Greetings and thanks for all the great info!

[Stretch]

Hello all, Bob here, newbie at riding and new owner of a 1999 GZ250. Very comfortable bike that can actually easily haul my somewhat economy-sized body. Based on the info I gained here and in the Yahoo! group for the 250 I trotted down to a dealer and bought some bolt-on goodies to make the bike a bit more useful for me. Plan on using it as a daily commuter - but I have been having so much fun learning to ride it that I seem to be commuting everywhere! When my first tank of gas gave me about 74 MPG I was the ultimate happy camper, considering I had just sold a POS Altima that got 22 MPG on a good day with a tail wind and me running alongside. We will be able to eat meat again!

I appreciate the effort in sharing all of the hard-won lessons. I hope I will have something to share as I progress in my experience, preferably something that doesn't involve traction or scar tissue, but you never know.

-Bob