minimac wrote: Being a motorcyclist lets me experience things in a way that non-riders just can't understand.
QFT!
minimac wrote: Being a motorcyclist lets me experience things in a way that non-riders just can't understand.
QFT!
In reply to AaronBalto:
Sounds kinda like you weren't at the right mindset when you started out, and I say that from my own experience. If I had back then what I have currently, I'd have been dead, because I was immature/reckless/careless. I made the choice to walk away back then after losing a friend, and if needed, I'll walk away again to clear my mind, but to tout "You will absolutely crash alot and get severely injured/killed all the time" is definitely not the appropriate thing to say to someone looking to start. 
Just know your limits/act responsibly/pay attention and you'll have a leg up on 99% of people your age.
Oh yeah, and, what I think for a beginner. A supersport is NOT an ideal first bike. I just bought my F4i from a guy I work with who bought it as his first bike, dropped it a couple times and had two MAJOR freakouts (and their accompanying wipeouts). I've been riding for 20 years and I feel like a CBR600 is unnecessarily fast and perhaps too much bike for me.
Start small and do not buy your dream bike to start off with. You're going to drop it. You're going to get gas and get off the bike without realizing you didn't put the stand down and dump it over.
You're going to have to learn how to peer inside your tank while you're filling up and not get gas in your eye or gas down your nicely painted tank.
Realize that this is a dangerous hobby. I am not saying that to discourage you. You are going to crash. It happens. How many times did you fall over on your bicycle before you really mastered it?
Autocross and track driving techniques help a lot. Be prepared. Look ahead. Don't ride into anything that will swallow your wheels and flip you off. Learn how to feel when your wheels are about to lock up and how to deal with that - feather off the front a little bit and get it rolling, but for the most part, leave the rear because it'll snap back in line when it unlocks and can toss you right off.
Read read read. I like Twist of the Wrist, Proficient Motorcycling, all of the non-review columns in Motorcycle Consumer News. Lots and lots of reading materials out there.
Miles, miles, miles. The way to learn to be a safe rider is by riding. Every ride will teach you something. Pick your first rides on safe days with adequate weather, and get more advanced from there. Eventually you'll learn how to ride in the rain and which puddles you have to avoid and which ones you can just splash through. You'll learn how to control the bike when it is lacking in traction. You'll learn how much lead time to give cars in front of you, how to position yourself in your lane so that oncoming people turning left and people turning into your lane can see you. You'll learn where to go so you always have an out when someone does lane change into you or pull out in front of you, and you'll know how hard you can get on the brakes without losing it.
Don't do foolish things like removing the mirrors from your motorcycle because it looks cool.
Wear gear. Surprisingly good helmets can be had for under $100. Buy a jacket with armor. Jeans are NOT enough protection for your legs. Gloves and boots are required.
There are silly little proverbs and adages for all of these things. "Dress for the slide, not for the ride." "There are two kinds of motorcyclists: those who have crashed, and those who haven't yet."
Kind of like when you see a nice, empty, snow-blanketed parking lot and can't resist the pull to do donuts in that fresh slippery snow, use every chance for learning you can get. Learn to make very tight u-turns and figure 8s in empty parking lots. Trust physics and build your motorcycle control skills and keep your feet on the pegs. You can do it. "The bike wants to stay up."
Mostly, sure, everyone has a story about how someone got killed in a motorcycle crash. But there is an electronic sign on the Kennedy that I see whenever I head into Chicago that states the running, year-to-date number of traffic fatalities. People die in car crashes and kitchen fires and stair accidents and all manner of other terrible ways. Be safe, think ahead, use your eyes, don't trust anybody, have an exit strategy, and you'll do fine. Crashing sucks. It hurts and it sucks having to replace parts. But most of your crashes are not going to be nearly as bad as you are terrified that they will be.
I'm seeing this same thing right now, as my girlfriend is learning how to ride for the first time.
Just practice, keep your head, get miles and miles and miles under your belt. The only way to be better at it is to keep doing it.
(This does not constitute legal advice. Your mileage may vary. For entertainment purposes only. Etc.)
I agree with lug....I dropped my 650 two or three times due to simple stuff with it parked. I take extra care of the 10 now because of that, even though the bike has its scars from previous track life.
