[alanmcorcoran]

I second what the other Alan said. If you aren't familiar with a clutch, you have an extra level of learning you have to do on top of the balancing, the throttle, the brakes, etc. In the class they start with people just duck walking the bike for a while and then spend a few hours just in first gear. I don't think we ever got past second gear. For those of us that had already ridden a bicycle and were familiar with shifting (from cars) it didn't take long to get moderately competent. The people that had the most difficulty in the class were the two girls that had never ridden a bicycle and had only minimal experience driving an automatic car. They had a lot more to master in the short time of the course, and one did not make it. The key here is: TAKE YOUR TIME. Baby steps. There is no rush. Just work on one thing at a time and allow ehough time for the magic of the brain and repetition do it's thing. If you are falling off, you are probably trying to do too much too fast.