How can i protect my wife' cbr250r's brake lever?

[black hills]

loosen the perch so it rotates just hard enough not to move during normal use. when she drops it it will simply rotate instead of breaking the lever.... old dirtbiking trick

[Pat S.]

Just tough when you're trying to teach a spouse.  You can suggest things all day, but when it's a spouse, you have to go back home with them after riding, so you kinda have to gently "suggest" everything.  would've been MUCH easier if I had a friend I could trust to teach her so she could be mad at HIM constantly telling her to turn off her signal light!!!

Alexi

   LOL
         So true. A good friend of mine was an MSF instructor and attempted to teach his wife to rider after being a passenger for years. Almost ended in divorce. Spouces definately sometimes don't make the best teachers.

   Have you thought about putting her through another rider course as a refresher? Some sites offer a BRC2 on your own bike?

Pat

[sammyseaman]

 Not everyone should ride a motorcycle.

So true.

[black hills]

Spouces definately sometimes don't make the best teachers.

   tried to teach my wife to ski, should have just paid for the lessons in the first place instead of wasting a day pissing her off

[Carbonero]

She really should work up the courage to ride on her own, just a little. Mostly because she needs to figure out for herself how to operate a motorcycle. She's got to make it happen from inside her head and depending you may be preventing that.

Re-reading this thread, this pops out as some of the best advice one can give. LionLady, you've touched on a VERY important point.


I was riding up the interstate the other day with my girlfriend on her bike behind me. It was raining out. We were approaching a curve then an exit ramp. I saw her dropping back. I assumed she was simply slowing down given the rain and road. Turns out she had run out of gas, and stopped the bike. there was no shoulder as there was road construction. By the time I'd figured out she must have stopped for some reason, I was at a place where I could stop ok and get off the road. I did so, and hopped the construction wall and started jogging back to where she was. A few moments later she came whizzing by and stopped up where I parked. I learned what happened when I got back up there.

To recap...
The road conditions were awful for stopping. She got the bike stopped, figured out the reserve on the petcock, got the bike started and going again, saw me walking down the road, found my bike, stopped and waited, laughed about it when I got back there. She's been riding a couple of months, tops.

Figuring stuff out on your own really makes it stick.  

[Kootenanny]

 She keeps wanting to leave her right foot on the back brake as she stops, which has led to a series of the bike being dropped on the right side cause as she realizes it's going down, can't put her foot out in enough time to stop it.  Couple that with stalling while slowing down due to being in 2nd or 3rd gear, well.....we need more practice.

As Lionlady suggests, leaving her right foot on the rear brake when she stops is a good thing, and should be encouraged.  Of course, it means she has to learn to come to a stop and balance with her left foot down only...one thing that might help is to get her in the habit of pulling in the clutch as she stops, to prevent stalling the engine.

[Kneescrubber]

This may seem from left field but; how good is she at riding a bicycle? Riding a motorcycle at parking lot speed is essentially the same as a bicycle but with added weight. Maybe she needs to practice with her upright balance on the bike. Something I practice all the time is what's called "slow racing" at most m/c rallies. It involves going as slow as possible while keeping your feet on the pegs. A very good practice for gaining your balance.

P.S. Do you have a friend who's an experienced rider and your wife trusts that can spend some time with her?

[sfalexi]

This may seem from left field but; how good is she at riding a bicycle?

Sucks at it.  Hasn't ridden a bicycle in about 15 years cause she crashed once and got "the fear".

Something I practice all the time is what's called "slow racing" at most m/c rallies. It involves going as slow as possible while keeping your feet on the pegs. A very good practice for gaining your balance.

I practice this at every stop sign, every time there's traffic, etc. and I feel great with slowspeed stuff.  Right now, she's been off the bike for about two weeks and I just need to get her back on, but our dead end street opens to a busy road so I need to get her riding in our apartment parking lot again first.

P.S. Do you have a friend who's an experienced rider and your wife trusts that can spend some time with her?

Nope.  Just moved, and don't know anyone yet.  But I'll keep giving her the "nudge" to ride on her own when I'm not around, or go out together on a weekend on two bikes.  But I have a feeling that it's pretty quickly going to turn into my second bike and, well, at least she gave it a shot and kept picking it up for a while to get back on.

PS - Putting on new clutch/brake levers this weekend, that fold up, so that'll help a little.  She at least won't feel bad if she drops it anymore.

[Giaka]

Be very careful.  Not everyone should ride a motorcycle.

Those people should be turned loose in a field with a small cheap dirt bike until they get it.

[sammyseaman]

Those people should be turned loose in a field with a small cheap dirt bike until they get it.

Yep. The whole "tipping street bikes over several times" makes me feckin cringe. Ride dirt for a while and figure it out or don't ride.

[HipGnosis]

Safety trumps manners.
If she can't stop consistently, confidently, she's not ready to ride on the street - any street.
You ride the bike to the parking lot.  She follows in the car.  
Offer to show her how you stop - ride around a bit and stop right in front of her, to the right and left of her.
Then you switch vehicles.  Bring a book and/or music for you.
Have / suggest she repeat all the exercises of the BRC, with extra time spent on stopping of course.
Then you ride the bike home - until she shows improvement.

[Kootenanny]

Helping a friend learn recently, what I did was have him ride across an empty parking lot, stopping with his front tire on every 3rd painted line.  He was having difficulty, trying to "go easy"--I got on his bike and showed him what I wanted, which was--strong acceleration, hard stop (with the wheel on the line), repeat, repeat, repeat.  After showing him how, he did just fine.  The problem was, he wasn't being aggressive enough; while I didn't want him to ride like a squid, I did want him to ride confidently and start/stop with authority. and it took some coaching to get him there.

This is one area where a small, light beginner bike is really handy, because the intimidation factor is minimal.  You want a bike the newbie isn't afraid to toss around a bit!

[Leanintree]

The responses here make me wonder... each bike I have purchased required me to adjust the controls to fit my size. Likewise I did the same for each bike my wife has had. There's a difference between the controls where I like them and where my wife feels comfortable using them. Is it possible that the OPs wife could be riding the rear brake more from an ergonomic challenge? Ive had to rotate the brake and shift levers by a couple splines to keep from riding them (big feets and long legs), and I could see that it would be easy to catch your foot on the pedal... something that would be a tough hurdle for a new rider to identify as an easily avoided issue.
Just a thought of course. Might be helpful, and its totally a no cost check.
LT

[Papa Lazarou]

Wrapping an old pair of slippers around the brake lever has always worked for me. Perhaps.

[GetFuzzy]

The best advice I got with low speed (parking lot) riding was do not use the front brake at all as it will turn your front wheel into a magnet and suck your bike to the ground.   It is easier to control speed and maintain balance just using the rear brake, especially if the bike is top heavy.

[black hills]

The responses here make me wonder... each bike I have purchased required me to adjust the controls to fit my size. Likewise I did the same for each bike my wife has had. There's a difference between the controls where I like them and where my wife feels comfortable using them. Is it possible that the OPs wife could be riding the rear brake more from an ergonomic challenge? Ive had to rotate the brake and shift levers by a couple splines to keep from riding them (big feets and long legs), and I could see that it would be easy to catch your foot on the pedal... something that would be a tough hurdle for a new rider to identify as an easily avoided issue.
Just a thought of course. Might be helpful, and its totally a no cost check.
LT