I told the wife that I would never get a motorcycle...

Ted DuPuis said:
Even going from a scooter to an FJR, while a big jump, is better than zero motorcycle experience of any sort (just riding a bicycle). The way one friend put it to me was "Ride a good newbie bike for 6 months and then you can upgrade to whatever you want." I wouldn't advise that for anyone but that was more or less what I did - went from my '84 KZ700 to a Bandit 1200S.
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Are you me? I bought a KZ650 and rode the wheels off of it as my first bike, then got a Bandit 1200S. Then moved into the HD dark side and havent looked back
 
charheep said:
Are you me? I bought a KZ650 and rode the wheels off of it as my first bike, then got a Bandit 1200S. Then moved into the HD dark side and havent looked back
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Pretty sure I'm me and not you (after all, you fly a single) but maybe we're from parallel dimensions and mistakenly ended up in the same dimension.

However my KZ700 I didn't ride the wheels off of per se. Bought it in December, owned it for 5-6 months and then sold it. Probably put 500-1000 miles on it in that time period.

It also took me longer to get to the Harley world, and I wouldn't say I've "never looked back" but I do love my Harley.
 
All these big bikes you keep talking about. The biggest I had in college (a number of decades ago) was a Honda CL-175. 70 mph was about as fast as it would go. Put my wife on the back and it wouldn't even do that. Good bike, but some more hp and torque might have kept us from getting hit that night. Before that I had a 1967 Honda 90 (as we called it - a "bikey 90") and my wife had a Honda Trail 90. Mine had a 3 speed and hers had a 4 speed. Made a significant difference on a particular hill on US 95 south of Moscow, Idaho. Otherwise, not so much.
 
Ghery said:
All these big bikes you keep talking about. The biggest I had in college (a number of decades ago) was a Honda CL-175. 70 mph was about as fast as it would go. Put my wife on the back and it wouldn't even do that. Good bike, but some more hp and torque might have kept us from getting hit that night. Before that I had a 1967 Honda 90 (as we called it - a "bikey 90") and my wife had a Honda Trail 90. Mine had a 3 speed and hers had a 4 speed. Made a significant difference on a particular hill on US 95 south of Moscow, Idaho. Otherwise, not so much.
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Sounds like you’re due for a modern bike.
 
Ghery said:
Yeah, but I haven't ridden in over 35 years.
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Get a bike now while you can. I got my dad back into riding after 40 years off. He said buying his new bike and strapping a helmet on again are some of his best decisions he's made lately. Plus we can ride together, which is really cool.
 
LoLPilot said:
Get a bike now while you can. I got my dad back into riding after 40 years off. He said buying his new bike and strapping a helmet on again are some of his best decisions he's made lately. Plus we can ride together, which is really cool.
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I've been trying to talk my 25-year-old son into getting a bike. His mom is about ready to strangle me...
 
Half Fast said:
I've been trying to talk my 25-year-old son into getting a bike. His mom is about ready to strangle me...
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Our kids all talk about wanting to ride. I'm a bit skeptical about letting them have dirt bikes at their age just yet watching how my son drives the go kart, but when they get bigger we'll be letting them ride with us.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Our kids all talk about wanting to ride. I'm a bit skeptical about letting them have dirt bikes at their age just yet watching how my son drives the go kart, but when they get bigger we'll be letting them ride with us.
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My son had a little Honda 50 dirt bike when he was a kid, and SWMBO was all in favor of that. It's street riding that worries her.
 
Half Fast said:
My son had a little Honda 50 dirt bike when he was a kid, and SWMBO was all in favor of that. It's street riding that worries her.
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This may be one of those scenarios where I just don't know enough about them to have a good opinion. He's good with his bicycle but he does go fast with it and the go-kart (no surprise given his genetics...). We're big on safety gear but we're also attempting to prevent hospital visits.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
This may be one of those scenarios where I just don't know enough about them to have a good opinion. He's good with his bicycle but he does go fast with it and the go-kart (no surprise given his genetics...). We're big on safety gear but we're also attempting to prevent hospital visits.
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When my son was a kid, I was racing sports cars and wanted to start him in karts. One evening I was watching a kart race on TV and talking with my wife about getting my son into it. About that time, two karts touched wheels, one launched, the driver went sliding down the track on his back, and his kart flew through the air over the tire barrier and into a chain link fence.

