| Maybe you were like me and saw lots of bikes riding | | | | cruisers or sport bikes. If you plan on racing bikes, |
| around during the first part of the season and you | | | | legally of course, you might lean toward a sport bike. |
| thought to yourself, "Hey, I want to do that". | | | | These also are popular with the college age riders |
| Whether it be the cool factor, or the many economic | | | | who somehow have the money to get a so-called |
| factors, riding a bike is great. Finding a great bike, on | | | | "crotch rocket". In my experience, the majority of |
| the other hand, is a little more difficult. If money is | | | | motorcycle crashes in the urban environment have |
| not a problem, then you have just jumped over the | | | | involved these bikes and their usually careless riders. |
| first hurdle. Depending on your exposure to bikes, | | | | Anyway, you need to decide the kind of bike, or |
| you might lean toward a particular brand, series, or | | | | scooter if you are just running around town, and |
| type of bike. | | | | then find a computer. Jump on the Internet and |
| From my experience, however limited, I have noticed | | | | Google the kind of riding you want to do and see |
| that there is a very strong following of people for | | | | what kind of bikes are out there for you to do it |
| every brand of motorcycle there is. That can be | | | | with. |
| very confusing if you are looking for the most | | | | There are lots of bikes out there and they all have |
| popular brand, because depending on where you live, | | | | different features for different purposes. Once |
| one brand will be more popular than another. Move a | | | | you've read a bunch about different bikes, you might |
| hundred miles in any direction and the popular bike | | | | see one that seems to fit your style and might have |
| has probably changed. The first question you need to | | | | a few features that are useful and some that are |
| answer is how much money do I have to invest in | | | | just plain cool. Once you have settled on a particular |
| motorcycle riding? No, I didn't just ask how much you | | | | bike, go to eBay or another auction website and see |
| were willing to spend on a bike, but how much for | | | | how much the bikes are going for. Going back to if |
| the bike, gear, insurance, storage, maintenance, the | | | | money is not an option, you can just go to the local |
| works. This hobby gets more and more expensive | | | | store and pick up this years bike model, but for |
| the longer you stay with it. It's very rewarding, don't | | | | most, the price tag dictates whether or not we will |
| get me wrong, but it's hard to do unless you have | | | | be able to ride the way we would like to. The |
| the money to back it up. | | | | Internet is a wonderful resource and it can answer |
| Once you have the funds squared away, or at least | | | | most of your questions about getting a bike, but this |
| budgeted (right, budgeting!), you need to think about | | | | is the basic method for how I got started. It worked |
| what you are going to use this bike for. Most of the | | | | for me and I hope it will work for you. |
| bikes you'll see out on the roadways are either | | | | |