Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I am 38 years old and I am a very cautious person by nature. I am in shape but work out so I am 220 6ft1. I am not sure how weight and height come in to play.

I live in a country type environment with many country roads.

I am currently taking motorcycle classes with the DMV. I have never ridden previous to this.

Thanks for your help....

Shorts wrote:

spin wrote:i never said that i am not a new rider, nor a gifted one.
i am a newb, agreed. i dont know if i will be a great rider.

i am merely defending my decision to buy the bike i bought.
physically i can handle it and mentally i know i can also.

i am responding to the original poster that i made the same decision he did.

i dont understand your message?

Aww scrap! I thought you were the OP. Sorry for the mixup.

ok. not sure what the difference is between me and the OP.
the 695 is a little bigger than my bike but we are with the same point of view.

The guy who has commented on his Ducati is not me. Anyhow I included some info about me and my riding ability. If you guys care to comment on me purchasing a Ducati 695 for my first bike I'd appreciate it.

Chris

The guy who has commented on his Ducati is not me. Anyhow I included some info about me and my riding ability. If you guys care to comment on me purchasing a Ducati 695 for my first bike I'd appreciate it.

Chris

clgrant wrote:I am 38 years old and I am a very cautious person by nature. I am in shape but work out so I am 220 6ft1. I am not sure how weight and height come in to play.

I live in a country type environment with many country roads.

I am currently taking motorcycle classes with the DMV. I have never ridden previous to this.

Thanks for your help....

go for it!

i live in a congested area so i need to be more cautious with the timeframe i ride to minimize traffic.

be sure to check out ducatimonster.org

clgrant wrote:I am 38 years old and I am a very cautious person by nature. I am in shape but work out so I am 220 6ft1. I am not sure how weight and height come in to play.

I live in a country type environment with many country roads.

I am currently taking motorcycle classes with the DMV. I have never ridden previous to this.

Thanks for your help....

go for it!

i live in a congested area so i need to be more cautious with the timeframe i ride to minimize traffic.

be sure to check out ducatimonster.org

Well, it's kinda like a broken record...... but here we go again!

I'm addressing the spirit of comments above by both spin with his (new to him) Monster 620, and Chris, contemplating a Monster 695.

The following two traits are not necessarily well correlated with riding a motorcycle as a beginner:

• physical strength - athleticism
  maturity

I'm glad you guys have those traits. Please don't count on them to keep you safe on a motorcycle as a beginner. To ride successfully, you need kinesthetic skills and association of those skills to trained mental reactions. This develops independently of either atheticism or maturity. Yes, maturity may lead you to good practice habits to acquire those kinesthetic skills more quickly. So it's indirectly associated. Physical strength will only help if you happen to drop your bike.

It's entirely possible and maybe likely that both you guys will master riding and be accomplished riders on those Ducs. They're cool bikes. But you'll have to have your heads on straight, and thinking athleticism and maturity are substitutes for the skills you really need isn't clear thinking.

its a gamble, really, you might be a very talented rider, or you might be a terrible rider; and one things for sure athletics, height, maturity and all that crap has nothing to do with it. I see riders who start on R1s and CBR 600 RRs and don't get even a hassle from their bikes; and then again, I see the riders who start on rebel 250s and Suzuki dr200s and ends up poppin a wheelie and getting hospitalized. The chance of the top scenario happening is much less likely than the bottom one happening but you just never know.

jstark47 wrote:thinking athleticism and maturity are substitutes for the skills you really need isn't clear thinking.

i respectfully disagree with your assessement of both mine and the OP's comments. i apologize if this is a broken record to you but i think you arent reading what we are saying and just replying with generic opinions.

where are we off base?

1) maturity - we understand we are riding big bikes and will proceed with caution
2) athleticism - we are strong enough to PHYSICALLY handle a bigger bike
3) when do we infer we will not 'practice'
4)when do we say we dont need skills because we are athletic or mature??

again, these are simply generic reactions.

OP: sorry this thread got a bit hijacked.

Your physical strength has nothing to do with precise control of the throttle, brakes, etc. That's what you and your ego haven't figured out yet. What we're talking about is fine muscle control that is programmed into you through repetition, a process made easier by a more forgiving motorcycle.