Hi, I just got my first bike, a used '06 GS500F in black/silver. I've put over 700 miles on it since Friday. Since I've never ridden before, I'm driving like Grandma and managed to get an average of 63 MPG across my first 3 tanks of gas. Suck it, high gas prices!

At 480 miles I got dumped in a low-speed wobble while making a right turn at an intersection. Lesson learned: CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESSURES! I was 8psi low in the front and 6psi low in the rear. I corrected it to 36f/34r and it handles like a champ now! Too bad I had to scratch it to learn that lesson. 

Anyway, just dropping in to make my first post.

where in NC, Asheville here

Welcome pyro . Sorry to hear you had a get-off already. Someone is going to tell you to take the MSF course so I may as well do it. Take the MSF course  you'll be glad you did.

Welcome If you live near Sylva I'm off every weekend. I like to ride and I also ride pretty slow 'most of the time"

I will soon be off everyday by virtue of being unemployed.
I also ride slow but that is because I am an old man ...
Cool.
Srinath.

I'm in the Triad area, close to Winston-Salem.

I already took the MSF course. I'm definitely glad I took it. But I still had to learn to follow the T-CLOCS pre-ride inspection routine the hard way, heh. I've already had to use the emergency stop and obstacle avoidance techniques on several occasions. Which is why I'm really glad I took the course, because my first attempts at those exercises were pretty bad...I had a tendency to lock the rear brake in the emergency stop, and I swerved outside of the lane markers in the obstacle avoidance...Glad I got that out of my system before I had to use those techniques on the road.

Yeah I need to work on those techniques myself. Hit me up one Sunday and Ill ride out your way. Better wait till next month, bike goes to dealer for repair then I move. But we are gonna try to get this meet up together too.