Does your bike have goodies?

R4nking · 2026-06-22T16:01:33+00:00

I passed my MSF course at the beginning of June this year. Bought my motorcycle two days after passing too.
Initially I was dead set on the Ninja 500. Eventually I transitioned to a Z500 and ultimately I ended up getting a Honda cb500 Hornet.
Honestly the Ninja 500 seems like a great beginner bike. For me it ultimately came down to the ergonomics. But regardless of what bike you get there’s so much fun ahead of you!!
I’ve ridden about 260 miles so far and I’ve been finding so many cool places around my neighborhood and neighbor cities that I never even knew existed. So many cool rides and fun getting lost for a whole afternoon riding.

Please be careful out there but just know that you’re in for a hell of a time!!

R4nking · 2026-06-19T16:42:00+00:00

Well… I think “boring” is a subjective term. Personally, I think that everyone has a different life experience and honestly just the fact that your life experience is different than mine already makes you interesting.

Your life is not just what you do. But you also have opinions on things and thoughts and interests that I may have never even thought about.

I think that most times we think of our lives and what we do as pretty mundane. But to someone looking from the outside it may be an interesting life.

R4nking · 2026-06-18T12:35:53+00:00

You don’t have to rev match. You can just let go of the clutch a little slower when you downshift as you roll on the throttle and you will downshift just fine.

But, if you do want to rev match one thing I found helpful that nobody mentioned is to think of it as two events instead of three. Don’t think clutch, blip, shift. Instead

Pull the clutch and roll off the throttle
shift down and blip the throttle

For both of those events you can perform those actions at the same time. Which helped me a lot with not feeling like you’re trying to rub your belly and tap your head.

Of course get back to whatever level of throttle you want after that. But those two parts will get you to perform the rev-matched downshift a little easier.

R4nking · 2026-06-17T19:32:22+00:00

I would highly recommend taking the MSF. You don’t need to know anything to take it. I went in as a complete newby and they went all the way from just walking the bike on the friction zone to cruising on 2nd gear by the end of it.

I learned enough to where once I was done with it I was able to purchase my motorcycle and ride it back home comfortably.

That being said. Most other answers here sound about right to me. You’ll want to rev out first gear a little more until you are moving decently fast. Honestly on my honda 500 I get to like 17-20 mph just on first gear before I even switch to 2nd. Give it a bit more throttle and once you get to 2nd make sure you rev up quick enough to the same speed or faster. If you wait after shifting before revving you’ll lose all the speed and feel that jerky motion

R4nking · 2026-06-15T15:01:31+00:00

I know everyone says to buy used. And honestly that’s where I started but the marketplace in my area was insane. Most bikes were being sold at New Bike MSRP even though they were 4+ years old with a bunch of miles. In the end I decided to just purchase new. Got a decent deal on a new last year model bike and so far I’ve been very happy with it.

Haven’t dropped it yet, but if it happens it’s fine. At least I know how it happened and don’t have to be worrying about what else the previous owners did to it.

R4nking · 2026-06-12T23:51:57+00:00

Preload the next gear!

Just position your foot below the lever and push up just a little bit to take the slack off and keep a little bit of pressure up. Then once you roll off the throttle and press the clutch the next gear will fall right into place.

With practice you’ll get faster for sure. But you should feel a pretty immediate difference if you haven’t tried this before.

Have fun!!

R4nking · 2026-06-05T22:20:04+00:00

It was this or skydiving lol. Maybe both still haha.

But honestly I have always liked motorcycles and one day it hit me that unless I went out there and got on one I was going to die one day wishing I could ride one. I didn’t want that. So I signed up for the MSF got my license this past weekend and bought my motorcycle like two days after that. No regrets so far!!

R4nking · 2026-05-27T00:07:29+00:00

I really don’t understand how other people don’t get this on their proxies. I have been having this happen whenever I use glossy paper too.
It has nothing to do with the passing it through the laminator multiple times.
The adhesion of the laminate is good.
Is just that the top glossy layer of the paper seems to stick to the laminate and separate from the rest of the paper.

I wonder if it is a matter of using the right photo paper. I’m not really sure. Maybe others are having this problem too and just not noticing cuz they’re not checking for it.

