Looking to buy a first bike? Look here.

Shift518 Automotive
1

Found an old post of mine on another forum, kinda repeated with the other one but is also different so I figured I’d post this too

Now this question comes up again and again, and over the years I’ve came up with my own conclusions.

There are three types of riders
The ones that
Will go out and buy a bike without ANY research
Will do research and buy the bike they want, instead of the bike they need, ignoring everybody.
Will do the research, listen to smarter riders, go and buy a bike that they CAN learn on

The first type, has a VERY slim chance of living long, or staying in one piece, seriously.
The second type, has a VERY slow learning curve, an unstreetable bike, which is most likely new, that they drop and spend thousands on repairing
The third, takes it smart, buys the gear, older used bike to learn on, learn REALLY quick, ride safer and BETTER then the first two types, passes them (#1 and 2 type) in the corners, on a SLOWER bike even though they (#1, 2) have “pretty, new machines”; then in a season or two buy the bike they really want and ride happily ever after.

Decide what type you are now.

If you are reading this you most likely are not #1, if you’re #2 and not going to listen to me, dont bother reading the rest, just go out and buy that pretty new bike you had your eyes on. If your #3, I invite you to read on, you’ve made a wise choice.

First set your budget.
You will need about 5 or 5.5 thousand dollars to start on a “Decent” bike. Lets see, buy a 4K$ bike, pay insurance, pay tax (about 400$ tax ALONE), buy gear, (You will want gear, helmet at least) is another 500$ +
So plan accordingly.

Secondly, time to chose the bike you will get.

For starters, remember all those pretty new 600CC bikes all your friends just got? Forget them completely. They are NOT beginner bikes. They are race machines with blinkers. This is NOT the safe/smart way to start off. Would you want a Formula 1 car as your first car? NO! Why? It’s rough, you cant ride long distances, its noisy, its very expensive, its not safe, it has WAY too much power then you can handle, its cramped, you’re afraid of messing it up. Guess what, this applies to bikes as well.
Yes there are people that “can get away” with starting on a new 600cc bike, and “survive”. But the odds are against you, and you should know not to play against the odds. For every one that gets away with it, there are 12 in hospital beds. If I could put money on people who get those bikes, that they will drop it and or injure themselves, I would do it EVERY time.

So new 600’s are out of the question. If your in #3 type, you will listen to me, if your in #2 type and for some reason still reading on, at this point you will be thinking that I’m an idiot, I do not know you, you’re thinking that you can easily handle a 600cc bike, and you will go buy one. Good, now stop reading.

#3 still there? Allright.

Back to the bikes. There is a simple major difference between bikes. There are Inline 4’s, or “I4”, which are the noisy little things you hear everywhere, and there are V2, or “twins” as they are called. 2 cylinder bikes, like harleys and some tourers. (I am excluding Goldwings (v6) and Boss Hoss’s (v8).

The difference? Twins are tourqy, make a very well respected “muscle car” sound (comparatively), lighter, and make a bike more balanced. I4’s do not make any power untill you are at about 8K RPM depending on the bike.

If you want a real cheap first bike then a ninja 250 would be perfect for you. They are about 2.5K brand new, and even cheaper used. They are “perfect” begginner bikes, and the ONLY reason people do not buy them is because they “do not look cool”, yes they are somewhat dated in looks. But if your in this sport for looks alone, step away now, you will hurt yourself showing off.

If you do not like the 250 because of its lack of power (250’s will still beat nearly every car on the road), there is identical looking ninja 500, with more power.

A more “modern” looking street bike that would be a good starter is a Suzuki Kanatune AKA Can-o-tuna, as they are sometimes refered to. They are on the heavy side, but have a bit of balanced power and good starters.

If you want to go honda, CBR F2, and F3 are your friends. F4 falls into a “new 600cc” category… not friendly. The F3 and F2 were top of the class bikes back in the 90’s. They were THE machines to have, there was nothing faster, so don’t be fooled by them being older, they are still 11 second OR faster machines. (1/4 mile wise).

For the Twin fans, there is the SV series from Suzuki, and one of the TOP picks for the first beginner bike. They look modern and they are modern. The 1st gen, has more of a “curvy” style to it, the 2nd gen is more of an “angled” type. They both come in naked and the half faired “S” verison. For both there is additional lower fairins that you can buy that will make it look like just like any new sport bike out there. These bikes are cheaper, easier to ride, still have the balls (will keep up with most 600cc bikes untill you get into triple digits) but since they are twins they have less power, but more torque, and a much better power delievery curve.

That is all I can think of for now, if somebody wants to add stuff or provide picture examples of some of the bikes I listed I’d greatly appreciate it. I’d upload them but I am on 56k, thats all i got for now.

