New toy

[Ovidio]

Same tricks all over the bikers world

[WarPig1976]

Amen,,

[oldpaul]

Excellent choice of bike. I think it is hard to go wrong with Honda engineering, fit and finish etc. Stunning paint. You are obviously a seasoned rider and are going about the process properly. As an aside, in my part of the world (north western US) bicycles, motorcycles and horses are ridden not driven. People who "drive" motorcycles are tagged as novices or non riders, or not from 'these here parts'. Not a condemnation just an observation. Best. Tom

[30Three]

My wife past her bike test back in 2000; so I bought her an old Honda Transalp (600 V twin trail) for the first bike. It's quite a tall bike but so is my missus and she enjoyed it. Nice gentle power band but still easy at motorway speeds.
When I left for the UAE in 2001 she rode it back to Ireland from Menton in south west France. She covered 1700 kms in 3 days. I was impressed because she'd never ridden more than 150 kms in a day before that; and the end of the ride through Ireland is riding on the left; which was totally new.
She still has a CB600 N and I have a Triumph Speed Triple an XT500 and a 73 Z1 in bits. Unfortunately we don't get much opportunity to ride because our daughter is only 6.

We wish your wife all the best and hope she enjoy's learning to ride the new bike.
Obviously you are a very experienced rider yourself Cinder's; but i would suggest if I may; doing some specific training excercises early on to get the confidence up. I did this with some novice riders in the UAE; and they all found improvements and had a better understanding of their flaws.
If you have an empty parking area or quiet roads. Use cones to lay out a course for slow speed manouvering and U turns etc. As well as a straight line of well spaced cones for slalom. To get used to turning the bike at speeds above 50 kmh. Using the counter steering technic (pushing forward on the left bar to turn left)

Once the confidence is there; try some braking excercises. What I used to do was get 2 cones; place one and ask the rider to place the second one where he thinks the bike will stop if he starts braking at the first cone. Start at 30 kmh and generally they'll stop short. then tell them to place it where they'll stop at 60 kmh. Generally they go straight past it! It's a great excercise for learning your actual braking distance. Even us old hands can easily get caught out on that test!

Best regards, Shaun.

[Ovidio]

Excellent choice of bike. I think it is hard to go wrong with Honda engineering, fit and finish etc. Stunning paint. You are obviously a seasoned rider and are going about the process properly. As an aside, in my part of the world (north western US) bicycles, motorcycles and horses are ridden not driven. People who "drive" motorcycles are tagged as novices or non riders, or not from 'these here parts'. Not a condemnation just an observation. Best. Tom

Duly taken note. As a foreigner it did not seem that wrong. Now I know better, thanks.

[CINDERS]

Thank 30T great advice of which is a wee bit down the track 3 things I am working on at the moment are Confidence, Balance and Braking all the stuff you mentioned is very valid and stuff I have done although went one better on an advanced course I attended on my Z-900 we were required to ride over a see saw @16" high - 12" wide which ensured you had to have good good balance. It may sound wide but its bl**dy narrow when you have a few hundred kilo's of bike to manage whilst slowly tipping the saw if you go to fast and you'd run the risk of jarring yourself & bike off the saw.

[30Three]

Sounds like you have it covered. Confidence is the key; then preventing over confidence as well as things progress.
I look forward to hearing the progress reports!