Well your mind is made up...so. Get what you want, wear your gear.

& how the hell is a 18 yr able to afford ins on a liter bike? :dunno


Oh, take the MSF course.
Good luck ride safe.

 

i go to college and work a full time job, and theres always financing the rest!. thanx man, but any tips for on the road driving? that would keep me out of trouble?

 

My son started on a Litre bike (FZ1) when he was 18, after years of dirt bike riding.

We had some rules:

1) ALWAYS full gear: even when just riding in our neighborhood.
Helmet
Boots
Gloves
Armoured riding pants
Armoured riding jacket

2) He had to complete the MSF Basic Rider's course before he could even sit on his bike.

3) He had to read and discuss with me three books
1. Sport Riding Techniques by Nick Ienatsch
2. Total Control by Lee Parks
3. Proficient Motorcycling by David L. Hough

4) He had to ride his first 5000 miles with me (following me while i rode my bike)


The trouble you're most likely to encounter during "on the road driving" resides between your ears and in your right wrist. There is no way to put a 30 year old head on an 18 year old body. Discipline and self control will be your biggest assets.

That said, here are some pointers:

Spend dozens of hours practicing emergency avoidance techniques: panic stops, swerves, etc. Start slow and gradually built up your proficiency.

Always look through your turns as far as possible. You go where you look, so learn to look at your exit. Target fixation is deadly.

Use your front brake. I encouraged my son to use ONLY front brake on a few rides, so he learned to trust it. Your rear brake will lock up much easier then you think it will.

Practice being smooth.
It's all about traction control, and abrupt changes in input reduces traction. So accelerate smoothly, deccelerate smoothly, brake smoothly, shift weight smoothly.

Please do NOT think that you will be the exception. It's unlikely that you are superman. You are probably as human as the rest of us. So you are going to make mistakes, you are going to get excited, ad you are going to be tempted to ride beyond your limits. The degree to which you mitigate those elements may mean the difference between life and death.


PLEASE put in thousands of miles of seat time just getting used to the bike. GO SLOW! Learn about the geometric and gyroscopic forces that affect motorcycling.


And I'd go for the R1.
You are almost certain to crash the bike (everyone drops their first bike). The R1 will be WAY less expensive to repair or total.


Good luck.
I don't mean to be harsh. But you are making a risky desision. Please manage that risk wisely!

 

i would get the r1, the parts will cost you alot less if u do go down (i hope that u don't) then the ducati. i was trying to get the 1098 myself, but i would have to wait about 2 months from now to get one. they are all sold out around here.

do take the motorcycle safety course. its the best way to learn how to ride bro. your friends already know how to ride but they will also teach you their bad habits aswell. take the course and learn the right way and then have your friends teach you after u take the course.


if you haven't notice from my post, i highly recommend you takin the motorcycle course

 

Get the R1. It's cheaper to buy, maintain, and fix. You better have a full set of gear before you buy this bike b/c you'll be going down sometime. Also have you priced insurance for an 18 year old on a liter bike...NOT cheap!

As far as riding tips, just take it slow. Deffinately take a MSF course b/c you will need it.

Hopefully we'll be hearing from you for longer than a week or two :sing:

 

You might want to get an insurance quote first.... :fact

 

oh, yeh talking about insurance, DO NOT GO WITH GEICO! they wanted 21,000 A YEAR FULL COVERAGE MINIMUM COVERAGE 1,000 DEDUCATBLE!!!!
Statefarm or nationwide, very cheap, well compared to the others.

 

why is this comming off topic, any riding tips, anything to keep me alive? anything a beginer should know?

 

yea like a million things but they come from riding experience

ok ill try

take your time learning
when you think you are starting to get the hang of it look out thats when most people get in trouble
wear all your gear all the time
learn to counter steer
learn to use the front brake really well before venturing into trafic
dont target fixate
the bike handles better while applying enough gas to transfer some weight to the back when going around corners
dont apply the front brake and turn at the same time

i could do this all day ...

 

i gota ask why do you feel you must get the r1 or 1098, i promise im not trying to change your mind as it makes no diff to me. It is just being scared on a bike is not fun and there are soooo many kick ass bikes that are better suited to learn on it just makes no sense to me.

 

:stpd: Why on God's green earth must you get a 1098 or R1 at 18 years old? Have you had an insurance quote other than the 21K you got from Geico? Your looking at least several thousand dollars even from State Farm if you can get it. Really, I would just get a used 600 to learn all the basics about riding then sell it a year later and move up to a liter bike with the skills you learned. This will make you a better rider. Your new to riding and this will be your first bike. You do know you will drop it!!! Have you gave any thought to full riding gear? The MSF is a must to take. Here in Florida it's required for anyone under 21.

 

did anybody mention a safety course?
get the R1, like mentioned way cheaper.
even if you get comfortable with the bike in a field, you'd be amazed just how fast you can get in over your head.
you can be on the ground faster than you can say OH CRAP! from any number of causes. so remember:

ALWAYS WEAR FULL GEAR

 

KevKev, I know you were just looking for tips to ride safe, etc, but the best one we can give you is to take the MSF class, that comes with the rest of the tips, plus you get to actually ride a bike while you wait to get your new one.

