Thinking about buying a motorcycle. (1 Viewer)

[Henry Gale]

It's not just you Chad, you can read about it in at least 3three3 threads in
Forum Help and Feedback.

 

[Fredster]

Most 4cyl 600cc sport bikes IMO would be not be suitable for beginners. But lighter, yes!

 

[Philip Hamm]

Think a Goldwing costs more to insure than a GSX-R750?

 

[Philip Hamm]

If you like the Nomad and are thinking of a larger cruiser style motorcycle, take a look at other bikes in the same size. Yamaha "Royal Star" models should be a good bargain in the category and are almost as good looking as the Nomad.

It's funny when the light turns on regarding motorcycles. I remember I was about 24 when a friend of mine decided he was getting one, he got turned on by some friend of his in college. I rode on the back and learned to ride on his old Yamaha "Special 400". Great little bike. I bought my own bike soon thereafter, beforehand I had not even considered riding! Now, 100K miles or so later, I love it!

Anyway, here's my experience... My first bike was an '85 Yamaha Virago. The bike was way too small for me, but I didn't really notice. It handled great and had very minimal maintenance requirements. I wrecked it and liked it so much that I bought another one just like it. It wasn't until I replaced it with my current ride, a Kawasaki GPz-1100, that I really understood how much too small that bike was for me. I would have been much better off with something bigger. When I first sat on the GPz, It was really surprising how well it fit me, it was so much bigger than the little Virago, it felt like it just fit!

The bikes I've suggested are not small. The Honda 1100 Shadows would probably be a good start. The 800/900 Kawasaki may be a little small, but probably will fit good enough for your first season or so. You don't want something so big and heavy that it's ungainly. Riding takes some getting used to.

 

[Buzz Foster]

"It's funny when the light turns on regarding motorcycles."

Mine was kind of a light coming back on. It was like, "I did this 24 years ago. I rememebr that I loved it. Why don't I now?" And when I got on my first bike to test drive, it took all of 1/2 a second for it to come back, though it had been 24 years.

Tattoos are the same way. I got mine, and it quickly became "my first", as I am planning my next.

 

[Chad Isaacs]

While tattoos have always intrigued me somewhat, I will probably never have one. I have psoriasis and just about any wound I get becomes a "new patch"

Hopfully over the course of the next year, I will have my "first story" as well. Fear is starting to set in again, all of the reasons it never intersted me, but, I think I made my mind up.

How do you guys cope with that, you see a guy thats going way too fast to stop at the sign, if he does not stop he is going to run right out into traffic.... I get nervous about that in my car / van I can't immagine what I will feel when I am without the safety of my car. BUT I am a big boy, time to grow up and move past those fears.

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Phillip, I checked out some of the Yamaha's and they are pretty sweet. I still prefer the look and style of the Nomad, BUT the Yamaha is a lot closer to my reach.

Time will be the judge, but we really want the Nomad!

 

[Garrett Lundy]

You wanna live forever?

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Good point Garrett. And yes, yes I do want to live forever!

 

[Philip Hamm]

You learn strategies and avoidance techniques in the MSF course that can save your life. For instance in the situation you describe, you get off the gas and start slowing down, put your hands and feet on the brake (you practiced panic braking), and your thumb on the horn assuming that guy is going to pull out in front of you. When he does you're ready.

Don't be shy with your horn or high beam.

I learned how to ride from a friend in a parking lot many years ago. Got my license taking the test. I feel strongly that if I had taken the MSF course, the one accident that I had would have been avoided or much less traumatic/severe. The strategies and techniques I learned when I took the Experienced Rider Course specifically addressed the situation that I was in.

WEAR ALL THE GEAR ALL THE TIME COVER YOUR ENTIRE BODY WITH ARMORED M/C SPECIFIC CLOTHING. When people say "isn't that hot?" my pat answer is "not as hot as road rash".

 

[Jay H]

From a cyclist's persepective, meaning a bicycle rider here, you learn instincts which after a bit becomes automatic after a while and that deals with intersections, drivers passing you, drivers that you're about to pass, parked cars... parked occupied cars, etc.

As a cyclist, I intuitively go through a checklist everytime I go through an intersection...been commuting for 6 years so it's so ingrained in me, it's automatic.

On a motorcycle, you guys and gals go through similar thought processes, perhaps at a much faster speed, but it's all good. I'm always wondering what do you folks do with flats? I can replace a tube! , fix a chain, etc..

