Total Motorcycle Community Forums

JswOrLd316 wrote: Hellow, Bikers my name is jonathan and i'm 16 years old and i have never ridden a bike and i want to get a hayabussa.
NO im just playing this is my real story.
I'm 16 years old and i live in NYC. I love bikes i grew up with bikes, my father had 3 bikes and all my cousins had one. i ridden a bike before but im not an expert. Im very mature about this bike thing, i know the risks and the dangers involve with bikes. I have read a couple of riding books. I know that i should start with a small bike, thats find with me but the thing is, im not sure wether i should get a bike or wait a year or so. Im planning on taking the MSF course this summer but the money is kind of tight right now so i'm goin to have to wait. I want my first bike to be a GS500F. IS the gs500f a good bike?
Please help me and give me advise on what should i do.
http://www.JJsGiftShop.showroomcorner.com

Hey there. I'm 17 now. When I was sixteen, I wanted a bike. Realllly bad. I almost got one too, but then decided I'd buy a fancy stereo and wait for the bike.

I then got a car. A Subaru Legacy L with a 5 speed manual transmission. Not really what you'd consider a "performance" car, but it takes corners and has a fun engine. I told myself "I'll never drive that fast.. I won't be agressive... I'll never learn how to heal-toe, rev match perfectly, or find out how fast is too fast around a corner!"

Wooooweeee. That was optimistic.

I am now a driving FANATIC! Same car, different driver so to speak. It took a quick jaunt off the side of a country road one summer to sober me up, and realize that bad things CAN happen! Fast foward a year or so, and now I have very good control over my car, I know my limits, its limits, and the limits of responsibility. I won't say I don't have fun, but I don't endanger others. Sunny afternoon? People will be walking. Drive slow. 2:30pm? School kids. 11:30pm? Cops. 3am on the backroads? Have a ball, but don't crash.

Why that silly paragraph about cars on a motorcycle forum? Simple really: If my first experience with horsepower was on a bike, chances are very good my little "bump-BUMP" off the road at 25mph could have rendered me rather broken. A slip up with a bike's manual tranny at an intersection could have been cataclysmic.

Wait a year. Drive a lot. When I say a lot, I mean 2-3+ years of what would be "regular" driving, and cram it all into one year. Get good with feeling G-Forces, when a tire is saying "Mmmkay, I can't hold on much longer," how to tell when a motorist cares more about thier hair than you, etc.

I was 16, someone said wait a year and drive a lot. I thought they were silly. They're not, they're right.


</SOAPBOX>

He is right ^. You should know how to drive ( and "know" means driving for at LEAST a year by yourself, everyday) a car before you attempt a street bike. You dont want to learn how to handle and ride a bike, as well as the rules of the road at the same time. That first small fender bender that you have in a car during your first year of driving could be fatal if you were on a bike. Food for thought.

emperorjordan wrote:He is right ^. You should know how to drive ( and "know" means driving for at LEAST a year by yourself, everyday) a car before you attempt a street bike. You dont want to learn how to handle and ride a bike, as well as the rules of the road at the same time. That first small fender bender that you have in a car during your first year of driving could be fatal if you were on a bike. Food for thought.

Let me add to that post... it should be a _MANUAL_ transmission.




Not some Oprah-fan device they call automatics.

Kal wrote:I just bought my step up bike on eBay. £107.50

Turquoise 1982 Honda CB250N

I'm well chuffed!

Hey you sneaked that in quietly in a random post, Congrats!

JswOrLd316 wrote: Hellow, Bikers my name is jonathan and i'm 16 years old and i have never ridden a bike and i want to get a hayabussa.
NO im just playing this is my real story.
I'm 16 years old and i live in NYC. I love bikes i grew up with bikes, my father had 3 bikes and all my cousins had one. i ridden a bike before but im not an expert. Im very mature about this bike thing, i know the risks and the dangers involve with bikes. I have read a couple of riding books. I know that i should start with a small bike, thats find with me but the thing is, im not sure wether i should get a bike or wait a year or so. Im planning on taking the MSF course this summer but the money is kind of tight right now so i'm goin to have to wait. I want my first bike to be a GS500F. IS the gs500f a good bike?
Please help me and give me advise on what should i do.
http://www.JJsGiftShop.showroomcorner.com

Hi, please listen to the warnings...
I am 36yo now and have always wanted a bike since I was 15, but my parents wouldn't let me have one. I started driving cars and learned a lot about driving techniques, etc... But the most important lesson I have learned in the past 20 years is this, no matter how skilled a driver you are there exists an idiot somewhere that will make you his victim. What you learn from years of driving protected in a cage is how to read other drivers sharing the road with you, and how to read road conditions and how people react to them. And I swear, no one can really teach you those; only experience will.

I highly recommend you start driving a MANUAL transmission car for several years, and drive a lot in different situations and conditions. And while doing so, maybe get into dirt bikes in controlled conditions (track or something) and with coaching, to keep the bike bug happy! In a few years you'll be able to look back and evaluate your skills and capabilities and make an educated decision whether you still want a street bike. Mistakes on bikes are seldom forgiving...

By the way, I just got my first bike ever last week. Every time I go out, I look at my wife and kids and pray that I will come back in one piece. After 20 years of being on the road, I really know how bad it can be and its scary.

Keep yourself safe, you have a lifetime to live...