 

screw them all dude, your 18, you know more than all of with all our experience, you dont need us telling you which bike

 

see, thats were your wrong, i dont think like that, thats why im hear trying to get help, im not like all the other morons my age that think they know everything and get themselves in trouble. Im here for HELP! o.k.

 

did i mention to take the motorcycle safety course?:crash

 

Stop worring a liter bike was my first bike and I just wore my leather jacket and gear and started out with CLUTCH ONLY then putted round for a few minutes till I got the jist of it then SLOWLY brought in gas to the situation and vwoalla Im riding my first liter bike. Its easier than it looks plus if you havent rode a smaller bike than you'll be a little more ready for the throttle snap bcuz you wont go in trying to throttle it like a 6er. NE ways clutch round first then go with the throttle that should do it man

 

thx. i appreciate it.

 

Financially, this is a stupid idea. Why live for a motorcycle payment and insurance payment?

 

its not even a weeks worth of my pay. and dont forget i have no expenses im 18. no mortgage, not rent, so... its really not bad, work 1 week per month for a bike.

 

Have fun dieing!

 

thats not right, nothing posotive or usefull to say, please dont say it at all. :chair:

 

:lol

litre bikes dont like inexperienced riders as many who've gone before you have found out.
But what do I know, you know better than all of us as Aron pointed out..

 

If it's not the power the it must be the looks. :sneaky

Here is the thing dude... Even for a mature, responsible person that has huge control over their emotions, a liter bike is like kryptonite. The people on this forum that have been riding them for a while are not trying to keep less of them on the road , they are trying to keep from having to read more of these damn RIP threads. It is an awesome amount of power that is difficult to keep tame. You need to develop skills to increase your reaction time, understand and anticipate what the bike is going to do, and see potential problems before they exist. Is this the same for any bike? Pretty much but with a liter bike those skills need to be even more honed. I've been riding for about 7 years now and my R1 scares the **** out of me sometimes. Remember it is NOT cool to die riding a bike. Take the MSF course, ride off the street, read books. The problem is you won't be taking the MSF on your new R1, riding off the street doesn't help you learn how to ride on the street and neither do books. This is like someone saying they just got their pilots license so now they want to fly an SR-71. No one on this forum is trying to flame you including me, they just don't understand...and neither do I. :dundun:

 

just do it man, My first R1 I bought and I love it till this day smartest decision I've ever made. But man you have to RESPECT the bike cuz if your anything like I was at 18 at 175lbs then all I can say is be carefull or you'll end up as asphault butter (thnk god I havent yet). just do what I said in the other post and you should be fine. And PLEASE PLEASE dont show off just ride amongst friends who should be probably telling you to ride at your own pace so if they fly off into the sunset that doesnt mean you do to.And listen to BILLA he does make good pointers. As far as the financing well you better not let one of those deals where you only pay 99 dollars a month for a year or so get you excited bcuz as soon as you get your first payment you should be paying as much as you can on that dam thing or else when that first year is up the intrest will come back and kill you my friend. Just pay down that first year!

 

this is by far the nicest ive seen everyone be to someone like this we must have all taken our hapy pills this am, our like me we are still warm and fuzzy from riding this morning

 

when you say field do you mean dirt?

 

im pretty sure he means parking lot...anyway man best of luck with ur decision, R1 was my first bike, didnt drop it for a year so just take it easy and again ride safe bro, its a steep learning curve but it isnt impossible if u go easy

 

respect bike, respect road and conditions, respect 6000 lb trucks that cant see you, obey speed limits, dont ride over ur head, dont show off..guarantee that will cost you $$,skin, or ur life. alway wear helmet.. dont try to see what bike will do, as it is way more capable than 99% of us. if you ride sensible and repect bike and urself, then u will be okay. remember it only takes a .0001 of second to make a bad decision that can cost u ur life or someone elses. get bunch of miles under ur belt before even thinkin about taking someone for ride... u dont need to risk anyone elses life. take safety course and be careful

 

I am shocked as to how many forum members are actually recommending a R1 over a Duck...Dudes...the kid is 18 and its his FIRST bike:fact

Instead of supporting his death wish, i would recommend calling his freakin' mother or whoever is responsible for writing his college checks and insurance...see how they'd feel about him STARTING on a liter bike AKA Death Machine... Im done...:sing:

 

I would recommend starting on a used 600, both because it would be easier to learn on, safer to learn on, and if ya drop it a few times... shrug. But if he is set on getting a R1, then arguing at him and bashing on him probably wont do anything but really set him on it, and maybe turn him away from the good advice he has and could get here.



Also just for clarification, by open fields do you mean fields as in dirt and grass, ruts, holes, dips, roots and stumps? If you do, please dont, that would be more dangerous then jumping out on the highway the first day imo.
An harsh on the bike heh.

 

good luck with your new litre bike, ride safe bro....
im 30 now, have ride for 10 years, start from 400cc, till now im still scary myself of this litre bike power....this bike is very fast...open the throttle wisely....and use your brain!!! dont use your emotion....