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Buying my very first bike as a Frenchie

As promised, here is a photo of my very first motorcycle. A nice Ninja 300 ABS from 2017 with 3k miles. Previous owner was a charming German guy in Tech. He apparently took well care of it. Only default would be at the bottom right of the right fairing (visible if you zoom in on the picture) and some scratches on the exhaust.

Other than that the bike seems really good. I feel confident on it and I feel that it is enough power to have fun and to stay safe at the same time. As I saw on this forum, I plan on wearing ATGATT.

However, I should confess that I already did my first mistake. I went to the gas station and asked for $15 of gas, as in my previous car it would only fill like a quarter of a tank... I fueled my bike from the right side for a solid 5-10 minutes as it was slow and in the end I realized all the gas spilled on the concrete. After doing some research, I read that it was not so much of an issue, I just cleaned the whole bike carefully twice to make sure that it will not damage the paint.

As always, if you guys have any relevant advice for me I would love to hear it. I'm new in this community and I'm sure there is still a lot to learn along the way. If you guys want to ride around the Berkeley area or the Bay Area as a whole it would be a pleasure.

Have a good one

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Also while I'm here. I got a very good helmet (Snell certified!) and it came with a transparent visor. I would love to get a tinted one, to of course, look way cooler when I ride. Would you advice me to do so ?
 
Speaking only for myself, I like tinted visors if I’m going to be riding in full sun. If my ride will alternate between sun and shade, it seems my eyes don’t adapt fully to the shade with a tinted visor. For track use on a sunny day, a tinted visor is great.
 
At 15k it should be due for a valve adjustment. That will be an expensive service if it hasn’t been done yet.
 
Congrats on the new bike...!!!

:ride with a :teeth
 
QuestMaker said:
Also while I'm here. I got a very good helmet (Snell certified!) and it came with a transparent visor. I would love to get a tinted one, to of course, look way cooler when I ride. Would you advice me to do so ?
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I use a dark shield, but I don't ride at night. I had a transition shield before, but I cannot find one for the Arai. I loved that shield and it helped when riding in shadows quite a bit and on the off chance I did ride at night it was wonderful.
Good luck and enjoy!
 
I have always run a "clear" shield and wore sunglasses during the day, removes the concern about having a dark shield at night.
Note on glasses: If you have polarized sunglasses / glasses you may find that "it" will diminish / decrease seeing clearly the digital instrument panels, heads up displays (HUD's) and LCD screens. Also, particularly with polarized glasses and the shield down I've found that in areas where your transitioning between bright light to dark areas the road surface may not be represented well in the dark sections, i. e. - damp/wet or sandy conditions, etc. The curvature of the polycarbonate shield and polarization of the glasses does funny stuff to what your what your eye perceives. YMMV
 
Welcome to California, the Left Coast & teh BARF's!

Congrats on the new bike!

Don't forget to edit out your email address in a previous Post. You don't know what kind of people lurk around here.

Ride safe & shiny side up!
 
You might try an adventure helmet with a sun visor. They are a big help early in the morning, and late afternoon when the sun is low on the horizon, and aren't a bother at night or in tunnels.
 
Welcome to the moto world of bay area and congrats on a great purchase!

If you need any help moto related, feel free to ping me. I can show you some fun roads. Happy to show you basics of bike maintenance as well.
 
FLH03RIDER said:
I have always run a "clear" shield and wore sunglasses during the day, removes the concern about having a dark shield at night.
Note on glasses: If you have polarized sunglasses / glasses you may find that "it" will diminish / decrease seeing clearly the digital instrument panels, heads up displays (HUD's) and LCD screens. Also, particularly with polarized glasses and the shield down I've found that in areas where your transitioning between bright light to dark areas the road surface may not be represented well in the dark sections, i. e. - damp/wet or sandy conditions, etc. The curvature of the polycarbonate shield and polarization of the glasses does funny stuff to what your what your eye perceives. YMMV
Click to expand...
That’s what I do, clear shield with sunglasses. If I know I’m going to be out after dark I’ll carry clear glasses in my tool bag so I can switch after the sun goes down.
My sunglasses are all polarized which means I have to turn my head at odd angles to read the dash. It’s a bit annoying but hardly noticeable anymore since I seem to have adapted.
 
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