[eon]

I’m all for more training and I support it being a legal requirement. Yes, it means forcing some people to take a class they do not need but if it raises the basic standard then I’m all for it.

I find the age bracket thing confusing though I can understand the age 21 part. Everyone knows folks (at least males) below that age have little understanding of risk. Even been proved scientifically its biological, fleeing the nest, taking on the pack leader type of thing. But differentiating between 30, 40 and 50 year old’s? Seems a bit odd.

[eon]

I honestly cannot remember. I do remember the first time I hit 60mph I felt very vulnerable. Looking at the concrete whizzing by with only my limited skills keeping me upright was a bit nerve racking, but I first hit those speeds on a State Route where the traffic was light. I don’t remember the nerves lasting long though and by the time I hit the interstate it was no big deal and I could give my full attention to the traffic.

The back road to your friends place sounds like the perfect place to get acclimated to these speeds, but I would probably go just a little way there the first time out and then come back. Once you know you are okay with it then it should be an enjoyable trip for you.

[eon]

I don’t commute on it in rush hour and in fact am rarely on it at all. Not my favorite road but sometimes it’s good to get some miles in just to get to the good areas or to get home at the end of long days riding. The Cascades are great for riding in, maybe even better than BC as there are lots of gentle rolling hills with twisty roads. In BC it looks like you are straight into the serious mountains with one main road through them. I could be wrong of course, this is just me looking at maps. I do plan on going up through Whistler at one point and then loop back around. Depending on how much time I have I may go as far east as Jasper and then down into the North Cascades. Too many excellent roads around here and not enough vacation time!

[eon]

That looks like a comprehensive training class there and a fantastic way to get you started. Much more so than the basic class offered by the MSF. Great as it is, it is a basic class.

You also live in a great area for biking (I’m not too far away in Seattle). I hope to get up into BC sometime soon and go exploring.

[eon]

Glad you’ve been enjoying this forum. It’s by far the best one I’ve come across.

What kind of MSF class are you taking? I’ve never heard of one that lasts 6 days or costs $800. Average cost is around $100~$200 but that is only for roughly 2 days of training. Whatever you are taking it sounds like a great way to get started. Hope you have fun!

[eon]

Not sure if I answered your concerns before but I’ve certainly given this advice before. Forget about tests and licenses and simply go in there to learn and to have fun. If you do that the rest will follow. You can always take the test another day so just relax and remember your are doing this cause it’s fun!!

[eon]

What you are experiencing is normal. Happens to everybody who has some type of incident. I think the only way to overcome it is as briderdt says, through time and more good experiences.

I had a low drama 20mph low side in damp conditions. At the time I got up and rode home without worrying about it. But it had a HUGE impact in my head. Next time I took a corner in damp conditions I immediately remembered the image of me flying through the air! I had zero confidence in my grip level and I would start drifting wide on corners as I did not want to lean. For the first time I started knowing real fear when riding. Made no sense as my actual fall could not have been less dramatic. 6000 miles later and I still have problems in the wet. Nowhere near as bad as now as I was then but I am certainly very cautious when the road is wet. On the plus side I have not fallen off again and I’m sure my caution has helped keep me upright.

So my advice is to just keep at it and you will get better. Take it easy and never be afraid to call it a day if your head is just not in the game (that can happen even without a bad experience).

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[eon]

Ah, I get what you are saying. You are right that experienced riders can forget how difficult it can be starting out. On the other hand you get plenty of folks telling how they started on gixxers and anything less is for pussies. It comes down to trusting the reviewer, or at least getting a feel for what they like/dislike and how it matches with your own tastes. But since the bike manufacturers are not lining up to give Ben their latest creations (shame on them) we are stuck the opinions of actual owners.

[eon]

I liked the video. Thought it was very well done and everyone seemed pretty relaxed in front of the camera. I watch reviews on Revzilla.com but they always seem to have a company rep present so the thing comes over as an infomercial and not a critical review. So the informality of this one was refreshing to me.

I would disagree with madjak on having newbies review gear and/or bikes. Personally I want experienced critical eyes telling me the pros/cons of something. When I spend my money on something I want to get the best for my money so I devour the reviews on webbikeworld. At the end of the day its just one persons opinion but if you have road tested 20 pairs of gloves you will start to notice differences between them. I think the forums are the place for newbies opinions.

The only criticism I would have is the microphone placement. When you turn your back to the camera it was a little muffled. Plus there was some wind noise towards the end.

But two thumbs up from me.

[eon]

I loved the visor on my EXO400. I loved it even more when I bought another helmet and appreciated just how good the fog free feature is. I never did get the hang of the vents though. Too many little switches with no clear indication what is on and what is off and I never could feel any difference when playing with them when riding. One minus point against the visor is the first open position leaves a large gap. If you do need to crack it open you are going to get a lot of air (or rain) coming in.

[eon]

Welcome to our little forum. It’s mostly folks from the States on here but we have a few international members as well. Congratulations on starting out on this venture at 60, never too late to have fun! Hopefully the butterflies will go away and you will start to enjoy yourself more. It’s a very addictive pastime.

Hope you stick around and fill us in on your progress.
Have fun!

[eon]

I’m thinking that was a copy/paste from another forum with a bunch of opinions on merits of scooters/motorcycles. If it was reasoned arguments I could agree it was a worthwhile post but I gave up when I started reading the infantile name calling.

[eon]

Was that the chopper bike? Didn’t look too bad to me, but then I’m not into those kind of bikes so I don’t know why it didn’t take off. More confusing was the DN-01 but at least they are trying new things. They are not afraid to fail which I like. If they stuck with tried and tested would they ever have progressed beyond super sport bikes?

[eon]

Depends. The local stores overhead is going to be the same whether they are selling $130 jackets or $400 jackets but a $70 markup might seem livable with one but outrageous on the other. It also depends on taxes (was that $200 after or before tax?).
For example: my pants cost $400 on Motorcycle Superstore with zero tax. At my local store they were $420 but after tax it was closer to $460. I ended up paying $60 more than if I bought online but the store only got an extra $20, more than fair considering they had staff helping me out.

I’m not saying buy local over online all the time. It’s a personal choice and I do both depending on what I am buying. My experience has been the local shops are run by enthusiasts and you get fantastic service. I’m sure there are plenty of rip off merchants out there but the same applies to online stores. I would hate to see the local shops disappear though. After 60 years in business that Honda store shut down and now my options are less. That store supported my MSF class and gave me a 20% discount on gear for taking the class. They also talked me out of replacing my helmet later when there was no need. I would gladly pay extra to support a place like that.

[eon]

It was when they were gliding around looking at pictures that image came to me. Reminded me of the Wall-E movie. Other thought that came to me was the Harley bashing thread on here. When you look at what Honda are doing, research for the sake of expanding knowledge, can’t help but think they will be better placed to adapt to changing times and markets than others.

[Author]

Posts