It's great to be here

[caine74]

Found this site a while back and and finally decided to join up .

I started feeling the urge to ride when I was a young boy, but I was never allowed to have any kind of motorcycle. I ended up using friends ATV's and little mini-bikes whenever I would stay at a friends house that had something I could ride.

Fast forward to the age of 35, and the feeling to ride was now unbearable. I got all the books I could about riding and started working on my wife to let me ride. Being a nurse she was not very sure at first about me riding, but had herself been riding many years when she was a kid with her dad. After I turned 36 she started to relax some about me getting a bike and now at 37 she has let me ride a friends bike. My friend has been teaching me to ride in a large parking lot on a Ducati 620 Multistrada. The bike has been wonderful to learn on and my skills going around the cones has increased quickly. I can't wait until the day I get my license and have free reign to ride all the time. I don't know when I will get my first bike, but getting to ride anything (within reason for my n00bie skills) has been a real treat. I have all my gear to protect me from head to toe and strive to learn as much as a I can without doing things I'm not ready for. Missouri roads aren't the best so better to learn as much as a I can before I get on them.

I may still try and take the MSF course at some point because I don't think it hurts to have all the practice I can get. I have no illusion that I am a great rider or even okay at this point, I try to remind myself to be humble and just have fun.

I am very happy to be here officially and hope to learn lots and get to know the other members here as well.

Just a bit more about myself: I am 37, have a wonderful wife and 3 great kids – 9 boy, 9 girl, and 7 boy. I work in IT security and love my job almost every day

[totalmotorcycle]

Welcome Caine to the Total Motorcycle Community! I think you will really enjoy it here.

This might help you out as well, our Total Motorcycle Beginners Guide to Motorcycling:http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/school.htm

You are about to embark on an epic journey, a journey into motorcycling that will change your life and how you view the road forever... (pretty good intro I think for you).

Practice is good, but if you do it before you take your MSF then you will develop some hard to break bad riding habits, practice after MSF is worth it's weight in gold. An MSF course is more than "learning to ride" it also teaches you confidence, lowers your insurance costs, meet other riders starting out and gives you an idea of what style of bike you like to ride too. Do consider it.

There are so many bikes to choose from, anything catch your eye? http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/Motorcyc ... -Index.htm

Feel free to ask lots of questions and we will give you lots of answers.

Welcome to the world of riding!

Mike

[mogster]

2 non biking remarks.......

I am going to Calne, Wiltshire later this month.


I too have children of the same age, tho they are both girls & aged 22!

Oh & nice bike too! ::lol:

[blues2cruise]

Welcome to TMW, Caine.

When you do eventually get a bike, what kind do you think you'll get?

[totalmotorcycle]

caine74, what's new?

[caine74]

blues2cruise - it is hard to decide my first bike to be honest. I see loads of people on the Ninja 250 which doesn't bother to much, but I also like the Ducati Multistrada 620, and there are tons other cruiser type bikes that are under 500 from Japan. I figure I won't be on the bike forever, so when I'm ready for something bigger I really want a Triumph as my first big boy bike.

[caine74]

I just got signed up for the MSF course here in Missouri. I am very excited to get to do the course. I'm glad that it is in August though, since I decided to miss the last step on my stairs. Now my left foot is black and blue with torn tendons. The doctor tells me 3 weeks wearing an aircast and then I'm ready to go.

I have all my gear purchased so I don't have to worry about that stuff.

[totalmotorcycle]

Caine, that is awesome you have signed up for your MSF course! You must be stoked!

So many good choices under 500cc for your first bike, but don't go thinking 500cc is "too small" you can be very happy with one of these for several years! Light, fast, agile and cheap on gas/insurance, what more could you ask for??

Don't be fooled, bigger bikes come at a price and a pro/con list.

Mike

[caine74]

thank you for the info total.

I'm definitely not the kind of person to show off with a big bike. It seems that most bike manufactures try and show you only the big stuff (being 800+ cc) sizes bikes. You really have to look (mostly in the Japanese bikes) to find a bike in the 500 cc or smaller.