in all the right directions as much as possible. (In fact, though not critical to this particular story, she is now the owner of what's left of my GS650L. She's interested in motorcycle mechanics as well as riding, so she took Eric the Half a Bike off my hands to finish dismantling and learn how the inner mechanicals of bikes work in the process.) She's ridden with me on my GS a number of times, and had an absolute blast. The only way she could think of that would be better than that was to be riding her own bike.
After taking the MSF course last year, she bought an '85 Honda Shadow from a friend from Florida who brought it up to Mass. for her. Evidently, Florida doesn't care if a bike is remotely safe to be street legal, since this bike needed a LOT of work before it would be safe or legal in Mass. She ended up dropping it right in front of her house because the throttle stuck open and she lost control. Not so much her fault as the bike's, but talk about taking away what little confidence she had in the first place.
A month ago, she bought a brand new Suzuki Savage 650 thumper. At least she'd be able to trust this bike! But she's been scared to get on. The few times she's tried, she had a lot of trouble making the left hand turn from a stop at the end of her street, and became rather intimate with the bushes on the far side of the road. She got frustrated. Upon hearing of a friend's plans to take the MSF course, buy an SV650 a few states away, then ride it home, she was about ready to give up on riding because she sucked so much.
Fortunately, other friends and I managed to beat some sense into her.
One of her main problems was that she's learning to use a manual transmission *and* learning to ride a bike all at the same time. It was a bit overwhelming for her. Fine, I said - I'll bring my Civic over, which is second only to my Miata as the best shifting car I've ever owned, take her to a parking lot, and have her practice shifting in the more familiar environment of a car. Independently from this, an e-mail list she's on organized a group ride literally in her backyard, specifically geared toward new riders getting on the road. So I went to Mass this past weekend. I finished my planned modifications to my trailer to allow me to carry the bike on it, hooked it up to the Civic, and drove down there. This way, she could practice shifting my car, and I'd still have my bike along for the ride. Despite one of my three tie-downs breaking just after crossing onto the crappy roads of Massachusetts (fortunately, the rear - I was out of backups, and limped the rest of the way there on the two up front), I made it there Friday night. I bought two new tie-downs before heading home, and had no problems at all for the return trip.Saturday, we took my Civic to a parking lot, and I gently, patiently guided her through the process of shifting. My occasional weekend job is an advanced driving instructor for newly licensed teenage drivers, so I like to think I've learned how to teach clearly, patiently, and always positively even if the student isn't doing so hot. My buddy had no such worries. During the entire drive - first several stop 'n' go laps around the lot, then around some roads she was familiar with - she stalled precisely once. ONCE! That's about how often I stall occasionally.
She can drive stick. She just had to believe she could.Sunday, we all met at an excellent local restaurant and, well, talked bikes.
The group made its way to a local office park to practice in their lots. My buddy and I did some weird vehicular shuttling and convoying so that I could ride her Savage over to the lot (note: a 6'0" tall rider can fit on a Savage, but he looks pretty ridiculous ), and also get back to her place to pick up my GS to bring over. I wanted to practice, too. One of the guys along for the ride was an MSF instructor. He pretty much took her under his wing, and put her through a bunch of parking lot exercises he made up on the fly. I was off doing other things, but I could see from what they were doing that these exercises were addressing each and every problem she'd told me she was having. This guy was good.
Soon she'd become pretty confident in her riding, and was leaning through the slalom even more than I was. She even scraped a peg. Meanwhile, I ran through a few things on my GS. We were there, might as well play.
The GS was the oldest bike there, the next oldest being an '85 Honda Shadow. The bike and I got quite a few compliments throughout the day, ranging from how good it looks to a lot of "I got started on a GS, that was a great bike!" Though I have to admit, a test drive I got to take has me hooked on a new dream bike, and it's not a GS - not even a Suzuki. I may not be able to afford a Triumph Legend for a little while, but man, that bike was fun!!! A few times, security guards for the office park popped outside to check out what we were doing, but they left us completely alone to play. They could've kicked us out at any time, being private property and all, but I think when they saw we were serious (all wearing helmets and gear of some kind), practicing low speed maneuvers, and not doing burnouts or wheelies, they had no problem with us being there. Pretty cool.
After that, we went for a nice, easy, slow group ride out to an ice cream place a few towns away. I ended up right behind my buddy in line. She did just fine on the street! Of course, some pressure was off, because safety exists in numbers, and the rest of us were all looking out for each other - especially her, knowing this was her first real street ride. Made it just fine, and she was thrilled. After people started taking off, her housemate (an experienced SV650 rider who also came along just for fun) and I sandwiched her between us for the ride back to her place. She definitely got more and more experienced and confident along the way. At one point, I actually had to drop a gear and punch it to keep up with her! (Consider me on a GS550E against a smaller rider on a smaller 650 Savage - she should be able to smoke me in a drag race someday!) She more than doubled the miles on her almost new bike that day, and was so thrilled about it.
Then yesterday, she rode to work - her first major solo ride. I'm so proud of her.
One of the guys from Sunday's ride took a ton of pics and posted them to the web - http://www.iisc.com/Chicks-on-Bikes if you're interested (it's not just female riders, though there are plenty
). There's some great shots of me and my GS in there, as well as me on the Triumph. 8) And plenty of shots of my buddy - she's the one with the day-glow orange helmet on the purple Savage. I wish I'd had something like this when I first started riding. The MSF course is excellent, but this was an excellent way to make the transition from a classroom to real life environment on your own bike. It worked for her.
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