50 Ways to Stay Alive

[Taz]

Just try and relax and enjoy riding it. If you can ride a bicycle on roads, that helps with traffic sense. If you are tense and nervous you wont ride well! Pick a cul de sac or quiet road near to where you will pick up the bike and practice some manouvering and quick stops before you head into traffic. I used google maps to find a spot near my dealer when I picked it up 6 mths back!

[Tristik]

Just try and relax and enjoy riding it. If you can ride a bicycle on roads, that helps with traffic sense. If you are tense and nervous you wont ride well! Pick a cul de sac or quiet road near to where you will pick up the bike and practice some manouvering and quick stops before you head into traffic. I used google maps to find a spot near my dealer when I picked it up 6 mths back!

~~
I've had my bike for 2 weeks now and I'm occasionally going to empty parking lots to practice emergency stops and slow U-turns. Gotten pretty tight on the U-turns. Can do those in the width of about 1 and a half parking spaces or less. I haven't had the balls take the brakes to the threshold though. I'd like to try it with the back wheel just to see what it'll feel like when it slips (I HAVE tried it on some gravel at low speeds to feel it), but think I'd damn near get tossed before that happened. The Blur has insanely good brakes on it even w/o ABS, heh.
~~

[maddiedog]

Taz's advice is good, stay relaxed. Never tense up, that's how you crash. Let any impact or wind buffeting flow over you, don't tense hard and resist it or you might jerk the bike too hard and lose control.

Overall, just remember to have fun, and don't go out of your comfort zone.

[gn2]

This thread is far too serious, time for a tune:

[maddiedog]

Bee Gees? Damn, you're old.

[gn2]

I'm maybe older than you think, I remember the Bee Gees from long before the disco years.