[newbies2r]

Please try to restrict responses to constructive feedback please...

I recently bought a new Monster S2R. Being a complete newbie/poseur/whatever you want to call me, I bought it at a whim before riding one.

It's much more bike then my complete lack of abilities justifies. Practice makes perfect, but I dont want to destroy the bike and/or hurt myself in the process.

The dealership talked me out of a monster 620 and 695 they had on display, insisting that i would get used to it and be very bored within weeks. I was gullible enough to listen.

With that being said, has anyone had any success detuning an S2R to a much more modest power range (without any permanent damage to the bike)?

 

[newbies2r]

lots of awesome advice, thank you guys very much ;D

I wish I timed my purchase better-MSF classes ended here (central virginia) last weekend and wont pick up again until March

 

[newbies2r]

Again, much thanks for all the great feedback and advice!

I spent a few days "detuning" my wrist (practicing slowly launching the bike and gently accelerating/decelerating through my parking lot) and the bike is much less intimidating now. The bike is still intimidating, but now it's more along the lines of "This is a dangerous toy i could kill myself with if I'm not VERY careful" instead of "Why did I jump off a plane without a parachute?!!"

I've also found myself gripping the throttle with my wrist bent upwards so that I physically cant twist the throttle very far for now.

Fortunately, most of my friends (and my wife's family) are riders, so together they knocked enough sense into me to pick up all my gear before I began looking at bikes. [thumbsup]

I'm going to be picking up some winter reading very soon-thanks again everyone!

 

[newbies2r]

and yes, this is the first and only motorcycle i've ever sat on. This probably paints an even worse/more reckless picture, but I haven't even ridden a bicycle in 10-15 years! It took a couple hours of just sitting on the motorcycle this weekend and lifting my feet onto the pegs to get used to balancing the bike.

My wife has finally admitted the only reason she supported me doing this now (at 26yrs old) is because she doesn't want me to have a midlife crisis in my 40s and get my first bike then since i will not have youthful reflexes nor skills at that point in my life (and i wont heal as easily, lol)

... at least she's honest? :

 

[newbies2r]

It's an 800cc... i didn't want my first bike to have more RWHP then many cars I've owned!!

I've looked at frame sliders, but I must admit I'm somewhat confused. For the S2Rs I'm seeing sliders that bolt through the engine, sliders that bolt to the bottom of the front fork, and sliders that bolt on the back of the bike (around the swingarm/rear wheel...) Are sliders in all 3 spots important? what would you guys recommend and why?

This is taking alot more "unlearning" then i anticipated (i had gotten heavy into scca soloII autocrossing for a few yrs and almost everything involved in handling this bike is backwards!!)

 

[newbies2r]

I finally dropped it, with VERY minimal damage. My 20th lap or so weaving between the parking lots today and I leaned too hard into a very sharp turn at extremely slow speed, lost balance and it all came down.

I immediately hit the engine kill and was lifting the bike before it even touched ground, so I only chipped a very minor amount of coating off of the front brake lever and put a few small chips in the right passenger peg. I was absolutely shocked that the frame, tank, etc never even touched the ground and the cosmetic damage was so extraordinarily minor!! My wife thought I had completely lost it when she saw the bike on the ground and a grin on my face....

I also found out, my skinny 6'0" 120lb butt can lift that S2R back right... which to be honest, I had alot of doubts before actually doing it!!

Bike's running great, feels fine... i'm fine. I dont even want to know how plastic i would have broken doing that with a jap bike.

Now I just need to wait for some sliders to come in...