After my first official on-road class I went to Tilburg for a couple of weeks to be a part of my second family called Kermis FM. But now that I’m back, it’s time to focus on that thing I’ve started to love so much — riding! 🏍️
Today I had my second on-road class, in preparation of the final exam in late October. So on this beautiful sunny Saturday I reported at the riding school’s lot, grabbed a radio and earpiece, worked it all into my suit & helmet and swung my right leg over one of the beloved SV650s.
Together with one other student + the instructor (who was on his own mean BMW GS today) we left for the open road!
Like last time, it was a lovely and very varied route, although with different nuances. Far less regional roads, more highway and way more within city limits.
We started with bit of small city riding in Capelle a/d IJssel to warm up, then we took the N210 to hop on the A16 highway and cross the river Maas. We then went for the next exit, Rotterdam-Feijenoord.
While getting off the highway, I tested what a few bikers had told me in the meantime after what I wrote last time: braking on the engine is absolutely also a thing at speed, you just have to shift one gear down at a time. It sounded a bit scary in my head, but I tried it and with good clutch control it’s actually great. One more tool in the toolkit, thank you!
After leaving the highway we visited the Beverwaard area, followed by the city of Ridderkerk. We visited many different types of situations while there: regional roads, streets and roads within city limits, shopping areas, industrial areas, roads between meadows, regional roads, dyke roads and paths… there’s too much to mention, really.
For the most part I was pleasantly cruising and feeling more confident than my first on-road lesson a few weeks ago. But there were plenty of situations where that wasn’t yet the case, or where I didn’t handle them well.
- I had a lot of instances where I stalled the poor bike today, either because I didn’t give enough gas or I was in the wrong gear to leave with.
Not good, all very preventable, and I will pay more attention to this because frankly: I’ve never done this badly and it shouldn’t happen. I’m sorry for choking you off so brutally, dearest Suzuki 🥲 - One of the stalls happened on an intersection, which I had checked prior to making my move — but then I stalled, and had some trouble getting away quickly as this was also one of the cases where I was in the wrong gear. Lovely.
I should’ve checked again and then I should’ve waited in place as a car had just appeared on my road, which would have right of way over me. That pause would’ve also given me the time to prepare for leaving properly.
Instead, I kinda limped my way across in 2nd while the car had to slow down a bit for me. That wasn’t a good call, I knew it immediately, and I will pay more attention to preparation for departure + re-checking if something goes wrong. - Speaking of checking: my looking behavior is improving somewhat, but it needs to be more visible for the instructor or examinator behind me. Same story for mirrors — I’m using them more, but not always enough in the moments where you absolutely should.
Finally, I need to take more time to peek into intersections with poor visibility before getting on them. - My road position has improved a lot, but I need to make myself more visible in corners where visibility is limited. I was sticking to the middle a bit too much in the first few of those situations.
- For the most part I paid good attention to traffic regulations, but:
- I need to be more ‘on edge’ around crosswalks. I overtook a bicycling couple while they were near a crosswalk. You’re not allowed to overtake anyone there as you can’t see “through” them and someone could be on the crosswalk without you knowing it. Another time I went over a crosswalk while people were ready to cross the street.
In both cases I instantly knew that I made a wrong call before the instructor even got in my earpiece, but next time I will make sure to be more mindful of this. Honestly: a little disappointed that I did this today, I know these rules and I think they’re essential. - In some situations I could’ve ridden a bit faster. It’s good to be cautious but there should also be good pace, of course. I had also missed a speed limit sign which would’ve given me the hint that I was being a tad slow in that particular area.
- I should take more initiative, as said by my instructor. An example was a T-junction we were approaching, where after checking mirrors + looking over my shoulder I saw a car approaching from the right. They were still a bit further away (70-100m or so at low speed), but as they had right of way, I stopped before the junction.
He understood why I did that — I was correct that the car had right of way — but he felt in this case there was enough room for me to ‘legally’ get onto the road before them. Open for interpretation of course, and during an actual exam I might still take the cautious approach, but I think his general point stands.
- I need to be more ‘on edge’ around crosswalks. I overtook a bicycling couple while they were near a crosswalk. You’re not allowed to overtake anyone there as you can’t see “through” them and someone could be on the crosswalk without you knowing it. Another time I went over a crosswalk while people were ready to cross the street.
Aside of giving enough gas and ‘checking’ a decision in your head before making it, a lot of this boils down to making some decisions earlier when you approach a situation like an intersection. That was a good learning today. If you do your mirror & shoulder checks nice and early, you can verify again quickly before making your move and do it with more confidence. More confidence makes it easier to take more initiative, and things become much easier from there. So I think that’s a big one to work on.
But: it really wasn’t all “bad”. Things felt and went well on the highway, for example. After doing our thing in Ridderkerk we turned onto the highway back towards Rotterdam/Capelle, which was a slightly longer highway ride. The merging went well, I was already paying more attention to my checking strategies and I was well-aware of my surroundings that way.
It wasn’t too busy so we could really go at proper highway speeds, and gahh… to feel & hear that V-Twin sing its song was stupidly good — it came from deeeeeeep within the thing… it had an ethereal quality. It did the little pops on deceleration and everything. Very good times 😁
A long story short: we’ve got our work cut out for us. And that’s fine, I’m here to learn!
Thankful for a gorgeous day with a pleasant ride and many insights.
