ok you havent been riding very long so i would not suggest tryng to run hard off the line. A doing it with cars is dangerous as hell cars loose control at the launch especailly and they also have tourque steer that could take you out,you can get hurt easily. I would go to your local track to practice this.  I am not preaching but i would consider your potential of getting hurt.  Secondly most sport bikes and well modified cars are going to beat you.  the cars may let you get the jump but they will rope you in easily.  My car can beat my GS  so why eevn try and get the jump on in a race if you still will loose.  Anyway you should use the gs to build your skills then get a faster bike.  And keep this in mind (there is always somebody faster than you) with normal money and mechanical ability there will always be people with faster bikes/ cars than you.

a) Maybe don't go around trying to beat people off the line when you've only been riding for two months...

once you get over that,  

b) find the friction zone with your clutch hand while the light's still red... just like in MSF, let the clutch out 'til you feel the rpms go down and the bike come close to stalling. Back off a bit, but keep the lever right near that point.

c) as the light turns, lots of throttle. Smooth smooth roll-on, but lots and lots of it.

d) very very good clutch control letting the lever out while your other hand is providing all that throttle.

e) your left toe is already underneath the shifter, waiting for the right moment. That moment is longer away than you'd think: up to 2nd at 30-35 mph, up to 3rd at 50-55 mph. If you really push the redline you could probably stay in 2nd past 60.

f) very very smooth shifting -- a momentary spasm of your finger muscles accompanied by an almost unconscious flick of your ankle, synchronized perfectly. Practice.

Even if you're perfect most bikes will beat you. That's just how it is. But even this "anemic" bike can supposedly do 0-60 in 5.3 seconds. I spent all my life in cars that did it on 8 to 12 seconds, so if you come close to the limits of the GS it can still be kinda thrilling. And you'll beat almost all cars off the line (it's more satisfying with cagers than with fellow riders anyway).

got it. i've been practicing and i think i'm getting better at it.
when i first posted i was talking about normal commuting situations and not racing.  so i would be at a light and some soccer mom in an suv would beat me to the punch and i'd feel punk'd. but now i realize that yes it is dangerous and that its probably not the best thing for the bike to do all the time.  i just want to know that if i have to i can do it.  like when i'm stopped at the light and i need to get over to the other lane or lights before on ramps and stuff.  just got to keep developing my skills....

happy weekend, everybody

Well...that changes the whole perspective.  =)  Getting punked by a soccer mom in a minivan is definitely grounds for retribution and "getting your balls back".  Lol.  So, definitely practice, be "on your game" at the light (i.e. aware) and don't be afraid to give it some gas.  You'll get the hang of it quickly enough.

deuce big, I tend to agree to what has been said by bcutrufelli, milo and others. And, in view of the fact that you started riding just a few months ago, I cannot feel comfortable supporting the 'buy bigger bike' theory at all.

There will always be something around that has more power (or more seats, or more storage capacity), so what? What I do know, however, ist that I can ride my little GS in a way, so that in town I am 4 - 5 car lengths ahead of the bunch day in and day out. What I do know, too, that there are some cars around that have enough juice under the hood to leave me behind. During my 6.700 mi I did over this year, this happened to me twice - in both cases 3+ litre displacement, 200+ hp cars, German make. In that kind of vehicle, even soccer mums will be faster than I am. :dunno:

Still, when a cop watches me redlining my GS in 2nd gear within city limits, my driver's license will be gone . No doubt, we can have a hell of a lot of fun with her.

So, obviously, you have taken it easy and you can look back over your first couple months without much damage. Congrats! Go into your 2nd season, take a double amount of extra care, just when you believe that, wow!!, now you _DO_ have all that experience... maybe at times you might want to watch this movie (5,9 MB), or this one (10,3 MB), hopefully prior to deciding to get a more powerful bike.

