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Riding a motorcycle does not require size or strength. It’s all about skill. With the proper skills in place anybody can ride.

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Just take her slow and easy at first. Check out this vid for tips on starting on an incline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5X1FjCxMvc

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I like Motorcyclist as well. As WeaponZero stated the are biased towards sport bikes, but do cover cruisers and beginner bikes as well. This month they had a nice write up on the new Suzuki TU250X as well as a nice section on vintage bikes.

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Sounds like a good deal to me, the Vulcan 500’s are nice rides and it already has the most useful accessories on it.  It wouldn’t hurt to haggle over it some IMO, most people who sell bikes are always going to list it for more than they are willing to sell it for.  I’d throw him a lowball of $2000 or so and hopefully end up meeting him in the middle somewhere.  If your in an area were the riding season is just about over, you may end up getting a really good deal, as he may want to unload it to avoid storing it for the winter.  As WeaponZero said make sure you find out the maintenance history of the bike and adjust your offer accordingly.

Good luck with the purchase.  BTW, got any pics of your GoldWing Trike?

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I love NightHawks and that is a gorgeous example of them.  $1500 is a smokin’ deal too.  Keep the shiny side up.

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Here’s an interesting article on “being seen” or not, a lot of interesting info in it.

http://www.helmets.org/invisibl.htm

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Is it a 250 or 750?  As long as it’s in good mechanical shape (no oil leaks, good tires, chain and sprockets, all lights work etc.) $1000 would be a good deal especially if its a 750.  If it needs work to be safe to ride I would start out much lower than that.  If it just needs cosmetic work that’s easily fixed with a bit of patience and elbow grease.

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They don’t want you covering the front brake on the first day of class because if you panic you’re going to grab the front brake, and that’s one of the best ways to dump a bike going slow, grabbing the front brake when the wheel is not perfectly straight.

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Motorcycle wave. Most motorcyclist wave at eachother when passing, acknowledging the “brotherhood”. Just a friendly gesture, much like the jeep wave.

here’s a good article on the subject

http://implausibledreams.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-motorcycle-riders-wave.html

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Like they always say, “It’s better to ride a slow bike fast, then to ride a fast bike slow”. I think you’re making a good decision, if there is no logical need for a bigger bike then why not keep the 250 and ride the wheels off of it. I’ve read many times where even guys who race 600’s and liter bikes keep a 250 around just because they are so much fun to ride.

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I’ve been eying that IS-16 myself, I really like the idea of the internal sunshade. It sucks putting sun glasses on with my current full face. And with the shade built into the helmet you never have to worry about forgetting them.

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The Ninja 500 was in production until this year. 2009 is the last year for them. They had a minor makeover in 94 but have essentially been the same bike since 1987. Finding parts for them shouldn’t be that hard. And the Ninja 500 is a great starter bike.

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Skunks have been really bad around here this year. Other than that it’s mostly deer. I’ve had a few close calls with deer, and it’s really scary. A friend of a friend hit a deer on his bike about 6 weeks ago going about 65. He didn’t even know what happened until someone who witnessed the accident told him. The deer came up a bank and jumped the guard rail directly in front of him. Totaled his bike, a V-Star 1100. He got banged up pretty bad and got a ton of road rash but was not seriously injured. The only gear he was wearing was a half helmet. He had on work boots and jeans and long sleaves, but no proper MC gear. If he had been wearing gear he would have faired a lot better. This was his first accident in over 30 years of riding.

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I ride ATV’s quite a bit myself. In my opinion there really is no cross over as far as handling an ATV vs a Motorcyle. It’s a completely different set of skills other than the shifting, if it’s a manual ATV. That being said if you are a person who is confident and skilled at handling an ATV then most likely you will do well on a motorcycle IMO. In my experience on ATV’s you spend a lot of time focused on what’s immediately in front of you, where as on a street bike you need to focus on where you want to go. Of course most of my ATV experience is slow technical trail riding and mudding on 4×4 quads. From your decscription your into a different type of riding so it may be something you can apply to street riding.

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I think the Ninja 650 would be a good bike if you have some riding experience. It’s a good step up in power from the 500 but a very controllable bike. I test rode an ER-6n a few weeks ago and it was pretty nice. It’s the same bike as a Ninja 650 but is a naked bike without fairings. I do like the look of the fairings on the 650r over the naked version though.

I could easily see someone sticking with a Ninja 650 for years. It has more than enough power for any legal riding you’ll ever do. But like all motorcyclists you will always feel the need to “upgrade” it’s just the way it goes.

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