Buying my first bike tomorrow

Hello all!

I am new to motorcycling and this is my first bike. I am buying a 2002 Yellow SV650 with 1200 miles. I paid $3600 but I thought it was fair for a bike in perfect shape (even though it its almost 4 years old).

My first question is, I would like to make the tail light brighter. what would you suggest? I am taking a rider safety course but it is full until July. Which leads me to my next questions. I would rather not just get on the road and start riding, I would perfer some sort of prelim training prior to my offcial training. Would you suggest going to an empty parking lot and practice quick starts and stops and other skills?

thanks!

I fitted some LED bulbs to mine which seemed to work well. Maybe a bit safer as they light up alot quicker when you hit the brakes.

They were a standard bulb base but with about 20 LEDs where the glass should be.

hey, welcome that is a fantastic bike youre about to buy.

Are there any lessons you can book one on one with a private instructor? These are invaluable, really you must get someone to learn you some important basics before getting out there

Clear alternatives sell some interesting ones I think (in Las Vegas) www.clearalternatives.com.

Also over where you are the stop lights that flash for a bit are popular, and I know you can get auxiliary ones that go under the plate or you could put on the ones that have a brake light strip in the indeis as well.

Originally Posted by ivantate

I fitted some LED bulbs to mine which seemed to work well. Maybe a bit safer as they light up alot quicker when you hit the brakes.

They were a standard bulb base but with about 20 LEDs where the glass should be.

yer i fitted them to my sv they are less likely to blow as well.

Originally Posted by yellowSV

Hello all!

I am new to motorcycling and this is my first bike. I am buying a 2002 Yellow SV650 with 1200 miles. I paid $3600 but I thought it was fair for a bike in perfect shape (even though it its almost 4 years old).

My first question is, I would like to make the tail light brighter. what would you suggest? I am taking a rider safety course but it is full until July. Which leads me to my next questions. I would rather not just get on the road and start riding, I would perfer some sort of prelim training prior to my offcial training. Would you suggest going to an empty parking lot and practice quick starts and stops and other skills?

thanks!

See if you can find anything - book, CD-ROM, etc. - about hazards and hazard perception, specifically for motorcyclists. Improve your survival techniques! Heck, even UK publications should be applicable.

Originally Posted by yellowSV

Hello all!

I am new to motorcycling and this is my first bike. I am buying a 2002 Yellow SV650 with 1200 miles. I paid $3600 but I thought it was fair for a bike in perfect shape (even though it its almost 4 years old).

My first question is, I would like to make the tail light brighter. what would you suggest? I am taking a rider safety course but it is full until July. Which leads me to my next questions. I would rather not just get on the road and start riding, I would perfer some sort of prelim training prior to my offcial training. Would you suggest going to an empty parking lot and practice quick starts and stops and other skills?

thanks!

Hiya,

Car park is good for your slow speed control. I wouldn't try anything else really. You are much more likely to drop your bike doing slow speed stuff when you are new. I don't know what the rules are there, or whether you can get some extra training, but maybe you can hook up with some other bikers for an infomal practice session?

Have you seen this site?

http://www.svrider.com/

Nice bike BTW!

[northwind]

If you've got a trusted friend who rides, you could do worse than to get advice and go riding with them. But like I say, you'd have to trust them totally. Are you doing the MSF? Never done it myself obviously, wrong continent But from what I hear it's extremely basic, don't expect it to suddenly teach you everything you need to know It's on about the standard of the training we need to do before we're even allowed to start learning

I know you said preliminary training, but how about this website and their downloadable videos etc. A lot of the stuff is basic safety points which will help everyone.

CLICK HERE

Cheers,

Garry

Thanks for all of your help! I am a little nervous about getting out there but I hope that will make me a better rider. I have 5 buddies that ride but they are what I call "cannon racers." they LOVE to go fast and do lots of curvy roads. I would need to get them to slow down and remember that I can not do what they do. So, learning from them might be a challange.

I am taking the MSF class but not until July! These things are booked out 3 months. it's crazy.