I know that everyone is interested in my return to motorcycles after 10 years and then I saw that we can now start our own blogs. I thought what the hell and decided to give it a go.

Some History - Why I Haven't Had A Bike for a Decade
My father bought me my first bike when I was 6 years old, much to the chagrin of my mother. It was a little honda CR80. I had a blast on that for a couple of years before my brother was old enough to ride and I move on to my XR 100. My next bike (at 12), and my most favorite, was a Honda XR500. That bike had some serious torque! In addition to that I bought a Honda V30 Magna at 17. Sold the bike, went to university, and got married. Took me 9 years to convince my wife that I really needed a motorcycle. She bought me a bike for my 30th birthday, a yellow 2003 Ducati Monster 620.

Riding on the Weekend
In Quebec, there is a graduated system in place in order to get your license (I guess this is where I should mention that I never got a license to ride the V30 ). The first portion I completed in December, a multiple choice exam about motorcycles. The second step is a riding course. This course started on Saturday.

The weather on Saturday was awful! It was about 3 degrees Celcius and pouring rain (which later became sleet). It was great to be back on a bike after such a long hiatus. I was frozen but happy at the end of the five hours.

On Sunday (another 5 hours of instruction) it was not much warmer but it was dry. That made a huge difference! My wife missed the first day because she was out of town on business but she made it for Sunday. She had 10 hours of instruction on Sunday. She has never ridden before and she was tired at the end of the day. She told me that going around corners was the most enjoyable part of riding a bike .

We have next Saturday and Sunday (10 more hours) left for riding instruction and a 4 hour ride on the highway/thru town with instructers before we can take our parking lot test. Knowing that you all are interested I will keep you updated!

Cheers,
Gatineau_Guy

Well my wife and I finished our mandatory safety course. We then went for our parking lot exam. I passed (lost 2 points in the circle) but my wife did not. She has her exam again on the 30th of May. We also went for a 4 hour ride with an instructor as part of our exam. Since I had passed the parking lot exam I was allowed to use my own bike. Put about 2 hundred kilometers on the bike. The bike is easy to use around town but there are two things I would change about it. I had adjusted (stiffened up) the rear suspension and it ended up being a little too stiff. Very smooth at speeds above 100km/h but almost unbearable at 50km/h. The second (which may be related to the first) is I need a new seat. The seat is fine for about an hour and than after that it felt like I was sitting on plywood. After two hours my butt was numb. More of any update for later (I am saving the embarrasing stuff for later )

Well now on to the embarrassing part of my recent adventures. As part of our mandatory safety course my wife and I went on a four hour ride with an instructor. There was the instructor, my wife, me and two other people. I don't think I will be going on too many group rides. The ride was going quite well. We had ridden around some residentional areas and some higher volume urban routes. At lunch my wife comment on how she really enjoyed the ride along the river because she could smell the apple blossoms.

The instructor wasn't the greatest leader (in my opinion). He didn't appear to know the route of think ahead about lane changes and such. He also had a tendency to go through yellow lights which were quite red by the time the entire group made it though. We lost the guy in the rear 3 or 4 times.

After lunch we were working our way back. It started to rain. We were approaching an intersection. I couldn't see the last rider in my mirrors. No signal from the leader so I looked over my shoulder to check if he was still there. Yes. Turned back and eveyone was turning left in front of me (no signals). I had practiced my emergency braking for a couple hours in a parking lot but not when on wet pavement. Lost traction and started a wobble (tank slapper is what i have heard it called). Here is comes. I dropped my monster . It was a surreal moment for me. My ego was hurt and I was worried about my bike (I wasn't hurt except for some bruising on my right shoulder and my right big toe for some reason.

The bike was fine. I had installed frame sliders about a week before this happened. There is a scratch on the clutch lever and some rubber on the hand grip was rubbed off. No scratches to the paint or frame. No broken mirrors.

That's the last time I will worry about riders behind me though.

Cheers,
Gatineau_Guy

For the beginning, if everything you described is true, you should report that instructor to the school manager or the owner. That behavior is not acceptable.
You are good too, looking back to see other bikers (with a minimum experience on the bike)! You should adjust your mirrors to do the job. And the last comment: emergency breaking in rain is not an easy thing to do. You must practice it for many hours and different conditions, i.e. fallen leaves, water on the road, sand …
In my opinion your lack of attention was the main reason of your fall, not the flashers on other bikes. When you are on the motorcycle, you should keep your eyes on the road and other vehicles.

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Safe rides,
Ash.