I have been reading this board for about two hours and loved the thoughts, the rants, the unusal politeness, the info and all of the cool pictures people have posted. I especially loved to read about all of the new riders or people who are planning to buy a Busa as their first bike. I too am thinking very seriously about buying one of these beasts and there is, in this day and age, no place better than a good message board to do some learning and exploring to get all the ammo you need to help make a well-rounded decision.
Let me give all of those who are new to this motorcycle thing something to read, the way all of you have done for me.
I am 40 and ripped up the roads of 'Bama all through the 80s and have scars and a healed broken leg to remind me of my mis-spent youth on bikes. I had Kawasakis, Hondas and rode a Yamaha 650 Maxim into the back of pickup because some chick in a bikini was waving at me! That was the end of my ridership for nearly 20 years. Then, one day about a year ago, my wealthy bro-inlaw got this bike and called me. He got it as partial payment for a job he did for someone and he had never ridden and had no intention of starting. It was (and is) an '83 Gold Wing that is mint! Fully dressed, shines like a mirror and has appointments that I did not know would fit on a motorcycle! It had around 40K original miles on it and was suddenly in my garage! He had this "here, you take it, its yours" mentallity.
I was giddy, I was terrified.
For a while I just shined it, replaced fuses, replaced tires (it had been sitting for a WHILE) did what I could to give it some respect for its age and condition (I am a restorer of older Corvettes and was able to fix it up a tick without hurting it too badly) and let that be that.
Then, one day, I decided to ride it around my neighborhood. I live in the largest subdivision in Alabama and we have a zillion miles of one lane, one way roads and I figured that this was a good place to get out and make a fool of myself and I did just that.
This bike weighs, according to the manual I bought, about 830lbs. I cant think of a worse bike to throw a leg over if you have never ridden and at that point I was a newbie to the Nth.
Things went by very quickly and all could think about was my old a** hitting something! I was (I'll say it again) terrified. I meandered around parking lots and practiced parking, starting from a stop, turning from a stop, forgetting the side stand was down, you name it, I did it. One old sage I know laughed and told me to "look where you are going, not where you are" and that was huge advice! I rode for around 3 months before putting it out on major roads and highways and slowly got to where I was confident that I could ride it well enough to avoid a crash - I am still scared to death of teenage girls in Honda Civics though!
To date, I have never taken a riding course (which is probably stupid of me), I have never dropped it and have never had any sort of wreck. My wife loves to ride down to the beach with me and my 9 year old son thinks we are kings when we are tooling down the side of the bay.
Mine is probably a rare success story of someone who should have thought better of it but came out in one piece. I was not scared of a thing 20 yeas ago and I think some of the new riders / purchasers, may be in that testosterone soaked mode as they post here.
Several weeks ago (I am a manager for a transportation company) I responded to a vehicle accident that one of our trucks was involved in and what had happened was this guy on a Ninja tried to take a 90 degree turn, layed it over, hit our left front wheel popping it and bending the rim (If you hit a 18 wheelers tire and pop it, you were moving), and he nearly died. I got to talk to his distraught sister at the scene and she said he "had just bought it".
He survived but will have some severe limitations.
I guess I just wanted to give something back to this board with this possibly boring post....
I have never posted on any motorcycle boards but I wanted to strongly urge anyone who thinks that a Busa is a good place to start is probably wrong. I was wrong for riding that Wing the way I did but fear of death (which comes more often with age) probably kept me "from being hosed off of the street". I am still lobbying the wife to "let me" buy a Busa, its soooo much easier with buy in from them eh? I expect to have one by my birthday which is later this year.
Again, thanks to all of you for the info on this bike. Yall have a great board here and I plan to read it often as I approach dropping $12K on one of these bikes. Not sure if I will like the "hunched over" sport bike riding position, not sure about being able to ride without a stereo! *Gold Wing spoiled me* Not sure about a lot of things but I encountered a guy riding a sport bike about a week ago, watched the way he seemed to move so easily through the parking lot and thought it was the sexiest, hottest looking thing on the road (his was a red Yamaha F1..... I think thats what he called it). I got him to pull over, talked to him a minute and the next thing I know I am in dealerships talking and looking! Quickly determined that the Busa is without peer. I WANT one!
