the_Wife wants me to buy a bike (advice)

[Bernie Brewer]

Scary thing last night.

I was on a long highway ride from Muskegon to Lansing, following my brother in a van. I see a ton of bright blood and think "wow, how red. Must be fresh". I keep seeing more and more blood and then a deer dead in front of me. No time for anything. I blasted straight through it at 70-75. Handlebars wiggled back and forth a bit but nothing else. I was pretty loud so I think I tore through it rib cage or something. I got home and was cleaning blood and flesh from my tires at 1:00AM.

Hibeams all the time for me from now on. Going the speedlimit had me overriding the lows.

I had something similar happen years ago. Went for a late-night ride, and saw (too late) a possum in the road. Hit it square, and it literally blew up. Possum guts all over the engine and exhaust. No amount of scrubbing would remove it. Damned bike stunk to high heaven every time i fired it up for a month. At least it wasn't skunk.

 

[the_bird]

Hey bird, You get this thing home yet

Honestly, no. I really couldn't have picked a worse time to learn how to ride a bike, I've been desperately, desperately trying to get the kitchen finished up which has kept me from getting up to the folks' and figuring out what needs to get fixed (big brother seems to think just a battery).

Class is tomorrow, though

 

[BierMuncher]

Class is tomorrow, though

It'll be the most fun 18 miles you ever put on a bike.

Your class will probably be 12 people or less.

My only regret is that I didn't get some contact info from the other people I "lived with" for two days so I could catch up and see who ended up getting bikes and maybe hook up for a ride.

Have fun.

 

[MMW]

It'll be the most fun 18 miles you ever put on a bike.

18 if you're lucky Laps around a parking lot...my class was a lot of fun. Even if I was on a Honda Wedgie. (Rebel 250 Baby...FEEL THE POWER!)

 

[the_bird]

I need to swing by the bike shop on the way home tonight, I haven't even had time to buy a helmet. Any recommendations on brands to seek out or avoid?

 

[BierMuncher]

I need to swing by the bike shop on the way home tonight, I haven't even had time to buy a helmet. Any recommendations on brands to seek out or avoid?

Opinions will vary about as much as our dry VS liquid arguments.

I have a half shell, open face.

Allows for a variety of goggle styles.
Keeps my vision clearer.
I can hear better that with a full-face or full-bucket helmet.

My thought is that 99% of injury prevention is accident avoidance. I never felt comfortable in traffic with a full face helmet. My peripheral vision was nill.

 

[MMW]

I hate my full face helmet. I love my Skid Lid.

 

[the_bird]

OK, I'm geared up. The shop didn't have as much of a helmet selection as I might have hoped; basically $90 helmets (in a couple colors, but same manufacturer), $140 (didn't have one that fit), $500 helmets and those damn yamaka things Ended up with a $90 HJC model, it fits and I can always upgrade to something a bit lighter when I have a little bit coin in my pocket. Since I spent less on the helmet than I expected, I went ahead and bought a Coretech jacket for $150 (along with my gloves). So, I should be all set for the morning.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Have fun Bird!

 

[r3dn3ckstyl3z]

as far as gear..... i run ICON everything jacket, pants, gloves helmet, and boot..... but then i ride a sport bike.....

 

[the_bird]

Well, that was fun. Wouldn't describe it as an world-changing experience, but fun and I feel a lot more comfortable riding already. The riding portion of class is held on an active air force base, so there's all kinds of fighter planes around, there's a firing range right by where class was (some guy was shooting some rifle - I don't know what the hell it was, but it was huge and it was loud). We're actually at the end of the tarmac on one of the runways (no planes landing directly overhead - that would have been great for learning concentration).

Class was good. I swear my wife's uncle, the guy who found the dead squid on his doorstep, has a doppleganger who was teaching the class. Weather was good (it started pouring as soon as I came in the driveway). Bikes were mostly Nighthawks, looked to be older vintage (looked a lot like the '92 I was looking at). A couple Suzukis, TINY bikes. One girl dropped her Suzie (or maybe just ran into the field, I didn't see), she was already really nervous so she dropped out. There were a couple of other people JUST starting out, a couple of people who had been riding for a while, some little Squid Kid who just totalled his brand-new bike last weekend. I had to give him a ride; he was showing me the roads where he claimed to have hit 150 (not sure if I believe him).

Hardest thing is remembering to keep my eyes up; I'll be going into a turn, I'll be looking my way through properly, then I'll make a minor error (not hitting the throttle smoothly enough) and I'll stop looking my way through. I'm working on it.

 

[BierMuncher]

Hardest thing is remembering to keep my eyes up; I'll be going into a turn, I'll be looking my way through properly, then I'll make a minor error (not hitting the throttle smoothly enough) and I'll stop looking my way through. I'm working on it.

That challenge never goes away...you just have to be conscious of the temptation to look "down".

Like dribbling a basketball.

Once you can get your eyes to "part" with your body and your bike, it's amazing what your body and your bike will be able to do.

