Motors thinking of gettng a motorcycle

wellllllllll, here we go. right now i've got an pos '94 eclipse. it's fine for right now, but i'm definitely getting something better for when i go to college (in a year). now i don't have a lot of money, so i can't get anything REAL nice, but then i thought about a motorcycle. mucher cheaper than a car. also, most colleges i've visited said most people don't really need a car the first year or two anyways, so i won't be copmpletely dependent on the motorcycle - i can walk/ride with someone else when/if i need to do so. but i've got a few questions:

first of all, i've never RIDDEN a motorcycle, let alone actually drive one. how long would it take me to learn to control it well enough to go on major streets? how much more difficult is to drive with someone on the bike with you? (i've heard it's a bit more difficult...)

what about insurance? is it a butt-load more than a car? i'm thinking it might be, since there's no.... airbags

ummm..... dang it. i know i had more questions, but that's all i can think of for now. i'll post again if/when i think of any other Qs

*any other info ya got would be great too

*EDIT*
one other thing

what about music/audio? this might be a weird question, but i'm one of those people who loves driving at night with the windows down and the music playing. so what alternatives are there for a motorcycle? worst case scenario, i suppose i could just use an mp3 player...

 

Well let’s see from my limited knowledge... my dads got bike...
But anyways insurance shouldn’t be any more (or much more)... if you get a nice "smaller" bike. They are not to hard to ride (if is a smaller bike to learn on) I would recommend you find some kind of course to take, like at a community collage...
About music... well 1. You can get really LOUD speakers on it, or like my dads friend he got a nice helmet that had built in speakers for CB radio type thing. And plugs his radio in.

Also when getting a helmet I will DEFINATLY recommend you get a full faced mask...

You may ask why?
Well another guy my dad knew was riding and said he was going about 40 and out of no freaking where a bird! Came and hit him smack in the face (lucky he had a full face) and he said if he hadn’t he would have been dead..

Well I hoped I help, probaly confused you

 

lol, delorean. actually, i understood all of that

and i was planning on getting one of those full-faced helmets anyways. the built in speakers would probably be fine for the audio - just plug an mp3 player in and i'm ready to go.

couple of other questions:

what do you do when you get caught in the rain? is it really unsafe to drive in the rain? if it's not, i'm guessing ya just throw on one of those rain jacket/ponchos.....

what about carrying things with you? (like i said, i'll be in college, and i might need to take things with me) could a duffle bag thing sit on the back "comfortably"? (as in i won't have to worry every 2 seconds about it falling off)

 

yeah some bikes have space under the seat you can store stuff... lets see some more stuff... one the batteries on bikes tend to die alot 1. you need to refill them with water somtimes 2. youll probly want a batt charger for it.

well yes its pretty dangerous in the rain, alot of people do it

but thankfully my dad only go'es to work and back

so he can just call my mom and tell her to pick him up..

anything else?

 

well, what would be considered a "smaller" bike? i've looked at the kawasaki ninjas and really like the looks of them. would that be a good bike to start out on?

and what's the reason for the batteries dying so often? do they just suck up that much "juice"?

 

yeah i think like maybe a 400 or 600 CC's range should be consider "small"
The batts like to "dry" up cause 1. somtimes they sit along time 2. heat from teh engine evaporates the water 3. the rechargers are not very good

kawasaki sounds good but you may have to check with your insurece company to see Damn insurece!

Being 16 and haveing to pay 2K a year sucks

BTW, my dad bike is 81 Yamaha but what sucks is the insurce is like 200 somthing dollars and that like 45% of the bikes value!

 

If it's your first bike, get something under 600cc otherwise you'll end up getting hurt.

Oh, and do yourself a favour. Get a Class A helmet. Stay away from Class B or C. Those two should be renamed "I'm going to kill you slowly" and "I'm going to kill you fast".

 

Honda CBR 600, its small , handles like a dream and can be scarely fast if you want.

They have been out for a while now so you should be able to pick one up at a good price.


PS. If it was me Id just buy a cheap car, Id never feel safe on the road on a bike.

 

i think he has a car...

yeah i dont know about if thats your ONLY transporation...

my dad used to have a small honda... hehe he said he took the muffler off, and that he used to run that thing WIDE open...
over the red line all the time