Re: My first bike: Helmet & California License Question

 

It's all about fit, comfort and wear. The $90 Bell will protect you as
well as a $400 arai but the arai will feel better on your head and last
much longer.


Try this for a start.

http://www.ca-msp.org/

Welcome to two wheels, have fun.

 The difference between better grade helmet brands is the fit and styling.
Some are for round skulls, some for pear, etc. Try on lots of helmets until
you find one you like, then buy the same model and size cheaper online.

Take the MSF course. It can't hurt you to know more about riding, and you
won't have to do the dreaded "lollipop test"
--
--
Stupendous Man
Defender of Liberty, Advocate of Justice

 

I'm sure you're doing an excellent job, but the 4 finger thing is
baloney :)

It doesn't provide better braking or clutch control, and there is no
significant safety advantage. You need to be able to keep control of
the throttle and hold on to the handle bars for steering input at all
times, which requires at least 2 fingers (counting the thumb) on the
bar grips at all times.

I don't think this needs to become a critique of the MSF course; it
has enough other pressures trying to tear it apart already. I do think
the MSF is a good thing, in general.

I suspect the reason you can't get dirt-bikers to use 4 fingers on the
front brake is because they know how to stop the bike perfectly well
with 2 fingers...

--
Charles
'99 YZ250

 HardWorkingDog wrote:

That is a load of crap. If your braking, you had better not need to
worry about steering. Try to brake hard and steer at the same time. I
bet you'll be picking yourself up off the pavement. And if you still
have two fingers under the brake lever when that happens, I hope you
fall to the left because you will most likely break your ring finger and
pinky if you go down to the right. And if you are braking, you need to
be rolling off the throttle, which is all but impossible if you have
your fingers still wrapped around it. I don't know about you but, I have
perfect control of my handlebars and throttle when I use all four
fingers to brake or use the clutch.

It is my experiance with dirt-bike riders that they have trouble with
any of the exercises that include quick stopping due to the fact that
they can't roll off the throttle quickly and don't use proper braking
technique.

 

I would.