I’m up in northern Ontario, Canada and cannot wait for the snow to disappear so I can embark on my 2nd season of safe riding.
I bought a 1989 Yamaha FJ600 last year as my first bike. I’m not a big guy…5′ 10″ 180ish lbs. My wife had been riding for a few years before we met and had a Honda CB250. I rode it around for a few weeks (while my FJ600 was being saftied) and then took a Motorcycle Safety Course.
I bought the FJ because:
a.) it was affordable
b.) the insurance was very resonable (the bike is classed as a Sport-Touring bike)
and…
I really thought that I would respect the machine more. The way I look at it, you can easily kill yourself on a 250cc bike. I was concerned that after a season or 2 of a 250cc bike that I would be more careless as a result of my potential loss of respect for the machine. I know I’m not articulatiing this very well. My FJ600 scares the crap out of me…in a good way. A healthy respect. I think that I will have that bike for many years. It is way more comfortable than my wife’s old CB250 and 600cc’s is all the power I’m going to require for a very long time.
This 600cc is nowhere near race-bred Yamaha R1’s and R6’s…I believe I found the right bike for me to start on and grow with. My wife parked the CB250 last season and got a very nice 84 NightHawk 450. Now we can consider some highway trips in the upcoming season.
Be safe everyone!!
Great site by the way!!!
