Motorcycle Forum banner

Teaching my wife to ride

3K views 38 replies 11 participants last post by  Critter 
#1 ·
When I decided to buy a second bike, something smaller and lighter than my Goldwing for zipping around town and running local errands, my wife mentioned that if I bought a scooter with automatic transmission she would like to ride it. I've been riding for over 35 years, and my wife has been a good passenger for most of those years, so seeing some interest in riding herself made the decision easy. I bought a new Honda PCX150 which my wife could sit on and still feel comfortable almost being able to flat foot at a stop, and with a weight that was not intimidating. (And by the way, this little scooter is an incredibly fun ride. Normally taking a ride around the neighborhood is not something I particularly enjoy on my motorcycle, but with this scooter it is a hoot just riding the local streets.) Anyway, now I begin to give her some basic instruction so that she can get her motorcycle license. Although I am a former MSF instructor, I stopped teaching almost 20 years ago so my memory of the basics might be less than complete, and its hard to remember what you didn't know when you first started since riding is so automatic to me now.

I watched a few videos and have put together a list of basic skills to teach, and bought a stack of 2" plastic cones to use to mark the empty parking lot at the nearby community college. But even without shifting, without the need to learn the "friction zone", I realize there is quite a bit of knowledge that needs to be imparted. The whole concept of counter steering is anything but intuitive. Skills like learning to always straighten up the bike coming out of a turn before braking to a stop is something I need to teach rather than her learning this by dropping the scooter a few times. And even though I am her husband, meaning she is more likely to roll her eyes on most things rather than take my word for it, in terms of motorcycling she is willing to trust me and to guide her in this new pursuit.

Some might think that she is too old to start this new endeavor, at 72, but I think it will help keep her young at heart as it does for me. My long term hope is that after she gets her license and gets comfortable on this 153cc scooter, she will want something more powerful so that she can safely ride even on the Interstate highways (like a maxi scooter if she wants to continue to NOT have to learn how to shift gears). Then we will really be able to ride together, something I have wanted for many decades.

Wish me (and her) luck in getting to the goal!
 
See less See more
#4 ·
It may sound like a stupid question, but can she ride a bicycle? Once, my brother tried to teach his MIL to ride a small bike, and it didn't end well. Then he found out she never rode a bicycle, ever.
 
#5 ·
There is something to be said about going thru a second childhood so to be. Wishing both success. You may need it more than her vito. Husbands teaching wives is always questionable.:thumbsup:
 
#6 ·
My wife can ride a bicycle, but honestly, is not the most confident in her riding. This may prove a problem with the scooter but I have to let her try. As to the Can-Am, we took a demo ride on one a couple of years ago and neither of us liked the experience. Maybe when holding up a two wheeler is just too much for one of us, even a lightweight scooter, then a Can-Am or a Slingshot or a conventional trike might be in order, but not until then.
 
#7 ·
That's kind of what I did. My wife had no interest in riding at all, even as a passenger, she just wouldn't do it. But, she once said to me that she always wanted a red Vespa scooter. I thought that was strange coming from someone that had no interest. And as for not wanting to be a passenger, I was fine with that since I prefer to ride alone anyways. So one day I brought home a 50'cc red Vespa for her and she loved it. So, I decided I needed a little scooter to ride around with her so I bought a little 50'cc Honda Metropolitan scooter. All this was last year. She knew how to ride a bike so balance wasn't an issue, but I had to start with the very basics, you know, brakes, how to use the brakes, throttle, horn turn signals, balance and turning skills, safety skills and the works. I started her out in the front yard just doing straight lines, starting and stopping, throttle & braking and she quickly advanced from there. So a year later she is happy riding her 50'cc scoot around the neighborhood and on some of the outer Islands like Siesta Key, Pine Island, Longboat Key, Anna Maria and the likes.

Max speed limit on these islands are 35 mph and around our neighborhood its 30 mph. Her Vespa scooter was faster than mine right out of the box and was capable of a top speed of just under 45 mph, that's fast for a 50'cc scoot. My Honda would only do 35 mph. So I did a little tweeking on it and when done it can now achieve 40 mph, maybe a tad more with a tail wind. Think she would trade me? Not a chance. Anyway a year later and she still has no interest in upsizing or advancing to get her endorsement. Shes happy with her little scoot and I'm ok with that, I don't push her on anything she doesn't have interest in. I still get my preferred alone ride time, and I get to ride around with her on the scoots, like you said, they truly are a lot of fun, just a different kind of fun compared to our full sized bikes.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Bokobob
#8 ·
My wife would not enjoy learning from me. She can make all the noise she wants about respect, and I can pretend I am just teaching a student, but we both have too much emotional investment in the other for something like this to be successful. She took an MSF class and learned to ride from the professionals.
 
