[bioGuru]

Been a long time since I owned a bike. I had a standard Honda 450 which I sold in 1991. Since then I have only ridden rarely (helping a friend move his bikes, etc). I am looking at the Suzuki GS500F for the bike (new or used) as I think it will keep me out of trouble (staying away from the Rs) but still allow for comfortable freeway speeds and carrying a passenger.

I figure I should consider myself a “re-beginner” – yeah I know it will all come back to me pretty quickly but just wanted to get some thoughts on this. Is there a MSF refresher course? or should I retake the MSF intro course (looking online doesn’t appear much has changed since the last time I took it)? or should I just get used to riding again and then take the “experienced” rider course?

Any suggestions appreciated.

[Matt]

The GS500 seems to be a good re-introduction bike. It’ll have slightly mroe power and response than the old 450, but it won’t feel like a completely different beast.

I know my area MSF-equivilant offers a “re-introduction” course. It is aimed at people who have either been out of the sport for many years, or learned to ride on their own and now want proper lessons.

I was going to say that if you remember all the controls and are cofortable playign around in a parkinglot, the ERC would be a good idea. Except that they don’t cover some of the really basic stuff (they just expect you to know how to do very low speed maneuvering). The reintroduction course might be the better bet since it spend moe time rebuilding the fundamentals upon which everything else is based.

Whatever you chose, Welcome back to the sport!

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Author]

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