I'm a little late to the party but I'll give you my story. First off I hope by now you realize the quality of people on this forum. All are pretty good people who love to help each other out. Your story is exactly how a new riders story should start! I admire your fear as simple common sense! You SHOULD be "afraid" of your bike as it has the potential to severely hurt you. But so does every other machine that has wheels and a motor. The asphalt and the inattentive motorist who puts you on it has no idea what bike you are riding. The trick is to always have a clear head and be aware of your surroundings. Take it slow and practice starting off, slowing down and turning then gradually rolling on throttle.

You said you took the MSF course, in that course there was a section that has a sweeping right handed turn where once you hit the apex or mid point, you roll smoothly on and feel the bike start to right itself. Practice doing that as well as sudden stops. Please be aware your bike is designed to stop from race speeds to corner speeds quickly! Those brakes will throw you off if you aren't aware of them.

The bottom line is no matter what you start off on, the learning process is the same. I started on a Yamaha PW 80 at age 7. My first street bike was a Ninja 250 and that was a fun machine. Doing 80 mph spinning 10,000 RPM was ultimately what made me sell it. Now I have a 600 F3 and I love every second of being on my machine. I still have fears every time I ride but those same fears keep me safe as I know my limits and ride with all the knowledge of the dangers of motorcycling.

Keep that RR and be safe!

 

Agreed. I see nothing out of the ordinary with any of the OPs fears/concerns. Most everything he's posted is nothing we haven't on pretty much any MC enthusiast site. Matter of fact, some of his posts could have very easily have been written word for word by myself at the bumpy start of my riding career which is why I take a personal interest in this thread.

His attitude and the fact that he started this thread in the first place demonstrates a level of intelligence and maturity you typically dont see in young new riders. I think as long as he doesnt get in over his head and get gets a **** ton of seat time in a controlled environment before any mishaps, he'l eventually slay his personal demons and get his head straight.

 

Thanks Joe, and no you're not late to the party! haha. Yes, I've learned that this cbrforum is very helpful and surrounded by many nice people, I just LOVE the riding community! I'm going through so many threads and learning new things everyday, it's awesome!

I've watched the film Twist of the Wrist2, and thanks for sharing! That film taught me so much, and I actually can understand and grasp what countersteering is finally! I'm trying to grab a copy of the books myself now

singram, thanks for the confidence booster, I really appreciate it! Unfortunately, I'm snowed in and can't practice riding for a few days, but I'm going to ASAP when the weather permits. I'm thinking about doing my first actual ride on the street this weekend early in the morning so there will be less cars around.

I only really started this thread because my expireince with my 600 was so different from my peers around me. I have 2 friends who jumped straight on gsxr600's on rode those bikes like fools, hitting triple digit speeds in their first week of riding. They made it look so easy, but here I am scared to even take my cbr onto the street! This whole scenario baffles me! I've talked to them for help and tips, but theyre pretty useless to be honest. So here I am on the forums, looking for help. And thank god I started this thread, you guys have really given me things to think about and reassured me my fears aren't just me being crazy.

Thanks for all the support guys! (:

 

You can put a monkey on a GSXR and quickly teach it how to pin the throttle, its really not that hard. No offence to your friends, but their riding careers will end soon enough one way or another.

Slow and steady. Give it a season or two, you'll be doing trackdays while their sh*ts impounded, and they're in debt up to their eyeballs in legal fees. Or worse...

 

I've been riding street bikes for over 25 years, and I wouldn't ride with those guys. I don't ride with idiots. Probably best that you don't either. They will pressure you into killing yourself.

Find some new riding buddies that are around the same skill level and mentality as you to ride with.

 

Echo the sentiment about your friends. I don't believe you'll learn anything from them except how to get into trouble, probably above your head.

You can't learn at anyone else's pace except your own. Remember that. If it takes you a thousand trips around a corner to lean 3 more degrees than before then so be it. Who cares if it takes someone else 100?

 

I learned to ride dirtbikes when I was 12 so I had 11 years of motorcycle experience and people told me a 600 would be too much for me hahahah. I hear so many guys talking about learning new things that I knew when I was 14 but yet they told me not to start on a 600.

