Category Archives: Motorcycle

Not even two weeks after receiving my GM2, I had an accident. Fortunately I am doing all right and suffered only some sore joints and a very small scrap on my knee. My bike on the other hand was not so lucky. It had more scraps on it then I did and the left side view mirror broke off.

I was able to ride it home but once I took it into the shop, my wallet was the one that got hurt the worse. The total cost to repair the bike is going to be $2,700. I am going to be letting insurance cover this accident as I just don’t have the money to repair it myself and for it only being two months old. I would like it back to the way it is.

I learned a lot from the accident and am glad that I was able to walk away from it. Hopefully this will be my one and only accident on my bike as I don’t think I will have the money to fix it again if something happens to me.

So this weekend I took the Motorcycle Safety Course offered by St. Lawrence College and Motocyclecourse.com. I had such a fun time there, an although I did not learn too much new information from what I already learned riding my bike for the last two months, I did learn some new tips that I have been using and have helped me be a better driver on the road.

The course starts, normally, on a Friday evening and goes from 7 to 10 and is classroom only. This helps people learn the basics of what is it to ride a motorcycle and some of the dangers and steps to avoid those dangers. The first day is dry, but useful for brand new riders.

Day two is where the fun starts. It goes from 9 to 5 and it’s all outdoors doing practical exercises. Unfortunately for us, it was 28 degrees Celsius but felt like 38 with the humidity. Sadly there was not a cloud in the sky to give us even a little shade. So most of us were boiling in out full ride gear. Added to that the first half of the morning consisted of us pushing each other on the bikes and not having the motors running at all. So by midday, when they finally let us start up the engines, we were all very relieved. The day consisted of learning the very basics of each part of the motorcycle. It felt very long to me and I didn’t really learn all to much but was still able to walk away from day two with one or two new tid-bits of information and a little more confidence on the new bike. It sure was nice to be back on my bike though after the day was done.

Day three was where we learned some more advanced driving techniques. I found it a little more fun as we were starting to get into second gear and go a little faster. MMM, speed. Unfortunately there were still some not so confident riders that held up some of the more experienced riders, but I knew that was going to happen and helped to encourage them as much as I could. The last part of the after noon was spent doing the M2 road test. Each one of us took our turns at each station and was graded accordingly. When all was said and done we had to wait in the class for the results. WE ALL PASSED! YAY! We were all taken out into the hall for a debrief on what mistakes, if any, we made during the test. Thankfully I had made none and aced my test.

For the money I spent and the money that I hope to be able to save on my insurance and the few things I did learn, I believe this course should be mandatory for all new riders. It would help to cut down on driver error and hopefully keep more people alive. All in all, this course was extremely fun and I would recommend it to anyone looking at going for their M licence. I think when my 18 months is up with my M2, I will taking the M2 exit course with St.Lawrence and Motorcyclecourse.com.

I recently jumped off the deep end and right into a brand new 2011 Kawasaki Ninja 400r. I told myself that when I lost the weight that I wanted to, I would buy myself a “crotch rocket”. So that is what I did. Despite not owning a 4 wheeled vehicle for the winter and wet times, I chose to follow my dream and purchased the bike.

When I bought it back on June 8th, it had 13 kilometres on the odometer. I went to the dealership with a co-worker of my father and picked it up. We loaded it into the back of his truck and drove it out to CFB Kingston. We offloaded it and he went on his way. I was left on the base to learn how to ride a motorcycle all alone. This is where you’re thinking, “OK, so what?”. Well, since I had NEVER ridden a bike, let alone never driven a standard vehicle, this was a steep learning curve. I made it out to the parade square and learned as fast as I could. I rode around for a half hour before setting off for my mothers place.

Of course I stalled it a whole bunch of times over the next couple days, but because I forced myself to learn by the shotgun approach, it only took me three days before I was no longer stalling it from a standing start. Since June 8th, I have put on over 1600Km and the bike is now fully broken in. I am able to go as fast as the road ways will let me, and maybe a little faster when there is no one around and the weather is perfect.

I still have to take the Motorcycle Safety Course on the second last weekend in July and then I can get my M2 licence. Right now I am not allowed to ride at night, ride on any 400 series highway or with a passenger. Once I get my M2, I will be able to do all of those.