Motorcycles

I have a kawasaki 550 ltd pro is its always fun con idiots on the road don't look out for motorcycles so drive defensively. Also gas mileage is great in any motorcycle.

Sent from my ADR6300
 
Re: Motorcycles

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Bikes are awesome.


www.advrider.com
 
Re: Motorcycles

John O'Brien said:
Anyone ride?

I'm looking at getting in to it. Pros? Cons?

Any opinion is welcome. I've been 'discussing' it with my wife, and really would like to get in to it, we're just talking through it.
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At what level are you looking for pros/cons? Motorcycles, at least assuming it won't replace your four wheeled vehicle, are just like lake cabins, expensive sound systems, car racing, etc. The pro is usually that you want to do it and have already made up your mind. The con is usually that it's expensive, dangerous and some family member is more concerned with the expense/danger than your "need for speed/open air freedom".

If you're truly looking objectively at this, motorcycles are pretty dangerous and likely won't replace your car, so are an additive expense in life. The answer should probably be "no". Since I've never met an objective person about something they want, I agree with Tim in that "Bikes are awesome!"
 
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my wife said I could buy a bike . . adding "just get an apartment with it"

all kidding aside...this is a great American freedom. I've got my eye on a Heritage Softail. There are training classes available to the new rider. Ride smart and safe.

Steve
 
Re: Motorcycles

John O'Brien said:
Anyone ride?

I'm looking at getting in to it. Pros? Cons?

Any opinion is welcome. I've been 'discussing' it with my wife, and really would like to get in to it, we're just talking through it.
Click to expand...

I used to ride a Suzuki VL800. It was a cruiser. I enjoyed it when I first got into it but quickly lost interest. I sold my bike after about 4 years of ownership. The guy that bought it from me was hit nearly head on as a girl pulled out of a parking lot making a left turn. I guess is was more of like him T-boning the car. Either way, he didn't have enough time to stop and obliterated the bike. He landed himself in the hospital for 45 days and had a heart attack on the scene. They ended up cracking his chest and doing bypass on him as well as putting all kinds of metal plates in. I think he had a broken collar bone, fractured femur, tibia, and fibula, and three broken ribs. He's pretty damn lucky he didn't die.

Mind you, this was a very experienced rider. He was in his late 40's early 50's, in pretty good shape (except for the heart disease I guess).

I tell you this because I think you should know the consequences of wrecking a bike when a 3000 lbs chuck of metal is involved. You often don't get second chances in the motorcycle world. Luckily, he did.
 
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Ben Lawrence said:
Riding gets even better when you can get off the pavement.
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Ben, not all of us have the luxury of living in VT! If I want to go off road I pretty much have to leave the state... and then I have to walk the off road bits! Even if I had a dirt bike I'd have to own the land I wanted to screw around on.

Also, I'm pretty sure if I strapped a shotgun to the back of my bike everyone here would have a heart attack. What a difference a few hours drive can make.
 
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That particular spot I rode about 3 hours to get to. Best part is thats no shotgun...Its the classic Red Ryder BB gun for a little plinking at the campsite.
People in VT are getting more and more uptight about land use as well. These pics are actually in NH where people are a little more off road friendly.
 
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Started riding in the 70's. Bikes are great fun. Be careful.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but during your 1st 6 months of riding you are something like 100 times as likely to be in an accident.
also:
- All motorcycle accidents on the pavement are fatalities or they were inches from being fatalities.
- People do not look for you. Know this. Doesn't matter if it's right, that's the way it is. Be aware or die.
- You will come off your bike eventually. Wear a helmet, long pants and a jacket.

Motorcycle safety and gun safety are similar in that you don't get "2nd chances" or "do overs" after an accident

All that said, they really are great fun.
 
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I had an old dirt bike (DT-360) and 2 stroke street bike (RD400) back when they were legal. I got rid of my last bike 15-20 years ago and don't really miss it.

The acceleration is fun, and wind tends to make them feel like they are going faster than they are, while I often caught myself driving at 2x posted limits. Cars and other vehicles on the road routinely underestimate your closing rate because of your relative size, not to mention poor visibility due to minimal front cross section.

Long story short you must always drive defensively and never assume that other drivers even see you, let alone will yield to you. Off road riding is a little safer because you don't have to duel with cars, but people get messed up off road too.

By the time you get to my age you will know of friends and acquaintances dead or seriously messed up from crashes. I won't provide my gruesome list of friends accidents. i was personally lucky. My most serious accident was when a dry rotted tree branch fell from a tree on top of me while I was driving along a secondary road, in traffic, so not very fast. I ended up with a road rash from going down on the pavement, but the cars behind me managed to miss me.

I have an opinion, but it is your personal choice. Whatever you do be aware of the danger. Kinetic energy increases with velocity squared, and you have almost nothing around you to absorb that energy in a collision.

