New rider, new member from TX.

[superchargedv6]

Hey everyone, I'm a little late to the motorcycle game (getting scarily close to being in my mid-30s), but my BRC is in a couple of weeks and I'll be ready to get my first bike. I have a few buddies who are into bikes, so I'm not coming into it all totally blind. I've looked at dozens of motorcycles and I've narrowed it down to a 2021 NC750X manual. I'm hoping the local dealers start getting them in stock around the time I finish the course. Outside of bicycles and Honda Big Red ATCs (which are scary fun, literally), I'm new to anything with less than 4 wheels, so this should all be pretty interesting.

I'm here to do some reading and leaning and it looks like there's a lot to take in so far.

 

[mzflorida]

Nothing but the best to you as you explore the sport. A couple of unsolicited pieces of advice with apologies in advance. Don't go out with your buddies in a group for quite a bit of time. They may ride in a way that is unsuitable/unmanageable for you and your skillset. Spend time in a parking lot. Going straight and fast is easy, the bike will do that whether you are on it or not. Slow speed and emergency handling are really what need development and maintenance for every rider. Finally, don't buy new (unless you absolutely must). You might hate the sport. Depreciation is quick the first couple of years then slows down so you should consider taking advantage of that. You might be able to ride a one or two year old bike for almost nothing for a year or so. Ride safe, train a lot, and have fun with your buddies when the time is right!

 

[superchargedv6]

No need for any apologies, I welcome the advice. And I totally agree, I'm not really interested in going too far from home or seriously hitting the streets until I have some experience down. I had a coworker die in a motorcycle crash back in 2014, and that's something I keep in the back of my mind a lot. Fortunately, I live in a relatively quiet suburb so there's a lot of open parking lots and empty road to get some time on. My other hobby is flying planes, and I've learned a lot about risk management there. In fact, I'm really glad I never got the idea to buy a bike until I got my PPL.

I really wanted to go used, but around here the market is nuts. I might save ~$500-1000 by buying a 2018 or 2019, which isn't really worth it for me. Especially since the '21s have a lower seat height and I'm no jolly green giant. I looked at a number of older bikes but it felt like I was always making a compromise somewhere with either not having ABS, too high of seat height, or a total lack of on-board storage, stuff like that.

 

[670cc]

Due to Honda's marketing scheme for the USA, the only way you can get an NC7x0X with manual transmission and ABS is with the 2021 model.

 

[Alias]

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with your upcoming purchase.

 

[mzflorida]

No need for any apologies, I welcome the advice. And I totally agree, I'm not really interested in going too far from home or seriously hitting the streets until I have some experience down. I had a coworker die in a motorcycle crash back in 2014, and that's something I keep in the back of my mind a lot. Fortunately, I live in a relatively quiet suburb so there's a lot of open parking lots and empty road to get some time on. My other hobby is flying planes, and I've learned a lot about risk management there. In fact, I'm really glad I never got the idea to buy a bike until I got my PPL.

I really wanted to go used, but around here the market is nuts. I might save ~$500-1000 by buying a 2018 or 2019, which isn't really worth it for me. Especially since the '21s have a lower seat height and I'm no jolly green giant. I looked at a number of older bikes but it felt like I was always making a compromise somewhere with either not having ABS, too high of seat height, or a total lack of on-board storage, stuff like that.

Very sorry to hear about losing your co-worker. I'm sure we all share that same sentiment.

Yup. I would do the same. By the time you get a used bike up to your specs, the savings could be awash. In any event, whatever you decide, nothing but the best. I am not sure if it was 670CC or Dave (dduellin) but someone here has a friend who is a pilot and they commented on how riding a motorcycle is close to the experience of flying. I don't fly planes so can't say.

Riding is a crap ton of fun. I like it all...riding, maintenance & mods, learning, helping others, shopping, training...all of it.

