Jeff,
I remember kick starting my old 1958 AJS. It alo had a magneto. Rode that bike many thousands of miles - 600 cc's & about 30 or 35 horsepower.

on-ramp - have you taken the MSF yet? They go over all this stuff. Stay off the road until you complete the course for your own safety. Think about riding a bicycle, and how the mechanics of riding are not part of your active conscious thought but more your sub-conscious thougts. Do you have to think about breathing to breath? What about walking, do you think about each step? That is where you need to get with a motorcycle. Clutch, throttle, front/rear brake, lean, counter steer...all need to be embedded into your sub-conscious. It will take time but it will come if you have patience.

taking the class tomorrow . I've been riding about 2 hrs a day for the past couple of days and I'm off to a good start. I can't believe i haven't done this before :)
several dead end cul-de-sacs are making it easy to practice my slow speed turns, ie. 5mph or so....
anyway, how fast is 2nd gear good for? I've only gotten the bike up to 35mph tops and it sure feels fast . LOL.... at what speed do I change from 2nd to 3rd gear? it's hard to tell by listening to the motor.
also, as I come to a stop , I have it in 1st gear with the clutch pressed... then start off again. is this right? or do you always go to neutral , then 1st again? thanks!

No need to ride the clutch. Put it in first after you've stopped (or just before you're ready to take off). Looking at this bike now. Have a serious jones:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1188606958.jpg

is this a R1200 R? I saw several at a BMW dealership recenty. I couldn't believe how relatively light they, probably as light as my 600 Shadow. 500 lbs, maybe?

Leave the bike in (first) gear at a stop. As you're braking, simultaneously shift down sequentially into first: 5-4-3-2-1. Don't stop off in neutral. If you have to make a fast getaway (i.e. car behind you fails to stop), you'll be that much more prepared to go, as opposed to if you were in neutral. I'm a believer because I've been rear-ended before (at a red light, where traffic had been stopped for a good 5-10 seconds--long enough that I had originally snicked from first into neutral). Of course, that means that you have to keep an eye on your rearview mirror to see that errant cage about to run you over.

No one can tell you when's the right time/rpm for you to upshift. Depends on too many factors: your riding style, the engine's powerband, the traffic patterns around you, etc.

Best of luck at MSF.

thanks Noah. tomorrow I spend all day in the classroom, then next weekend 2 days of riding plus the test to get my license. looking forward to it...

1. A *real* helmet
2. Proper boots...not "work boots". I like Sidi.
3. An armored jacket, preferably leather.
4. Pants. I really liked the Alipinestars zip-on over pants. Jeans are NOT enough.
5. Good gloves that fit with proper reinforcement.

Do not get on the bike without all of the above. Even to putt around the cul de sac or go to the store. Otherwise you might regret it. Scars and f*cked up limbs/joints are forever.

LOL.

how does jeans, sneakers, a T-shirt and a helmet sound? That's what i've been wearing. crazy? It's been hot lately. but you're right. I need some real riding equipment. There are virtually no cars around here. I've been taking it easy, though. And after riding about 4-5 hrs for the past couple of days, I can report that I haven't dropped the bike (yet). not even close.

so what brand is good for riding boots?

K1200RS. R's are twins, K's are fours. I'm after a sport-touring setup and want something with a little more character than Yamaha FJR or Kawasaki Concourse.

on-ramp....enjoy the class. You're doing it all right!

Just wait until you come round that bend, squinting because you are looking into the sun, and find someone coming right at you in your lane, chatting on a cell phone.

Or you are just cruising, going slow, getting the feel of things, and the lady in the Camry, coming towards you, decides to hang a left.

You are an absolute fool if you don't get some proper gear.

Ask me how I know. I could post some pictures that would make Nostatic's look cute.

Funny, I ride a BMW every day and it's a great bike, but I chose the FJR because I thought it had more character and more of everything else (except expense) then the BMW. After putting 96K on the BMW, I'm glad I haven't had to pay for the service cost.

That K bike looks good, but if you can swing it the the new K bikes are way better.

