If I push the choke in on mine without giving it a little gas, it'll die.

I usually let it warm up for 30-60 seconds with the choke, ride for a mile or so, and then push the choke in while cruising.

You probably don't need to pull the choke all the way out unless it's freezing, try it out one notch.

-Gak Toid

Watch out for speed bumps in small neighborhood streets! Had a wild time when I first hit one practicing taking off making a left turn.  

verslagen1 wrote on 09/14/10 at 20:20:23:

Its an 2003 with almost 17,000 on it.  The PO had it since 70, said it was his only vehicle  for awhile and for a year on a half rode it back and forth from dickinson Texas to hobby area.  He is a member of this board I'm assuming because he referred me to this site.  There is a MSF class coming up at the college I plan on taking.  This site is awesome, full of useful information.  I plan on changing my oil this weekend, he gave me a oil filter.  Any special things I should be aware of?  Looks pretty easy, I have a repair manual that I picked up that seems to be useful.  

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Thats sucks dude! There are no speed bumps or dips in my neighborhood, I wish they did though to keep all these idiots from flying down the road.  The kids will be outside riding there bicycles and there is always someone speeding through.  

Just be aware after that course you don't know how to ride a motorcycle,You can only learn that by yourself.

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One thing to be aware of or it'll bite you hard... cam chain.  Right around 20,000 ± 10,000 miles the cam chain gets enough stretch on it to allow the adjuster to fall apart.  Not a problem if you take care of it before it falls apart, but you'll have the devil to pay if it does.  The cam chain adjuster check procedure is in the tech doc's.

Changing the oil is easy, only thing to watch out for is putting the filter on backwards.  The hole in the filter goes on the spud on the engine.  Put the cover on and hold it up against the case, if you can't push it all the way against the case with one hand, it's on wrong.

Congrats on not hurting yourself or anyone else - MCs lose to almost everything else on the road, kids on bicycles lose to everything.

You will learn how to use the "choke." It has more than two settings - the intermediate settings are what you usually need until the engine warms up. MCs vary even with models the same engine (usually warm up is just a minute or two, however if you are just idling around the neighborhood it may be at the long end of that or not warm completely up if the temperature is low.)

You will probably learn that most things in motorcycling have options and people who will argue their point of view ad nauseum. Such as, you don't have to put your MC in neutral at stops, just hold in the clutch. I do this and keep an eye on my rear view mirror, trying to make sure I don't get compacted by someone who doesn't see me. I also make sure I have an escape route if this happens. I've been able to avoid a couple of accidents this way.

One piece of advice, city streets and traffic are really tough places to learn how to ride a MC. Empty parking lots or empty country roads are easier.

Keep the shiny side up

Yeah, I am going to take her out in the parking lot in front of the hood.  I am going to ride her tonight after the kids get wound down, usually pretty quite in my neck of the woods when the sun goes down.  This helps me from being so nervous thinking everyone is looking at the new guy on the new bike. Lol thanks for the advice dudes!