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Honda Grom: Beginner Bike Profile + Owner Reviews
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Clay DowlingParticipant
We’ve been running at 100% humidity here the last few days, and I can see the appeal of increased air flow. But getting ground to hamburger just doesn’t look like what I want to do.
And I’ve still got all kind of crazy wildlife on my ride. The last week I’ve been seeing a deer every morning crossing the road by a river. Last night I saw it laying down in the grass between the road and the neighboring field. Monday another, larger deer was standing in the middle of the road just around a blind curve, and a little further down the road two dogs were running a steer through somebody’s garden. The deer, I’m used to, but there aren’t even any cattle near that location. No idea where the dogs found the steer.
Clay DowlingParticipantLimit yourself to the helmet now. You won’t go over 30mph on the course, and the listed gear will protect you in that situation. Confirmed in my class, where one student did indeed make an unplanned dismount. No injury, and after a quick discussion with the instructor was back on the bike and graduated.
Clay DowlingParticipantI don’t know if dealer financing is good or not. I do know that banks and credit unions are less likely to put you into a screwy deal. They like everything nice, clear and easy to understand so that they can get your repeat business. Also, so they don’t get shafted on the deal if screwy finance terms cause you to default.
Clay DowlingParticipantI’m partial to kids on bikes.
You’re probably also a lot more careful when you’re walking or biking, too. No better reminder to keep a weather eye than getting hit by a car. Twice.
Clay DowlingParticipantThat’s a good position to be in. Other things to do:
1. Get your financing in order. Either have cash in hand, or a bank that can write the loan. If you’re young financing can be a bear to get.
2. Get your gear. Typically gear is going to run you $750 to $1000. It’s a bit of a shock, but an important thing that you can’t sidestep.
As a new rider, you might want to pull the fairings off of your bike and ride it naked for a bit. You’re going to drop the bike, probably at zero speed, and the plastics will get trashed.
Then again, somebody else here pointed out that the plastics do a good job of protecting the expensive hard parts in the event of an actual crash at speed. I’d rather trash plastics than engines any day.
Clay DowlingParticipantAnd life will either be good, or you’ll find out that this isn’t what you want to do.
Definitely do this before buying a bike. Cap’n Crash put up a good video today about this very subject: you could drop a lot of dough on a bike and gear only to find that you can’t ride or don’t like riding. And there are people who really can’t ride. In my MSF class there were three people who didn’t complete the class, either by choice or because they were a danger to themselves and to others.
Clay DowlingParticipantAnd find out what your out the door price will be. There may not be a big advantage to the used bike. On the flip side, both bikes will be gorgeous.
And see Captain Crash’s warning about what you should do to get started. Essentially, don’t buy until you’ve taken the MSF class, in case you discover that you really hate this motorcycling thing.
Clay DowlingParticipantFirst, you need a driver’s license to get a motorcycle endorsement here in Michigan. The flipside is that the MSF class is $25 here, and if you have your MSF cert you don’t need to pay for an additional riding test to get your endorsement.
Second, you not only won’t need a car in Ann Arbor, you won’t want one. Traffic and traffic patterns in the city are crazy. You’ll be able to get to everything by walking if you live in the dorms. And parking is so miserable that you’ll want to live in the dorms or an apartment near campus.
If you get a bike, make sure that you’ll be able to find a place to park it. I went to Michigan State, which is notorious for difficult parking, and you were lucky if you could pay for a spot a quarter mile away. Ann Arbor is not known to be as accommodating about parking.
Clay DowlingParticipantWhen you get the bike, spend a fair bit of time in the parking lot learning how it behaves at low speed, and how to control it there. I have a heavier, more powerful bike, and it behaves very different at low speed from the bikes in class. One very hard thing to get through my head was that while I could turn in a very tight space, I had to go faster to do it. The 20 foot box for u-turns is bigger than I need, but the slow creep they taught us in class can’t turn in that space.
Clay DowlingParticipantWhen you get back stateside you may be able to get some bike training on base. Quite a few bases are offering it, it’s equivalent to the BRC from what I read, and you’ll be taking it from and with people who understand your world view a lot better.
Clay DowlingParticipantI’m not sure they go together either. But I’m not riding as a lifestyle thing. I’m riding because motorcycles are a lot of fun to ride. Road rash and banged up joints aren’t fun, so I wear the gear, keep my bike in order and practice my road skills.
I don’t know if you should count on me as the halmark of biker fashion though. My favorite cloths to wear to work are a blue shirt the color of a Planters’ can with a yellow tie the color of the Planters text. I don’t even have to wear a tie to work (it kind of freaks my boss out), I just really dig bright colors.
Clay DowlingParticipantI love my textile pants. Mine zip right to my jacket to avoid the jacket riding up in the event of a crash. My jacket is textile as well, and matched to the pants, so I don’t look too ridiculous. Well, as non-ridiculous as you can look walking around after you got where you’re going, but still wearing your riding gear.
Clay DowlingParticipantGetting the whole family involved in the videos is cool.
Clay DowlingParticipantMajor banks are going very good rates right now on vehicle loans. The trick is that they’re really only lending to people with very good credit scores. I worked my loan out through Chase. By way of full disclosure though, I should disclose that my wife works for Chase, so I’m not unbiased.
If you belong to a credit union they tend to have very good rates, and they typically give loans with slightly lower credit scores.
Outside of banks and credit unions, I wouldn’t trust the financing to be non-funky. A lot of those smaller finance companies make their money by writing screwy loans.
Clay DowlingParticipantThe countersteering is a by-product of the lean. If you lean to the left you’re generally pushing your left arm out just a little farther, giving you the appropriate counter steer to make your turn. It’s identical to how a bicycle works if you’re riding fast enough. I like to ride from 14-20mph on my bike, and I use an identical technique.
I also live in the plains. We get some impressive cross winds, and I have to lean the bike a few degrees to the side just to keep from getting blown over. I can hold a straight line this way no problem.
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