2

im sorry but i kinda dont agree i learned basic stuff on a 98 katana750 and then 2 weeks later i bought a 94rf900r and by the end of my first month of riding i was out riding guys who have been riding for years…unfortunately 3.5 months in i caught loose gravel on my road and it was unrecoveralble and went down at around 45…ive been on 1000cc f.i bikes and aslong as you smart about the way you ride you will be fine…im now upgradeing to a 07-08 sv1000 well thats my opinion let me know what you think

3

Mid 90’s supersports are completely different beasts, a new 600cc bike makes about as much CC as an old dated 1000. Bike technology has gone leaps and bounds in the last decade and when I reference to supersports I mostly refer to year 2000+

Smart or not about the way you ride, there is no helping if you didn’t learn right on the bike and somebody pulls out in front of you and you get into the panic mode. You either grab a fist of gas (instinctively) or grab a fist of front brake (also instinct) both of which will have much more dire consiquences on a supersport then a more streetable bike.

Here is a member of the forum discussing how he was riding for a few months and knows how to keep himself in check

http://shift518.com/index.php?topic=178.0

Here is him a day later

http://shift518.com/index.php?topic=191.0

Not to say that he wouldn’t have gone down on a different bike, but Ninja 250’s brakes are softer and wouldnt have made him flip over the front bars if anything a more begginer friendly bike wouldn’t have hurt in any way.

Point is, your learning curve is just better on slower bikes.

4

if you have never been on a bike before learning on a low budget beater is not a bad idea at all unless you have a crap load of money and can replace the brand new bike go for it…there are 2 types of riders thoose that have been down and thoose that are on there way…I have been riding for 6 years and i started out on a 1982 C70 3spd moped…hahaha…moved up to a kz550…then went to a cbr900rr…and now i ride a 2007 cbr 600rr…and my 600rr is faster then the 900rr…technology is deff improving but saftey real isn’t…so be safe no matter what your on

5

i completly agree with the whole be safe and safty aspect of it just dont think everyone needs to start that small…i think it comes down to the rider…personaly…as for the technology of 2000= i know they have come fare a rode a 07 gsxr750 and it made my rf900 feel like it didnt exist…but hey its all opionon for the most part but agree with you for the most part…9 out of 10 peaple should not start on anything bigger than a ninja250

6

I have yet to hear anyone give a good reason as to why they just can’t start on a small bike.
All that bs about “not fast enough” and “i wanna look cool for teh homies” are not good reasons - you’re just starting, you’re learning, keep your ego in check.
Same goes for “getting bored” and “outgrowing”, unless you buy a bike specifically for track.
Yeah 250 is ugly, i hear that (not after next summer though), who gives a shit? I certainly don’t when I ride it.
Yeah, it feels slow now after I rode it a few months, but I still make mistakes and there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
It’s the first bike, not the last.

7

I deff agree…there are alot of people out there that jus jump on bikes thinking they are gp racers and stunt men those are the young kids you see gettin hurt all the time

8

I picked up my first street bike 3 1/2 years ago. 2003 Honda CBR 600rr. It’s definitely all about self-control and knowing your limit on a bike. I’ve been riding dirtbikes for as long as I could remember so I took to riding a street bike pretty quickly and was diving corners and popping wheelies in no time.

Every year I hear about some idiot crashing their bike because it was their first one and they didn’t know how to ride. More then half the time it’s because they were trying to do something beyond their comfort boundary of riding.

I feel just about any 600cc full fairing’d bike is an alright starter bike as long as you take your time to learn how to ride it properly.

9

I’ve been riding dirtbikes for as long as I could remember

I’ve been riding dirtbikes for as long as I could remember

I’ve been riding dirtbikes for as long as I could remember

overquoted for emphasis.
do I really need to explain why getting a 600rr for you is not the same as getting one for someone who’s never ridden anything besides a bicycle?

I feel just about any 600cc full fairing’d bike is an alright starter bike as long as you take your time to learn how to ride it properly.

and if everyone gave me their money I’d be rich. for some reason people don’t do that either. >:(

10

I have friends who have never even ridden anything before period and have turned out alright. Your always going to have a moron who doesn’t know what their doing, try something stupid and get hurt, that’s inevitble. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it’s all about knowing your limits and comfort boundary. I had the concept down of being able to use clutch and a throttle. That’s about it before I jumped on my first street bike. Dirtbikes and street bikes are two totally different elements of riding aside from that.

Personally, if you ask me, I think it’s much more difficult to keep the rubber side down in the dirt doing 60 + MPH and then throwing yourself over a 70’ jump as opposed to steering a street bike 60 MPH down a rode.

So to answer your question, no you don’t need to justify why it’s the same for someone like myself who has motocross riding experience and one who has no experience what so ever.

