[Ben]

I agree with SMR, the bike could handle it no problem, the weak link in the chain is your ass

I drive from fremont to san jose which is about 45 minutes with traffic and here is what I recommend:

1. Don’t carry anything on your back! Whenever I carry something on my back (violin/backpack/etc..) I get tired of riding about twice as fast as usual. I would recommend getting a tank bag or tail bag if you need to carry some stuff with you while riding a longer distance.

2. Speeding. Speeding is much easier to do on a bike, in fact I recommend that you do it I have heard that it is actually safer if you are always going about 5mph faster than the rest of the traffic, that way most of your obstacles and worries are to concentrated in front of you instead of behind. I tend to agree with that train of thought to a degree, sometimes the traffic here can all be cruising at 80+mph so you have to weigh the benefits of a little increased safety with a big ticket from the cops.

In the end though I would try and travel at a speed you are comfortable with, whether that be 55, 65, or 85 (and the ninja can handle all of those speeds)

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

3.35???? Damn, i’m paying over 4 dollars in CA

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

I would recommend a 250 or a 500cc bike tops, they have more than enough power to get you where you are going. Check out the vulcan 500.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

Thats a pretty solid deal. Maybe try and get him down to 2400, but 2600 sounds pretty decent to me.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

Thanks Youtube is a lot of fun.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

Glad you like the site david

Part 4 is on its way, i’m hoping to have it posted by this saturday.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

The 250 will definitely be able to handle you. The rider that wrote our review of the 2008 ninja 250 was 6 feet tall and I would imagine near 200 lbs. I have no doubt that the ninja could zip you around no problem.

Ben

~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

The rider that wrote the review on this site is 6 feet tall, and he said that it would be comfortable up until about 6’2″ so I think you should be good. I sat on it myself and I swear to god it felt more roomy than my 600!

I would definitely sit on one if you can before you buy it just to make sure it will fit you.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

I think I read in that forum post that she was actually wearing alpinestars motorcycle boots, so without them she probably would have lost the foot!

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

I definitely see your points Jonathan. It definitely is better to learn on the type of bike you will be getting then some bike that is vastly different. I would definitely treat a harley or some other bike that is a lot heavier than mine a lot different than the bike I have now. I guess that is one of the disadvantages of starting on a smaller bike, sometimes they feel more like ‘toys’ than actual vehicles (and that can lead to hooliganism! hah!)

As a rule I try and discourage others from getting larger bikes, but depending on the circumstances I think starting on a bigger bike might be more ideal than starting on a 250. I think sometimes I get caught up in the notion that starting on a big bike is ‘impossible for a newbie’ when in reality it is just ‘harder’.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

My friend ray recommends cleaning a really gunky chain with kerosene.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

That looks like a pretty good motorcycle, but I would stay away from the used helmet, you never know if they dropped it or anything and that can really effect the internal structure and how much it protects your head.

I’m pretty ruthless when buying motorcycles, so if I were in your situation I would offer $3200 cash and say that you can pick it up tonight. That only works though if you have the money to buy the bike in your hand. Chances are he will scoff at your offer and say that 4000 is already a good deal, at that point I would say “well, I can scrounge together an extra $300, but $3500 is my final offer and I can pick it up right now.”

At that point if he doesn’t accept I would just walk away, but like I said, I always try and get really good deals on motorcycles. I got my 2002 GS500 for $1700 when the guy was asking $2400, and I got my current bike for $3700 when the guy wanted $4300+. The key is to always be willing to walk away. For every motorcycle I buy I usually put in offers for 2-3 dozen bikes, some of them are real lowballs, others are just a few hundred less than asking price.

Anyway, that would probably be an ok deal for $4000 even, but I believe you could probably get a better price if you negotiate a little.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

Great post

Yeah I probably wouldn’t consider using a tire plug unless I was out in the middle of no where. I’ll have to buy a kit just in case for when I take my trip from san jose california to reno nevada this summer.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

Hey Marshy/Gabe!

Glad to hear that this site has helped you out! I was the exact same way when I first got into motorcycles, I had no idea about gear and I wanted my first bike to be a CBR 1000 RR because I thought it “looked the coolest’. I’m glad that I didn’t have enough money to buy the bike right away because my boredom made me research everything I could about motorcycles and thats when I found out that I should be wearing gear and starting on a small bike.

I was pretty skeptical that a 500 would be enough, but damn, that thing was mighty quick when I bought it! It was a GS500 and it was a lot to handle at first. I must have killed it a dozen times trying to drive to a parking lot a block away to practice. Really fun bike though, a blast to ride in the twisties.

Keep us posted on how your motorcycle journey unfolds!

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Ben]

Tire plugs huh? I have no idea how to use those haha. The only time I’ve patched a tire was a bicycle tube tire, and that was very involved (remove tube from tire, soaking the tube in soap and water to find the hole, patching it up, etc…). Is it the same way with a motorcycle tire? I know that my tires are tubless, so does that mean I can just slap a patch on the outside? Or does it have to go on the inside of the tire?

If it goes on the inside…. how the hell do you do that? haha.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

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