#10 ·
My wife signed up for, and started the MSF course a few years ago. But unfortunately, the Instructor (or are they now called Coach?) was one of those losers that thinks being a motorcycle instructor gives you a free hand to abuse people. Early on the first day, he yelled at her that she was not shifting the way he wanted her to, and within an hour told her she was kicked out of the class. After that she refused to even consider trying the MSF class again. Yesterday I went out and bought a stack of cones. I sat down and sketched out 12 basic skills and concepts that we will work on at the "range". She's excited about this, and so am I.

As to the scooter, the first one I looked at was the 300cc Vespa. I liked the idea of that size engine, and on a demo ride I got right up to 70 mph and there was lots of throttle left to go. But the seat was just a bit too high for her to feel comfortable, and the cost was about twice the $4K that I ended up spending for the Honda scooter. And maybe its my prejudice, but I like the way the Honda feels and rides a lot better than the big Vespa.

I'll post after some "lessons" on how it is going.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FlipFlop
#12 ·
Thanks. I had no idea I could get range cards.

When I was an Instructor I knew my role was to teach students how to ride, not to stroke my ego by showing I had the power to fail someone. I remember encountering a few jerks like that when I taught, and I refused to work with them. I wonder how many potential riders gave up because of this poor instruction.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BWB75 and FlipFlop
#13 ·
It's jerks like that idiot that make people say, screw it, and learn on their own and in doing so pick up bad riding habits that are extremely hard to un-learn. That's if they ever do go for a class again. It's a shame too. I'm sure we've seen them here as a newbie and have 3 posts then gone. I've always wondered if they bought the big one when I see those folks.
 
#14 ·
Are you sure that scooter will be a good choice for a beginner ? I cant ride scooters, lol :D it has a driving position like as sitting on a chair and I cant understand how people are able to stand in balance in such a position :D I tried to ride my friend's scooter a few times and I could not turn around a corner properly. I should put my legs to my sides, not in front of me.
 
#15 ·
I ride a Goldwing, and have no trouble at all handling the "kitchen chair" position of sitting on a scooter. A lightweight but balanced scooter, like the Honda that I bought is incredibly easy to balance and maneuver. I'm not sure why you have a problem with it. I find that I can get down to 0 mph and still keep the scooter upright. I can do this with a motorcycle, but not nearly as easily. And with the short wheelbase, slow speed riding is much less challenging than on a longer base motorcycle. The other day I rode the scooter and was on a street filled with huge puddles and potholes. I was down to about 5 mph and with total ease rode around the water and the holes and continued on. I know that I could not have done this nearly as easily with my Goldwing. I think a scooter is the perfect vehicle to start with. It allows the rider to learn the basics of street riding and handling a motorized vehicle while not also requiring them to learn the gear changes, clutching and friction zone. If they do later want to ride a motorcycle, they already understand the basics of riding in a straight line, turning, stopping, swerving, etc. and only have to integrate the shifting into the equation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Khasaeva
#16 ·
With my mangled leg/ankle stepping thru to mount a scooter is a lot easier than throwing a leg over a motorcycle or trike too. There is just a lot to like about scooters. It's a shame people don't give them(scooter riders) the respect they deserve. They face the same road hazards as any motorcycle rider would encounter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FlipFlop
#17 ·
A number of years ago I went through double knee replacement. Even after rehab, there was no way I could swing my leg over the seat of a motorcycle. I bought a Honda Silverwing, a mega scooter, and in truth it was an amazing ride. Good amount of storage, excellent instrumentation, modest but acceptable acceleration, top speed of over 110 mph (on flat road), excellent weather protection, ABS and more. After two years, however, I traded it for a "real" motorcycle that lacked most of the goodies that the Silverwing had. There was no good reason to give up this scooter, other than something in my head felt that a scooter was not the "real thing". Years ago scooters had very small engines, tiny wheels and tiny sound. I think most people (and I may partially still fall into this category) ride motorcycles not just for the ride, but for the lifestyle image, even if that is primarily a self image issue. But as I am re-discovering, a scooter is in some ways like a motorcycle, and in some ways even more fun to ride. And if you get one of the larger scooters, like the Yamaha 300cc model, with the motorcycle size wheels and a motorcycle style fairing, you might call it a motorcycle with auto trans, rather than even calling it a scooter. For anyone reading this that says "never", take one for a spin and then decide. You might surprise yourself.
 