 

[dduelin]

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your purchase. I would spend lots of time thinking about the first bike but my experience was that as a returning in mid-life rider that it took a few bikes to find the one(s) that really fit my expectations and type of riding. In that regard NC700/750s are great first bikes because they do a lot of things well and are very easy forgiving bikes to gain experience on and can ultimately take you anywhere you want to go on a street bike should you decide to keep it.

Though I haven't been current in three decades I have my Private Comm/Instrument SEL with a Glider Rating. Training is just managing risk which allows us to fly closer to the flame than non-riding non flying people we know but not closer than good sense and equipment allows.

 

[mwcogburn]

Welcome from just up the road in Texarkana.

 

[halfSpinDoctor]

Welcome to the forums! And welcome to motorcycling!

My other hobby is flying planes, and I've learned a lot about risk management there

What do you fly? I have my PPL-SEL (instrument is next up...), and am the proud co-owner of a 1964 Cessna 172 spam can (with the Johnson bar flaps...).

Apparently I have a lot of advice (1) do lots of riding by yourself at slow speed on your neighborhood streets! Go out before or after work every day for 10-15 minutes. Lots of starting and stopping, u-turns, slow speed manoeuvres. When you get good at that, start practicing panic stops. Get up to 10 mph then stop as fast as you can. Then 15, then 20, etc... (No need to really go much past 25).

(2) The NC is not the heaviest, but not the lightest bike. Be aware of the weight as you slow down, especially in panic stops. Don't be too cool to put both feet out and down at every stop, until you get used to it. (Don't be like me and try to never put your feet down, even at stop lights. It's not worth it!)

(3) You're new, so inevitably you're going to drop it at some point. (Okay. *maybe* you'll drop it at some point). Probably at a stop, or wheeling it out of your garage, or in some other stupid and totally avoidable way. Go easy on yourself when you do. It's all part of the learning experience. I bought my NC (used) with not a scratch, barely ridden, great condition, and dropped it within the first 3 months when a car unexpectedly whipped a u-turn right in front of me &%*#@!

 

[halfSpinDoctor]

someone here has a friend who is a pilot and they commented on how riding a motorcycle is close to the experience of flying.

I'd say riding is very similar to flying. If anything, riding gives you the feeling of flying but with all the annoying stuff removed. Both are attention-demanding activities that put you in the here and now and force you to stop thinking about everything else going on in your life. The difference is that while you are flying, you have to focus on a lot of other things like other traffic, ATC (if you fly out of a towered airport like I do), adhering to FARs (Federal Air Regulations), etc.

 

[superchargedv6]

Due to Honda's marketing scheme for the USA, the only way you can get an NC7x0X with manual transmission and ABS is with the 2021 model.

Well that makes things even easier, sticking with the '21 it is!

Though I haven't been current in three decades I have my Private Comm/Instrument SEL with a Glider Rating. Training is just managing risk which allows us to fly closer to the flame than non-riding non flying people we know but not closer than good sense and equipment allows.

If you can, get back up there! I've always wanted to try gliders. I think there's a glider school about 45 minutes south of here, I need to take a look.

What do you fly? I have my PPL-SEL (instrument is next up...), and am the proud co-owner of a 1964 Cessna 172 spam can (with the Johnson bar flaps...).

For now, I'm just putting around in rental 172s, and in the rare lucky occasion, my girlfriend's dad's Maule. I really hope to buy a plane eventually, but I don't think I'm at the right point in my life right now. I need to buy a house before I start thinking about buying an airplane. I love the old 172s, though. Do the old johnson bar models still have the 40 flaps? I learned to fly on G1000 172S's and the first time flying a 172L with the 40 flaps was a riot getting some short field landings in. I'm working on my instrument rating as we speak, so hopefully I'll be more confident with taking some longer trips.

(3) You're new, so inevitably you're going to drop it at some point. (Okay. *maybe* you'll drop it at some point). Probably at a stop, or wheeling it out of your garage, or in some other stupid and totally avoidable way. Go easy on yourself when you do. It's all part of the learning experience. I bought my NC (used) with not a scratch, barely ridden, great condition, and dropped it within the first 3 months when a car unexpectedly whipped a u-turn right in front of me &%*#@!