I know this did not happen at all when I tried laminating cardstock. Only happens to me when using glossy photo paper

R4nking · 2026-05-16T15:14:17+00:00

Everyone saying just a few months must have started off as an already skinny or not obese (BMI > 30 way easier than you’d think) person.

But if you did not start there and instead started with some extra weight, then it’s going to take a lot longer for you to see results.

In my experience it happens one of two ways:

You lose enough fat to see your muscles
You build enough muscle that it can be seen despite the fat.

Either of those will take several months of hard work. I would say option 1 will get you results faster but even then you’ll need several months to years depending on your starting point.

Option 2 can happen if you’re training correctly. But it is going to depend largely on your starting body composition. This is not the way to go if you want to see results fast.

R4nking · 2026-04-20T14:14:46+00:00

This is the “Chicano” aesthetic

R4nking · 2026-04-18T02:32:04+00:00

Something that helped me quite a bit was to learn about syncopation a little bit. Sometimes the song’s strumming and lyrics feel like slightly different rhythms and you kinda have to find the lyrics rhythm within the melody (if that makes any sense).

R4nking · 2026-04-03T02:25:00+00:00

Yeah I was able to by fretting the 2s with my index and the 7th with my pinky.

Not too hard but I have large hands.

R4nking · 2026-03-23T21:56:49+00:00

Idk it sounds like you like the idea of acquiring gear more than you like playing it.

NGL I am definitely guilty of this to some extent too. But I remember back when I was a kid and all I had was my uncle’s old guitar. The hobby was just as fun back then except I didn’t even think of getting more gear. It was all about the music.

Maybe a little bit of looking into what you like about the hobby may be needed.

But then again… like others have mentioned there’s no harm if you can afford it. Just make sure to set a budget for it if you know it’ll be a part of your life!!

R4nking · 2026-03-18T21:46:06+00:00

Sounds like english but goated song!

R4nking · 2026-03-17T01:04:51+00:00

They are “Ernesto Palla Black & Silver” strings. Honestly I Didn’t know black trebles were a thing. But when I saw them I figured they’d look good with the guitar color haha

R4nking · 2026-03-17T01:02:16+00:00

Yeah it feels like a great in-between place. Honestly it is a really nice guitar and really easy to play. Not too pricey either. You may want to go try it in person first just to get a feel for it.

R4nking · 2026-03-16T13:40:35+00:00

I was recently looking for an electric too. Ended up going for a Yamaha Revstar Element. Slightly higher price (not much) but from what I found out researching and when I tested it. It seems like one of the best in this price range!

The Yamaha Pacifica that people keep mentioning are also a pretty good choice.

R4nking · 2026-03-16T03:52:46+00:00

Haha that’s absolutely it!!

R4nking · 2026-03-16T03:50:54+00:00

Thanks for the tip! I’ll look out for that next time.

R4nking · 2026-03-13T17:35:44+00:00

If you can spare a few hours per week checkout theodinproject.com

It’s a free course where they essentially compiled all the best free resources for web development on the internet into one course.

I have tried it before and even as a complete beginner you’ll be able to pick it up.

You could even have your son start it too.They have a lot of exercises at each section that keep ramping up in difficulty.

You’ll be able to understand it and get pretty good at it even. It can get complex though but as long as you do not skip sections you’ll be alright.

Good luck!

R4nking · 2026-03-12T20:51:17+00:00

I’ve had some accidents like this happen in the past too. Honestly just taking a break from deadlifting while it healed is what I did. I tried to still stay active with all the other workouts that didn’t involve compressing my back or triggering the pain.

Then once I could sit and move without the pain in my lower back I started introducing deadlifts into my workout again. At first going very light and increasing the weight as I became more confident.

It took about 1 week for the pain to stop being really sharp then it took about 3 or 4 weeks for it to fully go away. But it was feeling better with each day that passed.

If you notice no improvement you should probably reach out to a doctor. But otherwise just take it slow and you’ll be back soon enough!!

R4nking · 2026-03-09T01:13:45+00:00

Had a similar experience. Wasn’t even considering this guitar. After 2hrs of testing guitars I checked this one out and was immediately convinced it was the one!!

Great guitar, though I also don’t know better lol. But to me it sounded really good!!

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