Starter’s can buy full fairing’d 600cc bikes and turn out ok under certain circumstances. If your a first time rider and have no clue how to even start the bike or you just want reassurance, find someone who has riding experience or take the motorcycle safety course at Hudson Valley.

11

I have friends who have never even ridden anything before period and have turned out alright.

and Vlad just copied the post about the guy who crashed the next day.

Starter’s can buy full fairing’d 600cc bikes and turn out ok under certain circumstances.

so that’s reason enough to suggest starting out on a 600cc? i think history aptly shows that most of them don’t turn out ok.
like i said, i have yet to hear a single good reason for starting on a 600.

12

http://shift518.com/index.php?topic=13.0

and

http://shift518.com/index.php?topic=12.0

13

Ok you pick certain little exerpts from my post’s and add in your own two cents. I know that there’s plenty of people out there that just go and buy them and spill the next day. There’s also plenty of people who go out and buy their first bike and it happens to be a full fairing’d one and they don’t spill and turn out ok. Of course your going to hear about all the dangers of inexperienced riders getting hurt. When was the time you heard of a statistic showing that people that bought full fairing’d bikes that didn’t get hurt? You don’t.

You get these ass bags going out buying bikes and just riding like idiots, that’s why they crash. You don’t hear about too often a rider just cruising down the rode and spilling. You more often then none hear about a rider (who may have been inexperienced at the time) cruising down the rode and getting plowed into or off the road by another car which is just as likely to happen to someone who has plenty of riding experience.

A fair majority of them get hurt simply because they don’t know what the hell they are doing. It’s perfectly fine to go and buy a full fairing’d bike, more people should be aware of their own limiations and know when and not to be a hot head on a bike.

I guess I can somewhat to a degree agree that a 250cc Ninja is ok to learn on, but their light as hell and slow. Now before you go jumping down my throat on your next post, let me finish my thought. Why go out and blow $2000 on a bike that when really you could get an older 600cc full fairing’d bike (2000 GSXR 600 for example) and spend an extra $1000 and actually take your time to learn to ride the correct way, rather then just jump on it and try to keep up with your buddies?

That’s my exact thought process when I went through going to purchase my first bike. 250cc Ninja’s are no more then glorified moped’s with fairings on them. You go from that to an actual “sport bike” it’s a whole new learning curve. Simply put, new be rider’s just need to take more time to actually learn the right way, find someone that knows how to ride and is willling to teach you and your fine. Buying a 250cc is one alternative you can take. However, one I don’t really agree with as in a sense it’s just a waste of money; where if you could just find someone who’s willing to help you learn on a full fairing’d bike a better cost effective way of learning.

I was a new be rider and I turned out fine. I’m not trying to make an argument about this either, i’m just stating my thoughts.

14

Every one talks about the guys who have been down cause they bought a supersport and tryed to be a bad ass and hurt them self…ya so my bike was a mid 90’s supersport and i went down but my accedent was not my fault…Not every one needs to start small but as for this covo :deadhorse

15

I’m not looking to start a fight either.
Difference of opinion, that’s all.
Most every new rider who wants a sport-bike thinks he’s badass/carefull/smart/lucky/whatever enough to do it.
Some of them are, some of them aren’t. For a noob who wants to buy a bike there is no way to know which he will turn out.
You thought you’d be fine and turned out allright. The other guy on the board thought he’d fine too and he crashed.
There are plenty that crash every year, there’s probably plenty that don’t.
Shit happens. A smaller bike gives a noob a bigger chance to survive shit when it happens.
If you grab a handful of brake on 250 you stand less of a chance ending up wearing it as hat then when you do it on a 600.
Same goes for wiping out after not revmatching on a downshift. A smaller bike is more forgiving to rider error.
That’s my opinion, you’re free to think otherwise.

16

I agree with you and all but again my accedent was not due to rider error

17

A 600 cc motorcycles throttle does not go wide open faster than a ninja…a reasonable person who takes time to learn can hop on a 600 after the MSF course and if hes careful like all riders should be hell be fine unless someone else hits him.

Using Travis as an example of a reasonable rider who got on a bike too big for him does not work becuase he is a moron.

You can adjust the brake levers to not be as harsh. The emphasis on not buying 600’s is hard for me to accept, becuase it about the rider being reasonable.

18

the size of your bike doesnt determine anything, jus because the power is there doesnt mean it has to be used, i got a 600 for my 1st bike three days later i was rippin my buddues 1000rr around, shoulda got te 1000rr to begin with

19

yeah its not the size of the bike, it’s how you handle the road :gay

:confused

20

swift its brian go 2 sleep before i hang u upside down and throw crab apples at you