#19 ·
"Have you considered the Can Ams?"
Nope, wouldn't do that...try a hard turn sometime...tips right over...dangerous. I was stopped at a light, guy turned the corner in front of me and one of his front wheels came off the ground..just a bit more and he would have flipped it.


"seeing some interest in riding herself made the decision easy."
Check local regulations, around here, 50cc's or less and all you need is a car drivers license and insurance. 50cc's is plenty fast for side street and "to the store and back" riding.
 
#20 ·
"Have you considered the Can Ams?"
Nope, wouldn't do that...try a hard turn sometime...tips right over...dangerous. I was stopped at a light, guy turned the corner in front of me and one of his front wheels came off the ground..just a bit more and he would have flipped it.


"seeing some interest in riding herself made the decision easy."
Check local regulations, around here, 50cc's or less and all you need is a car drivers license and insurance. 50cc's is plenty fast for side street and "to the store and back" riding.
Sorry. That's totally incorrect. They have built in software that keeps that from happening. In fact many get ticked off because they can't do silly things like that on purpose. It's call Vehicle Stability System(VSS), commonly called the nanny.
 
#22 ·
Since I'm not part of CanAm or any police force, I can only speculate that the VSS is disconnected or highly de-tuned for the police. They are expected to know how to handle things the rest of the public never should try. Do you know the status of the VSS on those machines being sold or delivered to police forces? I don't. But I do know the nanny will stop that on machines sold to the public. That is not to say that someone can't disable it but for the general public that "should not" happen. Now that new Ryker can do that very thing. But it's purpose built.
 
#23 ·
Really, you're going to stick that hard to the idea that a "computer program" can subdue the laws of physics and make a tip-over highly unlikely?

Ok, time to bring out the nukes!

"it goes without saying....the risk of tipping or rolling over is real...physical laws still exist"

That is from CAN-AM themselves in the safety video they provide.

1:25 seconds into the video:

[ame]https://youtu.be/Zw1grOYyTWI?t=85[/ame]
 
#24 ·
Of course it can happen. I'm saying under normal riding conditions you should not have a problem because of the VSS. If a rider insists on riding fast then it is all on them just as your video says. As always, when in doubt, slow down. But if a person is hard set against a reverse bike of any kind, then nothing will ever change their mind. Not a problem. Ride what you want. But the VSS is there and does work. I personally don't care for it because it has shut my wife down once when she needed the power to continue safely in a crosswind condition. When it shut power down automatically because a wheel lifted, it was a little unnerving. If she could have turned off VSS it would have been much better in that condition. But none of us should have been riding that day anyway. So it was really our fault if anything had happened. These were 45mph crosswinds with gusts to 65mph. It just wasn't safe to start with but there we were and the nanny did get the wheel back down.
 
#25 ·
"Of course it can happen"
LOL!...ok, you're getting there.

"I'm saying under normal riding conditions"
You don't die "under normal riding conditions"...you die when the sheet hits the fan...and that's when these fail and flip on, or eject, you..another "danger" mentioned in the safety video; ejection.

"If a rider insists on riding fast"
In my original post, the guy was turning a corner WAY slower than I would take that corner on a bike. That turn brought the tire off the ground even at a low speed; I could see the surprise in the guys face. Luckily it was just him, if he had a passenger they would have likely been thrown or flipped it for sure. The other video, the cop one, you think that guy was "riding fast" coming out of that parking lot? looked like 15mph (or less) to me.

"When it shut power down automatically because a wheel lifted, it was a little unnerving"
I will walk before I ever drive a machine that has the ability to override my decisions as a driver.

" shut my wife down once when she needed the power to continue safely in a crosswind condition"
Nice, it almost killed your wife. you defend it, praise the software for stopping the trike from killing you "under normal conditions" and blame yourself for riding in a crosswind and the bike almost killing your wife in "abnormal conditions".

Geesh. Do you and your wife have large life insurance policies on each other?
 
