[tory]

i appreciate everyones advice, and input. i have alot to think about, and i have alot of talking to do w/the wife. god knows i love her, but she didnt want me doing this in the first place. she's got the image in her head all motorcyclists get into accidents and they have a greater chance for fatalities. she wants me to stick around so we can raise a family. (which i also want to do as well) it took along time for me to get her to be okay w/the idea, and now i shot that to hell. i dont want to do anything that'll upset her or make her worry but this is something i really enjoy doing, and want to continue doing. she said in a brief conversation on the way home from work she'd feel better about it, if when i get the bike back i had a professional bike shop take a look at it, and give me estimates for "back to stock" running condition... atleast she'd know next time i ride it there'd be no possibility for fault of the bike, even though i've told her it was my fault. (as i've mentioned before, i've had other problems w/the bike some were my fault, others were natural, or from previous owner)

[Tiny1877]

<SNIP!>
slapshot, my goal for the summer was to be able to get up that way to ride w/you guys eventually...

Now that's just PUNNY!

[The CyberPoet]

i appreciate everyones advice, and input. i have alot to think about, and i have alot of talking to do w/the wife. god knows i love her, but she didnt want me doing this in the first place. she's got the image in her head all motorcyclists get into accidents and they have a greater chance for fatalities. she wants me to stick around so we can raise a family. (which i also want to do as well)

The reality is that you had a panic reaction. Although you can expect, no matter what motorcycle you get, you will have them, and as time progresses and you improve, you will have fewer and fewer of them. I can't promise that you will ever reach the point that you will not have another panic reaction on any motorcycle -- that comes with experience and practice, including experience and practice with the types of situations that don't befall a normal rider on a daily (or even annual) basis.

Your wife is right in some senses -- motorcyclists do have a seven times higher risk of fatality than automobile drivers from the latest statistics I've seen. This is a fact and one that should not be ignored; you have to weigh whether the benefits are worth the risk factor, and see what you can do to improve your odds if you do decide to keep pursuing it. Do not let anyone else push you to ride when you don't feel up to it (brothers included).

I have no clue as to your height/size/body weight/musculature, but I am firmly of the opinion that a $1500 or under, 250cc to 400cc bike is the best learner bike out there for virtually everyone. You can find all the logic behind that rational in this thread: "How is the Katana as a first bike?". I won't bother to reiterate the variety of reasons here, but will say that if you feel that you will be safer on a 250, then move to a 250, even if it means floating the purchase price on a credit card and paying the interest (as verses to the principle) until you sell it again at the end of six months or a year... or maybe you'll end up turning it over to the wife as her motorcycle at the end -- only time will tell.

Now for the training:
If you have a centerstand, learn to release the clutch in gear without using any throttle. Practice this for a good half hour on the centerstand. Then repeat it in the parking lot or training lot. Once you learn the degree of clutch control needed to get any bike rolling forward without any input on the throttle at all, the rest of leaving a stop is generally a piece of cake.
The second part of the lesson is if you panic, release the throttle and pull in the clutch and steer where you want to go. This will not rescue you from every possible situation, but it will stop feeding new input into the bike and allow it to settle itself again while you evaluate, decide & undertake whatever the next appropriate step is (application of brakes, steering around an obstacle, rolling over ice/oil/slippery-stuff, etc). As a former German driving instructor, this is what we taught all our beginning MC students to do because it gives them the highest survival odds of any possible standard reaction in a panic situation.

The final part of the lesson is to seek out a professional instructor and work with them. The MSF rider courses are a reasonable starting place (being a German, I'm prejudiced that Americans don't get nearly enough training -- even with the MSF course -- for their own good before being unleashed upon the world), and you may well be able to work with some of the instructors outside their MSF duties to refine more of what I consider your real-world skills.

I wish you the best of luck and will support whatever decision you feel you want to make -- whether it's a different bike, more training and practice, or walking away all-together.

Sincerely Yours,
=-= The CyberPoet