Anyone Have A Motorcycle?

[2 ton hoss]

MY TRUCK IS GETTING OLD NOW BUT STILL RUNS GREAT. I THINK I WILL STICK WITH IT ANOTHER 5 YEARS OR SO AT LEAST. SORRY FOLKS, BUT I HAVE JUST HAD WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES WITH JAPANESE AUTOMOBILES, MUCH BETTER THAN WITH AMERICAN.

ANYWAY, I AM THINKING OF GETTING A MOTORCYCLE. THE ONLY THING IS, I HAVE NEVER RIDDEN ONE, DON'T KNOW HOW, AND DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND I SHOULD GET. BASICALLY I NEED TO DO MY RESEARCH. HOW DO I LEARN TO RIDE? TAKE A CLASS? CAN I TAKE A CLASS WITHOUT A BIKE?

 

[Code]

Out here in California there are great motorcycle courses, they run about 300 dollars for the course, most are 16 hours courses and done on the weekends.

I commute on a bike in Bay Area traffic daily, which is both fun and dangerous. But I love it.

I ride on a Hayabusa, but it's a bike I'd suggest for beginners. My first bike was a Monster 900, which while a little powerful was a good mix of sport and street bike.

I'd suggest something in the 650cc range.

 

[georgie24]

yup

 

[HumorMe]

Hoss

This is coming from a guy (me) that never rode motorcycles so take it for what it's worth. This just happened about 3 weeks ago.

There is a guy in my town who is dying with prostate cancer. He is 44 years old. He lives just down the road from me and has been a close family friend for many years. Alot of his friends have motorcycles and wanted to do a charity poker run for him to help him financially. Some of his friends have ridden motorcycles and some have not. Some have motorcycles and some do not. To show their love and devotion for this guy, some of the guys that did not have motorcycles, went out and bought new ones....mostly Harley's. One guy in particular (50 years old) bought a brand new Harley FatBoy although he had never ridden one before. So he took the courses and practiced alot with other friends on backroads and large parking lots. As the poker run was drawing near, he and a friend were practicing on the backroads on a Sunday afternoon, when he lost control of his Harley. Currently, he is in the hospital, paralyzed from the mid-chest down. I'm sure he never thought nothing like this would happen to him but it did. He is a vice-president of a large Fortune 500 company here and has a wife and two daughters(who are in college). His life has changed completely and for the worse. It's a sad situation.

I do not want to sway your thoughts in any way about buying a motorcycle. If that is what you want to do, then do it. Just be careful. Personally, since I have never ridden motorcycles, I would never even consider buying one. I love to look at them and watch them go down the rode but that is as close as I want to get to them. Good luck on what you decide!

 

[rnch]

i had a couple of trail bikes when i was in junior high school, we rode them in the spillway, lots of mud 'n fun.

when i got my drivers' license i had 2 bikes, a 400 suzy and then a 750 susy. lotta fun, got wet alot from "popcorn" thundershowers, attracted a lot of desired attention from peeps.

hard to go on a date with a motorcycle, though.

the final straw was when i got run off the road twice in the same day, by innattentative housewives in station wagons (pre suv's and minivans).

i sold the bike and bought a 4000 pound car that i could fight back with!

 

[tybz28]

2000 kawsaki zx6r red. Gonna get a literbike someday. If you are in cali just atkle a motorcycle class ad get your license then get a good beginner bike. Go asl some questions and join the messageboard of

sportbikes.net

 

[gwl9dta4]

Ahh yes bikes are awsome. I ride currently and this is my second bike. My first was a Yamaha seca 2 and now i pilot a CBR1100 XX. Awsome bike, very smooth, refined, reliable and user friendly, nothing beats a commute to work on a bike.

Now for your question. Start by looking at a Motorcycle Safety Couse, they are run by the MSF. Go to a bike dealer and they will give you all the info you need.

