New Rider...Do I have unrealistic expectations

I live in Las Vegas, and am considering taking a motorcycle driving course. I'm sure much of what I'm asking here I will learn during the course and over time. I was hoping to sell my car (Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GT...basically a stripper car that gets 21 mpg) and buy a 750.

With over 300 sunshine days a year, is it unrealistic for me to consider riding daily Mon-Fri (50 miles a day) rain or shine?
temps range 25F-115F. Hoping the right gear would keep me warm during winter...summer may be tough, but I've done summers w/o air in a car before.
Some days are windy 25 mph winds with 40 mph gusts. Would that kind of weather exclude riding?
How do you deal with road obstacles (ex. ladder falls off a pickup), braking, evasive maneuvers? How much lead time should you keep from the car in front of you?
Is a heavier 900cc or more motorcycle substantially safer? (defensive driving being equal)

Can anyone suggest a good site to learn more about riding considerations for those who have really never ridden with any seriousness and now considering to ride on a daily basis? I am also interested in learning about what bikes are most reliable. Fuel Injection vs other technologies etc.

On Jun 19, 10:22 pm, PG <n... RemoveThis @000.com> wrote:
> I was hoping to sell my car (Mitsubishi Eclipse
> Spyder GT...basically a stripper car that gets 21 mpg) and buy a 750.

If you think you're going to save a lot of money by riding a
motorcycle that gets 40 miles per gallon, you're mistaken. You will
have to buy expen$ive new tires every 5,000 to 10,000 miles, depending
on on hard you ride.

I've been riding since 1962 and the most mileage I ever got out of a
rear tire was 14,000 miles, on a full dressed touring bike. The least
mileage was 1900, out of a front tire on a hard-ridden sport bike.

Motorcycles require so much more maintenance than cars, I was forever
changing the oil and filter, and changing tires and washing and
cleaning the motorcycle and oiling and adjusting the drive chain.

By comparison, I can just jump into the car or truck and drive,
without worrying about how fast my tires are wearing out or when I can
devote a weekend to necessary maintenance.

And, I can wear ordinary casual clothes, I don't have to dress like an
astronaut on a Moon mission to go somehwere.

A motorcycle is more of a fun toy to be enjoyed on weekend rides than
a practical form of transportation, but the "committed riders" who
don't have cars will always foam at the mouth and rave about how
they've never owned a car and don't need one and how stupid car
drivers are...
>
> With over 300 sunshine days a year, is it unrealistic for me to
> consider riding daily Mon-Fri (50 miles a day) rain or shine?

I was a "committed rider" for several years during the 1970's and
1980's.

"Committed rider" means that the rider doesn't own a car, so he *has
to ride* every day, to get where he wants/needs to go, rain or shine.

On some occasions, I got caught in unexpected rain showers and had to
work in my wet clothes. My boss told me that I had to be crazy to ride
in the rain, and weekend pleasure riders said that they enjoyed
motorcycles, but that if they thought that they had no choice about
whether to ride the motorcycle everyday, they wouldn't enjoy riding so
much.

Whether daily commuting is enjoyable, or miserable, depends upon
traffic conditions. I was spending three hours a day splitting lanes
in southern California traffic jams and I found it less nerve wracking
to just sit in traffic in a car than to risk losing an encounter with
a car or truck.

> temps range 25F-115F. Hoping the right gear would keep me warm during
> winter...summer may be tough, but I’ve done summers w/o air in a car
> before.

Even dry desert heat becomes miserable when it's around 100 degrees
F.

Once you get used to the desert, a 90 degree day actually feels cool.

There are nylon mesh jackets you can wear to keep cooler, but it's
your own sweat that's evaporating and cooling you down, and you need
to drink a lot of extra water to replenish you fluids.

I have ridden around Lake Mead at night in 120+ heat, and it was no
fun to stick my head into a hot helmet for hours every day.

> Some days are windy 25 mph winds with 40 mph gusts.  Would that kind
> of weather exclude riding?

It depends upon your tire profile. If you're riding a light sport bike
with pointy profile tires like Michelin Pilot Sports, a 40 mph gust of
wind can push you right across a lane, into oncoming traffic.

Sportbike tires with a rounder profile don't turn into a corner so
easily, and they have more grip on the pavement to hold the road in
gusty winds.

You will learn to watch the bushes and grass alongside the road to be
ready for gusts, and you learn to be wary of wind gusts as you exit
cuts through hillsides.

> How do you deal with road obstacles (ex. ladder falls off a pickup),
> braking, evasive maneuvers?

You won't be able to ride without paying a lot more attention to road
conditions than you are used to in a car. You learn to watch the
pavement religiously, looking for gravel, oil spills, water, ice.  

> How much lead time should you keep from
> the car in front of you?

At normal highway speeds, when traffic is flowing smoothly, the
recommended following interval is two seconds.

But that is on a straight and level road, and it's assumed that the
car driver ahead of you will see whatever road hazard is ahead, and
that he cannot stop any faster than you can, so there isn't a lot of
danger from rear end bumper thumpers.

Many riders just take advantage of their ability to swerve around an
obstacle, and they will "overrun their sight line" while riding on
curvy roads.

Overrunning the sight line means that you are riding too fast, because
you cannot see what is around the blind curve ahead.

The well-respected book "Proficient Motorcycling" recommends that you
be able to bring your motorcycle to a full stop in any circumstance,
and that you allow at least 1.5 seconds for every 100 feet when you're
riding at high speed.

Using the sight line and time concepts means that you will need to be
able to see the road ahead for 1000 feet if you're going to be riding
80 mph, and the open road will allow cruising at 80.

But you will see sport riders racing around blind curves at 80 mph and
only blind luck keeps them from crashing into a rock or a deer or a
car stalled in the road way.

> Is a heavier 900cc or more motorcycle substantially safer? (defensive
> driving being equal)

No, when older motorcycles weighed more than 500 pounds, they were not
as agile as the newer motorcycles that weigh about 400 to 450 pounds.
>
> I am also
> interested in learning about what bikes are most reliable.  

Any motorcycle that comes from Japan, England, Germany, or Italy will
be reliable. Avoid Chinese and Korean motorcycles, as they are not
reliable.

>Fuel
> Injection vs other technologies etc.

The only reason that motorcycles have fuel injection is because of
reduced air pollution. Older motorcycles with carburetors cannot meet
the smoig requirements, and you also need to add carburetor cleaners
to the gasoline to keep them cleaned out during the summer.