JR

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Re: Motorcycles

Ben Lawrence said:
Riding gets even better when you can get off the pavement.
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Off-road riding is a blast. No rules to obey which means you can push pretty hard. Plus, unless you're riding a groomed trail, the terrain is often gnarly and riding, at any speed, takes a large amount of concentration. I love the zen state I achieve when I'm blasting down rough trails at break neck speeds.
 
To tj:
Have you rode? If not I'd check your post I saved last year alone 200 for riding my motorcycle rather than my truck. That's with insurance and everything else... bikes can get expensive if you can't manage your cost. But that goes for anything.

Sent from my ADR6300
 
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Jordan Lahr said:
To tj:
Have you rode? If not I'd check your post I saved last year alone 200 for riding my motorcycle rather than my truck. That's with insurance and everything else... bikes can get expensive if you can't manage your cost. But that goes for anything.

Sent from my ADR6300
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Motorcycle fuel economy:
http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/MotorcycleFuelEconomyGuide/Harley-Davidson.htm

Many bikes are 40 - 70 MPG. A lot of the Harleys are at the low end of that scale. For the sake of argument, we'll choose 55MPG for our representative bike. Let's say you drive a medium gas guzzler that gets 17MPG, and assume gas is $4.00/gal.

Not counting insurance, maintenance, and interest costs, it takes almost 50,000 miles at that MPG delta to pay for a $7500 bike.

Everyone's situation is different, but with our northern climate and the shorter ride season, the times when you need to carry something which forces you to drive a car or truck, rainy days, spring days before the road sand has been swept off the road, etc., and most people struggle to put 10K miles/yr on a bike.

I'm sure there are cases where someone was given a nice bike for free and their daily driver is a tour bus that gets 3MPG and they ride 75 zillion miles a year, but for the average biker, I find it pretty hard to believe they get anywhere close to breaking even.

If they forgo a car - then it's a different story.
 
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Wow. Lots of great responses here.

Would it mean a monthly payment? Yes. Would it mean something that I'd have to take care of and truly not futz around with? Yes. This is life, I should be able to do that already. Would it be unsafe? Yes. Very much so. Some of the stories I read here just further affirm that.

I don't know what to think. My wife, Amber, is very concerned with the 'cost/danger' that you mentioned TJ, and I totally see her angle. The expense of it fits well under what I have allocated in my play budget for the month, so that's not an issue. Just with being a newlywed, I think that the possibility of a crash deeply bothers her.

And gosh, now it sounds like I'm asking for marriage advice! Ha.




TJ Cornish said:
At what level are you looking for pros/cons? Motorcycles, at least assuming it won't replace your four wheeled vehicle, are just like lake cabins, expensive sound systems, car racing, etc. The pro is usually that you want to do it and have already made up your mind. The con is usually that it's expensive, dangerous and some family member is more concerned with the expense/danger than your "need for speed/open air freedom".

If you're truly looking objectively at this, motorcycles are pretty dangerous and likely won't replace your car, so are an additive expense in life. The answer should probably be "no". Since I've never met an objective person about something they want, I agree with Tim in that "Bikes are awesome!"
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John O'Brien said:
And gosh, now it sounds like I'm asking for marriage advice! Ha.
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I'll take that opportunity and give some:

Don't get the bike. I've been married for 6 years and have a 2 year old and a 2 month old at home. Marriage rightly means sacrifices, and it's not wrong of your wife and future/present mother of your children, whatever your circumstances may be, to want some security that you'll be around to be her husband and provider.

If you're on the fence enough to ask the question, that means you can live without it. And you will live longer without it. I, like everyone else, have several anecdotes of pretty serious injury in my circle of friends and family, and don't want to become one myself.
 
Re: Motorcycles

Jordan Lahr said:
Also gas mileage is great in any motorcycle.
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I would say gas mileage is horrible in any motorcycle! A diesel Jetta can get 50MPG and haul four people and their stuff in air conditioned comfort. Many bikes have worse mileage than that and are really only personal transportation plus whatever you can fit in a backpack.
 
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Yes, don't ever buy a motorcycle thinking you'll save money. You won't. Even if the bike gets 60+ mpg, the rear tire needs replacing about every 5000 miles on average, and fronts last about twice that. Figure that Motorcycle tires are about 150-200 bucks each and the cost savings flies right out the window.

Plus when you have wheels you tend to want to go and do things so you incur the travel and lodging and food costs for those little trips.

Bikes are not cheap, but they are very rewarding in other ways.

I highly suggest you go take the MSF rider course in your area. http://nm.msf-usa.org/msf/ridercourses.aspx

You don't need a bike to take the basic course. They provide one for you. It's a great way to figure out if you really want to ride or not. It also teaches you good habits right from the start. Sign your wife up too. It'll help alleviate some of her worries, plus it's fun!
 
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