Hehe….. that’s is exactly what it is for. Another caution I was throwing out was not to let your mind defeat you before you get a chance to experience the joys of what you want to do. Riding is as much a mind set as it is physical experience. I went down the paths of “what ifs” and nearly canceled my chances of the enjoyment I am now experiencing. I remember being in the position you are in now. Should I ….. shouldn’t I…. if I do, what if I get the bike and can’t control it…. what if I become a statistic, what if I can’t get the hang of this….what if…. what if…. what if. This trickled over into my early stages of riding as well. “what if I can’t get out of my driveway with out getting run over…. What if a deer hits me or vice versa……what if I can’t ever seem to manage that curve ….What if I panic on the entrance ramp that has a near 180 turn inside of 50 feet…….” so on and so forth. I can remember my heart racing every time I got on the bike and let my mind get back on the What If train. Some times it stayed that way half way up the road. However I realized what I was doing to myself and told myself that it was very self destructive and What ifs matter as bout as much Shoulda Couldas .
I guess I should not have made it seemingly directed towards you. It is kind of a way of me saying… yea I been there and its cool but you gotta shake it off…. to anyone else in addition to you.
Me …I bought my Vulcan 500 first before MSF. BBM majorly influenced my decision on the bike. Though I am mostly a hermit ( deep south country boy) and rarely get into major discussions I really didn’t look into the forums much. You have that much over me on what I had already. I rode my Vulcan 500 for about a month and a half before the next available class came up. The type of person that I am I NEED to experience it to learn it. If I read it my brain pushes it to …ok….well here’s what I would do different….and reality will kick in with a big fat “Oh REALLY! Try it!”
To be completely honest my purchase was completely spontaneous. As a matter of fact I bought the V500 three days after telling a co worker that I didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to hit the highway on a motorcycle. Guess that hit the wrong button ( or in my case the the right one) in my brain.
In ending… I apologize if I came off wrong, completely my fault.
BUT I stick to my guns…. Caution makes a person wise and safe…. What ifs will keep you from LIVING