Part of this is to just tell a story because I want to, I guess, and I'm also asking for advice.
First, let me start off by saying that in my entire life, I've only driven a motorcycle two times. Both times I was obviously not very confident. The first time, it was on my dad's 1982 BMW R65 - small by American standards, but he's Indian so to him it was bigger than anything else he had in India, and to me at the age of 14 it was a behemoth.
That time, I think maybe I wasn't strong enough. I let off the clutch too quickly and tried to compensate with gas and the thing shot forward, jerked and stalled. While I didn't fall off, I think my leg flailed about and I burned it on the exhaust pipe, and maybe I sprained something, who knows, but it hurt for a while. . . . So my parents freaked out and sold the bike just before I turned 17 for fear that I'd try it again
. The other time, I drove a moped in India which is REALLY tiny - it felt like a kid's bike lol. That didn't go so bad, but it was really short and I have no idea how a heavier bike would feel.
So now it's safe to say I have no idea how to drive a motorcycle. I am now 27, my father passed away just two months ago, and one of his/my unfulfilled wishes was to actually teach me how to safely drive a bike/scooter/or really anything with two wheels and an engine lol.
By the way, it's worth mentioning that every woman in my life is against this idea for safety reasons - girlfriend, mother, and probably sister too (although her husband has a small 1980 something Suzuki bike).
I've always wanted to drive a Harley, or own one. Plus, now with an IOM Camaro SS in the garage, it would like nice as hell to park one next to it
. I have no thirst for speed or racing or otherwise, stupidity, and I just like the feeling of riding. I recently gazed upon this beautiful monster (Night Rod Special):
http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US...special-bs.jpg
Some stats on the bike: 637 lbs and ~1300 cc.
Some stats on myself: 5'8", ~155 lbs
Now, I know I can't go from zero to this thing overnight. I know many of you have bikes, so my question to all of you is, where do I start? How do I go about learning? How much time/money should I spend on actually learning/teaching myself? Do I buy a beginner/beater bike? Is driving the Night Rod Special ultimately a pipe dream for me because I'm too small?
Your input matters. Thanks for reading