If you have ZERO motorcycle experience don't get a 600, it's dumb. But if you're like me, why not? I love my bike and haven't had any issues handling it. It's my first street bike and I have no problems controlling it. I was riding on the freeway my first week and took a 7 hour ride just a few days after buying it.

That's my advice. Dirtbike experience=600 is fine. No experience on 2 wheels get a smaller bike.

 

Let me clarify on my last post. I didn't mean to sound cocky and now that I re-read it it kind of does. I ride in full armored leather gear- cortech boots, cortech armored leather pants, cortech armored leather jacket, tryonic feel 3.7 spine protector, reevu helmet every time I go out and I don't do anything crazy, I respect my bike, but I feel very in control of it and it never feels like it's going to do something I didn't want it to do. I think 11 years of motorcycle experience even off-road is enough to start on a 600 street bike without too much worry, respect definitely, and an open mind towards learning new technique but not worry of it jumping out of your hands. I hope this helps clarify my last post since it sounded cocky upon re-reading it.

 

I started with a 500cc suzuki gs500. It was great and it had a lot of power for it's size. I don't necessarily think 600cc or even 750cc is too much for a beginning rider. There are many factors that determine the risk involved with the ride you learn on: Strength, agility, coordination, hand/eye coordination, sense of balance, instinct, patience, intelligence and common sense. All these qualities come in largely different quantities from person to person. I've seen full grown men on bicycles who have terrible sense of balance and cooridination, they also are riding in the street with no helmet. These are the people who should start out on a 250cc bike within the structure of a riding course and go up. There there are others like myself who just have it. It took me 5 minutes to learn how to drive a clutch. A few days to learn how to do a backflip off a wall, standing backflip, etc. Some people are not only gifted, but have the knowledge and patience to become excellent riders starting on high power bikes. After not riding for over a decade I get a 600 and can drag knees. I feel comfortable maneuvering in slow traffic and any scenario really. I see crashes and riding errors in youtube motorcycle instruction videos and I think "how could he not see that coming?". Everyone has varying amounts of skill.

 

I will offer some tips I have picked back up as a returning rider:

1. ATGATT. Every time. Every trip.

2. Keep your right toe off the rear brake until the front brake is set and doing its job. Only then should you use the rear brake. Be advised, you can use the rear brake for about 400 other things while riding, but it's all "technique" and "carefully learned through careful application." The rear brake can do wonderful things, but it can bring you to a BAD PLACE. STRETTTTCH that learning curve out so you don't step over the line with it.

3. Avoid, like HELL, grabbing the front brake in low-traction conditions. If you lock the thing up at low speed the very next thing you know you will be on the ground.

4. Get your stocker sprockets back on, as everyone else has suggested. This will greatly reduce the hypersensitivity of the bike.

5. No iPod/iPhone/GPS for you. Not yet, anyway. You've got to be so comfortable on the machine that turning, stopping and accelerating are second-nature. Wait until then before you get some entertainment going.

6. Study this forum every day until you know everything about the machine. Break down and buy a shop manual - become curious about how things work so you can tell quickly if the bike's systems have become degraded.

7. Ride with some cruiser-guys. They are very chill people and will not let you ride above your limits. This will give you the seat time and the opportunity to feel normalized with daily roadwork, and as a group, you will feel better about the respect that the cell-phone-wielding cager-crowd will give you.

8. Get in some kind of physical condition using your own body weight. You would be surprised at how having extra physical strength gives you far better control over the machine.

9. Once you feel the challenge of cornering has been conquered enough to not walk the bike around corners, don't be afraid of leaning the bike over from counter-steering. You will be amazed at how little countersteering you need. DON'T attack any corners with which you are not familiar. In fact, you should have seen the corner THAT DAY as changing conditions can become an unwelcome surprise.

10. Ride to savor the FREEDOM. If you are not getting the crack-addicting high of happiness from being on two-wheels, you're not getting the reason Why We Ride. If this is permanent - if you can't ease up and feel the bliss in a month or two, you should probably consider putting riding behind you. It's not for everybody, but if you follow my advice, you have the best chance of loosening up and enjoying yourself.