I'm from Texas, where do you put your rifle on this thing?
Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:35 pm
Howdy everyone. I'm a new rider, just starting of at the tender age of 35. I've been interested in riding for years, but my wife had seen a bad accident and was really down on the idea of me riding. I decided that it wasn't worth disturbing the peace to indulge my riding impulse. Fast forward to today. I'm divorced, and free to indulge myself without having to concern myself with inflicting worry upon anyone, other than my mother that is. 
I don't have any riding experience, other than the MSF Basic Rider class which I completed last week. I got my license this week, I've got safety gear, insurance coverage, and as of tomorrow I'll have a bike.
As a firefighter I've seen the aftermath of some bad crashes, so I'm walking into this with my eyes open. My dad also used to ride bikes and had a pretty bad wreck that fractured his femur. Even with all this evidence of my own mortality, I want to ride anyway. I signed up for some more accident medical coverage, maybe a little morbid, and I've bought good gloves, a modular helmet, and a Cortech jacket and pants.
I went and sat on a bunch of different bikes, it was hard to find one that was right for me. Most of the salesmen at the big dealers wanted to upsell me to 800-900cc cruisers or higher. While my 32" inseam and 6'1' frame would fit those larger cruisers better, I had decided that they were too much bike for me, given my limited experience. I knew that my criteria were conflicting, I wanted a bike that wasn't bigger than 600cc, yet could operate safely on the highway when required to, and fit me right, and was forgiving for a beginning rider.
I think I found the right bike in a Honda VLX 600 Deluxe. It's probably not my ideal bike, but from all I've read I think it'll be a good starter bike. It's a 2006 with 2400 miles, and a much newer bike than I thought I could afford. Honestly it's in better shape than I was hoping. I wanted a bike that I could drop without wanting to cry, but it just felt right when I sat down on this one. I expect to ride it for awhile to get experience, then purchase a larger cruiser when I've got some miles under my belt.
I'm picking up the bike tomorrow morning, and taking it to an empty parking lot to practice some of the maneuvers from the Basic Rider course to get used to it's balance, shifting and quirks. After that it's the ride to it's new home in south Austin. I'd like to thank everyone here, especially those in the new rider forum. I've been doing a lot of research online and stumbled onto this site. I credit the help already given here with helping me to find the right bike for me.
Tex
I don't have any riding experience, other than the MSF Basic Rider class which I completed last week. I got my license this week, I've got safety gear, insurance coverage, and as of tomorrow I'll have a bike.As a firefighter I've seen the aftermath of some bad crashes, so I'm walking into this with my eyes open. My dad also used to ride bikes and had a pretty bad wreck that fractured his femur. Even with all this evidence of my own mortality, I want to ride anyway. I signed up for some more accident medical coverage, maybe a little morbid, and I've bought good gloves, a modular helmet, and a Cortech jacket and pants.
I went and sat on a bunch of different bikes, it was hard to find one that was right for me. Most of the salesmen at the big dealers wanted to upsell me to 800-900cc cruisers or higher. While my 32" inseam and 6'1' frame would fit those larger cruisers better, I had decided that they were too much bike for me, given my limited experience. I knew that my criteria were conflicting, I wanted a bike that wasn't bigger than 600cc, yet could operate safely on the highway when required to, and fit me right, and was forgiving for a beginning rider.
I think I found the right bike in a Honda VLX 600 Deluxe. It's probably not my ideal bike, but from all I've read I think it'll be a good starter bike. It's a 2006 with 2400 miles, and a much newer bike than I thought I could afford. Honestly it's in better shape than I was hoping. I wanted a bike that I could drop without wanting to cry, but it just felt right when I sat down on this one. I expect to ride it for awhile to get experience, then purchase a larger cruiser when I've got some miles under my belt.
I'm picking up the bike tomorrow morning, and taking it to an empty parking lot to practice some of the maneuvers from the Basic Rider course to get used to it's balance, shifting and quirks. After that it's the ride to it's new home in south Austin. I'd like to thank everyone here, especially those in the new rider forum. I've been doing a lot of research online and stumbled onto this site. I credit the help already given here with helping me to find the right bike for me.
Tex
