Allow me to introduce myself...

[Oceanbum]

Hi all! Newbie here! I just picked up my GZ250 Saturday. I have been riding around on the back of my hubby's bikes for years and I finally decided it was time for me to get my own bike!! Now all I have to do is learn how to ride it!!! I am scheduled to take the safe rider's course in early October. So I plan to do some "hands on" learning before the class. Hubby was helping me some on Saturday in the backyard. It went ok but it will definitely take some more sessions!!!! :whistle: He taught me to drive a car so hopefully he still has the patience he had then!!! :roll: He better because next year he will be riding with our daughter when she begins driver training!!!! Something tells me THAT will be WAY scarier!!!!! O_o

[burkbuilds]

Welcome to the forum, and you are right about teaching those teenage daughters to drive, I've done it twice now with one to go.

[Water Warrior 2]

Welcome to the forum and a big plus for signing up for a rider's course. Getting hubby to show you the ropes is good to get you going but please keep something in mind. He will also teach you his bad habits which work for him and then you have to unlearn them during the course. Sort of learned this with Lynda when she wanted to ride. We both agreed I was not an instructor and lessons would be the best bet. I went too. Had to unlearn a lifetime of bad habits which were actually holding me back from a lot of pure pleasure. My bike(Suzuki Vstrom) is a lot easier to ride since then and Lynda has since upgraded to a larger cruiser with a good deal of experience learned on her GZ. The GZ is a great bike that will serve you well and always be willing to go exploring new roads.

[alanmcorcoran]

Welcome to the forum. Good/bad habits aside, I found that the more time I spend on the bike, the more I enjoy it. When I first started out I was very tentative in curves and terrified of the freeway. I'm still not as good as I'd like to be in twisties, but I'm a lot better, and I actually like riding on the freeway now (in part due to upgrading my bike.) Anyway, take it slow but try to ride at least a little every day and get a copy of Proficient Motorcycling (Hough.) I've been riding now a little over a year, a little over 8000 miles (mostly short trips back and forth to work) and I'm still enjoying it very much.

[burkbuilds]

I second Alan's suggestion, nothing beats time in the saddle. If you have the opportunity to practice in an abandoned parking lot or a very low trafficked suburban area those are always some good areas to get some time in and practice starting, stopping, turning and such. I also highly recommend the safety course, but like Alan pointed out, the more time you can spend riding each day the more enjoyable and less stressful riding will become. Yeah, I said stressful, because anything you are doing for the first time is usually stressful for a while, but after enough time in the saddle I think you will find riding to be a stress reducer, at least I do and I bet a lot of the folks on this forum would say the same.