Total Motorcycle Community Forums

My name is Joe, I'm 29, and I live in the mountians of SW Virginia. Exactly one week ago I had never ridden any type of motorized 2 wheeled viehicle except a moped a few times when I was a little kid. On Wednesday of last week I had my Suzuki GZ250 delivered to my house and have been riding like a madman ever since.

I will be taking the MSF course in August but until then I am totally on my own to learn becuase I don't know anybody else that rides. By that point though I seriously wonder if I will even need it. I mean, I can already ride without any problems, can change gears and whatnot (if you read my previous post I have refined my downshifting technique), plus I have read tons of stuff for beginning riders online so it might be kind of pointless by then. We'll see though. Maybe Ill just take the exprienced rider course next year before I get a bigger bike. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pro by any means, 40 or more MPH and a little wind still scares me shitless at this point but take away the wind and 55MPH is no problem. Truthfully 55MPH is really about as fast as I would ever want to go anyway. Thats why I bought a cruiser. So I can CRUISE.

Anyway, the problem I'm having is that perhaps becuase of my size (6' tall, 260LBS.), and the fact that my back and shoulders are so big and wide from years of concrete and steel work, no matter what position I put my mirrors in I can't see behind me at all. All I can see is my arms. I tried some of those little stick on wide angle mirrors but they didn't help. Because add-on parts for the GZ250 are very limited, I haven't been able to find any kind of mirrors that I am confident will work. At this point I don't really know much about what kind of parts work with what. All I know is that these mirrors screw in vertically to the levers. Right now I can't see behind myself at all and this makes me very uncomfortable while I'm riding.

So what should I do? Anybody have suggestions or know what I need to order to fix my problem? The Suzuki dealer I bought my bike from is about 40 miles away and they didn't really carry any mirrors anyway so I will have to order online.

Thanks.

go out and buy small mirrors, like wemons make up ones, and attach then to your mirriors, making them longer in essense. Or, find mirrors that are big from a different bike and just swap em


JWF

As far as the MSF, I would still take it. I had the same opinion as you, once I got used to shifting, and riding normally, I didn't think I needed to know anything else, until I got in an accident less than a week after I started riding, and realized i didn't have anything kind of crash avoidence skills. So I took the MSF, and I now I'm pretty confident thatn if a cager pulls out in front of me again, I'll be able to safely avoid a collision. The things I learned in the MSF were invaluable, swerving, panic stopping, weaving, etc.

As far as the mirrors, I had the same problem, and ended up loosening the entire lever/mirror assembly, and rotating it back a little, which gave me alot better view.

I just won These they might be the sort of thing you're looking for. I'll let you know how they work out when I get them installed. Though I've heard good things about barend mirrors before.

I purchased mirrors with longer stems from jcwhitney.com

How did you win those, and how do you mount them?

I offered the most money for them on the auction, hence I won the auction.

I have not yet mounted them (they're currently making their way here from the UK), but I should be able to clamp them onto my barends.

Oh, I thought you meant you won them in a contest or something. Anyway, my bike doesn't have bar ends that are accesible, the grips cover the ends of the bars. So do your bike's grips not cover the end of the bar, or do you have to cut or something?

Uhhh, my bike has little metal ends that screw into the bars and stick out past the grips. So I'll just clamp them onto there. The other option is to remove the inset inside the bars and the mirrors I bought have a plug that fits into the bars instead.

If you've got grips that cover the bar end you'd need to either cut them, or buy new ones.

The books and practice are great but the MSF will offer some crash avoidance skills that are priceless. I know people that have ridden for years and have taken the class and have still learned new skills.