New to Forum, Not to motorcycles though! My thoughts...Long!
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 6:40 pm
I am new to this "Forum" Thing, not new to motorcycling though. I have been riding for a long long time, I do not consider myself an expert by any means, I like to say never relax to soon. Meaning you are more apt to have a mishap when you get to comfortable with your skills. For all the newbies to this lifestyle, I will give you my 2 cents and I know from reading this forum for a while, that not everyon will agree with it...
Take a minute to read all the posts that sound interesting, you will realize that you don't need to ask alot of your questions... Like what is the best first bike.
If you never rode before on a "Street Bike" any bike will put a smile on your face! Forget about looks that is not important as you will soon realize, you can also make any bike look cool, and any bike is fast.
I have had and still have alot of bikes that varied greatly in every aspect.
I have had small bikes both height, weight, and motor size and i have had large heavey slow and fast bikes, sport bikes standards cruisers and UJM's (anybody still use that term)?
Around town, I love them all for one reason or another however at highway speeds and turns they all weren't great!
I haven't found a perfect all around bike yet, but I am happy on all of them pretty much Except the nighthawk, I actually get scared on it when cornering at high speeds and the suspension is shakey even at low speeds, The forks are squishey and it likes to nose dive.
I have heard this from alot of people and the only only aftermarket performance parts I have found are pipes and they were hard to find. Vance and Hines megaphones, sound great though.
What I want to say is Learn from my mistakes, don't rush into buying a bike, start used, cruisers and starter bikes are usually not abused real bad aside from beginers dropping them etc. sportbikes even when maintained well are probably gonna be a little more used.
Try to get a test drive on the bike, sitting on it in the showroom isn't gonna mean much when it comes to handleing and my pet peeve, throttle response, and comfort, on the sv650 it was torquey on the throttle and it had the stock clip-ons that really made my hands numb and Though I loved the bike I found that I avoided riding it because my hands hurt for the rest of the day.
I finally sold it at a loss. I should not have jumped into it.
Throttle reponse to me is when you barely touch the throttle and the bike jerks with a ton of force which can be dangerous to a beginner or the opposite, when you are in the correct gear and you need the bike to move quickly and you twist the throttle and....Nothing, it has a small lag and then it launches, this to can be dangerous to a novice as well as an experienced rider.
Now to stray a little bit in the midst of my rambling, The big sport bikes you are wanting so bad come with things you don't want, extremely high insurance in most cases, I am a bad example as in New Jersey there are no GOOD insurance rates! But with my years and years of riding and my clean record and my MSF course, I was quoted almost $2000.00 for full coverage on a Ninja that I paid $3000.00 for!
Talk about sticker shock! I shopped around and found a company that insures based on engine size not bike type so I got lucky. However you may not be that lucky, The company I use is limited to military only (USAA) They are great you don't even need to be in the military, you just need to prove that someone in your direct family was EX. granparent, parent, spouse etc. Not like aunts uncles or friends. Well worth looking into.
Another thing, they all seem to have govenors 180 mph seems to be the magic number! almost all bikes will out run a car from light to light so you will still feel like you are fast enough!
(Though I strongly urge against street racing, it is illeagal and dangerous)
I have a career that puts me face to face with a lot of cycle accidents they are not pretty and more common than you think, alot of them are a result of the rider not riding defensively always be aware of the cages all around you, expect them to pull out in front of you, tailgate you and of course not see you!
Where bright colors and make some noise when you think they can't see you, honk the horn or rev it up! be seen!
Keep the racing on the track! Don't do it on the street, you can get hurt or killed or kill someone else.
Use common sense and like my dad always said..."The faster you go, the faster you get killed" Not 100% true but you get the idea!
Well I haven't even scratched the surface on all my thoughts I would like to share but I don't want to torture everyone fast!
I will continue to read these forums as there is a ton of valuable free information in here from people who have incredible knowlege!
Just take time to look through it all and you are sure to learn something!
I learn something everytime I stop by! If only I could learn how to write a post and spell, then I would be halfway there!
