I need the straight dope on motorcycles

Factual Questions
1

This is the thread where all the motorbike-owning Dopers need to give me advice. I’m contemplating the purchase of a motorcycle (specifically a basic, no-frills Japanese bike such as a Honda CB or Kawasaki KZ) and need to know everything about the practical concerns of owning one, including but not limited to:

Risk of theft

Risk of injury (I plan to ride with a helmet and gear and I live in a suburban area with little traffic, and have no intentions of riding on the highway)

Issues regarding insurance (costs compared to auto, anything else I should know)

How to get the required license

Any other issues anyone would care to bring up

All input is greatly appreciated, thank you.

2

Ninja owner checking in:

Theft: Keep it locked up if you can. My bike was vandalized several times - usually a screwdriver in the ignition (the battery was up in my apartment, dumbass). I also used a FAT chain (links as big as your thumb) through the back wheel over the seat with a big Master padlock. Didn’t keep the criminal element from dropping it on its side and ruining the side cover (and the brake lever). I lived in a VERY high-crime area 2 doors from a homeless shelter in Atlanta when all this happened. YMMV.

Insurance: Cheap as dirt. About $300/year. I think they believe that you can’t CAUSE much damage on a bike. If you run into a Mercedes, you’re totaled and he/she needs a new bumper. Not the same as a 4-wheeled Yugo or Kia.

Injury: Don’t do stupid stuff and ALWAYS ASSUME that everyone out there is planning to kill you. There have been several of these threads on the dope in the last few years. That car up there WILL turn left in front of you as you approach it. No doubt about it, from either direction, from either side. Buy a good helmet, wear long pants and boots (no flip-flops or tank tops), and be careful. On a bike, you will usually be the first vehicle at every stoplight (they are quick off the line). Don’t pull into the intersection when the light turns green unless you can see both ways (ie, with a van on your left). Let THEM take out the red-light-runner. He’ll get a fender bender. You’ll die. THINK about how you might lay your bike down in a bad situation. It might happen and it might not. You’ll react in the short timeframe of the wreck, but if you have a planned laydown strategy it might help a little bit. Look up the “high-side” phenomenon and understand what your bike will do in a skid - you can let it down and follow it into a crash or over-correct and get tossed in FRONT of your bike into the problem (with your bike behind you, still moving very fast in a straight line towards you).

License: the good folks at the MSF run a good program. Some info:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/00-NHT-212-motorcycle/human21-22.html

Enjoy. It’s a blast. Good mileage, too. Just be careful. Oh, get some warm MC gloves. It gets COLD up there where you are, and it’s the equivalent of sitting on top of a car going whatever speed you’re going when it’s cold. With your bare hands out in front of you. COLD. Also - don’t buy a pretty leather motorcycle jacket, buy a real motorcycle jacket (offset placket on the front so the wind doesn’t blow in the zipper, ribbed elastic sleeves so the wind doesn’t rush up to freeze your arpmits and torso)

Finally: If you see another person on a 2-wheeled ambulation device of any sort, give them a discreet wave. They will all wave at you, even if it’s just a 2-finger salute from the throttle hand (good enough). The only exception to this rule is some Harley riders. I know plenty of good, decent ones. There is a small subset with a snobbery complex.

Keep a small toolkit onboard under the seat for those difficult days. Drain the petcock and the reserve portion of you tank annually, the sediment tends to build up.

I’ll stop now, I could ramble on for days. Good luck.

3

I completely concur with stocktons points (albiet here in the UK, high performance bike insurance is not dirt cheap - often around $1800pa.)

As for security, well my bike was stolen in broad daylight outside my office. :mad:

It was alarmed ($400 Meta Alarm), Immobilised, had the steering lock on and was chained to a stout tree with a proper $200 Oxford chain and padlock.

The police said that it happens very often (at least 8 times a MONTH in that location - I wish someone had told me before!) and that a pro gang must have swooped in with a van and used industrial bolt cutters through the chain - time taken >1minute.

So, as long as you keep it locked AWAY enjoy.

PS Do yourself a favour INVEST in leathers. I heartily recommend Dainese. They aren’t cheap but as someone who has ended up ‘shiny side down’ at 40mph+ a few times - they will save your life.

PPS If you are still debating the need for leathers heed this. A friend of mine came off his Yamaha R1 at c.60mph. It was a sunny day and the fool was in shorts and T-Shirt. He said that the most painful thing was having the ER nurse scrub the copious amounts of gravel and dirt from the open wounds with what was effectively a metal wire brush. :eek:

4

This is a little off topic, but may be of interest. I was driving London’s M25 Friday evening. It was nose to tail and I was doing about 45mph in the fast lane. A motorcyclist was coming up between the fast and middle lanes doing about 55mph. A lady in the middle lane decided she wanted to get into my lane, indicated and immediately pulled in. Our motorcyclist had no chance. He hit the lady’s car, flew off his bike, through the rear windscreen of the car in front of me and bounced back onto the road. Traffic stopped. No movement from the motorcyclist. My jaw literally dropped. I thought he was either very badly hurt or a potential corpse. Five minutes later he had stood up and was just about able to talk! Anyway, to cut a long story short, I spoke to him today on the 'phone and he had got out of hospital on Saturday, pretty much no worse for wear. He said he was extremely glad of his new expensive helmet (he hit the windscreen head first) and the leather and armour he had on. I am not sure of the legality of riding between lanes, but I have offered to be a witness to him in case of legal or insurance problems. Anyway, good leathers and a quality helmet is very clearly important equipment for a motorcyclist.

5

Take an ABATE motorcycle safety course. There is a website for ABATE that will list the places and times. I took mine in Angola IN and I am not sure how other places handle it but in Indiana there are beginning and advanced courses. And you get your license at the end if you pass.

They provide the bikes, Honda 125’s and 250’s for my course, and helmets if needed. You provide the boots, gloves, and eye protection. Well and the $50.

I had been riding for years, but when I moved from OH to IN they did not transfer the endorsement. I took the course to get my license. Bottom line is that even though I had been riding for years, I learned a lot.

I think the investment in the course is as important as buying a helmet or riding gear.

I now ride a Goldwing. Little too big sometimes but great for loooong distances.

Insurance: I don’t know, my wife pays.
Theft: No problem yet, maybe if I had a Harley.
Injury: Always assume that everyone is out to get you or can’t see you. But I have not had an accident except out of my own stupidity in 20+ years of riding.

Last thing I can say is “motorcycle safety course, motorcycle safety course, motorcycle safety course…ad infinitum.”