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If you want to tailgate in a car, you’re a dick, but so be it. You’re putting the person in front of you at as much risk as you are yourself. However, on a bike, if you crash into the back of a car that’s stopped and you’re going 60mph (or 30-40mph if you were slowing), you’re going to dent the car and kill yourself. Not so good.

I would actually advocate an even bigger following distance than Rab said, and here’s why: it doesn’t matter if YOU have the skills to stop that quickly, because the person BEHIND you has to notice that you’re stopping and come to a full stop in the same time. While it’s frustrating to constantly have people merging into your lane in front of you because of the space you’re leaving, having more space (3-4 seconds all the time) allows you to SLOWLY come to a stop, ensuring the person behind you doesn’t make motorcycle man sandwich meat out of you.

Two more things. First, what CB and Rab said about earplugs is a definite must. Wind noise is super loud on the freeway, and it will not only fatigue you mentally, but it will as they say contribute to hearing loss and other undesirable things. For your riding, however, the biggest benefit of earplugs is for your concentration. At higher speeds, earplugs will kill the wind noise but leave you plenty of hearing for your engine, making it easier to know what your bike’s doing and distracting you less.

Second, like everybody has said, once you get accustomed to the speed, the freeway’s not so bad. It eliminates intersections (which are the devil for us two-wheelers) and oncoming traffic (for the most part). However, you have to grow even more sensitive to the position of cars around you and to people being idiots and trying to merge into your space (which WILL happen multiple times per ride…drivers are blind; fact of life). Therefore it makes sense to desensitize yourself to speed first, then worry about getting comfortable for long stints. What I did was actually just get on and off the freeway for a few exits one day. The very first time you open the taps on your motorcycle, even if it’s a 250, you will be a bit taken a back. The sense of speed is much greater without the car all around you. Just get on the freeway, ride a couple miles, get off, and go back home. You’ll get used to the speed very quickly.

Do the obvious, however, and stick to your guns. If you feel uncomfortable, scale it down and take it slow.

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…I don’t think that’s true: most cars CAN outbrake motorcycles, and usually carry more corner speed as well. If the track doesn’t have too many long straights, a Civic Type R can beat a CBR600RR for this reason. Just think: four large contact patches instead of two tiny ones.

But that’s tangential. I don’t mean to take away from your point about high-performance bikes, which I think is dead-on!

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Keep ’em coming

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And another +1 to the Ninja 250. It’s a great bike, and if you really ring its neck, it will make you a much better rider much faster than any larger bike.

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…then they should lose your business. A lot of local businesses, however, aren’t, so that’s not a sweeping rule that applies everywhere.

In addition to MSF classes, most of my local dealers also support local riding clubs, riding schools, and club racers.

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I just spent four hours in a neighborhood meeting over a property border dispute caused by inept city planners in 1891. I’ll leave it at this: I feel your pain!

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Wall-E is exactly what I had in mind

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After analyzing its sales, Honda’s looking to make two more trim variants of the Fury, at least according to some press release I read. Somebody must have liked it.

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1) Don’t break the bank on your first day out. Like Gary said, there is a natural tendency to buy more gear once you’ve figured out what you like, what you don’t like, and what works / doesn’t work for your particular body and riding style. Don’t skimp either; you definitely don’t want to sacrifice your safety. My advice is to sacrifice style in your first set of riding gear. Good looking gear can be expensive, so have some riding experience in your safe-and-affordable-but-maybe-not-so-sexy gear before you shell out for the pretty stuff. Going for textile instead of leather is a great way to save money.

2) Do NOT buy BOOTS, GLOVES, or a HELMET without trying it on first. If any of these don’t fit perfectly, you can have a disastrous time riding. Gloves that are too tight can’t be worn. Gloves that are too loose can make it dangerously hard to use the controls. Same goes for boots. A helmet that doesn’t fit you perfectly won’t do you much good in a crash as it will move around and potentially leave important areas unprotected.

Once you have experience with sizing for a brand, it becomes somewhat safer to buy other similar products online or by catalog. For instance, if a size large Alpinestars GP Pro glove fits you perfectly, most of their other A-Stars large gloves will fit you as well.

3) Most dealers carry only a small subset of gear brands (like Weapon said). However, if you look far enough in your local area (e.g., within a 30 mi radius instead of a 10 mi radius), you’re likely to find enough dealers that almost every brand you’d want (barring fancy import brands) will be represented. You’d be amazed how much base fit differs between brands. If you can, try them all (even if you can’t afford some of them) until you find what really fits. If the winner is out of your price range, at least you have a benchmark against which to measure everything else.

And for some advice not-quite-first-set-of-gear-related:

4) When buying supplemental gear, branch out. It’s really easy to slip into brand loyalty, especially if you really like the first bits you buy. If you’re buying an extra jacket or an extra pair of gloves, see if you can find a different brand that meets your needs. Each exploration helps you find what really works for you. Some brands do one piece of gear (e.g., a boot) really well, but make sub-par examples of another type of gear (e.g., pants).

For instance, I was a big fan of Shift when I first started riding, and accumulated three Shift jackets and two pairs of gloves before I realized that I hated my Shift gloves. They looked cool, but once they were horribly uncomfortable and kept getting looser and looser the more I wore them (*NOTE* break-in is expected, but it’s supposed to stop after a certain point; these gloves kept on stretching). The jackets I got are great and I still have them, but the gloves have since been tossed in favor of much better-fitting options from Alpinestars, Held, and Dainese. Shop around, and don’t be afraid to try other brands.

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I’ve purchased a ton of gear online, both because a lot of the gear I WANT isn’t available locally (like you said WeaponZero), but also because I’ve been suckered into falling for too many Sportbike Track Gear clearance sales to count.

BUT, I’ve also purchased a lot of gear locally and wholly support Eon’s argument in favor of buying locally. I’m close to the guys at the local Suzuki dealership, having purchased two bikes, two full exhaust systems, a ton of parts, and a bunch of gear from their establishment. They’re great guys, and based on a few products I bought where I knew what the cost to the dealer was, I know the deals they give me are perfectly fair given the economy and their struggling business. Still, their “deal” prices can be higher than the normal prices on STG. Yet I go in there not to buy something I’ve seen a picture of, but rather to try things on, talk to the guys behind the counter, spend hours with them looking through catalogs for the best value in a 3rd party pair of front brake rotors, etc. Yes, they have worse selection. Yes, they have higher prices, but the pricing is usually the result of operating at much lower volume (which means their distributors sell to them at higher cost).

Here’s the catch: doing it the Amazon way (to use the extreme example of online mass-sale) is always cheaper for everybody involved. They don’t need sales clerks or specialists to answer your questions. They don’t need to worry about ordering too many different products in case they don’t all sell. They deal in such high volume in such a variety of products, that they can be incredibly cost efficient in distribution and storage, and they can set their prices such that they lose money on some things in order to draw customers in to buy the profitable things. Did you know that a huge portion of the products Amazon sells are at a loss? Copies of the last Harry Potter book were pre-sold at a HUGE loss just to attract new customers and further brand loyalty with existing customers. Big online stores don’t play by the same rules that small mom and pop stores do, and it’s a big mistake to think that, because you got a jacket for $130 online, that $200 was an unreasonable price at your dealer. It could be, but I don’t know that it is. They have to eat, after all.

But just because it’s financially cheaper, don’t think that you aren’t sacrificing something. Amazon only works when you know exactly what you want. The problem with the Amazon approach is that it messes you up when you actually need the person-to-person interaction, the ability to see before you buy, and help finding out what product will be right for you. There are plenty of occasions when I don’t need that, but to ever have the option when I do, I feel I have to do my part to keep deserving local businesses alive.People wonder where customer service went, but they don’t need to wonder. Customer service is gone because people voted with their wallets in favor of cheap products over good service. Companies listened.

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Now easier than ever, thanks to Honda!

No in all seriousness, that’s pretty sweet technology. It reminds me of a totally fanciful engineering project I attempted while in college that…well…didn’t turn out nearly so well (obviously). I do have to wonder if, like the Segway, it’s really more of an engineering feat and less a practical application. Do you know if Honda actually plans to produce these at any reasonable scale?

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…now that’s original.

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I don’t envy that, though I’m glad people in the area respect the danger of that particular road.

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I’m sure your poor S40 was feeling neglected. So your driveway ends at the apex of a blind corner? That’s got to be terrifying!

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…but much more importantly, congrats on your continued success!

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