Ive ridden over 35000 miles on my bike and taken it to 155.

Ive crashed 3 time and each time was wearing head to toe gear because I never hopped on that thing without it.

Wear boots, having a perfect body with nothing below the ankles is just as useless as losing more of your legs.

Same idea for gloves. Good luck getting any job on earth with no hands.

For hard riding it was a triumph leather jacket with hard armer that you could knock on in elbows and fore arms and it had foam on spine with room for an insert if you wanted to change it into armor.

had a decent 300 dollar helmet, would have gotten a 600 dollar one if I could have afforded it, really is a difference in feel and road noise.

the gloves that i lived by were

http://www.ironpony.com/ironponydir...es-Mens/Class1/

boots were alpinestar with hard armor for ankles.
pants were either 150 dollar alpinestar pants with racing pucks (i didnt take them off because if i hit a spike on the road or something I wanted that extra material. OR a 150 dollar pair of over pants to wear normal clothes under. Triumph again with kevlar knee pads with impact foam gel under the knees. Saved me a pair of knee caps these did.

so 300 jacket, 300 helmet, 70 gloves, 130 boots, 150 pants, 150 pants.

so about $1000 for gear.

As far as the bike get whatever you feel comfortable on. the CC COMES WITH TIME!!!! I bought an 800 out of the gate and was never uncomfortable with its power as I ramped up to blazing.

The gear makes you more comfortable. If its your dream bike youll treat it nice.

500 cc is WEAKKkkkkk fuck that.

Yamaha r6 is good.

Hondas are boring and tame without HRC stuff and i didnt like either the 600 or the 1000cc.

Triumph 675 is most likely coolest bike ever with most of its torque at something like 6000 rpm. which means you can take it on the street and not feel like you have a track bike on the street.

I dunno, get what you want, do what you want. Its about comfort and knowledge. Watch MotoGP races and when you get off your bike to corner you are lowering gravity not shifting it up front so dont roll your shoulder to the front wheel or hang far off.

if you are grinding hard parts youre probably cornering wrong and you need to take better lines and shift your position.

know what highsides and low sides are and the causes of each.

Take a MSF class.

read about tires and what is good for the street. There are a lot of tires and if you are going to be commuting and get the 90% track pirelli tires, youll crash because you have no tread and you hit moisture.

learn about counter steering on bikes and try it out. anything over 15mph means to turn left you turn the handlebars right. Gotta practice that or youll crash.

Theres a lot to it. a LOT. Read about motorcycles!!!!

Last edited by Orbax on Mar-23-2007 at 16:08

quote:

Originally posted by Sushipunk I don't know much about bikes. Hardly enough worth mentioning. But I've lost a biking friend. Sorry to get all harsh on you with "OMFG respect you bike" and blah blah blah. I kinda feel strongly about it. Big points to you though, already looking into how to properly protect yourself. Good shit Just ask yourself though, do you really need a high powered bike? Even a 250 will give you a SHITLOAD of speed. And since you don't go much over the speed limit anyways, you mentioned...

unless your racing or really have no where to go fast (as in like sticking around 45ish) then a 250 is WAYY to small. another inherent problem with a 250 is it gets overloaded weight wise pretty quickly so it then just puts around. 500 is a good balance for a beginner. its not got the power of a crotch rocket 600 but its got a little get up and go to move out of the way if needed.

guster: i was part of that other thread. a bike i have always recommended was a Ninja EX500. its a great learners bike. there is also another one that was mentioned in that thread and it was an SV500 or something like that. both bikes are great to get aquainted with riding and also cheap (relatively).

just my $.02

quote:

Originally posted by Orbax Yamaha r6 is good.

Good? It's fucking fantastic.

Also, tricked out Hayabusas are kind of a joke in the biking community. I dont know how hard I would listen to your friend...

For a helmet i'd get something from either Shoei, Arai, or Suomy. Their pricier than a HJC or Icon but worth it in my opinion. I personally wear a Shoei RF-1000. As for a jacket their are a lot of options out there, Joe Rocket, Alpinestars, Icon, etc.. I'd get a textile one, but leather ones do offer the most protection. Pants, i like Icon's range of pants, i've tried on a few and there comfortable and well stitched together. Gloves, Orbax posted a good pair, i've got those same ones. Also if i were you i'd think about stepping up to a 600 instead a of a 500. I'd think you'd appreciated the better handling, braking, and cornering of that class of bike.

Icon mainframe helmet was nice, but otherwise Id stay away from them for helmets, they are for the stunters haha.

Icon pants are textile, but man...something about leather. Gotta have it. The icon pants arent really over pants and ive found the knee pads to be misplaced on them.

Alpinestar was my favorite for pants, but their jackets have a loose neck and are typically perforated around the shoulders. I bought one, rode at 7am in it once and returned it that day. Way too cold.

Triumph has a jacket that goes all the way up to your neck in a padded collar. Feels fantastic.



bad pic but you get the idea.

The alpinestar jackets on the lower end tended to have rough stitching near the elbows and didnt like them.

The joe rocket has always struck me as lower end. I tried on a few...felt flimsy..dunno how true my impression of them is as I didnt spend a lot of time with it.

My bro has an 800 dollar Arai and its great. Very comfortable, low road noise.

I've got a 2006 Yamaha R6 raven, and really like it. It's my first bike and I was initially hesitant to get something like this for my first bike, but I haven't exceeded my capabilities and find that if you don't get complacent, something like this is fine for a first bike. It's a race bike, but I don't race. I think with the 500 you might out-grow it fairly quickly. I'd start with a 600 bike, and highly recommend the R6 Yamaha.

I just bought a nice helmet, I don't have the full leather jacket, pants, and what not- but I'm sure it's a good idea to get that stuff as I start feeling more comfortable and start going faster/turning tighter. It only takes a split second on one of these things for things to go really really wrong.

crashes actually happen at low speeds when youre not expecting it. I would wear full gear when youre putting around because when you go out hard core riding you are TRYING to avoid an accident. Commuting is when youre lazy.

2/3 of my crashes were 15mph or less riding around and other peoples faults,I would not have knees right now if I wasnt wearing my gear.

250's used to be the limit here for a the first 1-2 years of riding. then they saw sense and made the limit 650cc with power to weight ratio limits. Something like the GS500 is a perfect beginners bike.
Especially if you are doing a lot of commuting, a sports bike can be uncomfortable. Peaky power can be problem in heavy traffic for a rookie as well. I sure had fun doing 60 miles per day on an RGV, but was not comfortable and a 2stroke production racer sure does encourage stupid riding.
If you buy 2nd hand you won't lose so much if you choose to upgrade in a couple of years, and you'll know more about what you want - full on sports bike, sports tourer, cruiser etc.

rule #1 for helmets - make sure you get the best fit. You are going to spend a lot of time with your head clamped in there.

Rip bro. It's always sad to lose a riding brother. Now go ride on one wheel in heaven.

___________________
Maynard James Keenan:
Like hearing my grandmother, talk to her dog that way -- "Ooo
-- puppy!" and I said I'd never do that, ever! And now I have two
dogs and I talk like an imbecile! I wander around, "Ooo! You want
food!" I've turned into a f*cking moron.