..."When traveling on 2 lane roads (One lane for each direction), is a motorcycle more obvious to oncoming traffic and to cars wanting to join that line of traffic (from a driveway for example) if you keep 2 seconds behind the car ahead than if you are ... say 8 seconds back?"...
Bob, ALWAYS assume that other drivers don't see you. Often, they don't. You must know as an OPP officer that most drivers on our roads are in-attentive and have poor skills. I also believe that since there aren't as many motorcycles in Canada, compared to other parts of the world, people just don't look for them either.
I often worry that people see the single or closely spaced headlights of motorcycles and are not able to properly estimate distance and speed with a quick glance (if they glance at all), as people are more used to making these estimates from the relatively widely spaced headlights of a car.
For this reason, I feel perfectly justified riding in the day with my highbeams on. At least people will have a better chance of noticing it -- however, experience tells me that there are still some that don't.
As for your Buell 1200cc motorcycle as a first bike...well, that's a lot of bike for anyone, especially for a beginner. Frankly, my advice to you, sir, would be to put it in storage for at least a year and then buy a cheap, small, lower cc bike on which you can develop your riding skills on. I know it's hard to do, and may not be practical, but I believe that is your safest option.
