[subxero]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Mitch,
Here are my comments:
-Lid up: Unless you are wearing glasses or shades, keep it low (just cracked open for ventilation). Flying objects and insects can do real damage to your eyes, inducing a brief but dangerous lost of control. During a fall, a close lid is an important part of the protection.

-Coming to stop signs: It seems that you are pulling the clutch too soon to benefit from engine braking effect. I am not sure about the timing of your downshift (sorry, I had no audio where I was watching the vid from). Try to do a full stop, one foot down, look left, right, left again (LEOs' in Florida can ticket you for not doing that).

Just to vouch for this and add something small

Yes bugs can be brutal, I took a large beetle to the visor yesterday at ~ 60mph and it was like being hit with a marble out of a sling shot, super glad I had my visor down

And for the stops obviously motofool had it spot on but I would like to add, get into the habit of always being in the correct gear at a stop before you completely stop and put your left foot down while the right foot stays on the peg and rear brake. This way if you do let off on the front brake the rear is still applied and your brake light is still visible to cars approaching from the rear, Plus it will help with steep hill starts.