Please be careful out there, no excuses for not wearing the gear, "oh, just this one time, I'm only going 2 blocks."

I'll have to be honest with you, I'm not getting a good feeling about you being a motorcyclist. Be careful, we don't want your board handle to be that thing you're splattered all over.

Agree, this one is an accident in the making if he is out practicing without being dressed correctly. The first few months are usually when a new rider is going to have problems and it usually means the bike going down and writing off a mirror, side cover and so on. This also usually means an ankle, knee and minimum hand going down on the pavement. With little or no protection... well... hamburger comes to mind.

He still has not realized that if its hot outside the pavement that he is going to be laying the bike on is hotter. Now ask yourself how hot that pavement is going to be with your body laying there waiting for the ambulance? If its too frigging hot to wear the proper clothing, then drive the car!

Oh well, we tried...

On-ramp,

Most Honda's have little numbers on the speedo indicating when to shift.

To echo other warnings, new riders are most likely to have an accident so it the most important time to be wearing full gear.

It has also already been said but:

A. Always leave yourself and out!!!
B. Drive like you are invisible.
C. Presume everyone is out to kill you.

I AM NOT JOKING! SmileWavy

The best

http://www.langlitz.com/

Man, I wish he would take the school, I did what he did for about 900 miles waiting for the class and then I got to unlearn some bad habits…… wait till he gets some road rash. He’ll learn to not ride without gloves and boots and all the rest of the stuff. I just cringe when I see someone on a bike in shorts; I know they have not been down yet. :eek:

Hot? WTF. Sweat dries faster than skin heals. Don't mean to preach, but for crying out loud, wearing that crap is plain stupid. Gloves. Helmet. Leather jacket, preferably w/ armor. Leather or textile pants, ditto. Real m/c boots. NO exceptions. Really. If you can't do that, drive a cage. If you fall at 25 mph in that crap, you'll be rashed up, cut and maybe burned, and you might not work for a week or so.

I'll occassionally ride the Harley the .5 mi to my restaraunt in jeans, helmet, shirt and gloves, but even that is tempting fate. Anything else and I'm ready to fall. I've been riding 25 yrs w/o a crash, and I still expect it to happen on my next ride. Of course, it may be that attitude that has kept me without one. Or luck.

Just got back from what turned out to be an abreviated trip on the bikes. (Long story; my riding buddy got pretty sick before we left, so wanted to "take it easy".) We were going to head down to Bryce Canyon, but had to settle for another canyon closer to home - Hell's Canyon. We spent five days on the road in south eastern Washington, north eastern Oregon, and just a bit of Idaho. Daytime temps around the canyon were bumping off 100 degrees; mid 90's in central Oregon through Halfway, Baker City, John Day, etc.

What were we wearing? Full leathers top and bottom, riding boots, full face helmets, and full gloves. Yes, even in that heat. It can be done. Actually, it must be done. Dressed properly underneath you actually stay cooler than the guys in tank tops with their "ol' ladies" on the back in the spaghetti string tops. I just cannot imagine going down at 60+ mph dressed like that... OMFG what a mess of street pizza that would be.

A couple of these budding Einsteins at one rest stop actually gave us a little crap about being FNG's or RUBS or something because we were dressed like that - "whataya afraid of... dontcha know how hot it is... when is momma gonna let you take the training wheels off... blah blah blah." Uh huh...

Peter and I each have an honest 300K + miles in the saddle, with over 30 years of street riding each. We have both lost a few friends to these damn machines. We both have friends who have lasting injuries and scars from these things. I hope those ass hats at the rest stop never have to find out first hand why we were dressed like that. I've been down on a bike, at speed, a couple of times. I've gotten up and brushed myself off and cussed my stupidity, not my injuries, both times. Wear the gear. All the time. It's important.

gear
 

it kept me alivehttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1188953289.jpg solid tripple digit speed, face down, knocked out cold, scooped into the ambulance, sort of wake up in the hospital crash.

1 broken collar bone. No rash anywhere.