Thread: Learning to ride

I would say that a sportster is about right to learn on for a grown man as it's light enough to handle, forgiving, and enough room for you to grow with it. It would be a good first bike just like a VTX 1300. I'm just glad you got some seat time & that the seed is planted...a subscription to a bike magazine would fertilize it well

Sportsters can be fun. I've had one. That was more than enough for me. I got it in a trade and rode it for long enough to know it wasn't for me.

Most sporties stand taller than a big twin. Always blew my mind when some guy with a big twin would buy a sporty for his wife/OL/significant otherness and the poor girl would be on her tip toes at a light trying not to let it fall over.

Big twins are heavier, they don't get blown around as badly in a crosswind and most of them have better gears for road riding. That poor sporty I had always seemed like it was winding its guts out at 70.

They're good around town, pretty quick and fairly agile. Used sportsters can usually be found very reasonably priced compared to a big twin.

If you decide to go the sportster route, DO NOT BUY AN OLD "IRONHEAD" unless you are a sadist and love to wrench more than ride. I don't care how cheap it is, find something else. Buy one that is less than 10 years old with NO "kicker" on it. Kick start sporties have probably ruined more knees than all the rest of the kick start bikes on the planet. FYI, an evo sporty with a kicker is strictly an after market add on.

I haven't messed with any HD that was newer than that '88 Sporty I had. HD may have made some changes in ride height on those things that I'm unaware of. I pretty much quit thinking of the "Evolution" engine as an HD when they quit making the "shovel heads" in the '84.

For about a year before I left Australia I was thoroughly enjoying riding. As per Australian law as a learner rider I was limited to a 250cc and so I was riding a Kawasaki Ninja. When I was on that bike I felt truly free.

But I love my wife more than I loved my bike and I sold it when we moved to Thailand. Every now and then I get the urge and think about how great it would be to ride a real bike here in Bangkok, but good sence always wins out.

Of course, one of my conditions for moving back to Australia is that I get a bike, and something bigger than a 250.
Until then I can just dream.

And one more thing. Not that anyone has asked for it, but here is some unsolicited advice. When you get back to New York look for a register riding course and give it a go. Some people may think that you wont get anything from it, but at the very least it wouldn't hurt any.

If I ever do move back to Australia one of the first things I will be doing is a motorcycle course such as is required under Australian law to get a motorcycle licence. I already have the licence, but a refresher course couldn't hurt.

A good friend of mine spent over a year building his dream bike. He's always been a BSA freak and we know him as BEEZER. Beezer has thousands of hours on bikes of all types. He's 55 years old going on 15. He is the guy that gave me his grandfather's old coticule razor hone and that old '79 "nekkid Wing" I ride. He's pretty much a little brother I never had. We've ridden many a mile together and had a lot of fun over the 20 years that I've known him

He built this bike in his kitchen pretty much. His dream was an old style "cafe racer". He suffered a lot of set backs and spent many an hour designing, re-designing, building, re-building and pretty much hand fabbed this whole bike except for the front part of the frame. The bike is an assortment of BSA and Triumph parts. It was sweet!


He took that pic about 6:15PM CST last Thursday evening.
At 10:30PM as near as we can tell from the accident report he looked like this.



The dumb ass had a .24 BAC along with head injuries, broken ribs, torn up knee, and some serious road rash. He wasn't wearing a helmet nor did he have any ID on him. He was admitted under a "John Doe". It wasn't until Friday that his ex wife and daughter managed to locate him in the county hospital.

He rear ended a car, then bounced into a concrete "Jersey barrier" actually passing the car he'd hit. The driver of the car was able to stop without running over him.
The bike is a mess.




Here's his hand as of today.



I'm ready to kill him as are a couple of other close friends. He's been an alcoholic for a long time but he usually stayed home and wasted rather than riding. He's still in the hospital and undergoing the DT's in addition to all the rest of his problems.

I can say with all honesty that there has been many a night in my past where I could have ended up in the same shape. I guess the good Lord has his quota of fools and idiots on the nights I was messing up.

No charges have been filed by the PD, yet that is. They've still got plenty of time if they decide to go for it.

He's got a rough row to hoe ahead of him even if they don't file.

Moral of this story? DON'T drink and ride! Wear good protective gear!

Keep your life insurance paid up too.

was told early on there is two ways to look on a bike,"cool and dead" don't be a dead one. Spend $1000 dollars on a Bike, spend $2000 on riding gear. Buy the best helmet, gloves, shoes, jacket, chaps or pants money can buy. This might not keep you alive but it could. If you buy a jacket get one with extra pads( back,shoulder, elbow,ect...) same with pants/ chaps. I have a good friend that is here today because of these features, the wreck ruined everything, but he walked away with just a bruise on his left butt cheek. I think it was a fair trade

Sorry about your friend, Wullie. Hope he pulls through.