Yeaaaaah lol, I've already accepted the fact that I'm undoubtly going to drop the bike at some point. I've seen some crash bars that I really like (R-Gaza and some other brand), but they only advertise as being for 2012-2020, and no one seems to have tried them on 2021s yet. Hopefully that'll keep me from messing up the bike too much.

 

[dduelin]

Oops, deleted.

 

[Austris]

Yeaaaaah lol, I've already accepted the fact that I'm undoubtly going to drop the bike at some point. I've seen some crash bars that I really like (R-Gaza and some other brand), but they only advertise as being for 2012-2020, and no one seems to have tried them on 2021s yet. Hopefully that'll keep me from messing up the bike too much.

Iron skill are crash bars for Honda nc750x 2021.

 

[halfSpinDoctor]

my girlfriend's dad's Maule.

Nice!! I love the Maule. I've gotten a ride in my friend Rich's before. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCuA3iNSItv9o77BFmdQ9jg

Do the old johnson bar models still have the 40 flaps?

Yep, Flaps 40 barn doors! What's great for short field landings is that you can have your finger ready on the lever, and as soon as you touch down instantly dump the flaps and kill lift. Makes for great short field landings if timed correctly.

The 1964 model 172E was the first year with circuit breakers (replacing fuses), and last model-year with manual flaps.

 

[dduelin]

I don't know about you but I grew up dreaming about learning to fly and the reality was not quite what a child imagines. I got my private comm/instrument in a military aero club flying out of a very busy air force base and it was nerve wracking at times mixing with fast heavy traffic and almost always under busy ground based radar control. I got my glider rating after several years of not flying at all and being in a glider in uncontrolled airspace was the kind of flying I always imagined. It's quiet, (mostly) relaxing, and creatures of the air do not avoid your space, in fact soaring birds do it for a living and the fastest way to find a thermal is look for circling birds like hawks and buzzards then fall into formation. I could afford it in my post college first job salary, IIRC the 2-33 and 1-26 were $4/flight and $10 for the tow to 2000'. No thermal and it was $14 for ten minutes, catch some thermals and it was $14 for three or four hours.

 

[Floowid]

Greetings!

You guys are making me want to fly. I have always loved aviation. I fly every type of radio controlled flying contraption you can name (even had an ornithopter once). I have a logbook in my dresser with about 6 hours of instructor flight towards my PPL but life and family and mostly cost got in the way of going farther with it. Riding my bike in the canyons around here does evoke a pretty close sensation to what I felt the few times I flew.

Anyway, welcome to the forum! Now I'm going to be thinking about flying again damn you.

 

[TheIronWarrior]

I don't know about you but I grew up dreaming about learning to fly and the reality was not quite what a child imagines. I got my private comm/instrument in a military aero club flying out of a very busy air force base and it was nerve wracking at times mixing with fast heavy traffic and almost always under busy ground based radar control. I got my glider rating after several years of not flying at all and being in a glider in uncontrolled airspace was the kind of flying I always imagined. It's quiet, (mostly) relaxing, and creatures of the air do not avoid your space, in fact soaring birds do it for a living and the fastest way to find a thermal is look for circling birds like hawks and buzzards then fall into formation. I could afford it in my post college first job salary, IIRC the 2-33 and 1-26 were $4/flight and $10 for the tow to 2000'. No thermal and it was $14 for ten minutes, catch some thermals and it was $14 for three or four hours.

