I think we need a "Let's Pose Somewhere" meet. :D

Alphamale and I like to pose @ Hoi An. :fullofwin:

going to pacific raceways again tomorrow, supposed to be sunny as shits :awwyeah:

Haha yeah, my fault though for not doing my road test during the last year. Going to go to Surrey tomorrow morning and do the MST with one of PRS' Sherpas, given I can't even ride my own bike to there legally lol.

yup , going to do this once school ends for me. should be a good experience looking at all this positive feedback

One word YES

I did not go to PRS, went to Open Road, but riding school is worth every penny.

Can I just say one thing?

Regardless of whether you take the course or not (you really should), I really suggest you get full gear. Spine guard, chest guard, textile/leather jacket and pants. I know it'll be tempting to skimp on this stuff, it's really really expensive and it won't look as cool as riding in jeans or something.. but trust me on this one, you will fuck up, and when that happens, you'll want as much gear as possible on you so that you'll break a little less when you ultimately do go down.

I can't even count the number of stupid ass stunts I pulled as a 17 year old in my MR2. I did things in that thing that had I done them on a bike, I would probably be permanently fucked. Some things are worse than death.

Get the gear. And take the course. Even if it means getting a shittier bike or saving a little longer. Maybe your parents might even chip in if you explain that it'll keep you alive.

i'm only planning to ride to and from school, tutor, and gym, (all within 20 minutes car on relatively vacant roads) so i was thinking of only getting the standard helmets, boots, gloves and leather jacket. but yeah i see what you mean by keeping yourself as protected as possible if and when shit goes down. thanks for the tip man will definitely stock up on gear.

At that age, shit will go down, I absolutely guarantee it. Just a matter of how bad =p

At least at PRS you'll learn how and where most people die so you'll be able to reduce the risk haha.

If you decide to go with PRS you'll soon realize that regardless the distance you travel whether it's across town or down one block doesn't matter. There was a guy in my class at PRS that almost got smoked crossing the road from the parking lot to the PRS office.

I'm glad you're considering taking lessons from PRS because I use everything I learned in PRS when I ride and even sometimes when I drive. I know a lot of people may think 'classroom' stuff is boring and their ego's get in the way, but Dat and Kramer made the entire experience from the first classroom day to the ride around town a fun and valuable learning experience. My gf and I were actually sad on the last day that class was ending. $800 is nothing if you're comparing your life to it.

I got my driving/motorcycle permits in 1978.

In January 2012 I took a mc course and learned a lot.

It is not the learning to ride, it what they teach you to look for, that way you avoid the accident, by not being there when it happens.

Take a course it can save your life.

You live in Richmond, that is one of the most dangerous places to drive.

+1.

I still can't get over how a lady in an Audi A4 going down No. 3 road managed to make a right turn across two lanes into the side of my car, slamming into me so hard that my S2000 needed a new subframe. She bent my SUBFRAME. The entire right side of my car had to be repainted: front right fender, right door, rear right fender.. not to mention that she actually snapped a spoke off a FORGED RIM. Fucking christ it makes me mad just thinking about it again.

I never used to listen to people who said "oh Richmond's full of bad drivers and bad shit happens". Like whatever right, there's bad drivers everywhere, how bad could it be? NO. It's shit like THIS.

Anyway. Everyone says "oh whatever, just ride like you're invisible". I ask you, how could I have driven that day to avoid having someone turn out of a parking lot across two lanes into the side of my car? How could I possibly have avoided that? And if I was on my bike, the kind of crash that would snap a forged rim and bend my subframe, is there any gear I could've been wearing that would save my leg from coming clean off? Not likely.

This rant's going to keep coming back btw, I fucking hate Richmond. :lol

A friend of mine was driving for UPS got hit by a MB separated the truck from the frame.

That is right, took the body right off the wheels.

(Grunman trucks are not that strong)

took my knowledge test today!! add me to interested list please :)

just curious how much does it typically cost to start riding?

i've spent almost 1000 on gear, it's worth it to spend the most you can on the gear, and then get a bike with whatever is left over.

if its your first bike, i recommend getting something cheap. not a new bike. you'll drop it eventually, and dropping an ugly bike hurts less (emotionally) than a brand new bike... lol

$15 - Knowledge Test (can start riding right away, but require supervision, can't exceed 60kph)
$xx - Motorcycle Skills Test (can now ride alone, but only during the day)
$50 - Class 6 Road Test (full license)

You can buy a running bike for as little as $1200 from what I've seen.

You can get a government approved DOT (but not Snell) stamped helmet from Canadian Tire for about $100.

So in total, you could be riding for as little as $1500?

In order to "do it right" though:
You'd probably want to go through a course like PRS, you'd probably want full gear, and you'd probably want a helmet that'll do something for you in a crash.




Course
$800 - PRS

Gear
$400-500 - Good helmet like a Shoei RF1100 or Bell RS-1
$200-400 - Textile/leather jacket
$200-400 - Textile/leather pants, or kevlar jeans + knee/shin guards
$100-200 - Gloves
$100-200 - Boots

Bike
$1500-$2500 - An decent starter Ninja 250 can be had for around $2000 if you look hard enough. Or a really nice newer CBR125R, if you can stand being seen on something like that - there are tons on Craigslist and I've seen them for as little as $1600. Even older 600s aren't bad, I actually got my '01 YZF-600R sportbike for about $2200, and almost bought an '00 CBR600F4 sportbike before that for $2500. Just gotta look around on Craigs.

So probably around $3500-$5000 depending on how much you want to spend to start. And of course if you wanted to start on a newer nicer 600cc sportbike, that would mean spending significantly more.

if you aren't afraid to work on a bike, an older 400 can be had for 500-1500 depending on condition.

i bought mine for 500 and it was fairly reliable.. would have been better if my tank wasn't rusty lol.

Alphamale should be selling his GS400 soon. Probably a good/cheap way to get into motorcycling.

those gear prices are a bit on the expensive side. granted that that's proabbly the price your paying if your looking to get alpinestar, daienese or whatever...but if your okay with other brands...


Gear
$200-500 - Good helmet (DOT, Snell will run a bit more)
$150-400 - Textile/leather jacket
$100-400 - Textile/leather pants, or kevlar jeans + knee/shin guards
$40-200 - Gloves
$150+ - Boots

If only you could get Dainese for that price.

Sorry yeah gdoh if you're comfortable with getting cheaper stuff than A* then definitely there are lower prices to be found. Even boots can be found for the $100 or less range. Several local gear retailers (at least Bby Kawasaki, Carter, and Daytona) also give riding school discounts, I think the PRS discount was 15% off?

Edit: Your best bet is still to buy your gear online though. I got my A* SMX-5 for $150, while I've never seen it for less than $225 locally. It sucks as I'd like to support local if I could, but that's quite a difference.

thanks for all the info, this is plenty to go on for now. I plan on getting ride of my car getting a bike and going back to school but all this will be saved for when im ready and will start a thread for it =]

I'll chime in with what I spent:

Boots: $220 for waterproof SMX5
Textile jacket: $200
Textile pants: $160
Helmet: $125
Gloves: $125

does PRS provide bikes?? and what cc can you practice on??