Can You Learn To Ride On A Street Triple?

One of the things I really wish I could do is answer the questions people use to get to my blog from Google. Perhaps I should add a banner on my blog: Hey You! Got a Question? Email me!

Anyway, one of the recent questions I found in my stats was "Can I use a Street Triple to learn to ride?"

The short answer is: Yes, but please don't.

The long answer is: You can learn to ride on anything. You could learn to ride on an race-prepared R1. But, you know, you might not have the best experience doing so.

First off, if you're a total moto-newbie, take the MSF class (or your local equivalent) on one of their bikes. A Honda Rebel 250 is possibly the least intimidating machine in the world. It is difficult to scare yourself so badly you pee a little on a Rebel 250, which makes them perfect for getting the hang of how riding works.*

Then, when you're licensed, get some old bike to ride for a year. There's a good chance you're going to dump that thing, and it hurts a lot less when you can just pick it up, slap some flat black paint on it, and call it repaired. Pick something that isn't too high-strung. You're still learning how to ride, and you're going to make (and hopefully survive) some scary mistakes no matter what bike you're on. A high-performance bike makes it easier to make very scary mistakes. A Street Triple, by the way, is a high-performance bike. If you scare yourself badly enough, you might just give up riding. I know a guy who bought a GSX-R 1000 as his first bike. Can you guess who scared himself so badly that he parked his new bike for a year before selling it?

So, you've been riding for a year, you've got a handle on how motorcycles work and how to survive traffic, now go get that Street Triple and ride it in to the ground!



*And some people like them so much, they just keep riding them after they've learned to ride. My "starter bike" can be someone else's "dream machine."

Looks Like A Weekend Project

The headlight in the Vespa burned out earlier this week. Ordinarily, I've never been intimidated by replacing a headlight.

I am now.

In order to replace the headlight, I basically have to take the whole machine apart. I need special tools to do it.

Note to engineers - don't make regularly replaced items impossible to get to.

So, according to what I've read, I'll have to take off the mirrors, take off the Vespa badge on front, remove the horn cover, then locate and remove a hard-to-get-to screw, unscrew a few more things, then essentially pull the entire handlebar fairing off. Then replace the stupid bulb and put it all back.

Awesome.

It's Nanowrimo Time!

Hey folks - it's November, which means more Holy Rollers. Check the new novel out as I write it over here.