Got my Endorsement!!!

Took my test this morning. Passed with flying colors!

 

Very Cool - Congrats and stay safe.

 

Congrats! I took the MSF course and passed...now Im just waiting on a certified copy of my birth certificate to get here from New York State....

Funny, Oregon issued me a driver's license, but to get my endorsement I have to have a birth certificate to prove who I am....

To get my birth certificate, New York wanted a scanned copy of my Oregon State Driver's license...and $52. Its on the way. Dont ya just love the bureaucracy?

 

Congratulations! I rode without one for MANY years. In '90 my Wife got her's and that shamed me into doing the same. LOL It does make it easier when you're pulled over and have it on your license. LOL

 

congrats grutz ride safe
Shaun

 

Good deal, now remember you are invisible and the cagers are out ot get you.. Enjoy yourself but keep alert.. I finally got mine last year after riding most of first 20 years on dirt/street bikes. Took 10 years off and pickup up my cirrent ride and figured I might as well go legit.

 

Congrats and have fun. Just remember that NOBODY sees you and you CANNOT relax - EVER. It's not like a car where you can kind of zone out and follow the other guy's tail lights. On a bike, you must have 360 degree total awareness all the time everywhere. Constantly scan your surrounding. Look at the drivers, not just their car. Are they erratic? Are they talking on a phone, eating, effing around with their stereo? Are they aware of you?
It can make city riding especially pretty tiring but there's no choice. That means slowing down even where its your right of way, slowing down for driveways, laneways, shopping mall exits, anywhere another vehicle could come from. Also, when you're coming up to a light, don't go right up behind the car ahead of you. Leave yourself a good 10 to 15 feet to escape if necessary. And keep the bike in first gear, your clutch pulled in and scan the mirrors for any nutjob coming up behind you too fast. Getting rammed from behind by stupid/inattentive drivers is all too common.
I was once standing on the sidewalk, putting my gear on and getting ready to mount my old Suzuki GS850. Out of nowhere, a cab slams into the back of the bike, driving it into the trunk of the car that was parked ahead. 30 or 40 seconds later and I'd have been eating that car's drivetrain - from the inside.
Of course the cabbie cried that he 'didn't see' the bike. A common excuse. They look but they don't see. They see the car or truck beyond the bike. The bike's not big enough. The bike's speed is hard to judge, etc. Basically the problem is stupidity.

And ALWAYS wear your gear, especially the gloves, full face helmet and good boots that are at least ankle high. When someone falls the first thing they do usually is stick out their hands. Ever seen what happens to someone's bare hands when they hit the road at 30 or 40 miles an hour? Bloody hamburger and gravel. I've seen the results and it made me vomit - honestly. Dozens of painful operations and their hands will still never be the same. All for a pair of effin 20 dollar gloves. Same goes for those idiots who wear running shoes or even FLIPFLOPS while riding!

And if you really want to punish yourself and see what the consequences of not taking all this seriously are, visit a website called:
www.ride2die.com
It's gruesome as hell but I visit it once in a while to jolt myself out of any complacency. The consequences of not being 110 percent on the ball ALL the time can be lethal.
After all that, if you still want to ride, then you are definitely a rider at heart!
And don't get suckered into riding like a hooligan through traffic just cuz some squid on a bike is racing through cars like an a-hole. Those people never last. Oh, and use your horn - A LOT - even as a little reminder that you're there. And don't worry if annoys them. Good, at least they know you're nearby. And that concludes today's lesson. As I said in the beginning, have fun!
thx,
baz

 

Well said Baz - we all need a reminder now and again

 

Thanks, all. Baz, no worries, I wear my gear whenever I ride... My favorite is still the guy I saw riding down the road, full helmet, gloves, jacket...shorts and sandals. WTF??? Kinda defeats the purpose... and I play this wonderful game called Paranoia. Someone else on the forums wrote up a wonderful description of it somewhere. The idiots you mention, the ones racing through traffic? Yeah, we had a group of them around here. They liked to race their crotch rockets up and down the expressway, cutting between cars, doing wheelies. Good lord, they'd piss me off when I'd see them. I think a few of them cut between the wrong people and got...bumped. Pretty much stopped after that.

 

I'm telling my wife tonight, no more rides unless she buy all the proper gear like I have... the last couple of pics on ride to die . com really gave me the willies