Welcome aboard from Glen Burnie, Maryland

 

Welcome from Vancouver B.C. CANADA

 

My advise is to start off with a riders safety course (MSF) and test ride as many bikes as you can. You will know when you have ridden the right one. Welcome!

 

Welcome to the forum from Virginia.

 

Welcome to the forum

 

+1 The MSF course is the place to start, before you buy a bike.

Harleys are quite heavy beasts and the part many people have difficulty with particularly early on is slow speed manouvers. If its possible, locate a area such as an empty car park (parking lot) where you can spend a couple of hours practising such manouvers without any traffic around. It will help build your confidence. Do things like stopping and starting, riding a walking pace (slipping the clutch) slow turns and figure eights etc. If there is somewheer you can (safely) practise hill starts you may also find this helps.

However, even after all this, always heed Oct1949's advice.

Assume that car sat at the junction and about to pull out HAS NOT seen you and be prepared. The most common words you hear from a car driver after a crash with a bike are "I never saw him". Being a card driver as well I can sometimes sympathise with this although as I do both I'm obviously even more vidulant, or try to be.

The only thing I would add is always ride within your own comfort level. Dont allow any other bikers you may be riding with make you feel you need to go faster than you feel safe. There is only one exception to this rule in my opinion. Thats when you carry a passenger, aprticularly a beginer or nervous passenger. Then you should always try to ride within their comfort level as far as its safe to do so.

Many riders (myself included when younger) will naturally be inclined to want to show the passenger 'what the bike can really do'. If you really want that nervous passenger to refuse point blank to ever get aboard again, go ahead.

I dont know if its the same over that side of the pond, but nurses and doctors here have had a nickname for bikers going back at least to the 70's, when I started riding. They call us Organ Donors!

Finally, enjoy the ride but stay safe.

 

Welcome from northern Illinois !!!

 

Take Rieder's Edge or an MSF class. You'll be surprised how much you learn. Ride like you are invisible, no one is looking for you. Good luck with getting on two wheels. Welcome from Music City.

 

Howdy, welcome to HDF, Enjoy your stay.