Jay

 

[Garrett Lundy]

A lot of models still have tubes & chains.

 

[mazersteven]

Just My Opinion

If you have fear already. Then don't even think about riding.

People driving cars will do stupid sh_t around you all the time while your riding.

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Well, I can deal with stupid people tricks like people screaming out of the window and those sorts of things. But being a virgin rider, I think it is normal to have fears. I was thinking about this tonight. I was listening to Savage Nation and not long before I got out of the car a woman called in and said she has a fear of guns but is interested in taking a training class and learning how to use the gun in a proper and safe manner. Same with riding, its not just about fun, its about learning to have fun safely.

Keep the posts coming, I am heading to the camp ground tomorrow night and won't be back until Sunday afternoon.

 

[mazersteven]

Well let me say this.

You can take the riders course. You can learning to have fun safely. You can have years of riding experience. But nothing can prepare you for someone else making a mistake, or stupidity.

Riding is great, and I love it. Been riding for almost 30 years. But nothing prepared me the day some other rider, rode up behind me, and hit my rear wheel on an interstate highway at night.

And yes my tail light was working.

 

[Buzz Foster]

I have an advantage right off the bat. Being an air traffic controller, I have an instinctive knowledge as to where traffic is going to be moving in relation to myself and to each other. Most of that thought process is automatic, which leaves me freer to look for danger signs, erratic/drunk/high drivers, etc.

Since I am trained to always be watching for the situation that can deteriorate, and to put a plane in the safest place it can be, I look to do the same with myself. I constantly ask, "what could go wrong?". Am I in a blind spot? Am I being tailgated? Does that person in the car next to me see me, or is his/her hand holding the cell phone blocking their view?

And I have always followed the rule my grandfather told me: if they want the road, let them have it. I got cut off on the interstate at a lane merge (non-construction...it just is that way). This idiot came screaming down the left lane, ignoring the half-mile of empty freeway behind me, in order to sqeeze into the space in front of me. I was appropriately spaced with the car ahead, and there was a line of traffic. She gained nothing but a car length, but endangered my life. She was talking on the cell phone, of course. I had never before wished so hard for a spark plug launcher. But, I gave her the road.

You will sometimes have a situation where someone feels the need to challenge you for the road, and you have no outs. I had that happen to me two days ago. Four lanes merging to two on the interstate, and a woman in the right lane decided to force her way in and was moving her car directly at me. I had traffic behind and beside me and had no out. I started honking and waving at her, and she refused to acknowledge me until I tried to kick her rear view mirror off. Then she finally moved back over to the right, and made her way in behind instead of into me. If I could have given her the road, I would have, but there was no where to go in that instance.

Granted, those instances are pretty rare. You see distracted drivers all the time, and you need to be aware of them. Assholes, just give them the road if they demand it. You can't win the fight for it if push comes to shove. But for sure, if you get pushed into a corner, and you have no safe outs, don't fall over and die. When it came to my life vs. that idiot's rear view mirror, the one I was concerned about defending was a no-brainer.

 

[Buzz Foster]

"Well, I can deal with stupid people tricks like people screaming out of the window and those sorts of things."

Chad...you're 6'3", and you are going to be on a HUGE chrome-dripping beast of a cruiser, probably with a leather jacket with a skull on the back, and a vanity plate that says, "OUT4BLD", or something...people aren't going to scream at you.

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Good point Buzz... I have already been sketching designs to be air brushed on the gas tank!

I follow my Grandma's driving advice, don't pay attention to you, pay attention to everybody around you. While I make sure I drive the right way and I do what I need to be doing I am always watching EVERYBODY, blind spots, cell phones etc.... I am always aware of those things. Accidents happen, I know that and while I don't foresee myself being caught in rush hour traffic there will be times when i do have to reallywatch closely.

My work is walking distance from home, I typically drive though but only because between my office and my home is a new Walmart and Lowes so threre is now a big wall behind them... no openings. Now my 15 - 20 minute walk becomes a 5 minute drive but it went from 3/4 mile to 2.5 miles.

 

[Henry Gale]

Since we're talking about safety right now, let me mention my big problem.
I read the paper every day, and every day someone dies on a motorcycle somewhere near Austin.
It is daunting.
And what's with access roads? It's often on an access road.

 

[Fredster]

Search Google news any day for "motorcycle accident". So many are rider error.