Did not mean to sound preachy and I'll shut up now!
Ride Careful!
Let me give all of those who are new to this motorcycle thing something to read, the way all of you have done for me.
I am 40 and ripped up the roads of 'Bama all through the 80s and have scars and a healed broken leg to remind me of my mis-spent youth on bikes. I had Kawasakis, Hondas and rode a Yamaha 650 Maxim into the back of pickup because some chick in a bikini was waving at me! That was the end of my ridership for nearly 20 years. Then, one day about a year ago, my wealthy bro-inlaw got this bike and called me. He got it as partial payment for a job he did for someone and he had never ridden and had no intention of starting. It was (and is) an '83 Gold Wing that is mint! Fully dressed, shines like a mirror and has appointments that I did not know would fit on a motorcycle! It had around 40K original miles on it and was suddenly in my garage! He had this "here, you take it, its yours" mentallity.
I was giddy, I was terrified.
For a while I just shined it, replaced fuses, replaced tires (it had been sitting for a WHILE) did what I could to give it some respect for its age and condition (I am a restorer of older Corvettes and was able to fix it up a tick without hurting it too badly) and let that be that.
Then, one day, I decided to ride it around my neighborhood. I live in the largest subdivision in Alabama and we have a zillion miles of one lane, one way roads and I figured that this was a good place to get out and make a fool of myself and I did just that.
This bike weighs, according to the manual I bought, about 830lbs. I cant think of a worse bike to throw a leg over if you have never ridden and at that point I was a newbie to the Nth.
Things went by very quickly and all could think about was my old a** hitting something! I was (I'll say it again) terrified. I meandered around parking lots and practiced parking, starting from a stop, turning from a stop, forgetting the side stand was down, you name it, I did it. One old sage I know laughed and told me to "look where you are going, not where you are" and that was huge advice! I rode for around 3 months before putting it out on major roads and highways and slowly got to where I was confident that I could ride it well enough to avoid a crash - I am still scared to death of teenage girls in Honda Civics though!
To date, I have never taken a riding course (which is probably stupid of me), I have never dropped it and have never had any sort of wreck. My wife loves to ride down to the beach with me and my 9 year old son thinks we are kings when we are tooling down the side of the bay.
Mine is probably a rare success story of someone who should have thought better of it but came out in one piece. I was not scared of a thing 20 yeas ago and I think some of the new riders / purchasers, may be in that testosterone soaked mode as they post here.
Several weeks ago (I am a manager for a transportation company) I responded to a vehicle accident that one of our trucks was involved in and what had happened was this guy on a Ninja tried to take a 90 degree turn, layed it over, hit our left front wheel popping it and bending the rim (If you hit a 18 wheelers tire and pop it, you were moving), and he nearly died. I got to talk to his distraught sister at the scene and she said he "had just bought it".
He survived but will have some severe limitations.
I guess I just wanted to give something back to this board with this possibly boring post....
I have never posted on any motorcycle boards but I wanted to strongly urge anyone who thinks that a Busa is a good place to start is probably wrong. I was wrong for riding that Wing the way I did but fear of death (which comes more often with age) probably kept me "from being hosed off of the street". I am still lobbying the wife to "let me" buy a Busa, its soooo much easier with buy in from them eh? I expect to have one by my birthday which is later this year.
Again, thanks to all of you for the info on this bike. Yall have a great board here and I plan to read it often as I approach dropping $12K on one of these bikes. Not sure if I will like the "hunched over" sport bike riding position, not sure about being able to ride without a stereo! *Gold Wing spoiled me* Not sure about a lot of things but I encountered a guy riding a sport bike about a week ago, watched the way he seemed to move so easily through the parking lot and thought it was the sexiest, hottest looking thing on the road (his was a red Yamaha F1..... I think thats what he called it). I got him to pull over, talked to him a minute and the next thing I know I am in dealerships talking and looking! Quickly determined that the Busa is without peer. I WANT one!
Did not mean to sound preachy and I'll shut up now!
Ride Careful!
