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Originally Posted by ghoastgirl1
Going to try out a bike for a fit tonight! Very excited!
I discussed riding with my dad for the first time and it was pretty interesting...his first statement was "In no way am I going to encourage this" and then he followed on to talk for an hour about stories of his days on bikes back in England and up till when he decided to sell his.
He started riding when he was 14 and stopped in his mid thirties. Apparently while riding in ATL traffic a guy on a cell phone nearly killed him, missed him by a couple inches. He said after that he sold the bike the very next day. He also gave a few stories of riding in the rain and how dangerous it is and how miserable it can be. He said 500cc sounds reasonable but he wanted me on a bike that can get me out of the way fast enough if need be. He was very impressed that there are classes for novice motorcyclist now, apparently they didn't have those back then. The Honda Rebel is what he learned on so he said he really enjoyed that bike. He said to opt for something that won't be too hard to pick up if I end up dropping it (meaning only 3 people to help lol)
I also wouldn't be riding it in ATL traffic, it would be in Bryan/College Station and only occasionally in Houston.
He did end the conversation with this "now if you end up a quadriplegic or paralyzed your mom and I won't be responsible for you, the state will." Feeling the love lol. I'm very excited about it.
I'm glad my dad was willing to talk about it, I didn't think he would.
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Get used to hearing stories of people getting run off the road, or almost doing so because of cars. For some reason bikes are invisible, so just pretend like no one can see you. I've come close a couple times already, the good thing about MSF courses is that they'll teach you what to do if a car gets in your way or something and then they'll practice it with you.
Your dad is correct though, you want something you'll be likely to be able to pick up. Which may or may not be possible but some of the cruisers out there really do take 3 people to lift. The Harley Sportster for instance isn't heavy but something about the way it's designed really makes it hard to lift (not that I'd recommend that anyways). The Ninja and the Blast are both relatively light.
As far as other bikes suggestions such as these guys are making, there are plenty good starters out there but I think the two you have in mind are good choices so I'm not going to add anything on that note.