FIRST RIDING LESSONS

        

        

What was it like to ride a motorbike for the first time ? 

  - Terrible, embarrassed and worthy are three adjectives that can describe my feelings.-

 Unlike my peers, I did hesitate about learning how to control a motorcycle. Not until I was a junior university students, did I make up mind. In my respective, street bikes are more likely to get into an accident, but the matter of fact is that in Vietnam, if you are on a low budget, they are considered as the best vehicles which can take you to every corner of such a bustle and hustle city. My first teachers were members of my family. They tried to show me some simplest ways to memorize some major parts of a Yamaha Serius and necessary steps to control it.

"Oh, Gosh! My world is shaking and I am about to fall down." said me. 

In fact, I didn't hold my handlebars tight and direct them on the right track.

" Remember that someone is sitting right behind you and your concentration mustn't be lack. However safe they are depends on you." said my father. 

 At once, conflicting thoughts popped into my mind: should I give up or carry on?

Whether or not, I had to handle stress and fears when I got on it. My first practice was still under control of my father. In general, it happened in a safe way. 

           I did another try after my third summer vacation ended, which means I returned to Ho Chi Minh city. Those days, I made a big decision to move to a new dorm. To save up my money for other more important purposes, I borrowed a motorbike from my roommate and managed to carry all my personal belongings to the dorm. To be honest, it became completely a disaster because I didn't get used to it yet. Some main components were placed differently and I needed some time to remember all of them.

After a short while, I decided to start the engine and ride it. Normally, moving on flat roads seemed to be a lot easier. Eventually, I reached the dorm and figured out that I had never ridden a bike over any step😕. All of a sudden, a younger boy showed up and he gave me a new idea of managing this situation. Why didn’t I do the same way he has already finished ?  I ended up holding the handlebars while the engine was still on and tried to take my underbone with me. I slipped my mind that I didn’t get any experience of doing that before. It came to a deeply embarrassing moment that I was unconsciously dragged by the bike. My hands were holding handlebars and I was running along with it at the same time. “ What’s on earth going on? Stop!” I freaked out and dropped my handlebars in time. I fell down right afterwards. “ Thanks my goodness.”  My so - called horse didn’t fell on me and just some scratches above my knees and elbows. I was given a big laugh from lookers-on. How hilarious! Nowhere I could hide myself at that moment. 😄

             Anyway, I learned a lot from the failure. An worrying issue was that a mirror was broken and wave alpha was not mine. I came back to my rented room and apologized for my crazy mistake. She did say nothing and took me to a small motor care shop for replacing a new one, but no mirror could fit. Then, she told me that learning from falling was learning to ride. She used to fall down on the ground for the first rides. That was reason why she let me go alone with my stuff.

Street bikes such as underbones and scooters are popular in Vietnam.

         My third lesson of riding a bike was when I went on a trip with my elder sister in a highland city. This time, my confidence and courage was built up, so I asked her for controlling her Yamaha Serius and she sat right behind to instruct me in urgent cases. The roads in the mountains are absolutely different from those in cities. The roads snake their ways through mountains and are uneven, which requires riders a great deal of concentration of adjusting their gears and gas as well as controlling handlebars and brakes. I undoubtedly failed to achieve these goals. In a great attempt to reach an uphill slope, we were almost unable to go up and ran down instead. "Shift your motorbike to first gear and you can go up to the top." We followed that instruction from a passerby and we did it! " We nearly died because of you! How terrible!" said my sister.😓 Since then, my family hasn't allowed me to ride a motorbike on hill roads.