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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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I still think of myself as a beginner but I am obsessed with doing everything I can to be as safe as possible, thankfully I also think learning safety is fun!
In October 2022 I bought a 2001 Kawasaki w650, that was my first bike since I briefly tinkered with dirt bikes about 10 years prior. I sold that this spring.
That same year in November I picked up an 82 Kawasaki ke100 and a 2004 KLR650.
This spring I picked up a 2019 Kawasaki z900rs and a 2017 KTM 125 SX.
A few weeks ago I picked up a KLX300, which is the first new thing I ever purchased, and I just finished putting the 650-ish break-in miles on it yesterday, so I'm really excited to take that on the trails now.
I think what I'm finding is riding very different bikes in different ways teaches you all kinds of different skills that are transferrable to all of them in subtle ways.
What are you riding on now?
My first bike was a 2006 Suzuki GZ250, a little beginner cruiser bike with just enough power to keep up on the highway with it pinned in top gear. Comfortable and fun, especially around town.
After 3500 miles on the GZ, I made quite the jump to a 2012 Triumph Street Triple R. I wanted something sportier but still fairly comfortable (vs something like an R6, where there were plenty available near me). I didn't want something heavy or something that I would grow out of soon. I've only had it for about a month but so far I'm loving it! It's incredibly fast (to me ofc; can't even imagine what a literbike feels like), I really need to be careful with it lol
The funny thing about bikes is they're all so fun. I put over 300 highway miles on my klx300 over this past weekend and that hardened my nerves way more than the capabilities of my z900 did!
The great thing about higher performance bikes is that, while they can certainly go way faster than we should ever ask them to, they can also maneuver way better than we should ever ask them to.
They all bring me so much joy in so many different ways. I absolutely appreciate my sport bike like an engineering marvel (I'm pretty simple), and getting slightly naughty on it when no one is around is definitely thrilling, but honestly the bike rides so nice that even low speeds feels so good, and high speeds don't actually feel so high. The little bike is kind of the opposite in a way that's also fun anyway. It feels naughty even when it's not haha.
Anyway I hope you're staying safe out there. It's the best way to have fun for longer!
I get the thrill of going fast on a slow bike like the GZ250. I have dragged pegs and asked it to do ridiculous highway trips (once 80mi of highway in one go, on a bike that can barely do the speed limit), and I even tried offroading the poor thing. (I dropped it a couple times lol)
The Street Triple is a whole different beast. One that tempts me to go way too fast. Luckily, I can (usually) resist those temptations and just cruise along.
I am being safe. I keep any slightly naughty things away from traffic, and I am ATGATT. It's weird how unsafe some riders are, just today a bald man on a cruiser passed me on the highway with no helmet.
Ya a lot of folks make a lot of poor choices. I'm sure I do too.
I like to take note of any way I could have done something better in a ride, even if it's just something simple like getting passed by a car before I knew it was there -- a mild reminder to always be checking the 360.