If you never rode, the MSF course will save your life. But after the course you must take your time to practice all the maneuvers they teach you like:

proper braking
countersteering
turn initiation
head positioning
target fixation

You see, riding a bike i decievingly simple, hell anyone can do it after a 10 minute parctice, i bet it did not take long for you to learn to ride a bicycle when you were a kid. Well it's the same with bikes. But if you do not know what you are doing and get cocky you WILL crash. It's the cockiness that get's just about all the motorcycle guys, hell i crashed 3 times. But it's all good fun.

As for the gentleman that crashed his Harley. It was his first bike, what the hell was he doing on a bike that size and weight? Also at 44 years old i am sure he lacked a lot of the spunk that a young rider yould have and his reaction time was propably slow. But i can put money on the following

He rode above his abilities to keep up with his friends.

Would you put a newly licensed 16 year old in a ferrari f40 on a race track in a pack of seasoned drivers about to race? Ofcourse not. But people tend to look at bikes as recreational toys, and that can lead to problems.

Besides, stories like these are pointless, for every accident like this i could show you 10 car accidents where the individuals died. Not to mention train and bus accidents. But motorcycle always get such colorful mention because of the way society precieves them, as dangerous, rebellious and just plain no good. They are not the "NORM". So like anything that is different they get picked on and pointed out.

 

[Robert Jan]

My father drove a 1450 cc Suzuki racing motorcycle but he got into a serious accident with it in `94.
some old guy went through the red light.
my father drove into his door and was launched off
he broke both arms and both legs, a vertebra (spell check) in his back and his left thigh bone consisted of 51 separate pieces.

as he was shot off the motorcycle his left foot was still behind the gear changing pedal so he ripped apart his ankle as well. he flew about 50-60 feet through the air before landing on the asphalt.
Major concussion and they put his left leg back together with pins and plates, but they put it back on about 40 degrees sideways. He looks like charlie chaplin when he stands now.
9 months entirely in casts (ENTIRELY)
10 months in a wheelchair
4 months on racks
2 followup operations

He turned out alright, after reading this, he can walk, drive, sail
everything but hell....

 

[theoak01]

get ready to be raped on insurance,i was talking a deal with a buddy from work about his kawi ex 550 and they want 2761 to insure me for one riding season,its fucking insane

 

[rnch]

get ready to be raped on insurance,i was talking a deal with a buddy from work about his kawi ex 550 and they want 2761 to insure me for one riding season,its fucking insane

wattsssup oak..............yeah, i forgot about insurance, at the time state farm dry foiked me on liability only, at the time i didn't care, NOW i do!!!

 

[theoak01]

its just a one year thing for the ass raping because it drops from 2761 to 1454 next year if i get it now and thats only five hundred thousdand liability,the lowest i can get ,im just trying to decide if im going to bite the bullet,if it was monthly id be ok but its 3 payments of around 700 i believe they said

 

[HumorMe]

As for the gentleman that crashed his Harley. It was his first bike, what the hell was he doing on a bike that size and weight? Also at 44 years old i am sure he lacked a lot of the spunk that a young rider yould have and his reaction time was propably slow. But i can put money on the following

He rode above his abilities to keep up with his friends.

Would you put a newly licensed 16 year old in a ferrari f40 on a race track in a pack of seasoned drivers about to race? Ofcourse not. But people tend to look at bikes as recreational toys, and that can lead to problems.

Besides, stories like these are pointless, for every accident like this i could show you 10 car accidents where the individuals died. Not to mention train and bus accidents. But motorcycle always get such colorful mention because of the way society precieves them, as dangerous, rebellious and just plain no good. They are not the "NORM". So like anything that is different they get picked on and pointed out.

gwl9dta4

You are saying this guy was riding above his abilities to keep up with his friends. You just assumed that didn't you? In actuallity, he was trying to avoid a dog standing in the rode while coming around a corner at 35 mph and ran off on to the shoulder of the road. When he re-entered the pavement something caught and he wrecked. He wasn't trying to keep up with his friends...it was just an unfortunate accident. Besides, not knowing how young you are but didn't you say you have crashed three times and it is all good fun? That's a different kind of fun I like to have.

