Well at first I thought I'd be on the rare side of having a new(er) SM be my first legit bike but I guess not.... While I'll prolly end up sayin the same thing as others I just felt compelled to put my 2 cents in (I do that a lot)...
I'm just under 700mi on my '06 SM which is about 1 wk & a few days old. I too rode home from the dealer (about 30mi) & this was about 2wks after the riding classes I took. I chose to ride home mainly cause I wanted the bike in my posession as soon as possible but even though this is really my first bike I've had a few 'trials by fire' over the years where I've gone out riding w/ some friends using someone's Dad's '85 Honda Shadow (that needed a tune up sooo bad... the damn thing ketp dyin on me in left turns in heavy Sat afternoon traffic!!!) So had done city street riding before & had been an avid bicyclist thru downtown Chicago for at least 3-4 yrs so I was accoustomed to being 100% invisible... so I knew what to expect & be on the look out for, I think this made the switch a bit easier... but regardless, one of the only things I will suggest is use the knowledge gained from class, think about it etc... in just the short time I've been out riding I have already been able to teach or more correctly inform a friend who's been riding for years about a nugget of knowledge or something the either didn't know or where half wrong.
Then never ride out of your personal comfort zone... there's no need to push yourself beyond what yon KNOW you can do. For instance just last week I was out w/ some ppl who hang 'round an old established "club"... first off these folks surely liked to toss 'em back, which made me nervous. Well on the freeway we're all clippin along 'round 75miles an hour (this was 2 days after getting the SM) and all of a sudden the leaders just opened it up & next thing I know I'm being left in the dust of a bunch of straght pipped HD's chokin on their oil "run off"... well after tryin to catch up I noticed I was now pushin' 90. Needless to say, the bike shouldn't be pushed so hard so young & nor should I as a rider.
I throttled down & settled in a a cruising speed I felt comfortable with. Sure I made it to the next destination about 10-15 min later then everyone else but I made it in one piece & that's what's really important. Sure the tried to bust my balls 1) for riding a Trumpet & 2) for not keepin up... but it was all in good fun as long as I didn't back down to 'em they gave me some respect and after finding out how many miles I had under my arse they did ease up.
So the moral of my long winded story.... "Do what's comfortable for you." If anyone gives you a hard time tell 'em to stick it! It's not their life.
-K