Don't hesitate to ask me questions I am always willing to help! However my motorcycle mechanical skills are limited to routine maitnence, All tunes ups etc, are done by a buddy who does it for a living and only charges for parts and beers! Can't beat that!
Bikers are great people, take a minute to get to know them before bashing there opinions in there posts
Bored.
Take a minute to read all the posts that sound interesting, you will realize that you don't need to ask alot of your questions... Like what is the best first bike.
If you never rode before on a "Street Bike" any bike will put a smile on your face! Forget about looks that is not important as you will soon realize, you can also make any bike look cool, and any bike is fast.
I have had and still have alot of bikes that varied greatly in every aspect.
I have had small bikes both height, weight, and motor size and i have had large heavey slow and fast bikes, sport bikes standards cruisers and UJM's (anybody still use that term)?
Around town, I love them all for one reason or another however at highway speeds and turns they all weren't great!
I haven't found a perfect all around bike yet, but I am happy on all of them pretty much Except the nighthawk, I actually get scared on it when cornering at high speeds and the suspension is shakey even at low speeds, The forks are squishey and it likes to nose dive.
I have heard this from alot of people and the only only aftermarket performance parts I have found are pipes and they were hard to find. Vance and Hines megaphones, sound great though.
What I want to say is Learn from my mistakes, don't rush into buying a bike, start used, cruisers and starter bikes are usually not abused real bad aside from beginers dropping them etc. sportbikes even when maintained well are probably gonna be a little more used.
Try to get a test drive on the bike, sitting on it in the showroom isn't gonna mean much when it comes to handleing and my pet peeve, throttle response, and comfort, on the sv650 it was torquey on the throttle and it had the stock clip-ons that really made my hands numb and Though I loved the bike I found that I avoided riding it because my hands hurt for the rest of the day.
I finally sold it at a loss. I should not have jumped into it.
Throttle reponse to me is when you barely touch the throttle and the bike jerks with a ton of force which can be dangerous to a beginner or the opposite, when you are in the correct gear and you need the bike to move quickly and you twist the throttle and....Nothing, it has a small lag and then it launches, this to can be dangerous to a novice as well as an experienced rider.
Now to stray a little bit in the midst of my rambling, The big sport bikes you are wanting so bad come with things you don't want, extremely high insurance in most cases, I am a bad example as in New Jersey there are no GOOD insurance rates! But with my years and years of riding and my clean record and my MSF course, I was quoted almost $2000.00 for full coverage on a Ninja that I paid $3000.00 for!
Talk about sticker shock! I shopped around and found a company that insures based on engine size not bike type so I got lucky. However you may not be that lucky, The company I use is limited to military only (USAA) They are great you don't even need to be in the military, you just need to prove that someone in your direct family was EX. granparent, parent, spouse etc. Not like aunts uncles or friends. Well worth looking into.
Another thing, they all seem to have govenors 180 mph seems to be the magic number! almost all bikes will out run a car from light to light so you will still feel like you are fast enough!
(Though I strongly urge against street racing, it is illeagal and dangerous)
I have a career that puts me face to face with a lot of cycle accidents they are not pretty and more common than you think, alot of them are a result of the rider not riding defensively always be aware of the cages all around you, expect them to pull out in front of you, tailgate you and of course not see you!
Where bright colors and make some noise when you think they can't see you, honk the horn or rev it up! be seen!
Keep the racing on the track! Don't do it on the street, you can get hurt or killed or kill someone else.
Use common sense and like my dad always said..."The faster you go, the faster you get killed" Not 100% true but you get the idea!
Well I haven't even scratched the surface on all my thoughts I would like to share but I don't want to torture everyone fast!
I will continue to read these forums as there is a ton of valuable free information in here from people who have incredible knowlege!
Just take time to look through it all and you are sure to learn something!
I learn something everytime I stop by! If only I could learn how to write a post and spell, then I would be halfway there!
Don't hesitate to ask me questions I am always willing to help! However my motorcycle mechanical skills are limited to routine maitnence, All tunes ups etc, are done by a buddy who does it for a living and only charges for parts and beers! Can't beat that!
Bikers are great people, take a minute to get to know them before bashing there opinions in there posts
Bored.