What to buy?

[lightspd]

a riding skills class.  your bike will wear out or crash, shit breaks or falls off, bikes get sold.  upgrade your brain and you can use that money on any bike you ride.

Already took one and plan on taking an advanced one once I get a few thousand more miles on the bike. I practice regularly and try to watch or read instructional stuff. I rally wish I had a place I could work on my bike and avoid paying a shop, then I could put more towards gear and the bike.

[DarkMonster620]

a riding skills class.  your bike will wear out or crash, shit breaks or falls off, bikes get sold.  upgrade your brain and you can use that money on any bike you ride.

this gets a +e11ty zillion . . .  if I just had a track here

[lawbreaker]

Most important is good gear to protect yourself, I'd say next is proper suspension set up, which is only about 40 bucks to have a professional do the adjustments.... obviously more if you need to spend dough on different spring rates/fork oil etc..


You'd be amazed at how well a properly suspended bike with great tires will perform.


Regardless... protect your own hide, hands, feet and noggin first

[GreasySnipe]

I agree with the guys saying do the gear first, Gloves, pants, jacket, Boots and Helmet and then the advanced riding course. A flat kit would be a good thing as well as sliders. Before you do any mods, ride the bike to feel it out if you haven't done so already and do your mods with what you NEED not what would be nice. the tail tidy kit, Mirrors, exhaust( LEO magnet!!), Integrated tail light kit, levers are all nice but not needed. As a short rider myself, I can see a need for a lower seat if you are on the tips of your boots. If you get boots that have a reasonably thick sole to them, this may give you enough distance to have comfortable footing on the bike and eliminate the need for the seat. The next thing I would do is get the suspension set up properly, between my R-1, Panigale and the Monster I have spent some cash(front and rear springs due to me weighing around 150 Lbs.) and some time getting them right and it makes all the difference in the world. I wouldn't waste any cash on the nice list until I had my gear and the bike sorted but this is just my opinion.

[SwiftTone]

Gear first, bike protection stuff second, suspension, then bling.

The suspension is always the first thing I upgrade when I get a new-to-me bike. It's night and day and adds confidence and safety to riding.

[Langanobob]

Already took one and plan on taking an advanced one once I get a few thousand more miles on the bike. I practice regularly and try to watch or read instructional stuff. I rally wish I had a place I could work on my bike and avoid paying a shop, then I could put more towards gear and the bike.

This is the second post where you've mentioned wanting a place to work on your bike.  Not sure what your situation is with work, but now is a reasonably good time to find a house to buy.  It took me a long time to break out of the rental habit and buying a house was pretty close to the best thing I ever did.

I would buy good boots first though.

[lightspd]

This is the second post where you've mentioned wanting a place to work on your bike.  Not sure what your situation is with work, but now is a reasonably good time to find a house to buy.  It took me a long time to break out of the rental habit and buying a house was pretty close to the best thing I ever did.

I would buy good boots first though.

Wish I could, just not feasible at this point in time. Not having a place to work is just a sore spot for me.  I grew up having a place to work on stuff, whether it be a car/bike, my place or a friends out, knew a couple people who owned garages that I could use.  So I never really had to pay for anything I could do myself, now I do. So dropping $300 for 600 mile service or $100 for oil change, where most of that is labor cost and I could do most of it myself, it's annoying.

Still trying to find a pair of boots I like.  All the local shops have squat and the few I do like, don't come in my size.

[1.21GW]

You don't need space for an oil change.  I've done them on the sidewalk.  The $600 maybe requires real space...

[Langanobob]

Still trying to find a pair of boots I like.  All the local shops have squat and the few I do like, don't come in my size.

I got a pair of Alpinestar Scouts, sort of a dual sport boot that has more ankle protection than a street bike boot and it's still very walkable once broken in.  My local dealer ordered them and matched internet prices.

[lightspd]

You don't need space for an oil change.  I've done them on the sidewalk.  The $600 maybe requires real space...

Still need a place, unless I do it stealth like behind a business. It's against the rules of my complex to do any kind of mechanic work.