My wife glared at me, threw her magazine down onto the coffee table, and stormed out of the room. End of discussion, and the kid never got to race karts.

-sigh- He might have been F1 world champion by now, supporting his parents in style. C'est la vie.
 
Well, the thing about young kids and dirtbikes/4-wheelers is you can limit the throttle pretty easily until they get the hang of it. Hard to do that with older kids and street bikes.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Well, the thing about young kids and dirtbikes/4-wheelers is you can limit the throttle pretty easily until they get the hang of it. Hard to do that with older kids and street bikes.
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Yeah, that's a fair point. We did that on his first go-kart for a while. Of course when he flipped the go kart over and landed upsidedown, it had a full roll cage. Harder to do that on a dirtbike.
 
LoLPilot said:
Get a bike now while you can. I got my dad back into riding after 40 years off. He said buying his new bike and strapping a helmet on again are some of his best decisions he's made lately. Plus we can ride together, which is really cool.
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I think if I bought a bike and brought it home my wife would divorce me on the spot. She was on the back of the 175 when we got hit. I got it fixed and rode it until we graduated in 1975, but she hasn't been on one since, and has no desire to start again. Yes, it would be fun, but the collateral damage would be too much.
 
When I bought the Death Machine Mrs. Steingar asked if I was out of my mind. She couldn't ride on it, grown women don't bend like that. Grown men don't either, but why would I let a thing like that stop me. One day looked wistfully at it and said she missed riding with me. I went out and bought the Goldwing. I was going to get a scooter, the Wing was cheaper. I rode her around on that for a few years until I saw an MRI of her back. I turned to her and said her riding days were done. I sold that Wing sometime thereafter, I was tired of fixing it (it was a refugee from the 1980s).
 
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Ghery said:
I think if I bought a bike and brought it home my wife would divorce me on the spot. She was on the back of the 175 when we got hit. I got it fixed and rode it until we graduated in 1975, but she hasn't been on one since, and has no desire to start again. Yes, it would be fun, but the collateral damage would be too much.
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My wife was like that when we were newlyweds. These days she just asks about my life insurance and how much I'm worth dead, then says "Go ahead."
 
Ghery said:
All these big bikes you keep talking about. The biggest I had in college (a number of decades ago) was a Honda CL-175. 70 mph was about as fast as it would go. Put my wife on the back and it wouldn't even do that. Good bike, but some more hp and torque might have kept us from getting hit that night. Before that I had a 1967 Honda 90 (as we called it - a "bikey 90") and my wife had a Honda Trail 90. Mine had a 3 speed and hers had a 4 speed. Made a significant difference on a particular hill on US 95 south of Moscow, Idaho. Otherwise, not so much.
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I had a CL175 as well. It looked like this:
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It would be called a scrambler these days, which meant it was fit for mild off roading. I had save up $625 working odd jobs, and my dad paid the sales tax. I was 14 when I got it, and could ride it around the farm where I was spending the summer. Later that fall I rode it to school once I'd turned 15, which beat the absolute stuffing out of riding the bus. As you can see, it was a parallel twin, which made it a little smoother than a single. It was very good around town, but wouldn't be appropriate for highway use.

Back then all the big four Japanese manufacturers had a full lineup of small street bikes, today, not so much, other than the Grom and its clones, it seems that market has been taken over by scooters. I have nothing against scooters, but I would rather not have shown up at high school with one.
 
My first bike was a parallel twin, quite a bit bigger. A street bike, it carried me to southern Mexico. I do like the modern bikes better, though.
 
The new helmet has shipped and I am signed up for the MSF course. There is a waiting list due to the Corona thing, so may be a month until. Good news is they have a new instructor. Comes highly recommended as he is an instructor of the instructors.
 