Anyway, to say the story is pointless....I would tend to disagree with you. You can die doing virtually anything and everything. Pointless to you but not pointless to others. I just believe that if you grew up riding dirt bikes and the such, I don't see anything wrong with riding when you get older. You definitely would have more abilities than someone who has never ridden like Hoss or this other guy. As you know, when riding a bike, you should consider yourself invisible to other motorists.

The point I was trying to convey to Hoss because he is in the same age category as my friend who had the accident is just be careful and use your best judgement when thinking about doing something like this especially since you have never done it before.

I truly love to look at Harley's and different things people do to modify them but that is as close as I would want to get to them. I just fear them because I never rode them when I was younger. I have had five friends killed on them so I hope you can see my fear besides I wouldn't trust myself on a motorcycle because if something bad is going to happen, it will probably happen to me.

This is strictly my opinion and nothing else.

 

[gwl9dta4]

You are saying this guy was riding above his abilities to keep up with his friends. You just assumed that didn't you? In actuallity, he was trying to avoid a dog standing in the rode while coming around a corner at 35 mph and ran off on to the shoulder of the road. When he re-entered the pavement something caught and he wrecked. He wasn't trying to keep up with his friends...it was just an unfortunate accident. Besides, not knowing how young you are but didn't you say you have crashed three times and it is all good fun? That's a different kind of fun I like to have.

The reason i assumed that was because that is one of the #1 causes of rookie motorcycle accidents. Most new riders have not yet developed the skills necassary to know themselves and their machines well. Then again the rookie part plays into this role again. One of the basics you learn in a MSF course is dealing with dogs on the road. You NEVER swerve to avoid them, you slow down to let them move, then speed up, so it was rider error, his second error, which i lerned the hard way also, is not treating every corner like there is an oil slick just aroud it, just assuming it clear. Unlss you are riding on a track in a controlled eviroment i will be extra cautious, especially around corners. Insurance statistics tell you that most crashed happen to inexperienced riders doing about 30mph on cruiser type bikes or caffe racers i while in turns. One panic sets in, you can forget about it.

btw i fell on 3 occasions and in each occasion i filled the statistic profile to the letter, just like gentleman you described. I made a point to never let it happen again. Knowledge is the key.

 

[Temple]

HumorMe - if you are afraid of a bike you should NEVER get on one. It is the thing that will get you hurt faster than anything. We ride occasionally with a couple of guys who are older, bought big Harley's and are scared to death of them. Not only have they almost hurt themselves but those of us who ride with them on more than one occasion. The dog in the road accident could happen to any of us - it is a risk that you take when you ride.

As for what kind of bike to buy - Harley Davidson if you can afford it as you won't take a beating on depreciation.

 

[gwl9dta4]

HumorMe - if you are afraid of a bike you should NEVER get on one. It is the thing that will get you hurt faster than anything. We ride occasionally with a couple of guys who are older, bought big Harley's and are scared to death of them. Not only have they almost hurt themselves but those of us who ride with them on more than one occasion. The dog in the road accident could happen to any of us - it is a risk that you take when you ride.

As for what kind of bike to buy - Harley Davidson if you can afford it as you won't take a beating on depreciation.

That part is true. If your are scared of them then do not get one. Can't argue with that. It's like flying a plane, a pilot must be agressive and assertive. The fear factor will CAUSE your accidents as panic is your enemy.

But i do not under any circumstances suggest a Herley as a starter bike. The only one worth the time for a rookie might be the sportster 883. Other then that they are overpriced, underpowered, extremly unreliable, some leak oil, handle like shit and brake like shit. The last 2 are the ones that WILL get a rookie into trouble FAST.

I know the Harley crowd will think their bikes are very good, but the truth is that the technology employed in them went the way of the dinosaur in other brands. I suggest a good 500-750 cc sport touring bike, like the Katana 600 as an example. They have excellent feel, braking, maneuverability and are light and easy to controll.