I hold both a PPL and a Glider Instructor Rating and I can tell you with absolutely no contest gliding is the more enjoyable activity.
I grew up with both parents holding PPL and glider licenses, and we owned a small plane (Piper Warrior). I can still remember before there was a McDonald's in my small town, we'd load the family into the plane, fly to a nearby city, rent a car, drive thru the McD's, return the rental car, fly back home.
My older brother, one of my younger brothers, and myself all hold PPL and GPL, and my older brother and I are both Glider Instructors. It made for an excellent summer job while I was studying to become an Engineer.
To note, none of it would have been possible (or at least likely) without the Royal Canadian Cadet Program. It's essentially a government (military) funded youth program. Think boy scouts with military support. Of all the opportunities, winning scholarships for glider and power licenses are among the top possibilities. The majority of the adult staff are members of the Reserves, and the Air Cadet program runs it's own gliding school (the PPL is contracted out due to the higher complexity and cost of PPL instruction). Ultimately, my glider license (including instructor rating) and my PPL cost me nothing.
I find flying is one of the most infectious things, as is evidenced by the fact that my professional career is as a mechanical engineer for a major aerospace technical and maintenance contractor servicing domestic and international militaries and civilian operators. Flying is in my blood and I would not be as happy doing anything else.

 

[TheIronWarrior]

Nice!! I love the Maule. I've gotten a ride in my friend Rich's before. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCuA3iNSItv9o77BFmdQ9jg


Yep, Flaps 40 barn doors! What's great for short field landings is that you can have your finger ready on the lever, and as soon as you touch down instantly dump the flaps and kill lift. Makes for great short field landings if timed correctly.

The 1964 model 172E was the first year with circuit breakers (replacing fuses), and last model-year with manual flaps.

Most of my time is in a Warrior with manual flaps. In my personal experiences and opinion, I much prefer them to the electric flaps.
But I'm also the type who will go out of my way to get a car with a manual transmission instead of any variant of automatic.

Now I'm feeling nostalgic, I haven't flown in a few years now but you guys are making me want to dig out my old logbooks and reminisce.

 

[halfSpinDoctor]

I don't know about you but I grew up dreaming about learning to fly and the reality was not quite what a child imagines.

I grew up dreaming of being an astronaut. It's a subtle distinction, but I think that the difference between dreaming to fly and dreaming of being an astronaut is that a big part of my dream was not only flying the spaceship, but all the procedural things that come with it. Operating a huge panel of instruments (think Apollo CSM or non-glass STS shuttle cockpit, not the lame SpaceX touchscreens), talking to ground control, doing scientific experiments in orbit, etc.

I have done some gliding as well, mostly when I lived in England for 2 years as a postdoc and flying was too expensive. Gliding is beautiful and gives you that pure feeling of being in the sky with nothing around you, just the whoosh of air. I find powered flying to be fun, too, but more because it involves juggling and managing lots of things like radio, instruments / ILS, maps & autopilot, etc. When it all works well, it's an incredible feeling, but when things are not going well it is very stressful and discouraging.

Between gliding and flying, I think motorcycling is more like gliding...

 

[dduelin]

I grew up dreaming of being an astronaut. It's a subtle distinction, but I think that the difference between dreaming to fly and dreaming of being an astronaut is that a big part of my dream was not only flying the spaceship, but all the procedural things that come with it. Operating a huge panel of instruments (think Apollo CSM or non-glass STS shuttle cockpit, not the lame SpaceX touchscreens), talking to ground control, doing scientific experiments in orbit, etc.

I have done some gliding as well, mostly when I lived in England for 2 years as a postdoc and flying was too expensive. Gliding is beautiful and gives you that pure feeling of being in the sky with nothing around you, just the whoosh of air. I find powered flying to be fun, too, but more because it involves juggling and managing lots of things like radio, instruments / ILS, maps & autopilot, etc. When it all works well, it's an incredible feeling, but when things are not going well it is very stressful and discouraging.

Between gliding and flying, I think motorcycling is more like gliding...

I think riding at times is very demanding. There is a lot to keep track of and little room for error. Riding a challenging road quick requires multiple calculations and decisions per second as does navigating heavy traffic. Because I also pursued sailing and surfing I equate powered flight, at least VFR GA flying, as not as difficult as unpowered flight.