Well, realistically, I was thinking an afternoon locally.
And you wouldn't be able to keep up with me as I lane split thru Vacaville:
Advice on buying my first Motorcycle?
- Thread starter -BB-
- Start date
And you wouldn't be able to keep up with me as I lane split thru Vacaville:
The video, while cheesy, is very enlightening, as well. Never read the book, but a buddy loaned me the video.
Like everyone said, take the MSF course. If the class doesn't seem like reinforcement of common sense you may want to consider taking the bus. Not knocking the MSF course, what they say is pretty much gospel. I'm not the kind of person to buy into a any kind of program but what they teach is solid.
Ride with both a sense of freedom and borderline schizophrenic paranoia. the moto is the path to enlightenment and they are trying to kill you.
Ride with both a sense of freedom and borderline schizophrenic paranoia. the moto is the path to enlightenment and they are trying to kill you.
my two suggestions based on what I get to see on a regular basis [plus personal experience]. Take a Motorcycle Safety Course and wear full leathers/boots/gloves and a full face helmet at all times. Those that wear full gear get to walk away most of the time. Those that don't end up in the hospital in a world of hurt most of the time. If you ride, sooner or later you will go down. I went down without the leathers and spent 9 days in ICU, it really sucked.
hawwwttwell, realistically, i was thinking an afternoon locally.
And you wouldn't be able to keep up with me as i lane split thru vacaville:
I saw a wr250x in the classifieds for cheap. Looked like a decent supermoto esque bike. Might take forever to get up to speed, but probably faster than a yaris.
damn, SJ has some nice legs!!Well, realistically, I was thinking an afternoon locally.
And you wouldn't be able to keep up with me as I lane split thru Vacaville:
Quoted for truth.
Don't discount a WR250, those little buggers have some pep if you are light. My fat ass makes them cry, but for a 150lb dude, they can be wicked fun at high revs.
Mid-life crisis alert! Run for the hills. Manscaping will surely follow.
I'm going to lay it down while I'm going slow/learning in a controlled environment. I have a knack for balance sports that do not involve "catching air". Was more thinking along the lines of when I learned to use clipless... That slow speed stall kinda thing.
I have no interest in any of that. I'm simply looking for a way to reduce the $100 I pay every week in Gas on my crew-cab pick-up. Oh, and get to ride carpool lanes by myself. Utilitarian 100%.I got a '77 KZ400 earlier this season right after I got done with ride school....that is my only suggestion is ride school. It has already saved my ass a few times cuz you get develop muscle memory for what it takes to stop quick, swerve quick etc...all on a closed course. PLUS you usually dont have to do the skills test at the DMV.
Be prepared to get hooked. I LOVE riding. I love the noise my bike makes (no mufflers
You may not save gas, cuz if you are like me you will take the long way where ever you go. I almost always drive down the lake front whether it is on the way or not.
You get to lane split in Cali. I bet that would be a thrill.
I hate the noise, I hate the "image" (why I dont want a rice rocket or Harley), if I want that sense of freedom, I'll go MTB. I dont even want to "go fast" or accelerate fast.
Shoot, I'd get a scooter if it could make highway speeds.
Last edited:
My commute is 12.6 miles door to door via Skyline, or 11 miles mostly freeway. I somehow manage to do 60+ miles a day between lunchtime rides and to/from work.
I go mostly straight here on my way in, just a roundabout way. A quick out and back at lunch, then depending on the hour, a scenic ride home. My office backs to the west hills, so I am only a few blocks from Skyline and Germantown road.
Sounds more like you want a Honda Civic rather than a motorcycle. I'd take the class, get your permit and rent or try a bike before buying. Way too many people buy motorcycles only to turn around and sell them a week later. It's definitely not for everyone.
That does sound like sound advice. Especially the renting part. I'm not gonna be able to afford a car though. A bike would pay for itself (minus insurance I guess) in about 6 months... so even if I didnt keep it more than a year I still save $$.
Plus, out here avg winter temp is about 68 degrees... it never freezes and it only rains about 7 times per year, so bikes make sense year round.
You'll probably end up liking it more than you think. I know I did.
Haha... certainly a possibilityYou'll probably end up liking it more than you think. I know I did.
Toshi will agree:
http://www.totalcontroltraining.net
His book is awesome. I have not taken his course, but met him at Leguna Seca and he is a very cool and interesting dude.
Take the class, get Parks (or the others mentioned) book/video, read, study, ride.
I took the class, got Parks book, and within about 2 months was riding circles around my buddies. I put 10k miles on my FZ1 the first year, 12k miles on my R1 in 9 months, 4k miles on the Buell in 6 months, and I have a little over 8k miles on the Triumph in less than a year.
I put on miles. I also put on gear (Gloves, jacket, full face lid), even for Bike Night at the strip club.
Harley riders are jackasses
<edit> I am not wearing my boots, but I do when I am going to reach speed.
is that a bag hanging from your bros' frame near the ground?
I was gonna say...you need a scooter...or a prius!
My commute is <3 miles...I needed to make it more fun.
My primary reason for buying a motorcycle was commuting and before my MSF class, I had a total of zero hours on a motorcycle. I don't think I even touched a throttle until the class.
As a motorcycle rider, my experience was exactly the same as every noob in the class. But I was making recommendations on every classroom traffic scenario and my tires didn't touch a line during the riding test.
Why was that? Because I have 100,000 miles of bicycling experience. I've ridden through more intersections than my instructor and the day before the class, I cleaned this on my mountain bike. Waterdog Park
I still took it slowly after I got my first motorcycle, but 3 weeks later, I rode to work, 40 miles. What surprised me is that my ride home, I started lanesplitting for the first time. It came naturally because I already had hundreds of hours splitting traffic on my bicycle.
