A Family Adventure


Tyson, Emilie & Isaac

I bought a new toy

October 13, 2007
Emilie Phillips

So I decided that sharing a motorcycle with Tyson was going to get old pretty fast (it’s kind of no fair to require one person to drive around in the car behind the other person on the motorcycle), and I had spotted a motorcycle on one of the local store’s web site that looked reasonable. It is a 2005 Ninja 250R. It is very much a starter bike — 250cc, 304lb dry weight — but it’s the sport bike style so I can see if I like that, and it seems like it will be a much easier and less intimidating thing to learn on than some of the other motorcycles that had been proposed. I have to wait until Monday for the registration paperwork to be done before I can pick it up.

In the meanwhile, Tyson let me borrow his motorcycle while we drove around to the local stores looking for a bed frame to go with the new mattress. He did follow in the car. I did generally ok. I wasn’t keeping a very consistent speed. Tyson thinks I need to pay more attention to road conditions. And I was being intimidated by picking up speed in downhill turns. And, then I dropped Tyson’s motorcycle again while turning slowly into a parking space.

Written October 13, 2007

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Comments (8)

  • I looked at an older one of those initally – despite looking like a sportbike, the seating position is the standard upright one, and not the hunched over sportbike one that I can’t deal with. They’re also a lot more powerful than other 250cc bikes. The thought that the fairings wouldn’t survive if I dropped it led me get an unfaired bike instead. One of these that’s older than I am.

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  • what are you gonna do if you tip it over? i sat behind my friend’s bike once, and tip it over because he wasn’t use to having a passenger, he wasn’t able to flip it back up alone. –luisa

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      • Re: Picking up a downed motorcycle

        I’ve never tried the butt technique (that just doesn’t look it has much control), but with the right technique you can pick up most bikes. My B6 was 650lbs. First time I tipped it, it was a beast, but I soon discovered how to lever it up (yes, yes, I tipped it more than once).

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      • Re: Picking up a downed motorcycle

        I have tried some approximation of that a couple of times and haven’t succeeded. I might be getting my butt too high because I start out having leverage and then after a bit I completely run out.

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    • The thought is that because it is ~150lb lighter than Tyson’s motorcycle, it should be a lot easier to pick up. And I should be less likely to drop it in the first place.

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