Let's say you had about 5K or so to spend on your first motorcycle...

[serpent]

Originally Posted by Moto44

Last I heard, inexperience and alcohol were the two leading factors.

you forgot stupidity

[evomind]

Originally Posted by Moto44

Last I heard, inexperience and alcohol were the two leading factors.

yep.
pretty rare for an accident to occur from lean angle.
maybe other mitigating factors like speed, midcorner bumps, debris in the road, etc....

[erics75218]

I was gonna say, I've taken a few motorcycle riding classes and the one that helped ME the most was this one that dealt TOTALY in low speed riding. Once I started riding I found out that going at a relatively quick pace was "easy" as compared to riding on the street in 1st and 2nd gear....in parking lots, etc. That's when the bike is naturally unstable.

At this course, we never got OUT of 2nd gear, but by the end of the day we were getting some pretty serious lean angles going.

I'll try to remember the name it, but I can't right now it's been a few years....but I can say that more than ANY class I had taken it gave me a lot of confidence.

[evomind]

Originally Posted by serpent

you forgot stupidity

i never forget that.....its with me all the time.

[Moto44]

Evomind still gets a chuckle out of a comment I once made with regard to this subject..."A lot of things seem stupid until you're the guy doing them."

[Allan Gibbs]

Originally Posted by erics75218

Once I started riding I found out that going at a relatively quick pace was "easy" as compared to riding on the street in 1st and 2nd gear....in parking lots, etc. That's when the bike is naturally unstable.

Exactly. That's why I don't recommend a new sport bike for a new rider. The lean-forward angle on a sport bike makes low speed riding awkard. Not to mention all that plastic. It's easier for me to ride at 60 ph than it is at 6 mph.

[PhlypSide]

Originally Posted by evomind

this one.... [pic of busa]

Bastid! In that awesome orange too...

I know you hear this too much, but I gotta say it again:
it's good to be Mike.

[fitfan]

Originally Posted by Simba

The "chicken strip" nonsense is about the stupidest squid-tastic mentality I've ever heard. If you ride it to the edge of the tire on the street, chances are extremely good that you'll be dead before your shiney new yamakawsuki 1000RRRRR is out of warranty.

i have a decapitated friend that, if alive, would agree....

[PhlypSide]

^^^ Contextual reading comprehension FTW

[evomind]

Originally Posted by PhlypSide

Bastid! In that awesome orange too...

I know you hear this too much, but I gotta say it again:
it's good to be Mike.

haha.....i used to have "its good to be me" under my avatar because i thought it was funny, but took it down because i was afraid folks would take it seriously.

thanks all the same.

i do NOT recommend a sportbike as a first bike. MAYBE if you can already ride, but as mentioned earlier they do not like low speed manuevering.
the upside is you have to rev the bejeesus out them to get anywhere.

[Moto44]

Rich, in case you weren't aware, the Suzuki SV650 is a V-twin. This makes for very nice low and mid-range torque, but not so much that you have to worry about spinning your wheels.

[evomind]

Originally Posted by Moto44

Evomind still gets a chuckle out of a comment I once made with regard to this subject..."A lot of things seem stupid until you're the guy doing them."

yep, ive been there b4.
great line!

[PhlypSide]

Originally Posted by Moto44

Evomind still gets a chuckle out of a comment I once made with regard to this subject..."A lot of things seem stupid until you're the guy doing them."

^^^ Experience is merely the cumulative result of surviving stupidity (your own or others').

Aside from old school upbringing, this is why I have a lot of respect for my elders, especially the ones who did REALLY stupid sh*t when they were younger (or hey, even yesterday ). I figure they're either really really lucky or really skilled.

If they've pulled through lots of stupid scenarios, I like to believe they're really skilled, because no one is that lucky

[Allan Gibbs]

Originally Posted by erics75218

yeah I was going to say...I proudly have chicken strips on my monster...always have..always will. I'm not willing to commit to the lean angle necessary to remove them on some blind corner in the canyons.

Very true. But chicken strips aren't an indicator of how "hard core" a rider is. It can be faked by not riding very well or fast.

For example, there was a thread on a Ducati forum about "can't wait to knee drag." My last post which pretty must silenced the thread were comments about the "poser- hang off" and the "poser tire scrub".

With the poser hang off, you'll see guy hanging of the bike with the bike still upright. It just makes them look fast but what they're basically doing is intentionally or unintentionally canceling the input of their "hang off" by pushing on the opposite handle bar (hang off to the left while pushing on the right handle bar). In terms of numbers, think of it as +5 to the left but +3 to the right is only a +2 turn to the left.

The poser tire scrub is where you can eliminate your chicken strips without going very fast. Basically lean the bike into the turn but keep yourself upright (like dirt bike riders). This is the opposite of way racers hang off. Keeping yourself upright makes the bike work harder to turn let's you scrub the tires without going very fast. Versus the purpose of hanging off means you change the center of gravity toward the center so the bike does not have to lean as much or can lean more. This lets you extract 10/10th of the bikes handling ability - which really has no place on the street.

[PhlypSide]

^^^ Nice definitely not a good idea to try and reach 10/10ths on the street...

I like your explanations of "poseur hang-off" and "poseur tire scrub", I must make sure not to do those anymore.

[Allan Gibbs]

Yes, I find a power sander is a much easier and effective way to break in new tires.

[PhlypSide]

^^^^^^^ AWESOME!!!!

[Jeff_r1]

If it was me and i was going to ride it at H2R often i would pick up a new ninja 250.When you get bored of it on the street put some track plastics on and some pilot race tires and have a blast with it going the wrong way at H2R. Then get something else to ride around the street. You can do the same thing with the sv650 put a gsxr 600 front end on it and go to the track and have fun with it. Honestly once you start riding on the track with the bike you will find it very boring to ride on the street.

[Simba]

Originally Posted by PhlypSide

^^^^ So you've got a dedicated track bike with no strips then right?

With a 190 rear on a Duc 916, the only way you're getting the "chicken strips" off the rear tire is by taking the "chicken strips" off the pegs, grips, mirrors, fairings, etc.

I ride my bike faster than most, and often faster than I should, but I don't stand around the local coffee shops with the usual squids circle-jerking over rear tire wear. Nor do I ride with such people, frankly. Excellent way to become collateral damage.

[tesprit]

Originally Posted by RichS

...and you lived in Austin.

I'm about to finish my motorcycle safety course tomorrow and I'd like to pick up a bike.

I know that I don't want a dirt bike, but I'm sort of open towards anything else although I'm sort of leaning towards a sport bike.

Some data:

About 195 lbs (ideal would be about 10 to 15 lbs less), 6 feet tall.
Track membership.

I'm of two minds:

1. Pick up a 2k or so bike that has already been dropped a few times and build up some skill without the fear of dropping the bike.
2. There are some great deals on great bikes because of the state of the economy so I could spend more (even more than the 5K) and pick up something nice and just be careful.

Craig's list in Austin turns up a bunch of interesting things:
2009 Harley Davidson XL883N Sportster (obviously asking too much, but this is kind of cool looking and seems like it might be fun)
2005 Ducati Monster 800cc
2005 Ducati 749 Dark
2006 Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja 5K Miles, Black, Immac, 1-Owner, $$$ Mods
And a few hundred other interesting bikes...

So what would you do?

Here is a great option for your first bike with $5,000 to spend 2005 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R

Just kidding.........