So, I'm a veteran now?!?
By Eric Jacobson

Four years ago this September, I walked into a motorcycle dealership here in Asheville and bought my very first motorcycle, a brand-new blue 2001 Suzuki SV650S. In the past four years, I've investigated this strange sport of motorcycling and everything that has to do with it from buying new tires to what it's like to ride in a complete downpour. I've talked about the frustration of winter and the development of new skills as well as the importance of going to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's amazing beginner class and what kind of bikes to ride. It's been nearly four years, and, for the first time ever, this May, I was confronted with the strangest motorcycling experience ever…

I'm a veteran now.

Let me back up a minute. A friend of mine, Woody, and I created Computer Mechanix, Inc., a fairly popular on-site computer repair company back in 2002 (only six months after I bought my SV650S). Ever since I bought my motorcycle, this guy's wanted to get into motorcycling but just didn't have the funds or capability to do so. In addition, his roommate, Ben, wanted to jump into the fray, too.

They've both watched me riding around for the past few years and heard all of my tales of the good and bad of motorcycle riding. They've been experiencing the whole motorcycling craze vicariously through my own stories. So, in May, it was time for the two of them to jump full-on into the craze… and put me in the strange position of being the one with the experience answering questions instead of asking them.

Woody had never ridden a motorcycle in his life. Ben had ridden a number of off-road bikes but had never ridden a real motorcycle (no offense to motocrossers, but it's a VERY different thing when you've got Mack trucks bearing down on you and can't just flip out of their way or something). Woody wanted a sport-bike, Ben a cruiser (yeah, I know, a cruiser?!).

Woody was the first one to want to get a motorcycle. We were doing a job for one of our business clients that just-so-happened to be right next to the motorcycle dealership that I bought my SV from so many years ago. I suggested that we stop by and see what they had. Next thing I know, Woody's picked out his bike, a 1998 Honda Superhawk 996, and drives over to the local DMV the next day to get his motorcycle permit.

I stop at this point to say that I highly suggest taking the MSF Beginner's Course well before buying a bike. It's a great way to see what it's like to ride a motorcycle without going through the financial (and sometimes physical, emotional, and mental) turmoil that comes with running out and buying a bike. In addition, the MSF course provides new riders with the fundamentals necessary to riding safely.

Both Woody and Ben threw that idea out the window. The first MSF course isn't until September and both of them wanted to start riding this summer so I guess it's not the most convenient thing in the world. I was lucky. I waited until mid-summer, registered for the course, took it, and then went out and bought my motorcycle. I think this is the best approach (especially since you can get a discount off of your insurance if you take the course first), however I can also understand wanting to get a motorcycle and not wanting to have to wait four months to do it. To give you an idea of their individual car styles, Woody drives an Acura RSX while Ben drives a Honda Prelude – both very sporty cars.

So, naturally, Woody goes to the dealership and picks out a used 1998 Honda Superhawk 996, a 1,000+ cc bike which I warned him was probably WAY out of his range being a first-time rider.

I have to take a moment to talk (read: rant) about North Carolina 's permit test. In order to be legally able to ride a motorcycle in North Carolina, all you have to do is take a 25-question test that asks some inane questions about driving drunk and drugs, and suddenly you're capable of running over to your local motorcycle store and buying a Hayabusa and throwing yourself into the back of a pickup truck at 180 miles-per-hour. The only limitation for the permit is that you can't carry a passenger. Is it just me, or is this just a little too easy? This is why we see 16-year-olds running around on bikes that are WAY too big for them and giving the rest of us a really bad name (“Motorcyclists are evil.” “You're going to kill yourself…” “I had a friend/brother/cousin/uncle/pet who killed themselves on one of those…”)

Okay. Woody picks out a 1,000cc bike. He gets his permit. He goes back to the dealership one day later, jumps on the bike, and … can't get it moving. The salesperson, always willing to make a deal, put him on the bike and pointed out the clutch, the throttle, the brakes, and pretty much says, “Go to it.” After stalling it about five or six times, Woody decides that he needs to try a bike with a little less power. He picks out a new 2005 Suzuki GS500F (a gorgeous bike, I must say).

He rides it around the parking lot a few times and decides this is the bike for him. He buys it and then gives me a call. Fortunately, Woody knows better than to try and ride the bike home on 65+ mph freeways for his very first ride on public streets so he calls me to ride it home for him.

