Cold & hot... wear gloves & a jacket. The wind is really cold. I really notice it once I go inside after having been out. Once I come inside my body gets really hot. I guess it's trying to overcompensate for the wind chill. Wearing gloves is great if (like me) you don't have a windshield. Your hands freeze up fast. Of course this is in FL so "cold" here is anything below 60. I'll let you know how hot weather riding is once May/June gets here...
For me, never having learned to drive a manual transmission vehicle, learning to operate the controls was challenging and Very frustrating. I had never ridden a motorcycle before either so my brain was working hard at assimilating a lot of new information. I still stall out starting from a stop occasionally, especially if there's a slight rear incline to the road. The solution give it more gas and GO. I still have to break my car habit of giving it gas and expecting it to move... the manual transmission needs a little more of a "hands on" approach than I am used too.
I was also having a problem shifting gears and knowing which gear I was in after I had shifted and then not shifted for a little bit (forgetting which gear I was in really). I found that saying the gear shift out loud really helped with that. So you can hear me saying, 3 (downshift), 2(downshift), 1 as I come to a stop. If I try to many things I can screw it all up though, shifting while turning, while trying to hit the turn signal while screwing with the high beams(at night) I'll over rev the engine and clatter up to speed. My clutch probably hates me by now.
Remember the MSF class training, the slow speed & at speed turning were things both my wife and I had re-learn. She got a silverwing 04 and I got the shadow sabre 07 and so the training we got had to be re-introduced to our brains for the new hardware. It's very easy to lose focus and look at something on the side of the road while turning. That always gets me in trouble (wobble/unsteady turns). So remember to turn your head and look into the turn.
I know the ride2die site has gotten a lot of traction on CL recently for better or worse, but because of it I made us get real heavy-duty motorcycle jackets and gloves. Yeah it scared me, a lot of the accidents there were preventable, both by the riders and by the idiots in the cars. What really got to me were the very nice looking women with half of their skin scraped off. That's just sad... Anyway, to prevent that from happening to my beautiful woman, we both got nice gear. I'm still waiting for a helmet though, they gave us ones as part of the deal on the bikes, but my big ass 25" head wouldn't fit anything they had in the store, so I (they) are waiting for it to come in.
If your a new rider and see that I got an 1100cc bike and think, "Hey he got one with no-experience, I should get a 1300 then since he's a jerk and I'm cooler!" Get it and you will have some problems. I got this bike for ME and me only, I am 6'4" and 350lbs, my ass is fat and tall. I tried sitting on several bikes at the dealership and the problem I had was that while turning the wheels I would hit my knees. The 1100 was the lowest cc bike that I didn't have this problem on. So it fit my height. In the MSF class, I got around this by being on a dirt/street bike, taller than normal bikes, but on it I had problems accelerating. I knew that I would have the same problem if I got another 250cc bike, so I knew that I would have to go larger just for that. I also weighed that against my desire to get a bike that would last me for a while. So I knew I wanted to go for a higher cc engine. So think (honestly) about what you need and Why you "need" it when choosing a bike.
I love my shadow sabre 1100 though. It's not too much power, it gets me up to speed quick (when I shift gears right). I don't feel like I'm thrown off the back of the bike when I push the throttle. It is comfortable (for me) to ride.
Funny story... as I took my first ride around the block (without my helmet or adequate safety gear) I came up on one house that is notorious for having little chiquau, whatever Yappy-ass dogs, that roam free. So coming back up to my house, the three little bastards came running out to chase me. One of them stood in the road right in front of me for about five seconds before he realized in his small dog way, "Oh shit he's coming right for me!" So he takes off down the road right in front of me barking at me with his head fully turned around 180degrees from the way he's running. It was the funniest damn thing. I stopped to turn the corner towards my house and I see my wife laughing in the driveway at the spectacle. The little dogs were following me up the road barking at me like some mini-demonic color guard. It was hilarious.
On another animal related note, cats will always go for what's familiar. So if a cat walks across the street in front of you, it is either leaving home or going back to it. If it gets scared it has a high likely-hood of darting back across the street in front of you and not simply running away. Your luckily I was going slow Mr. White-cat-that-ran-in-front-of-me.
I went out last night riding, the moon was mostly full, lighting up the road in a pale silvery light. I was cruising down the road listening to the wind, watching for animals, checking cross streets for headlights and feeling peaceful the while time. Now that I've started I really enjoy riding, even with the problems I have, I can feel the freedom it provides. I feel closer to environment around me, i hear more things, smell more things and see more clearly on the motorcycle. Everything comes into a vivid focus that I never feel in my car.
--Donald