 

[HumorMe]

The reason i assumed that was because that is one of the #1 causes of rookie motorcycle accidents. Most new riders have not yet developed the skills necassary to know themselves and their machines well. Then again the rookie part plays into this role again. One of the basics you learn in a MSF course is dealing with dogs on the road. You NEVER swerve to avoid them, you slow down to let them move, then speed up, so it was rider error, his second error, which i lerned the hard way also, is not treating every corner like there is an oil slick just aroud it, just assuming it clear. Unlss you are riding on a track in a controlled eviroment i will be extra cautious, especially around corners. Insurance statistics tell you that most crashed happen to inexperienced riders doing about 30mph on cruiser type bikes or caffe racers i while in turns. One panic sets in, you can forget about it.

btw i fell on 3 occasions and in each occasion i filled the statistic profile to the letter, just like gentleman you described. I made a point to never let it happen again. Knowledge is the key.

I don't know if he was or had taken any courses for riding safely. If he had not then the blame lies squarely on him. I agree on all your points as dealing with never swerving and the oil spots comparisons. It was just a very unfortunate accident that happened. We never know what we might do when put into that kind of situation regardless of how much training and safety we practice. Some handle it smoothly while others freeze and forget all their training.
I just hate to see someone like Hoss decide to pursue riding when he has never done it before. I hope you can see where I am coming from because I can definitely see where you are coming from. You have been very fortunate to survive the things you say have happened to you. You are experienced with both ends of motorcycles enjoyment.......riding and wrecking. You are definitely a survivor.
Again, I am not against riding and enjoying them, I am more into the observer stance. I really love motorcycles but do not wish to ride them and have no desire to ride them.

Temple01
As in my previous posts, I think you can tell, I will never ride motorcycles because of the fear factor. Some people go through mid-life crisis deals and decide they want to do things like buy a Harley and ride with the wind in their hair. Those are the ones I fear the most as gwl9dta4 and yourself have eluded to......the ones who have no business riding them in the first place!
Now, before I get flamed to Hell and back, when I say mid-life crisis, I am talking about the average Joe Blow who all of sudden starts buying new "toys" in order to not lose the youth he once experienced. I hope you know what I am talking about. I am not generalizing people who ride motorcycles or anything like that, just so everyone knows what I am saying.

 

[gwl9dta4]

I don't know if he was or had taken any courses for riding safely. If he had not then the blame lies squarely on him. I agree on all your points as dealing with never swerving and the oil spots comparisons. It was just a very unfortunate accident that happened. We never know what we might do when put into that kind of situation regardless of how much training and safety we practice. Some handle it smoothly while others freeze and forget all their training.
I just hate to see someone like Hoss decide to pursue riding when he has never done it before. I hope you can see where I am coming from because I can definitely see where you are coming from. You have been very fortunate to survive the things you say have happened to you. You are experienced with both ends of motorcycles enjoyment.......riding and wrecking. You are definitely a survivor.
Again, I am not against riding and enjoying them, I am more into the observer stance. I really love motorcycles but do not wish to ride them and have no desire to ride them.

Temple01
As in my previous posts, I think you can tell, I will never ride motorcycles because of the fear factor. Some people go through mid-life crisis deals and decide they want to do things like buy a Harley and ride with the wind in their hair. Those are the ones I fear the most as gwl9dta4 and yourself have eluded to......the ones who have no business riding them in the first place!
Now, before I get flamed to Hell and back, when I say mid-life crisis, I am talking about the average Joe Blow who all of sudden starts buying new "toys" in order to not lose the youth he once experienced. I hope you know what I am talking about. I am not generalizing people who ride motorcycles or anything like that, just so everyone knows what I am saying.

Your responce makes perfect sence and is very well written. I agree on all points. You are definitely intelligent in knowing and admitting your own fears, if only others had the same sence and stayed off the bikes.

Sincerely: