Hello. My name's Vince. I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to introduce myself.

My ride is a '96 Savage that my then fiance/now wife bought for me from some mutual friends Christmas of '03. Due to varying circumstances, I am just now getting around to the point where I'm going to be riding.

I started learning to ride from these same mutual friends over the spring/summer of '03 on this same bike. Took the MSF course the first weekend of this month, so am legal to ride, now. (And, to add to everybody else's recommendations, yes, it is a very worthwhile course.) Next step is to get it tagged, which is something I'm needing to scrape up for seeing as it's been sitting for those almost 2.5 years unregistered .

Found this site a couple of weeks back and have been avidly browsing the information provided. I'm glad to have found a friendly and informative source of information (okay, a bit redundant) for what I hope will be a long and fruitiful riding experience.

And, for any records that anybody is trying to keep, I'm a 6.5' (yes, I'm going to do something about the leg room), 180lb. male rider born in November of 1976.

I think that's enough biographical information for now.

Welcome Vince.  Yeah, while it's always personal preference, I'm thinkin' you'll be a lot more comfortable with forward controls... or sit on the pillion.

The air up here is just about the same as down there, but  a bit more cluttered with low doorways, ceiling fans, and light fixtures .

Riding the pillion has crossed my mind. I have sat and tried it to see if legroom was suffiecient, and it seems to be. However, I would need to replace the handlebars if I did, cause then the handlebars are a little out of comfortable reach And my other thought if I did that would be to try to convert the driver's seat into some sort of compartment, which, as far as I can tell, would make a unique ride

Technically, nobody owns it seeing as it's not tagged/registered at the moment. But, it will definitely be my name on the title

I like the bike, so far, considering the limited riding experience I have. The only other bike I've ridden for any extent of time was one of the 250s at the MSF course. *That* one cramped my hips up so badly for the first few exercises I wasn't sure if I would be able to complete the course. I definitely like the way the controls are on the Savage, compared to the Honda 250 I rode at the MSF course. The Honda's controls were basically horizontal with the pegs, so it felt a bit awkward to run them, IMO.

I do like to tinker, but am not the most mechanically inclined. I did pick up a Clymer manual, so I've got a little printed help.

Is that detailed enough for the inquiring minds?

Oh, I also added a pic of the bike to the "Posters' Picture Gallery" thread, in case anyone is interested. Which, oddly, says I posted at 12:29am on November 26 of 2004 when in fact it was at 8:31am this morning.  Any particular reason the 2 stickied picture threads seem to reflect the posting date of the original message rather than the most recent?