First, let me say this – the GS500F is no SV650, not even close. The seating position is completely different and an in-line engine just doesn't hold a candle to the V-twins that we all know and love. However, it is a good beginner's bike – enough power that you won't get bored too quickly and the full-fairing look of last year's and this year's model makes it sporty and quite nifty, especially for the price tag that's just a tick over $5,000.

Second, let me also say this – riding someone else's bike home for the very first time that the bike's ever been ridden is not my idea of a fun thing to do… ever. Do you want to know what pressure is? Ride someone else's bike when it's brand-spanking new and even they haven't ridden it yet. Wow, I was just watching all the oncoming traffic and thinking, “If any of you bastards make me wreck this bike, I swear to God I'm going to come and kill your entire families!” Fortunately for myself and everyone else on the road, I was able to get the GS500 home safe and sound.

The next day, Woody came over to my house and rode around my neighborhood to get familiarized with how a bike works. I try to be very careful about “training” any new riders. David L. Hough, an absolute riding genius, writes columns about safe motorcycling and compiled a large number of these into a wonderful book called Proficient Motorcycling (it's only $15.72 at Amazon.com and I highly recommend both new and old riders picking it up and giving it a read -- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1889540536/qid=1116108915/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-7012973-9791268?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 ). At any rate, Hough compiled a number of statistics from a motorcycling analysis report done years ago that showed a rider who is trained by a friend is MORE likely to get into a wreck than someone who trains HIMSELF. Okay. This is a serious no-no so I'm super-careful not to give any more information than a tidbit or two because I'd rather my friends not wreck.

The next week, Ben decides it's time for him to pick up a motorcycle. Just like Woody, he drives over to the DMV, takes the permit test, and then heads over to the same dealership to pick out a bike. Man, this dealership's getting a metric ton of business for me! I should start selling bikes and at least collecting a commission on this stuff!

At any rate, Ben is more of a cruiser man than a sportbike connoisseur and I can't blame him – heck, the SV650 is the most perfect blend of sportbike handling with cruiser engine styling that you can buy (once again, I have to give supreme kudos to Suzuki for a V-twin engine that makes me drool just thinking about it).

Now, Woody coming from an Acura RSX and picking a sportbike made sense to me. Ben's a wildcard. He's the youngest among us at 22 years of age and he wants a cruiser. Alright, I must admit that when he first told me he wanted a 2005 Honda Shadow Aero that I couldn't see the appeal. For one, the bike's really big and really heavy (ringing in at a whopping dryweight of 519.4 pounds). However, it does have 745cc's of liquid-cooled 52-degree V-twin action. This, I can appreciate. I check out some 0-60 numbers online and see that the Honda Shadow Aero does the run in the mid 7's. Just for comparison, a SV650 can make the run to 60 in 3.7 seconds. I'm confused about the choice of a cruiser now.

At any rate, Ben does the same thing Woody did, only Ben does it a week later. He buys his 2005 Honda Shadow Aero and asks if I'll come along and ride it home. All the paperwork's signed and the salesguy is laughing about how I should start charging to be a “professional rider” and delivering people's bikes to them.

I get on the cruiser. It's heavy. I turn it on. It's at this point that something strange happens in my brain. The engine burbles. It's this burbly-burble goodness that suddenly makes me an addict. I turn it out of the dealership, roll on the throttle, and I'm burbly-burbling down the road at 50 miles an hour. This is strange. This is actually fun. I've neglected to mention the multiple wind gusts that have threatened to throw me off the bike within the first 500 feet, of course (odd how having a windshield can make SUCH a difference to what the wind does to you, eh?). There's something about all that gleaming chrome and that big ol' engine just burbling away. It's nice.

I get Ben's bike home with even less worry than I had with Woody's. In fact, riding Ben's bike was a whole ton of fun. If you've never taken a cruiser out for a run because you're a die-hard sport-bike man (or woman), you really owe it to yourself to take one of these for a test-ride.

We pick up Woody and the three of us go back to my neighborhood for a run around the block so Ben can get used to the feel of riding versus driving. Except for one of his first turns where he went up the angled curb and rode on the grass for a few seconds, Ben gets the hang of it super-quick.

Last week, the three of us went riding up the totally gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway to Craggy Gardens and back again so all three of us could get used to riding this season and it looks like it's going to be an absolutely beautiful summer. However… I've now caught the new-bike bug – cruisers are looking real nice to me and I'm thinking I could own a SV650S and a Honda Shadow VLX. Lord help me, here we go again…