Morgan3820 said:
The new helmet has shipped and I am signed up for the MSF course. There is a waiting list due to the Corona thing, so may be a month until. Good news is they have a new instructor. Comes highly recommended as he is an instructor of the instructors.
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I hope your experience is as positive as mine was. I became good friends with one of my instructors who also introduced me to some of the local riding community and events.
 
One caution re MSF: they seem to have some theological adversity to “covering your front brake”, ie keeping one or two right fingers on brake lever at all times.....most good riders I know do cover the front brake,
This can be a self taught technique once the MSF Beginners is completed.

The instructor of my MSF “Advanced” (hah) threatened not to pass me because of my lifelong habit of same.
 
wrbix said:
The instructor of my MSF “Advanced” (hah) threatened not to pass me because of my lifelong habit of same.
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Yeah I will say I was much less impressed when I took the “advanced“ course years later. That was a waste of time. But the beginner was great, even though I already had around 500 miles under my belt at the time.
 
wrbix said:
One caution re MSF: they seem to have some theological adversity to “covering your front brake”, ie keeping one or two right fingers on brake lever at all times.....most good riders I know do cover the front brake,
This can be a self taught technique once the MSF Beginners is completed.

The instructor of my MSF “Advanced” (hah) threatened not to pass me because of my lifelong habit of same.
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Agree 100%, cover that front brake with two fingers. Be ready to brake at any time.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Agree 100%, cover that front brake with two fingers. Be ready to brake at any time.
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I’m trying to get Laurie back in that habit. She’s got some fear of the front brake, which is a bad thing.
 
My class was useful and worthwhile, but the instructor was an older lady who rode a large HD and really didn't know much about technique. She taught the skills and exercises necessary to pass the class but I learned how to ride from buddies, videos, and books. Covering the front brake is a good example. So is pre-loading the shifter and upshifting with a throttle blip, not touching the clutch. Or shifting one's weight in a corner or under braking. And so on and on......
 
Half Fast said:
Completely backward. :) Better to fear the rear brake, especially on a sport bike.
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Remember she rides a Street Glide these days. But you’re correct. She needs to spend more time in a parking lot getting comfortable with handling again. She’s locked up the rear wheel stopping hard before.

It’s getting back into things after a long hiatus. Maybe I can find a better advanced course for us to go do. No idea what exists around here for that.
 
Devil's Advocate, trying to guess the reason not to cover the front brake with 2 fingers...

1) In a "panic" stop, one might squeeze just with those two fingers, limiting the braking power available and possibly limiting the lever travel because of the fingers trapped under it, or,

2) In any other kind of a "panic" situation (tank slapper?), one might reflexively clamp down with the right hand, unintentionally applying the front brake when not appropriate.

Offhand, can't think of any reason why it would be considered a bad habit.
 
FastEddieB said:
Devil's Advocate, trying to guess the reason not to cover the front brake with 2 fingers...

1) In a "panic" stop, one might squeeze just with those two fingers, limiting the braking power available and possibly limiting the lever travel because of the fingers trapped under it, or,

2) In any other kind of a "panic" situation (tank slapper?), one might reflexively clamp down with the right hand, unintentionally applying the front brake when not appropriate.

Offhand, can't think of any reason why it would be considered a bad habit.
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Fair points, especially #2. For #1, it's pretty bike dependent. I know I can get the Triumph into ABS using two fingers on the brake, and my old Ninja would lift the rear tire under heavy braking with only two fingers.

Related observation - getting the two fingers out near the end of the lever, rather than near the attach point, has two significant advantages:
1 - Leverage. More braking force for the same amount of finger force.
2 - Stroke length. The fingers move farther between initial brake activation and max braking, allowing for better and more accurate brake modulation.
 
The basic MSF course was helpful in technique and keeping the shiny side up as you locked up the rear brake. (I was admonished for enjoying that too much.) I usually don't keep any fingers on the front brake unless I'm resting my hand from vibration, then it's my outer 3 fingers (middle finger to pinky) on the front brake lever. It's just my habit... I don't know anyone else who does that, nor do I encourage it.

