You'll be fine until a texting 16-year-old girl turns left in front of you. No BFRs are necessary to get killed or maimed on a motorcycle in 2016.
You'll be fine until a texting 16-year-old girl turns left in front of you. No BFRs are necessary to get killed or maimed on a motorcycle in 2016.
Training will suffer in so much as you may rather be riding than doing anything else. Then winter will cause an aching in your soul, and you'll start buying parts. This will affect your cash-available-for-protein.
I've owned several, my favorite of which was a Harley Davidson Fat Boy Lo. By nature, I am a very conservative driver and an even more defensive motorcycle rider. Even with a very wide motorcycle (the HD Fat Boy Lo) with an unbelievably loud engine, I got sick and tired of having near fatal misses when other drivers did dumb shit around me. Perhaps, if I didn't have 16 children, I'd still own a bike, but, as Rip said, inattentive / distracted drivers soured me on riding.
My training improved dramatically when I sold my motorcycle. Then again I used the money to buy a power rack and weights for my garage, so maybe it didn't have much to do with the bike.
I'ts way too much fun to ride way too damn fast. I was more worried about getting pulled over than I was my safety, so yeah it was probably dangerous. If I had a pile of cash laying around I'd probably buy another one though.
I have few no exceptions rules on how I live my life - one of them is No motorcycles (no bicycles either).
During my rotation in a Trauma Center as a med student, about 90% of the patients I saw from collisions were either motorcycle or bicycle riders, and most of the times the accident was caused by the car's driver. Motorcycle riders had the most severe injuries, specially on the lower limbs. Saddest history was a 19 y.o. riding a bicycle who got hit by a bus - he was diagnosed brain dead a week later.
If you're serious about riding a bike, I hope you're doing a lot more research than just bugging Rip about this.
I started riding this past summer. It's undeniably dead serious business, but it's my pretty firm conviction that developing one's skill as a rider goes a LONG way. Become an excellent rider, or don't do it at all.
I live in the middle of the Sea to Sky highway (Sea to Die) The Sea-to-Sky Experience | Drive Exotic Cars | Scenic Rush between Vancouver and Lillouet. This road's longest straight section is maybe 1/4 mile long, mostly one curve leading into another. It is an absolutely spectacular drive in God's country, and a very popular, somewhat high speed drive for motorcycles and exotic cars in the warmer months. Usually a fatality or serious accident every weekend due to poor riders riding beyond their limits. Definitely a chance of running into a big rock or over a cliff....
I've been riding motorcycles for similarly long time. What I have found is that bikes have progressed so far over the years from my 1977 Honda 750 Supersport that I drove in the 70's when I was 16 to what's available today. I hadn't ridden street for quite some time as I have been mostly motocross and enduro type riding but drove my brothers 1 liter superbike and couldn't believe how fast and smooth it was. It is so easy to get in over your head...
One thing about riding a bike is that it will make you a much better driver overall no matter what you drive. You just need to be so much more aware on a bike (no driving in blind spots, being ready for drivers to turn in front of you, etc.) and it transfers into what ever you are driving.