At what point are you an experienced rider?

[dantama]

I saw this on something that was totally unrelated to motorcycles, but thought it might hold true to bikes too.

•at 1 hour ... you know some basics

•at 10 hours ... you have a pretty good grasp of the basics

•at 100 hours ... you are fairly expert

•at 1,000 hours ... you are an experienced expert

•at 10,000 hours ... you are a master

What do you think?

[gopjohnny]

well I got a lot of hours but I wouldnt call myself an expert

Somewhat true. The only problem is if you practice the wrong technique or practice bad habits and then you become expert at a bad habbit. It is true that the more you do something the easier it becomes; not because the nature of the task has changed, but your ability to do it has increased.

[audiogooroo]

Semantics, I think. No doubt that the longer you do anything, the more adept you become at it. I agree with what wolfman said in that you can become quite skilled in the wrong way of doing things, however it's tough to beat experience in any discipline. Most of you know that I work in pro audio, and I often deal with young bucks fresh out of college with a degree in audio engineering that they wield like a sword, but they have no application experience. Yet the guys who are the most respected in the industry, and have written all of the curriculum for the very programs these younguns just graduated from, do not themselves have a degree. Just a lifetime of real world experience. When my company did the Grammys a few years ago one of the magazine articles about the show summed things up like this: "You can always tell how important an event is by how many fat guys with gray pony tails are around during set up and rehearsal". A little off topic, but my point is that experience is a great teacher.

[dantama]

So I'm I thinking the math right that to get 10,000 hours on a bike at 60mph, you would need to go 600,000 miles?

If so, I'm no master.

Really, every bike is different; so when you get a new one you get a chance to master that one.

Then you sell that one & buy a new one & you get to master that. Etc.

Master of one bike is not master of all. It's the same with every type of machinery, and anyone that writes differently is a writer and no master of machinery.

At work we get a big award if we can drive (accident free) 1,000,000 line miles or 20,000 hours in the city doing pick up and delivery. 20,000 hours accident free driving in the city and you ARE a master!

Looking at the math, 10,000 hours represents about 5.2 years of 8 hour, 240 day/year work years.

Lots of apprenticeships in days past were 12~14 hour days for 7 years, so to be called a master of anything in just 10,000 hours may be a bit optimistic.

IMO, a master mechanic has gotta have at least 10 years of experience.

Originally Posted by Dan Lund

I saw this on something that was totally unrelated to motorcycles, but thought it might hold true to bikes too.

•at 1 hour ... you know some basics

•at 10 hours ... you have a pretty good grasp of the basics

•at 100 hours ... you are fairly expert

•at 1,000 hours ... you are an experienced expert

•at 10,000 hours ... you are a master

What do you think?

Experience..... the longer you ride the better you should get.... but there's always the case of having 1 hours experience 10,000 times!

[ponch]

It depends on the challenges faced within that time.

Originally Posted by Dan Lund

I saw this on something that was totally unrelated to motorcycles, but thought it might hold true to bikes too.

•at 1 hour ... you know some basics

•at 10 hours ... you have a pretty good grasp of the basics

•at 100 hours ... you are fairly expert

•at 1,000 hours ... you are an experienced expert

•at 10,000 hours ... you are a master

What do you think?

[ringadingh]

Ive been riding almost 40 years and I don't feel that I could call myself an master. I can't ride a bike as well as I could 30 years ago. Look how many kids today could ride circles around us. I do have a lot more experience on knowing what my limitations are now, whereas back then I was pushing the envelope as far as seeing what the capabilities were. I used to be able to push the bikes to there limits, now the bike is capable of more than I can push it to. I guess that comes with age, and a slower healing process. Some bikes are easier to ride and handle better at speed, whereas the big cruisers are slow and comfortable.
I think Ive found my comfort zone with the Nomad.

[dantama]

If we go by that chart, I'm an experienced expert nearly 3 times over, but less than halfway there on becoming a master.

I think that I've got the mechanical operation of a bike down to about a Master level, but it takes a lot of years, plus wisdom and maturity, to get the rest of motorcycling to a master level.

I'm a bit behind on the wisdom and maturity part, but as some have said, you can have a lot of experience doing the wrong thing. I've followed a lot of grizzled looking hard core older riders that I don't know how they managed to stay alive with their bad riding.

[blowndodge]

I would think miles traveled would be a better yardstick. Of all the streetbikes I've owned over the past 34 years I've got roughly 300k on streetbikes. 2 Barstow to Vegas races. 8 years of professional motorcycle drag racing so I'm a mut with several hats?

I took my XR600 out a few weeks ago and within 5 minutes I could ride 2nd through 5th without putting the front wheel down. I was surprised I remembered the balance after such a long time.

Really, time and miles is the only tools for experience. Lots of close calls sharpens your reactions.

[justbrian]

Can some of those hours count when you are sitting on you bike in your garge. you know like logging a scuba dive in the neighborhood golfcorse pond while looking for golfballs and your golfclubs

No, but if you can actually do figure eights and circles inside the garage without hitting the walls, that would count.