As for kids riding... even an eBike would work to teach them the habit. And because of my riding motorcycles, every bicycle in my household (including my son's) has the front brake switched to the right handle bar. (For whatever reason, bicycles like to have the front brake on the left.) Having said that, @Ted DuPuis not sure if the kids can ride something like this or a variant (maybe smaller version for the younger kids?):


Lastly - you guys are all bad influences. Especially that @Morgan3820. Now I'm secretly looking at a BMW G310GS or a Yamaha YZF-R3 (and leaning toward the R3. Don't tell my wife.
 
Some bikes require a lot more than two fingers in a panic stop and isn't that why you have two fingers covering the front brake in the first place? On other bikes two fingers can lock up the front brake. I tend to rest four fingers over the brake lever as that's what is required on one of my bikes. My other bike has linked brakes (rear brake foot lever activates both front and rear brakes above 30 mph) so it comes to a stop pretty quickly using two fingers and rear brake. In the old days many bikes with drum brakes would just keep on a'goin' if you offered it two fingers and rear brake in an emergency. Know your machine and test out the braking system in a rural setting to see how it responds with the various inputs. Also, ride often enough to let these things become second nature. Don't be the guy on the 10 year old Harley that has accumulated a total of 900 miles. Get on your bike and ride!
 
rtk11 said:
Lastly - you guys are all bad influences. Especially that @Morgan3820. Now I'm secretly looking at a BMW G310GS or a Yamaha YZF-R3 (and leaning toward the R3. Don't tell my wife.
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My friend who was looking at a G310GS for his girlfriend to learn in settled on a G310R. The ergonomics they found better along with a few other details. The benefit of seeing something in person vs just pictures online.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
My friend who was looking at a G310GS for his girlfriend to learn in settled on a G310R. The ergonomics they found better along with a few other details. The benefit of seeing something in person vs just pictures online.
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@Ted DuPuis, you're not helping! :p If I go see it in person, the credit card is likely to come out. That's no bueno for a non-WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) item.

I have a long torso, short legs, so nothing really fits me very well unless I'm hunched over on a sport bike. Actually the R3 felt pretty good to me and wasn't hard on the wrists at all. But my former CSC RX3 and Yamaha Vino both got offset risers to help raise the bar and bring it back towards me for a more upright riding position. (Surprisingly the Ducati ST3 and Yamaha Tmax were both fine in their riding positions.)

Darn it... this is a slippery slope! :p And the BMW and Yamaha dealers are just a few miles away and open today... :eek:
 
rtk11 said:
@Ted DuPuis, you're not helping! :p If I go see it in person, the credit card is likely to come out. That's no bueno for a non-WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) item.

I have a long torso, short legs, so nothing really fits me very well unless I'm hunched over on a sport bike. Actually the R3 felt pretty good to me and wasn't hard on the wrists at all. But my former CSC RX3 and Yamaha Vino both got offset risers to help raise the bar and bring it back towards me for a more upright riding position. (Surprisingly the Ducati ST3 and Yamaha Tmax were both fine in their riding positions.)

Darn it... this is a slippery slope! :p And the BMW and Yamaha dealers are just a few miles away and open today... :eek:
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How’d you like the CSC?......considering an RX4 for Teresa as her summer Moto (rides a BMW F650GS twin in FL)
 
FormerHangie said:
I had a CL175 as well. It looked like this:
ebay_172231684278_11.jpg


It would be called a scrambler these days, which meant it was fit for mild off roading. I had save up $625 working odd jobs, and my dad paid the sales tax. I was 14 when I got it, and could ride it around the farm where I was spending the summer. Later that fall I rode it to school once I'd turned 15, which beat the absolute stuffing out of riding the bus. As you can see, it was a parallel twin, which made it a little smoother than a single. It was very good around town, but wouldn't be appropriate for highway use.

Back then all the big four Japanese manufacturers had a full lineup of small street bikes, today, not so much, other than the Grom and its clones, it seems that market has been taken over by scooters. I have nothing against scooters, but I would rather not have shown up at high school with one.
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Change the color to Red and you've got the bike we got hit on in college (December, 1973). Really a nice bike. And around here it handled the highways just fine. I believe it was called a scrambler even then.
 
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