Another positive would be to find some people who don't act like retards to ride with. It helps.
Yamaha is right. I ride with a bunch of buddies. They have everything form a sport bikes, to super standards, to motards, to cruisers. The thing is it that they all ride smart. We don't have show offs. I doubt we'd tolerate it.
In reply to Lugnut:
$6.00 can of Plasti-Dip-FTMFW! 
Cool_Hand_Luke,
As a high school kid, you're under your parents rule. Pick your battles with care. This one may not be winnable.
Sounds like you've little to no experience with bikes. Befriend the kids in school with dirt bikes, and go ride them. You'll learn a lot, and it can really help you decide if you really do have the bug or not.
By all means, take the basic MSF course, if your parents will let you. It teaches you a whole lot of the basics.
With a high school student budget, price will dictate your bike. There's not much in generic poor high school student price range other than some well worn older UJM type bikes. And that's just fine. Most of them will run reliably with little maintenance. Don't fret over Honda vs Yamaha.
Two rules I had to learn the hard way: (1) Tall bikes mean you fall over at stop signs. (2) Top heavy bikes are really hard to pick up.
If you're tippy-toeing a bike at stop signs, you're going to fall over when you stop with your foot trying to reach down into a pothole or divot. The more you tippy-toe, the more often you will fall over. Oh, you'll learn to be very careful, but there will be times.
A top heavy bike is darn hard to lift. If you can't pick the bike up when it's fallen down, you're stuck. Unfortunately, most owners won't let you test this, and it's not always obvious.
Oh, and when you are doing the he-man routine picking up said fallen motorcycle, don't flip it over onto the other side. Btdt, can cause tears.
foxtrapper wrote: Don't fret over Honda vs Yamaha.
Well, now I don't know what to think. 
80s Suzuki GS. They're still dirt cheap. That settles it.
yamaha wrote:foxtrapper wrote: Don't fret over Honda vs Yamaha.Well, now I don't know what to think.
Kawasaki is King? 
foxtrapper wrote:yamaha wrote:Kawasaki is King?foxtrapper wrote: Don't fret over Honda vs Yamaha.Well, now I don't know what to think.
It was funnier when I joined the zx10r board under this same user name......
And the set of stereotypes my friends have come up with are Kawasaki - Powered by BullE36 M3, Yamaha - "Meh" never sounded so good, Honda - Designed by obese Walmart goers, Suzuki - Powered by unicorn farts and rainbows.
We couldn't reach a consensus about european stuff though.
yamaha wrote: It was funnier when I joined the zx10r board under this same user name......
Ducati - Il funesto marrone rapido si sposta oltre il retro del cane pigro. Quello che dici è irrilevanti. Che bella!
foxtrapper wrote:yamaha wrote:Kawasaki is King?foxtrapper wrote: Don't fret over Honda vs Yamaha.Well, now I don't know what to think.
Indeed, Bow down to all that is green. Speaking of good books... Total Control by Lee Parks. Very good
yamaha wrote:foxtrapper wrote:It was funnier when I joined the zx10r board under this same user name......yamaha wrote:Kawasaki is King?foxtrapper wrote: Don't fret over Honda vs Yamaha.Well, now I don't know what to think.
Ducati- Powered by your wallet Aprilia- Your Mileage my vary MV Agusta- Can we borrow your triple?
In reply to Blitzed306:
Triumph - When the best thing that ever happened was the factory burning down......
Also note, the factory burning down was what allowed the 675 to exist/become the end all of the middleweight class.
I started riding when I was 22. An advantage of waiting this long was that I had 6 years to learn other drivers. You have to be able to read the "body language" of other vehicles through a half-second glance in a vibrating mirror.
A few things to note:
1.) many girls love motorcycles. This was one of my secret "unspoken" attractions to riding. Riding with a passenger completely changes the motorcycle's dynamics, and even taking a passenger is risky within, say, your first year of riding. You are in charge of someone else's life, and you probably don't have the right gear for a second rider.
2.) the progression from "this is great!" to "ohE36 M3ohE36 M3" takes a few milliseconds at best. You will look at the world differently. It is full of beauty and full of hazards.
