Preparations

Cornering training

In 2016 I bought my first brand new motorcycle. A Honda CB500X. I was extremely proud on this Pocket Bike!

Within two weeks of delivery, the Pocket Bike was fitted with Hepco&Becker crash bars. The aim was to eventually hang a few nice high-beam headlights on it. However, exactly four weeks after I took Pocket Bike home, luck ran out. At walking pace during the rain in a corner, the rear tire lost grip. This launched me off Pocket Bike and ended up on the tarmac several meters away. Pocket Bike unfortunately was laying on its side on the exhaust, crash bar and handlebars on the road surface.

 
After picking up myself and Pocket Bike, we quickly took it with the trailer to the dealer to have the damage assessed. On the way home my right arm started to hurt terribly. During a visit to the emergency room at the hospital, I was told that I had broken my arm.
 

The weeks that I couldn't ride a bike made me think a lot about the accident. Had I gone on the throttle too early? Was I riding too slow or too fast? What could I have done to prevent this? It caused a lot of doubt and anxiety in my head. Ultimately, the conclusion was reached that the tires that Pocket Bike was supplied with at the factory were insufficiently reliable.

Pocket Bike was repaired. Then fitted with better tires (Continental TrialAttack) and my arm allowed some sort of riding a motorbike again. So I quickly climbed back into the saddle. But the much thinking and the long wait have had a very negative effect on me. Suddenly I was no longer that confident motor biker, but terribly insecure with moments of a lot of fear. Tears literally rolled down my cheeks. I was afraid every time I doubted the grip. Despite the fact that Pocket Bike did not let me down for a moment after the new tires were fitted.

How to solve this? There wasn’t a simple solution. It didn't solved itself. However, I ended up with J-P van Haestregt. A professional instructor who gives training under the name Move-On Motortrainingen.

 
J-P didn't have it so easy with me. I may be small in stature, but I dare to compensate for that with some regularity with my stubbornness. In this case, I regularly pressed the stubborn heels in the sand as we say in The Netherlands, but this stubbornness had an underlying problem. Fear was the basis. However, J-P soon realized this.
 

After having followed about 6 training sessions at J-P, I am very grateful to him. I would never have come this far without him. Without him I would never have ridden a motorcycle with so much pleasure and freedom.

Because of these experiences of recent years I decided to place an interest poll in the Dutch Facebook group Motormeiden. Many responded positively to this. But most indicated that this would mainly be before 2023. At that time we were already well into the season and most people have already made their planning.

 
Still, I decided together with J-P to set a few dates for which a few motorbike women could register. The first date was packed in no time with four ladies who wanted to follow a training.
 

Recently this training has taken place and I have had a good time! What a great weekend that was!

They were four very different ladies. However, the group clicked well. During the acquaintance on Friday evening there was a lot of laughter during dinner and afterwards. But it was also a very inquisitive group. Soon they were listening very carefully to J-P while he was already explaining various things with the help of videos on his phone.

 
The next morning consisted of theory with the help of beautiful images. The differences of the bikes were also discussed. The group consisted of a Yamaha Diversion, a Honda Shadow 500, a Honda Deauville 700 and a Ducati Monster. The group of ladies was also very eager to learn during this theory.
 

But the training is not just theory. The training is given in the Eifel region in Germany, not far from the Luxembourg border. A wonderful area to practice the discussed theory in practice.

We started with a small, but nicely varied round. The ladies all had an earpiece in which they received direct guidance from J-P. It was a nice varied group. Not only in terms of engines, but also in terms of riding. For example, the Ducati was described as a participant in the Harry Potter sport of Quidditch. The similarity in sitting position emphasized this even more. The Honda Shadow rode around like the average all-roader while the Honda Deauville was the sensible friend whose goal was to get everyone home safely. The Diversion had many challenges. As hard as it was for her, she didn't dodge it.

It was beautiful how the entire group grew. The enthusiasm exploded. Even though I sometimes gave them half a heart attack along the way. Read: lying flat on my belly in the verge after a hairpin to make videos of them.

I call it a successful weekend myself. Although I sometimes felt sorry for J-P with a group consisting of only ladies around him.

Worth repeating!

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