Acidus wrote:
-How to ride a motorcycle
-How to take your hand off the throttle *before* shifting gears
-How to do a wheelie, for about half a second, when the bike's transmission jerks it upward
-How to properly bandage road rash
-How not to ride a motorcycle

Congrats! I hope you enjoyed yourself and will not let your introduction with road rash deter you from further riding and practice. There's only two kinds of motorcycle riders: those who have gone down, and those what haven't gone down yet.

As someone who's been riding 20 years, I can tell you that the best thing to do is take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation beginners course. These are available all over the country and various metro areas and are usually around $90 for a weekend 2 day course that will teach you everything you need to know. You don't need to own a bike. Just a helmet, decent shoes, and gloves are all you need to show up with. It's half classroom, half course on the bike, so you get everything you need to get a strong foundation for riding. The MSF also offers an intermediate and an advanced class that builds off of the beginning class with even more course work outside. WELL worth the investment instead of learning on the street with your (or your buddy's) bike and crazy traffic, gravel on the road, and cops. Completing the MSF beginners course is enough in most states to qualify for a motorcycle drivers license designation, often with a discount or even free.

If you decide that you wanna keep riding, I'd also advise joining the American Motorcycle Association (AMA), which is a group dedicated to making motorcycling safe, affordable, and enjoyable across the entire country. Think of them as the EFF for bikers.

Have fun! Be safe! Keep the sticky side down! And any time you wanna go for a spin upto Nashville, lemme know and I'll gladly join you!

RE: Things I learned on July 3rd 2006