Riding is fun, but daily riding is not. I've gone through a few stints where my car was down for the count for whatever reason. Riding in stop and go traffic in August will make you feel like you have been sucking on an exhaust pipe.
As a college student, riding was a lot more fun. I felt like I had a lot less to lose. At times, I rode as such, especially in groups. Once people started crashing every ride, I decided to stay solo.
Mitchell wrote: Riding is fun, but daily riding is not.
Oh, I don't agree with that at all. I'm a 5 day a week rider when the temp is over 40. The only day I didn't ride in the past week of 38F+ was Thursday when it was actually snowing.
I love commuting by motorcycle.
Lugnut wrote:Mitchell wrote: Riding is fun, but daily riding is not.Oh, I don't agree with that at all. I'm a 5 day a week rider when the temp is over 40. The only day I didn't ride in the past week of 38F+ was Thursday when it was actually snowing. I love commuting by motorcycle.
Agreed. I barely used a tank of gas in my car, last season. I rode my bike everywhere. I got rid of the car at the end of Jan, and got a truck instead. It had brodozer tires on it, but I quickly got new ones - Blizzaks, even. My reasoning: I only put about 5000 miles on cage tires, per year, and the majority of that is in the winter, because I ride my bike every chance I get.
I love my daily ride but I live in the country (kinda) and work in the country (really).
My commute is mostly backroads so I get to wring my bike out every morning.
foxtrapper wrote: A top heavy bike is darn hard to lift. If you can't pick the bike up when it's fallen down, you're stuck. Unfortunately, most owners won't let you test this, and it's not always obvious. Oh, and when you are doing the he-man routine picking up said fallen motorcycle, don't flip it over onto the other side. Btdt, can cause tears.
Don't do the He-Man, and grab the bars and hoist it up like your 10-speed. Stop, take a breath, and focus, so you don't hurt yourself lifting it that way. I did that the first time I dropped my 690 pound Super Glide, and hurt for two weeks after that, because I didn't know the proper way to lift a motorcycle. Yeah, it was filmed at a ladies' event, but Mrs RMD can and has picked up her 820 pound Street Glide using this method.
Trans_Maro wrote: I love my daily ride but I live in the country (kinda) and work in the country (really). My commute is mostly backroads so I get to wring my bike out every morning.
I have 10 miles of riding clear across the city of Orlando. It takes me 30 minutes in the morning, 45 in the afternoon.
RealMiniDriver wrote:foxtrapper wrote: A top heavy bike is darn hard to lift. If you can't pick the bike up when it's fallen down, you're stuck. Unfortunately, most owners won't let you test this, and it's not always obvious. Oh, and when you are doing the he-man routine picking up said fallen motorcycle, don't flip it over onto the other side. Btdt, can cause tears.Don't do the He-Man, and grab the bars and hoist it up like your 10-speed. Stop, take a breath, and focus, so you don't hurt yourself lifting it that way. I did that the first time I dropped my 690 pound Super Glide, and hurt for two weeks after that, because I didn't know the proper way to lift a motorcycle. Yeah, it was filmed at a ladies' event, but Mrs RMD can and has picked up her 820 pound Street Glide using this method.
That iis a great way to pick up the likes of a harley, that has a big crash bar that keeps the bike from falling over more than half way. But things like ujms lay all the way down when they fall. So the butt against the seat won't work. I dislike the he-man dead lift, but I've never found a good alternative with a ujm and other like bikes.
Did you notice it was laying almost flat on the ground, just like a UJM would. You just have to drop your butt lower.
Mitchell wrote:Trans_Maro wrote: I love my daily ride but I live in the country (kinda) and work in the country (really). My commute is mostly backroads so I get to wring my bike out every morning.I have 10 miles of riding clear across the city of Orlando. It takes me 30 minutes in the morning, 45 in the afternoon.
Get creative with routes.....mine normally follow the least stop lights/straight roads, and almost always end with a jaunt through the local college campus. Which so far this year is intended to scare people via fireballs.
Get a dual sport and learn to ride in the dirt, then once you can ride it, mix in the street. If you end up liking the street, get some supermoto wheels. If you really like the pavement, sell it and get a streetbike or keep the dual sport and ride both.
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