#26 ·
Do you happen to know what year that was that you are so hot over? I didn't look and won't waste anymore time going back to see. But figured you must know. They did have problems in the beginning. I get that you don't like it. Fine. Then don't ride one. You might want to stick to bicycles though because everything these days are being computer controlled. Bike, trike, car, everything. So if you have or want to have a modern vehicle, you are being controlled while you pretend to control it.
 
#34 ·
I used to have an 87 Bronco II, it didn't have ABS but it had a valve to the rear brakes that was supposed to stop you from locking them up. It seems that my apply, release, reapply method of panic stopping upset this control valve and it would jam locking one rear wheel. It would not release until I was completely stopped and backed up. I finally had to replace the valve and the problem went away. Always the same wheel the right one.
 
#35 ·
Had our first setback today. I've gone through the basics with her in a large parking lot and she was ready for some quiet street riding. We have been out several times doing a nice, low traffic 9 mile route through residential areas, with plenty of curves, stop signs and right and left turns. So today I decided to vary our route a bit to build up her confidence before making an appointment for her motorcycle license road test. But unfortunately, we came to one corner where visibility was limited. I went through and she started through, making a left turn, and then panicked a bit when she saw a car coming down the road toward her. So even though it was low speed, she made the turn too wide, went into the dirt alongside the road and went down. No injuries to her, and no damage to the scooter other than some scrapes on the exhaust pipe. But it really shook her up. Once I checked that she was OK, and the scooter was OK (I did have to tighten up one of the mirrors which was swinging loose after the fall) we started again to ride and did a few more miles before we headed home. I told her that virtually everyone has one of those kind of drops of the bike, and fortunately her first fall was not serious to her or the bike. But I am worried that she will take it too much to heart. Hopefully this does not bring to an end her foray into being a rider and not just a passenger.
 
#36 ·
Had our first setback today.... panicked a bit when she saw a car coming down the road toward her. So even though it was low speed, she made the turn too wide, went into the dirt alongside the road and went down.
Ok, I'm going to say this because the odds exist that it may save her life....your wife has no business driving on streets with cars. You guys were so lucky, she could have hit a pole/mailbox and seriously hurt/killed herself. To me, she is no way near ready for the road...when a "car coming down the road" causes a panic crash...oh my.

Get her a dirt bike of appropriate size...no cars, no poles and no hard concrete to fall on.

Seriously, in the dirt is the best way to build skills for the city streets. If she can master riding a dirt bike, she's ready to the streets.

In addition to learning skills in dirt, it's a-ton-o-fun! From age 10 to 16, I rode in the dirt...crashed in the dirt every way imaginable "trying stunts" with my friends...it not only taught me how to crash, it taught me what causes crashes and when I hit streets, still young and immortal, I had 2 crashes in the first 4 years (both car drivers fault) but my dirt experience allowed me to walk away unharmed...even though in the second accident I was rear-ended (at a stop light) and the bike ended up under the front of the car! I jumped off, over the handle bars, at the last second..abandoning ship was a skill well honed in the dirt...had I panicked and stayed on the bike, I'd be in a wheelchair right now...a multimillionaire...but still, in a wheelchair.
 
#37 ·
She has already been riding on streets with some traffic. The problem was that part way into the left turn she saw a car coming fast from her right. Had she just focused on continuing the turn she would have been fine but her fear at what might happen led to her looking right rather than through the turn, and she turned a bit too wide. No riding today due to other commitments and the weather, but tomorrow I hope to get her out again. If she agrees to keep on trying all will be well. Having a minor fall is something all of us have done at one time or another.
 
#38 ·
She has already been riding on streets with some traffic. The problem was that part way into the left turn she saw a car coming fast from her right. Had she just focused on continuing the turn she would have been fine but her fear at what might happen led to....
Lack of focus and fear followed by a wreck are proof of inexperience and a recipe for disaster. What if she would not "have been fine"?...what if the car was coming fast and going to hit her? She panics/freezes and dies?...sorry to be so blunt...she's learning lessons on concrete with cars and it has so much potential to end badly.

People will sometimes do things they don't really want to do in order to please others they love/admire...to be honest, is there any possibility she's doing this because she wants to make you happy more than it being something she really wants to do?...it's hard enough to live with "they died doing what they enjoyed"...but it's horrendous to live with "they died doing something that they thought would please me"...consider that before she goes down again. If she really is doing this for herself, get her off the road and into the dirt...i'll bet you a bagel she finds the off-road riding much more enjoyable and the two of you both end up with off-road bikes.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top