JTS001, the FIRST thing you need to do is get hold of your local motorcycle shop and find out about motorcycle safety training!
I can't stress it enough! That training is essential to get a motorcycle endorsement to your drivers' license and is more of an essential to survival in road riding. Dirt riding is trickier yet, and poses its own set of mandatory skills.
When you get your endorsement, realize that you are still a barely-qualified neophyte and will need lots more time in the saddle before you can really enjoy riding.
That is why you should look up your local chapter of ABATE. They won't care WHAT you ride, as long AS you ride. But they will ask that you ride safely, start out at the back of the pack, that way you can see how the real old salts handle traffic hassles, road problems, black ice, etc.
Know that some states hire less than qualified instructors, in many cases washed-up former racers (who have been kicked off racecourses for safety and disciplinary problems). That is why you need to take what you get in "motorcycle safety training" witn a mine of salt, and embrace wholeheartedly the real riding skills of leather clad professionals with forty years average SAFE riding experience behind them.
In no case whatsoever buy the lies of a high-pressure helmet salesman trying to make you think that the more you spend on a helmet, the safer you will be -- the theory being that if you squander your life savings on that bucket, it confers invincibility.
If it has a DOT sticker on it, it has passed EVERY test that can be assigned to it. Price does not confer safety: adherence to safety procedure confers safety. Learn that procedure from proven riders (ABATE) and accept no cheapskate substitutes.
The greatest danger you will face in summer riding is heat exhaustion. That full-face helmet will cook your brain very slowly, but it will definitely put your brain in the oven and it will function slowly enough to get you killed. DEFINITELY side with a Lawman helmet, because every police department in the world does.
Got that?
