New Rider looking for a New bike

[ducatiz]

I'm in Afghanistan right now am go outside the wire on convoy's or on foot getting killed on a bike is the least of my worries.

well it should be.  i don't know about you, but i didn't care if it was artillery or a mom in a Honda Odyssey, I didn't want to die either way.  moreover, no one wants you trashing a perfectly good bike:  ebay is strewn with the parts of newbs who don't care about getting killed selling parts from their hospital bed.

i was in Lebanon for 3 years.  IDF.  we didn't have a wire.

buy a piece of shit you don't care about dropping or wadding and learn to ride on it.  once you get past dropping it at stoplights and develop the radar for soccer moms etc then buy something nice.

[Kev M]

Seriously man, learn from other's mistakes...

...but something used - doesn't even have to be a POS, just not a top-dog type bike.

Trust me, over the past 2 decades of riding I've seen the results too many times.

Everyone thinnks THEY are the exception - they've got better self-control, maturity, life experience etc.

But it's got NOTHING to do with restraint (well, that doesn't hurt, but that's not the major issue). The MAJOR issue is developing the proper natural reactions. Not being grabby with the brakes, not hitting a bump/having a balance check and wacking open the throttle unintentionally, not target fixating when running down the road and suddenly either seeing something or having something pull out in front of you etc.