My name is Tres. I am 27 years old and live in Charlotte, NC. I am looking into purchasing my first bike here in the next several months, so any suggestions would be great.
There’s quite a bit of reviews of different bikes on this site with comments on the reviews. I’d probably start off reading those. Depending on your experience level, the general consensus is to start off on a 250cc bike. Also, what kind of riding you plan on doing? mostly commute/street or commute/street with some off-road?
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If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…
Not really going to be doing any off roading or anything like that. I would love to take it up to the mountains and ride, or maybe the occasional commute to work and back. From looking around, it looks like the kawasaki Ninja 250R might be what I end up with. I am just afraid I might be to tall for it (I am 6’1″). So I guess this weekend I will go down to a dealership and get on one and see what I think.
There are lots of great opinions on this site about the proper first bike. Someone made the comment that the Suzuki S40, which I currently own and started out on, is like the Ninja 250 of the cruiser world. I think that’s a fairly apt comparison, although I think the Ninja’s top end exceeds the S40. I have ridden my S40 for about three months now and am hoping to trade up to an S50 soon but the S40 is a pleasure to ride and is pretty forgiving in making those initial riding mistakes that inevitably happen. If you’re a sport-bike-kinda-guy I haven’t seen anything that’s as appealing as the Ninja 250 for a first bike. I’m not really drawn to that style bike (although I imagine riding one would be a LOT of fun) but I can certainly see the appeal there.
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