In the first few months, I wasn't perfect. I stalled out several times and I remember an unusual fear of curving off-ramp concrete barriers. But I also had no incidents of panic or deleterious indecision because I had so much experience on two wheels prior.
Now when I give advice to noobs about learning how to ride a motorcycle, usually the first thing I say is to ride a bicycle in traffic. You at least experience what life is like outside your cage.
As for BB, I don't know his experience on two wheels, but he is asking the same questions I did when before I owned a motorcycle. I feel that getting a motorcycle was just unlocking potential, not some strange, new activity which is a massive hurdle for total novices.
So I'm giving BB different advice I would to a noob. A noob I would say, do you understand what is involved with riding? I don't think I have to ask that to another rider.
Last edited:
There are scooters that can do highway speeds just fine. They're quite a bit more pricey than the equivalent performing bikes (think the 250cc bikes here) and the bigger bikes just completely blow them away in every respect save for on-board storage.Well I dont need to have the bike GET me chicks, but I would hate to have it drive them away. So maybe no scooter.
Oh, and although scooter riders seem to think that "period dress" or perhaps a 3/4 helmet and a Vespa-branded jacket is enough gear to go on the highway, it's not. You'll be going at the same speeds as if you were on the highway on a motorcycle, and if you scrape along the ground you'll lose the same amount of skin.
It is buried in all the posts, but not only am I mtn biker (trail riding, XC, DH etc) but I was also a roadie when younger AND I was a courier in Boston. Now THAT was an eye-opening experience. The one interesting story I'll share is when I was riding down a one way street (the right way on this occasion). There were parked cars to my left and a moving cab to my right. The cab slowly started drifting my way and the space between him and the parked cars was getting narrower and narrower. Eventually he pinned my handlebars (bullhorn track style ones) between his front drive side and a parked cars front passenger side. Handlebars instantly came to a stop, I went OTB and put out my hands... One ended up on his hood, the other on the parked car's hood. My body suspended in the air between the gap. I had clips then and my feet were still in, so the bike's rear wheel up in the air, my feet stuck in the pedals and my hands keeping me from falling to the ground. It was VERY difficult to get out of that precarious position!!
I also use to commute by bike to and from work in SF for a few years and I regularly rode from my house in the Mission (via city streets) up through the Casatro, Haight and to GG park. So yeah, I have a ton of city riding experience, can track stand for a few min no problem and know all the dumb sheet that people do in cars. In fact I have pretty good driver ESP. When my wife and I used to drive around with her behind the wheel (freeway, residential etc) I can easily tell her, "Watch out for that guy, he is gonna cut you off; This guy is drifting over lanes; he is gonna try to make a double lane change to hit that exit etc."
Yeah, I would not consider a scooter.
Really it is a mindset. A lot of 1st year crashes are, "I panicked, turned the bars/locked up the brakes/not looking far enough ahead" I assume you are not going to panic if you see traffic back up, like this rider: http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=337105It is buried in all the posts, but not only am I mtn biker (trail riding, XC, DH etc) but I was also a roadie when younger AND I was a courier in Boston. Now THAT was an eye-opening experience. The one interesting story I'll share is when I was riding down a one way street (the right way on this occasion). There were parked cars to my left and a moving cab to my right. The cab slowly started drifting my way and the space between him and the parked cars was getting narrower and narrower. Eventually he pinned my handlebars (bullhorn track style ones) between his front drive side and a parked cars front passenger side. Handlebars instantly came to a stop, I went OTB and put out my hands... One ended up on his hood, the other on the parked car's hood. My body suspended in the air between the gap. I had clips then and my feet were still in, so the bike's rear wheel up in the air, my feet stuck in the pedals and my hands keeping me from falling to the ground. It was VERY difficult to get out of that precarious position!!
I also use to commute by bike to and from work in SF for a few years and I regularly rode from my house in the Mission (via city streets) up through the Casatro, Haight and to GG park. So yeah, I have a ton of city riding experience, can track stand for a few min no problem and know all the dumb sheet that people do in cars. In fact I have pretty good driver ESP. When my wife and I used to drive around with her behind the wheel (freeway, residential etc) I can easily tell her, "Watch out for that guy, he is gonna cut you off; This guy is drifting over lanes; he is gonna try to make a double lane change to hit that exit etc."
P.S. I wouldn't get a scooter if you plan on going on the highway. I guarantee you are going to turn the throttle to triple digits, and even if you choose to ride closer to the speed limit than I do, often the best way to avoid being rear ended or sideswiped is to accelerate.
And if you think highway speeds is safe enough, take a look at this story: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/11/the-short-strange-trip-of-nathan-abbott-a-cautionary-tale/
This.
He had quite the roadside kit set up.
Not to hijack too bad, but my bro-in-law went from San Diego to South Carolina, up to Niagara Falls, then went across to Portland, then home. Total trip was 36 days, I forget his total miles, but it was close to 6k when he was here.
He broke up the trip nice riding for 2 days covering between 800 and 1000, then chill somewhere for 3-4 days. He spent 3 here.
1 blown shock (bought a pair on ebay from a seller in Ohio that was an hour from where he was staying)
1 jockey shift clutch cable (rigged it at my place to get him home)
Ran out of gas 3 times (had a single quart can, made it to the station each time)
Rained on twice (I get more rain on my commute to work).
Midlife crisis road trip on a bike he's had for 14 years. While I would love to do a trip like that myself, it wouldn't be on a solo seat chopper with jockey shift.
Yet probably running sweet every time it gets started...........
Get a used Yamaha Seca or Suzuki Bandit 600? V-strom 650? Nighthawk 750?