The one thing which seperates you from a serious accident is either
A)Experience
or
B)Training
If you haven't got (A) get (B).
In the UK we had many accidents from people hopping on bikes with no experience and killing or seriously injuring themselves. This was compounded by lack of (good)advice about decent clothing (which you can get here[8D]).
Before you can ride any bike (even 50cc) in the UK, you must do a course called a CBT (compulsory basic training) irrespective of what other driving experience you have.
This enables you to ride up to 125cc from the age of 17.
You can at this point take a series of written,oral and practical tests to obtain a full license. This will enable you to ride a bike not exceeding 33bhp for 2 years and after which you can ride anything.
Alternatively after the age of 21 you can take a course of tests called Direct Access. This is basically the same as the other but is residential over the course of 1 week and is quite intensive.
After which you can ride anything providing you can insure it. Many peope in the UK go for this route.
This may sound a bit draconian and the tests are much more involved that the ones I took 20 years ago.
Cars have come along way since the model-T Ford in terms of passenger protection, but bikes haven't, and 'we' riders have to rely upon our wits and decent safety clothing to keep the brains in our head and the skin on our backs.
If my kid said 'I want to ride a 160mph supersports bike', I would be a hypocrite if I said no, but It would be conditional that they undertook a training course which gave them a chance of surviving more than the first week.
This is a true story which happened 6 months ago in my town.
A guy is in work one day, He's divorced but his 17 year old son is staying over, The father has a ZX6R and the son in his absence decided to have a ride around the parking lot of the fathers apartment block.
He isn't wearing a lid or any protective clothing and starts doing drag starts. He loses control, the bike skids, highsides and throws him into a parked car. He's killed instantly.
Too much power and not enough sense. You can get away with falling off a 50cc bike more easily because the power/weight is not much more than a bicycle, a 600 Ninja demands respect and will bite you hard if you don't give it.
Ride Safe
Ash
Live to ride, Erm Erm, Where are my Car Keys ?