Wojo72

It was worth the money for me. YMMV Pros 1) Sunbury HD is about 2 miles from my house. 2) If I took a class from one of the other vendors I would have had to wait until Sept-Oct. I took the class in July. 3) I don't have hard data on this but from what I can tell we had more range time than some of the other options. I put 40 miles on the bike that I was riding. I needed the extra range time because I had never ridden before except for a few test runs on a buddy's bike. 4) I got to cut my teeth on a Harley Street 500 instead of a smaller bike. Allowed me to cross the HD street of my list of bikes to consider. 5) Discount on merchandise if you are into HDs. Cons 1) Part of one of the days turns into a HD commercial. They take you down into the showroom and review the HD lineup. It was actually a little bit interesting but had nothing to do with motorcycle safety. 2) More expensive than the other options. 3) The joke is that you have to go get your certificate of completion from one of the sales guys before you can leave. Not true

For what it's worth here is some feedback. IMS and Motorcycle Maxx seem to be a bit high on prices. I tried to buy a ER6n but ended up with a brand new FZ07 for about $500 more.

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Welcome! I am in the same boat. I just picked up a FZ07 as a first bike. I looked hard at the Bolts. Nice bikes. I took the HD safety course in Sunbury. PM me if you have any questions. I'm up for a ride if we get another break in the weather,

I rode the bike to the end of my street and back. Does that count? LOL I washed the bike and wanted to blow the water off of it.

What do you guys like to use to clean your bikes? I was just going to use simple green but apparently it's bad for aluminum.

I haven't tried it yet so I can't comment on how well it works. Here is the link just in case anybody wants to take a gamble on a cheap portable charger. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JM59JPG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Earlier this week I picked up a KMASHI 10000mAh MP816 from Amazon for less than $14. That should be enough to charge my phone 3 times while out on the road. Hopefully it works as advertised. I'll just stick it in a pocket of whatever jacket I am wearing. My son and I can also use it to charge tablets when travelling. If I end up hard wiring a charger to my bike it won't go to waste.

I guess that is a bit of an exaggeration.

I was thinking about heading that way although it's a little bit of a haul from Cbus.

Anybody have a range that they like that is a little north of Columbus? I'd like an outdoor range with a pistol range and a rifle range of at least 100 yards. Centerburg - I drove by but I don't know how much it costs to join or anything about the range. Meeker Sportsman Club - Looks good but might be a bit to far away to use on a regular basis. Richwood - People were nice, dues are reasonable but it is about an hour away. DNR Range in Delaware - I have hear that this can be a zoo. It has been busy every time I have driven by. Any suggestions or comments on the ranges above?

I think that this is the route that I am going to go. Maybe get one of the 10K units and call it good.

I have gotten into the habit of using my phone and ear buds while riding in my short 300 miles of seat time. I haven't wandered too far from home yet but I expect that I'll want to use Google maps while out and about. What do you folks use to charge your phones while riding? 1) There is a wire under the tank cover that I can use to hook up a charger. I keep my phone in my pocket instead of a mount so this probably won't work well. I also don't know how much it will cost to rig this up. I'm guessing about $45 from what I have seen on a few forums. 2) Portable Charger - I've used this in the past for other circumstances. I can pick one up that will charge my phone several times before needing to be plugged in. I have a small one that is AWOL in the house. Are there any other options that haven't occurred to me? Thanks

I'm not sure how I feel about this. The class I took was taught by a retired state trooper who was also in the military for some period of time. There was lots of good information but there was also lots of "fluff" for somebody who has been around guns their whole lives. There were portions of the class where we read aloud from the book that were painful. That being said once we hit the range he was able to give me a few pointers that tightened up my groups a bit so I did learn something. Maybe if I were a complete newbie I would have have enjoyed the experience a little more. In my case I think that I could have gotten by with a 30 minute review and then the range time. When I lived in Indiana there was no training requirement and it didn't seem to cause problems. I don't want to make it sound like I'm anti training. I would take an advanced class in a heartbeat.

I would be interested. Marysville isn't too far from Suntucky.

I think that I agree. Plus it would be a real bitch to pack full camping gear on my little wuss of a FZ-07. I don't have any plans on making it a sport touring bike any time soon.

Please make sure that you give us a ride report after you get it out on the road. I looked at one of those at Iron Pony but the price wasn't right. I am curious to see what I am missing out on.

Random engine break in comments have been known to start holy wars among the faithful.

I took a spin close to home. I did a lap around hoover resiviour and then hit some of the back roads north of Sunbury. After about 300 miles I am finally getting over the jitters and starting to relax. I still make mistakes like down shifting instead of upshifting once in a while. I also keep forgetting to cancel my turn signals after a turn. Overall I am having a blast.

I'll be out in the morning. We need to set up a flash ride.

Is anybody going to ride tomorrow? It looks like it will be decent in the morning.

Thanks. It is a brand new bike. I am off all next week so I'll get the plates knocked out. I was able to get the dealer to throw a temp tag with the deal. So far there is about 200 miles on the clock. Most of that is from riding the back roads in Delaware county. I haven't been brave enough to try the interstate. As far as a review goes I really like the bike so far. It's light and agile. The motor has plenty of torque so it will pull in almost any gear. I accidentally pulled the front wheel off of the ground shifting from first to second gear at about 3/4 throttle. This is my first bike so I am still learning how to corner at decent speeds. I picked up a full helmet today from Iron Pony. That made the ride a little more pleasant vs the 1/2 helmet that I picked up cheap for my motorcycle safety class. I can't wait for some warmer weather. I'd like to make it to some of the group events.

When i go to get my plates fora new bike do i need to take the bike with me? I just recieved my paperwork from the dealer. Thanks

I'm jealous. I had to buy my own bike for Xmas. Wife is getting walking papers.