When I got my GS last July, that was the end of a 25 years period of no biking for me. I had to start from the scratch, when it came to do curves and such. After some 2.000 miles I took a tour through the Austrian Alps (pics!), together with a couple of friends. My GS was the lowest power bike, and I was riding 2-up. Usually I was perfectly able to catch up with them all. There was one single situation when they had to wait for me: downhill a fairly steep alpine pass road in rain (at the age of 52, with only 2.000 miles ridden, you dont want to risk too much for you and your wife). Other than that, it was that guy with a 98 hp - sports bike (but even less experience than I had) whom we had to wait for.

Wish you the best luck (and keep her for three seasons before buying a bigger one)

I bought my first real bike in Oct. 2003 - the GS500 (I had spent about two years on a rinky dink scooter).  In the 8 months I owned the gs (Keeping in mind that 4 of those months are winter months) I put over 6,000 miles on the bike.  Before my first real year of bike ownership was over I had 10,000 miles of riding under my belt (about the same as 3 seasons).

The GS is far from the end all of bikes-  It is a great frist bike.  It is a great "only" bike for alot of people.  I will likely own a second gs to beat up on.  But....

I'm not saying go out and buy a bigger bike for the sole purpose of beating soccer moms and punks in sooped up cars.  Power and speed are not the highlights of this bike- and to be honest, neither are suspension, brakes, and upgrades in general.

The gs is a bike that's easy to ride, easy to maintain and easy on the wallet.  But a rider's style will evolve and when that time comes so will his choice in a bike- cool- just ride smart.

And for the fastest starts-  you will need to slip the clutch at a higher RPM.  On most hard shifts (close to redline and with WOT- you do not need to use the clutch- just speed shift.  Although I would recommend some clutch between first and second so you stay out of nuetral.

By the way-  I was almost rear ended once...  This little skill can be more valuable than you think.

I beat everybody off the line at the drags, especially the liter bikes.  (they all catch me really quick hahahah but I smoke em' off the line).

My launch is something like this:

Both feet on the ground and light on the seat.
Engine at about 7grand
*most important part* clutch lever released to just before the friction zone
When I hit it, I try to feed in the clutch as quickly as possible and linear throttle to WOT without ending up looking at the sky.  

(I balance the clutch release to bog/not-bog the motor - this is an attempt to keep the front wheel just barely on the ground while keeping the front springs fully extended.  You want to use the lower end of the power band to keep the front wheel on the ground (this is with the clutch), then when the clutch is out and you're pegged, the engine is just starting to pull and you get the most use of your power band.)

My throttle hits WOT slightly before the clutch is fully engaged but this is sorta subjective....  I'm not paying too much attention to that part of things by that point of the launch.

The last thing I do is "feel the inside of my legs with my brain" (I know, sounds like a tantric friday night).  I can feel the bike start to move and for that first inch or so before the front wheel rolls out of the beams I am letting the bike accelerate forward without my weight on it (builds momentum).  Then at just about the time the front wheel rolls out of the beams, I feel the bike touch the inside of my legs as it rolls forward.  I then let it "scoop me away" and concentrate on the next shift point.

I do all of this motocross style (big elbows) as if I'm on the gate at an arena event riding a streetbike.

For the shifts, I've found that I cannot stay tucked and still be 100% guaranteed a solid shift (I've missed one or two and that positively cannot ever happen).  SO at the shifts, I grab a big ol' <ozzy osbourne expletives> ass full of throttle, whip that <more Ozzy quotes, lots of them> @#$ for all it's worth, and get back in the tuck.  That's when I usually start to see the headlight in my mirror and things get interesting...  *note: one of the most awe-inspring things I have ever seen in my life is a GSXR750 coming up on me in the mirror...I recommend it to anyone in search of a holy experience*

I tend to wheelie more than anybody else but it gives everybody something to tease me about back in the pits.  I've spent my life drag racing small displacement multi-cylinder two strokes so my technique is sorta "power band-centric".  Your mileage may vary...