Hello, I am new and need some help.

[Orpheus]

Originally Posted by tokyochick91

Hello

My name is tokyochick and I live here in beatiful San Diego.

Since I was a little girl, I rode a bike with my father. Now my father is 83 years old still riding a bike back in Japan.
I am old enough to have my own bike. I find good a school to learn how to ride a bike safly. I might be able to buy nice GZ 250 from somebody.

But my biggest problem is my husband. He has 100% disagreed that I should ride a bike.
The reasons are; 1. I am only 61 inches. He thinks I am too short. 2. I am not strong enough to push the bike. 3. It's dangerous.

If you have any ideas to convince my husband, let me know.

When I was a little girl, I saw the movie "Great Escape" and Steve MaQueen jumped over the fence. (The bike was not suzuki).
Since that day, I wanted to ride the Bike.

Riding a motorcycle is extremely dangerous and your husband is right to be concerned. If you are willing to accept the risks (after rationally assessing all the possibilities for injury/death), and you still want to ride, then it would probably be best if he also accepted that you understood and were comfortable with all the bad things that could possibly happen on a motorcycle.

I've been in three automobile accidents without injury and I consider myself a very safe driver; if any of those accidents were on my motorcycle, I'd probably have needed to go to the hospital or I'd be dead. It's all about how much risk you can accept.

(I read this in a report or online news article or something, but I can't find it now; maybe someone here linked to it?) The greatest risk for motorcycle accidents is not younger people, as would be expected, but rather the middle-aged men who pick up riding for the first time as some sort of midlife crisis thing. The following is just my opinion, but I'd imagine that many of the midlife crisis types who pick up riding think they're wise enough and responsible enough that they don't need any kind of class to teach them to ride; they then go out and buy the biggest bike they can find, since that makes them "more manly" and proceed to wreck and total their bikes or injure themselves because they had way more machine than they could handle.

You are a small girl and the GZ seems like it would be a perfect bike for you; the Honda Rebel is also a nice small bike (actually smaller than the GZ); if you're not planning on riding on highways, Kawasaki makes a 125cc "Eliminator" that seems pretty nice. Don't worry about not being able to push it or lift it up; these things only weigh around 300 pounds and if it fell over you'd not have to actually lift the entire weight. When I push mine, for backing out of parking spaces or whatever, it's a little harder than pushing a bicycle; it's really that light. Your argument to your husband for this could be that many scooters are larger than 250cc's and weigh about the same. It's actually funny how differently people perceive motorcycles compared to scooters, since most people somehow consider scooters "safer" even though they're very similar machines.

My first car was not a Ferrari, but a Volkswagen Cabriolet; my first bike is not a 1600cc Harley but rather a 250cc Suzuki. I learned to drive by taking driver's ed and practicing on roads without traffic; I learned to ride a motorcycle by taking the MSF course and practicing in parking lots and small side-streets.

Take the MSF course and get a small bike if you still think you'd like to ride.

Sorry this has been so long. :oops:

Carry on.

[mrlmd1]

Welcome to the club, and as others have said, by all means take the MSF course first before deciding on a bike.

Did anyone ever think to ask the hubby to take the class too? It might be something you could do together, and he might like it too.
Then you could get 2 GZ250's and ride together, or at least he'd understand what it's all about before saying no to the idea.

[philbert]

Hello tokyochick, welcome to the club!

As everyone has said, take the MSF course. Besides giving me first hand insight into the driving skills needed to ride on 2 wheels on the streets it gave me the opportunity to try 3 different bikes, a Honda Nighthawk, a Honda Rebel, and the Suzuki GZ250. The GZ250 was the best fit for me.
As for your small stature, don't be too concerned about it. There was a diminutive 18 year old girl in our class who was 60" tall and couldn't have weighed more than 90 pounds soaking wet.

Motorcycle riding, like many other activities, is about risk management so ask your husband to attend the MSF with you or at least maybe he could visit while you ride the course lessons. After seeing what it's about and perhaps talking with the instructors he may overcome his misgivings.

Phil :2tup:

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by Orpheus

Riding a motorcycle is extremely dangerous and your husband is right to be concerned. If you are willing to accept the risks (after rationally assessing all the possibilities for injury/death), and you still want to ride, then it would probably be best if he also accepted that you understood and were comfortable with all the bad things that could possibly happen on a motorcycle.

I've been in three automobile accidents without injury and I consider myself a very safe driver; if any of those accidents were on my motorcycle, I'd probably have needed to go to the hospital or I'd be dead. It's all about how much risk you can accept.

(I read this in a report or online news article or something, but I can't find it now; maybe someone here linked to it?) The greatest risk for motorcycle accidents is not younger people, as would be expected, but rather the middle-aged men who pick up riding for the first time as some sort of midlife crisis thing. The following is just my opinion, but I'd imagine that many of the midlife crisis types who pick up riding think they're wise enough and responsible enough that they don't need any kind of class to teach them to ride; they then go out and buy the biggest bike they can find, since that makes them "more manly" and proceed to wreck and total their bikes or injure themselves because they had way more machine than they could handle.

You are a small girl and the GZ seems like it would be a perfect bike for you; the Honda Rebel is also a nice small bike (actually smaller than the GZ); if you're not planning on riding on highways, Kawasaki makes a 125cc "Eliminator" that seems pretty nice. Don't worry about not being able to push it or lift it up; these things only weigh around 300 pounds and if it fell over you'd not have to actually lift the entire weight. When I push mine, for backing out of parking spaces or whatever, it's a little harder than pushing a bicycle; it's really that light. Your argument to your husband for this could be that many scooters are larger than 250cc's and weigh about the same. It's actually funny how differently people perceive motorcycles compared to scooters, since most people somehow consider scooters "safer" even though they're very similar machines.

My first car was not a Ferrari, but a Volkswagen Cabriolet; my first bike is not a 1600cc Harley but rather a 250cc Suzuki. I learned to drive by taking driver's ed and practicing on roads without traffic; I learned to ride a motorcycle by taking the MSF course and practicing in parking lots and small side-streets.

Take the MSF course and get a small bike if you still think you'd like to ride.

Sorry this has been so long. :oops:

Carry on.

Oh my, the midlife crisis thing. We have a few prime examples here. Haven't got the guts to admit they need training and can only relate to driving a cage. Must have lots of chrome and be really big to be cool. Sorry guys but you need an entry level bike and training. The image of Joe Cool riding the highways with his buds is pretty much shot down during a drivers exam on the road. Thankfully most get weeded out before they get some one hurt.

[Orpheus]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

Oh my, the midlife crisis thing. We have a few prime examples here. Haven't got the guts to admit they need training and can only relate to driving a cage. Must have lots of chrome and be really big to be cool. Sorry guys but you need an entry level bike and training. The image of Joe Cool riding the highways with his buds is pretty much shot down during a drivers exam on the road. Thankfully most get weeded out before they get some one hurt.

Amen. My first experience on a motorcycle was an 80cc Kawasaki dirt bike (when I was about 8-10 years old) and I lasted about 3 seconds before I gave it too much gas and fell off; imagine what it would be like if you did the same thing with about 20x more power on public roads. Although I'm not crazy about the government enacting laws that treat the populace like children, I do believe that there should be many more precautions taken for both two-wheeled and four-wheeled traffic.