 

[the_bird]

Woot! I'm legal (well, once the license comes in the mail), sunburned ,and EXHAUSTED. That's a long weekend, but I feel so much more confident on the bike, I can't even describe it.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Congrats. Enjoy that bike. That you supposedly bought

 

[david_42]

I took a class before I started riding (much). The weird part was we were not allowed to use our own bikes for the riding portion of the test. So, we're out on a very tiny course, riding 250s that we had never seen before. They all have overly sensitive throttles and the ride test was a low-speed maze! Couple people ended up in the desert and most of the class failed. The stranger part: when I went to DMV to renew my learner's permit, they saw that I had taken the course, so they issued a real license! I took it and rode away.

 

[the_bird]

We were on older Nighthawks, which were fine for me (they looked an awful lot like the early-90's model that I was looking at). The instructor said that they'd been there since he started nine years ago. I was worried I'd be crammed onto a little Rebel; there were a couple of little Suzukis there that I think are Rebel-sized, I don't think I could have ridden them because they are so low to the ground.

 

[pen25]

if yuo can ride a big bike you can ride a small bike. good to hear you passed and got the license and as what BM has said you will always be tempted to look somewhere else. when you stop being conscious of what you are doing is when you will have problems. now that you got the bike and license now start building up your gear. im not meaning riding gear im talking tools and riding pack. check ebay for a toolset for your bike. it will have everything you need to maintain your bike. or at least should.

a co2 inflator make great tools to stuff in a pack incase you need to air up or seat a bead. a plug kit for a hole in the tire. if you get a hole you need to replace the tire.

find a good forum for your bike and ask what extra's people carry with them or can help in maint.

one thing to do now if you dont have is a fuel filter and a spare along with a little line or splice and extra fuses.

 

[hammacks]

Sometimes previous owners suck...

I have found so many stripped bolts resulting in slow oil leaks. Oil filter 'cover', valve cover, and others. Most of them are stripped in the housing instead of the bolt if you know what I mean. Someone either had some big wrenches that they really torqued on or was using air tools I think.




Of course I stripped the oil pan plug hole... Oversized, self tapping plug took care of that though.

 

[BierMuncher]

One day the SWMBO asks you to buy a bike...next thing you know you're hanging with a bunch of rowdies every weekend.

Life on two wheels is sweet.

 

[sdhucks7]

I had the class 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago my FIL basicaly gave me a suzuki intruder 1500 and i have been riding dang near every day! Life is really great on 2 wheels! I am enjoying every second of riding!

SD

 

[IrregularPulse]

I had the class 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago my FIL basicaly gave me a suzuki intruder 1500 and i have been riding dang near every day! Life is really great on 2 wheels! I am enjoying every second of riding!

SD

Wow! Congrats on having the best FIL ever!

 

[sdhucks7]

Wow! Congrats on having the best FIL ever!

Thanks. Either he was drunk when he gave me the key or he is just that cool!



SD

 

[IrregularPulse]

Mental Note, Take Apfelwein to Inlaws this weekend, get old man out by boat, open said apfelwein, Start Conversation....."Sure would love a boat someday for me and your little girl, I know how much she loves boating and all the memories of your old boat!".......

 

[BierMuncher]

I'm doing a 250 group ride through the foothills of the Ozarks Saturday. Oh...and the rally point is 50 mikes away. I figure when all is said and done, I'll have nearly 400 miles on my arse when I pull into the driveway at the end of the day.

Then...it's "Tits Up" time baby...

 

[farmbrewernw]

It's so dang hot here, I am a complete believer in full riding gear, and despite buying a $400 summer jacket it's still too hot to ride, anything over 95 and I'm not doing it. Worst part about it is I just bought a sweet 72 honda CB500-4 and my beemer hasn't moved under it's own power in weeks.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

It's so dang hot here, I am a complete believer in full riding gear, and despite buying a $400 summer jacket it's still too hot to ride, anything over 95 and I'm not doing it. Worst part about it is I just bought a sweet 72 honda CB500-4 and my beemer hasn't moved under it's own power in weeks.

Heh- I think we've had only one, maybe two days of 90+ weather here all summer. Our weather here has been fantastic.

Of course, the one really hot day we had was the day I rode from Superior, WI home to Fond du Lac. It was about a six-hour ride. I don't burn easily, but I was fried to a crisp when I got home!

 

[farmbrewernw]

Yeah it's 108 here right now and I've been thinking all day how much I want to just get on my bike and ride somewhere, I think I'd probably just ride off a cliff or something to escape the misery at this point.

 

[BierMuncher]

First rule of a group ride. Don't show up with a dirty bike:

First way-point and first gas-up on the route.

After about 3 hours scraping pegs on twisty hills at 60 MPH (40 minutes of that through some pretty steady rain), we stopped for a bite at a small diner, at a small intersection, in a small town.

The place actually had fresh pie in that glass counter tot he right.

Even and old fashion soda jerk set up with syrups and all.

All told we did just under 400 miles of twisting hills through Mark Twain National Forest. 11 hours in the saddle and I was ready for some shut-eye.

 

[BierMuncher]

Took a little spin Saturday.

St. Louis to KC.
Around KC to visit my folks and daughter.
Straight back with a quick detour through my old college town of Warrensburg.

500 miles.
12 hours from departure to return.

Something about cruising down the highway...just you and your bike doing 80+ down the freeway...putting it all behind you. :rockin: