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megaspazParticipant
Obviously age and experience. Having one or the other can lower the cost of insurance some, but not as low as having both age and experience. Also, how and where you plan to ride, and the class of bike will factor in as well. You just have to shop around. One thing you might want to try is to piggy back on your parent’s policy, especially if your parents have clean driving records. As far as policies go, I’d say you can forget about full coverage. I shopped around and for me, everyone wanted at least $1800 USD/year for full coverage. I went with one step above minimum legal for liability and uninsured motorist only. That sets me back about $760 USD/year (about 60+ bucks/month). I went with my auto insurer since I got an extra discount for having a current auto and renter’s policy with them. I got age and a clean record, but not experience and I told them my only riding will be weekend riding with the estimated miles per year being set at their minimum of 9K. I’ve heard State Farm offers the lowest rates, at least here in Cali, but everyone that says that has other autos insured with them. I’m using nationwide myself. Anyhoo, all this talk of insurance rates depends on a variety of factors, so the only thing I can say is to shop around.
Oh, and if you belong to any motorcycle associations, a lot of carriers will offer discounts for members (i.e. American Motorcycle Association, etc.).
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantDon’t know about your neck of the woods, but here in the California bay area, most stores are pretty lenient on helmet returns. Both of my MSF instructors basically said take a helmet you think you like home with you for the day and try watching TV with it on for a few hours. If you don’t get a headache, you should be good to go. Also make sure on a brand new helmet that it’s kinda tight since over time, the padding inside will settle in and the helmet will fit looser.
For shopping, here in Cali anyway with the lenient returns, if you find a helmet you like, it works in your favor, since you can just grab the model number and shop for price online. I like to support my local store though, so I’ll give them first crack at price matching and if they come reasonably close, I’ll just do biz with them. But like uncle_bernie stated, DOT and Snell approved is the way to go, although legally, the helmet only needs to be DOT approved.
Edit:
And I forgot, if you get a full face shield, make sure you either look for anti-fogging in the list of features or make sure to test the helmet with the breather add-on. Having a visor full of fog while riding is um… not fun…
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantHow about allowing members to do profiles on themselves and having a page which lists the members of this fine forum establishment. Some profile thingies members might fill in for themselves:
age, number of bikes, bike models owned, years/mileage experience, likes/dislikes, gear, short self summary…
I’m just throwing this out there as other forums do this and I guess it might be beneficial for new riders who are too shy to sign up to see what other members are using/doing…
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantPersonally, I’ve never had the feeling that you’ve misrepresented the risks for riding a bike. Sure people can always have issues with throwing statistics around especially when it goes against what they think is right. Statistics are so open interpretation, so in one sense, you might need to be more careful or explain better any stats you throw out and how it relates to the point you’re making. I did think the stats you put out were fine since the only thing being argued was risk and degrees of acceptable risk. But hey, cie le vie… Personally, I bet Christopher Reeves wishes he was on a motorcycle that day instead of a horse.
Oh and FYI, you did certainly layout the possible bad things that could happen earlier in the thread. So you weren’t being misleading. Bottom line, Peng didn’t like your use of stats, I thought they were fine. Things like these are called opinions, so stop being confused.
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantYou said: I don’t know what I like a motorcycle to feel like so I don’t particularly want to start out spending $5000+ for the SV
I say, spending ~4K for a new 08 Ninja 250 without knowing what you want your bike to feel like is still throwing away buku money. You should go and sit on a variety of bikes and make sure that #1 your comfortable sitting on them. Also, you didn’t specify if you’re only looking for new or if going used will be acceptable as you can find sv650’s used as low as $3500 USD (takes hunting though).
As far as my limited knowledge of riding goes, I’ve ridden a buddy’s 06 ninja and a buddy’s 08 ninja, parking lot only though for the 08 ninja, and I can say if your object is for everyday commuting including freeway, the ninja’s perfectly good.
As for a new rider, I can’t say what’s a better starting bike. The logic’s there that a ninja 250 will better for learning on for your first bike, but that’s not to say that you can’t learn with an sv650 as your first bike. Lots of people have. I’m a new rider and my first bike is an sv650. Lurking on this site for a while, it’s safe to say that as far as first bikes go, 250s are more recommended. I can say for me, I had an easier time recovering from noob mistakes on my buddy’s ninja 250 than with my sv650, probably due to the sv650 being a heavier bike.
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantAll your gear, all the time… but um… leathers not included and no COD…
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantIt’s gone! No chance we could trick teh secret outta ya? I CAN HAZ SEKRUT?
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantI was kinda in the same boat as you… except women just hate me… haha… j/k…
I did for a long time want to get a bike, it was just that money was always an issue, and a car at the time was just more practical (taking pets to the vet, etc…). I’m happy I finally got my bike and I’m having a blast. I have a feeling you’ll probably feel the same way…
Happy motorin’
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantMatt and tugboat… for the main reason of practicality. Not sure how it is with the course you’re gonna take, but the MSF where I live at uses 250 cruisers. It’s not a bad idea to get used to what you’ll be riding in the class… almost give you a leg up, so to speak…
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantIs what I normally do when I know I’m going to have to stop… but for some reason, I just did not think about it. Might be due to me being in the frame of mind of my original intent… I’ll probably dwell on it a bit more…
One things for sure, it sure is nice to have the carpool lane during carpool hours on 101…
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantI took the declining cloverleaf on-ramp onto 101N from Lawrence Expressway. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t perfect either. It was successful, but lucky also. I shall now bore you with the details…
Took the diamond lane of the on-ramp in 3rd with the throttle slightly open.
Everything’s going smooth 1/2 way down until a comcrap support van decides he wants in on the carpool lane with no carpool! He pulls a quick signal with an immediate merge.
I let off on the throttle and close the clutch and apply a little front brake. I comfortable cruise behind him trying to time his stop and the green light. I was just going to follow his green light, but he doesn’t go immediately on the green. So I had to stop and when he decides to go, I’m not in the right gear to start… I open the throttle and it putt-putts and stalls. I’ve got some slight momentum and was still balanced, so I hit the start button, the bike starts up, I crank the throttle and I’m off.Most definately, not the smoothest of getting on the freeway, but I survived it, luckily. And thinking on it, there’s a couple of things I’m pretty sure I should’ve done, like:
1. Lane split on the inside of the carpool and non-carpool lane, and gunned it as I did do a good job of timing the green light. Not too many escape routes on an on-ramp behind another vehicle in the diamond lane.
2. Made sure I was in a low enough gear since I stopped.
There’s probably other things as well, which I’m sure people will comment on.
*Disclaimer – The details of the incident might not be entirely correct as I started deeply thinking of the situation when I got to work and safely parked my bike.
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantI go down to our buildings at the end of Crittendon Lane. Huge parking lot with lots of straights, stop signs, 90 degree turns, and little traffic and people after hours. Too many islands and parking spaces to do ovals though, but still a good lot, imo, for doing stops, emergency stops, and turns none-the-less… (-:
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantYeh, I work there. If it was around 7 – 9 am-ish, then yeh, that was me. And yeh, I’m trying to get the hang of it. The sv650 isn’t as forgiving at uber slow speeds like the ninja 250, but I’m getting there. Practice makes perfect… at least that’s what I’ve heard… ^__^
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantWhat I did, since I don’t have any friends with big trucks for bike transport, I had one of my biker friends meet me at the dealer and ride my bike to the destination. He left his bike at the dealership, rode my bike to the destination, got a ride back from me in my car to pick up his bike. Afterwards we had dinner to celebrate my new bike. Although, if the dealership’s just down the street from you, you could ride it back yourself… why not? heh heh…
From my experience, the MSF only gives you a taste of riding a bike, though. A controlled area like the school playground is very different than riding the street with other motorists and pedestrians. I know I wasn’t quite ready to deal with that kind of environment as I got my bike right after getting my license which was the day right after passing the MSF. Also, it’s a time-based class for the riding exercises, so if you fall behind, you fall behind. Although, this might be dependent on the instructor…
But good luck on the MSF. It really is a fun course and the instructers are really cool people.
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…megaspazParticipantYeah, it’s the big line of cars of drivers who might’ve had a crappy day that worry me. Or if it’s in the morning, the long line cars of drivers who might not have had their morning coffee yet… heh heh.
But the Lawrence on-ramp onto 101N has a diamond lane which is a plus, but the stopping at the meter at the end of curve has me worried… not a whole lot of distance for get upright to properly stop… at least not from what my noob eyes can see. And even taking the inside shoulder seems pretty daunting as you’ve probably noticed, drivers have a hard time staying between the lines on the on-ramp, me included!
I think I might be looking more for technique, control/braking tips for handling these things… like throttle open/closed, clutch closed and “coast”, etc…
I wish they covered this situation at MSF at least here in Cali… I wish I thought of asking it at MSF…
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now… -
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