I can't say much more than what everyone has already said ex that after you take the MSF course, I would only ride on roads that you are familiar with for a while.......What I mean is that when you ride in a familiar area you know where the intersections are, slow up give extra distance between you and a cage in front of you near intersections. Remember if you can't see cages that are waiting to get through an intersection, then they don't see you either. Make yourself seen when out on the road. When aproaching an intersection use your lane go from riding lane 1 to lane 3 a couple of times to see if anyone is waiting at the intersection to enter.

NEVER TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED, NEVER GET TOO COMFORTABLE, ALWAYS EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, ALWAYS BER LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT.

I have two young boys 7 & 10 and all I have ti say is.....................

Live every day as though it is your last....Your family is only concerned for your saftey and trust me I heard it too when I started talking about getting a bike.........I used to always ask that if someone that we knew was to unfortunately get killed in an automobile accident would it mean that we would sell or vehicles and never drive another ever again. I was told that it wasn't the same thing but in essence it is.....If you wat a bike get one, respect it , the road, use good judgement and enjoy it ! There is nothing in the world like it!

 

Education, Education! Read Profient Motorcyling by David Hough. Take the motorcycle safety course and pratice, pratice, pratice, ride within your limits and always pratice quick stops from highway speeds (only after some time riding and doing all the other things first.) And always think the cagers are out there trying to kill you and of course forums like this reading the lessons learned and sharing your lessons learned. Welcome to Funville! Ride Safe, Ride Often!!

 

Keep our head up and your eyes open.

Watch out for the other guy.

 

dude, do it!! you can wake up in the morning and trip over a kids roller skate and tumble down the stairs....bye bye, or walk across the road. When its your turn, its your turn. As previous posts suggest, training is good, lenghten your life expectancy!! Good luck, but as someones sig says, if you haven't lived for anything, then you haven't lived!! thats a good one. drive on.

 

Its a simple fact, everytime you ride it could be your last. Thats one of the reasons after you get one people look at you differently. Just be extra careful, Expect every cage to try to run over you. I ride almost everyday and its actually rare for a problem with cages to happen. They usually treat me with more courtesy than when Im in a cage. Also if you have a 3 light system only use the front on high beam, when old pepes see the 3 lights they assume its a cage far away and will pull out.

 

Good to hear Mike - these forums guys were here for me too when I started riding back in mid July. A little over 1200 miles on the bike now (well, since I've owned it) - that's a small amount of miles compared to most people here, but start slow and build yourself up. A lot of those miles are parking lot/practice miles.

And even better - sounds like you have the right bike in mind!!

 

Mike,

Stay sober, take the class and have a blast!

 

I have stated this in other posts before but I'll say it again.......one day I would like to thank two people (one day) that past away within the last six months that were very close to me and were young, 48 and 50. One had a blood vessel burst in her head and the other found out he had cancer and 6 months later was taken from this world........Thanks go out to them because it was my wake up call, as I said before, I have kids but I also have things that I enjoy also. I was 35 at the time they passed away, the wife did not want me to get a bike and was quite upset for some time that I got it anyway. But the the thing I realized is that we never know just how much time we have here and I placed myself in their shoes and thought if this was to happen to me at that age, that would mean that I have only 15 years left hear. That is when I said that I would wait no longer to the things that I want to do as well as provide for my family.

 

Like Matrix said above... somethings can just dawn on you that it is time to do what you want, if ever you are going to. Like Matrix, I lost my best friend to stomach cancer in July. David had just retired and we were going to do all sorts of things when I retired, to make up for all those years we were slaving away and such. So my biking moved on to the Harley that I should have gotten years ago, and that would have been a part of our outings if he had lived. So, I ride for myself now, on an ultimate machine, and I ride for other reasons too.

On the safety issue... be diligent in your training, and practice, and learn the skill set of safety issues that specially apply to riding scoots.

And have fun!

 

Every time I get on my bike I tell myself, to day somebody will try to kill me. I'm not being paranoid, thats what it takes to survive. I've been riding for 25 years ( about 1,000,000 kms). I've survived 3 hits, 2 from behind 1 from the side. Ride like you are invisible. Stay out of blind spots, don't ride beside big rigs. Go to school, learn from somebody with experience.