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matrixrace
O.K. so tax return is coming in and I want a sport bike. I have never owned or driven a motorcycle before so I need something beginner worthy but when I learn I don't want to go and have to buy another one. I would like one that is a sturdy bike that is around the $5,000 range. A couple of my buddies have Suzuki GSXR's and they say the are good but I want some diffrent opinons. P.S. if anyone around the St. Louis MO area has one that matches my wants let me know.
Answer
heres an incredibly informative beginning bike thread from a bunch of experianced riders.
http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=1&fID=4&tID=87668
do not start on a 600cc or literbike. A 600cc gixxer hits 100 mph about as fast as the 615 hp, 415,000 dollar porsche carrera GT. thats not even the literbike. Now try strapping that between your legs and trying to learn. A car cant flip you over sideways or backwards with a blip of the throttle. a bike can. Be smart and dont end up as an organ donor.
i hear the best (from the thread) is the Kawi ninja 250. its not brutally fast, the resale is amazing on them (you essentially can ride the bike for about 2-300 bucks a year, for depreciation), theyre cheap, if you drop it, its OK, and its a great learner bike. Dont think youll "grow out of it" too fast. theyre about as fast as a porsche 911 to 60.
have fun, and be safe.
heres an incredibly informative beginning bike thread from a bunch of experianced riders.
http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=1&fID=4&tID=87668
do not start on a 600cc or literbike. A 600cc gixxer hits 100 mph about as fast as the 615 hp, 415,000 dollar porsche carrera GT. thats not even the literbike. Now try strapping that between your legs and trying to learn. A car cant flip you over sideways or backwards with a blip of the throttle. a bike can. Be smart and dont end up as an organ donor.
i hear the best (from the thread) is the Kawi ninja 250. its not brutally fast, the resale is amazing on them (you essentially can ride the bike for about 2-300 bucks a year, for depreciation), theyre cheap, if you drop it, its OK, and its a great learner bike. Dont think youll "grow out of it" too fast. theyre about as fast as a porsche 911 to 60.
have fun, and be safe.
Would the free markets have put seat belts in cars?
Nicholas J
Should auto-makers be compelled to put seat belts in cars? In your opinion.
Answer
There was a time when I would have argued the "no way" side of this subject, resenting a government-imposed regulation that "required" me to be safer whether I wanted to be safer or not. My dad drove old Hudsons (tank-like) and none of us six kids grew up with seatbelts, so naturally I resisted. I also thought requiring bicyclists and motorcyclists to wear helmets was an intrusion...
But then I grew up and went to work for a major insurance company long enough to discover how some of these "new rules" were formed based on actuarial data and I also typed autopsy reports for medical students, one of them a young boy around 3 years old who had been standing up in the back seat of a car unrestrained when his mom had to break suddenly and he became a missile---right through the front windshield. Younger children (toddlers or babies) have a lot of their weight concentrated in the head, I learned, and they do become projectiles if not protected. I began to see a reason for proposing safety standards, but part of me still resists (or even resents) having states REQUIRE that adults wear seatbelts...at least I did until I was hit by a lawyer's son driving a large Lincoln who was speeding (80 mph) during rush hour on a crowded wet Highway 70 with my only daughter beside me in the front passenger seat. In St. Louis, Hwy 70 has three lanes that become two as you hit downtown, and what drivers tend to think of as a "passing lane" becomes the ONLY one available to make a highway change that would get us home, so I got into that outside lane with a wall to my left, a packed middle lane, and the right lane that was to give out in about two miles. A young blond woman in a red sports car began tailing gating me dangerously close, but I kept the 60 mph speed limit because of wet wintry conditions so she speeded up abruptly, cut between the middle-lane car and me, got in front of my sixth-grade daughter and me, and put on her brakes while giving me the finger. I braked to avoid hitting her and my car spun out. All I could think about was trying to control the spin to try staying in the middle lane, steering a tight spin to get me away from that divider wall and thankful that we both had out seatbelts on. I spun full circle and was facing forward but going really slow and trying to accelerate when the lawyers' big car struck us with such force the mirror broke off and hit me hard in the forehead and he spun us sideways across the two inside lanes, so I struggled not to lose consciousness for my daughter's sake and focused only on steering us to that inside lane facing forward---and he hit us a second time, but not my daughter's door THANK GOD! He clipped the rear passenger door and basically totalled my car, then he ended up sideways across the two lanes, inadvertently protecting us from other cars. I ended up exactly in that middle lane, steering each time he hit us for that goal---all to protect my daughter and to keep me from being killed on the outer lane wall which would have left my little girl unprotected and at the mercy of the other rush hour drivers. Seat belts saved us. This balances my previous resistance quite a bit.
I'd say yes, have the seat belts in the cars, available to save costs and lives, and do require some protections for children that have been proven to prevent injuries or death...but maybe lighten up on the state laws that require responsible sober adults to wear them---even though I now always wear mine.
There was a time when I would have argued the "no way" side of this subject, resenting a government-imposed regulation that "required" me to be safer whether I wanted to be safer or not. My dad drove old Hudsons (tank-like) and none of us six kids grew up with seatbelts, so naturally I resisted. I also thought requiring bicyclists and motorcyclists to wear helmets was an intrusion...
But then I grew up and went to work for a major insurance company long enough to discover how some of these "new rules" were formed based on actuarial data and I also typed autopsy reports for medical students, one of them a young boy around 3 years old who had been standing up in the back seat of a car unrestrained when his mom had to break suddenly and he became a missile---right through the front windshield. Younger children (toddlers or babies) have a lot of their weight concentrated in the head, I learned, and they do become projectiles if not protected. I began to see a reason for proposing safety standards, but part of me still resists (or even resents) having states REQUIRE that adults wear seatbelts...at least I did until I was hit by a lawyer's son driving a large Lincoln who was speeding (80 mph) during rush hour on a crowded wet Highway 70 with my only daughter beside me in the front passenger seat. In St. Louis, Hwy 70 has three lanes that become two as you hit downtown, and what drivers tend to think of as a "passing lane" becomes the ONLY one available to make a highway change that would get us home, so I got into that outside lane with a wall to my left, a packed middle lane, and the right lane that was to give out in about two miles. A young blond woman in a red sports car began tailing gating me dangerously close, but I kept the 60 mph speed limit because of wet wintry conditions so she speeded up abruptly, cut between the middle-lane car and me, got in front of my sixth-grade daughter and me, and put on her brakes while giving me the finger. I braked to avoid hitting her and my car spun out. All I could think about was trying to control the spin to try staying in the middle lane, steering a tight spin to get me away from that divider wall and thankful that we both had out seatbelts on. I spun full circle and was facing forward but going really slow and trying to accelerate when the lawyers' big car struck us with such force the mirror broke off and hit me hard in the forehead and he spun us sideways across the two inside lanes, so I struggled not to lose consciousness for my daughter's sake and focused only on steering us to that inside lane facing forward---and he hit us a second time, but not my daughter's door THANK GOD! He clipped the rear passenger door and basically totalled my car, then he ended up sideways across the two lanes, inadvertently protecting us from other cars. I ended up exactly in that middle lane, steering each time he hit us for that goal---all to protect my daughter and to keep me from being killed on the outer lane wall which would have left my little girl unprotected and at the mercy of the other rush hour drivers. Seat belts saved us. This balances my previous resistance quite a bit.
I'd say yes, have the seat belts in the cars, available to save costs and lives, and do require some protections for children that have been proven to prevent injuries or death...but maybe lighten up on the state laws that require responsible sober adults to wear them---even though I now always wear mine.
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