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That’s just nuts!

Here are some other pretty impressive saves:

Here’s the real winner:

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All of my bikes are black/white oriented. That’s my personal preference. I just never really dug color on bikes all that much. The color graphics always look 80s/90s to me. With the exception of a clearance SHIFT Streetfighter jacket I got (all they had was black with hints of Kawi green), all of my gear is leather and either black or white (black/white jacket, black pants, white suit).

Visibility-wise white isn’t as great as you think. Statistically speaking (though we all know how misleading some statistics can be), white and silver cars are the most likely to be in accidents during daylight hours. I rationalize a bit thinking that solid white rider on solid black bike creates contrast, but I think I’m mostly kidding myself.

Dainese makes AWESOME gear (AWESOME!!!!!!). Get the jacket, hands down. The only downside to Dainese is their prices, so if you can get a deal there shouldn’t even be a question in your mind. Whether or not you get white or black should be solely up to your aesthetic preferences. I don’t think either one will really be super visible.

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I completely understand. I wasn’t really targeting you with my post

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My housemate is a huge WoW fan. He’s probably at home now, 5-boxing. Ugh.

But yeah, he got jealous of my bike a few months back, so he did what any WoW player would do: he spent like a week jumping through all the hoops required to build that motorcycle in-game.

To be clear, Munch, my snide comments don’t come as somebody who looks down on MMOs. Think of me as a recovering crack addict. I got MMOs out of my system before WoW (shockingly, thanks to this same friend of mine), and have managed since to resist the oh-so-strong pull of Blizzard’s designer drug.

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Glad to have you around mate. You remind me of me not too long ago.

P.S. In retrospect, that looks a bit “when I was your age…” so let me clarify: you remind me of that time between when I’d decided I was going to ride and before I got my hands on my own bike…the time when I wanted to get on a bike so bad I thought my head would explode

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As Munch said, above a certain baseline gear is all about preference, so as long as you respect the higher risk with a particular piece of gear over another, the good ol’ individual freedoms provided by most 1st-world countries dictate that I sit back and zip it. Your call for your body.

However, if anybody wants to argue with me that a half-helmet is a better idea than a full-face (which I don’t THINK anybody is doing…), bring it Here’s the ol’ statistical impact zone chart:

What you’ll notice is that about 50% of impacts happen in the areas unprotected by a skull cap. More importantly, we’re talking about your face. If you go down at highway speed and you get so lucky as to hit the 40%-chance facial region, you won’t “mess up” your face. You won’t scar it. Your face will be gone. Your nose will be gone. They will have to rebuild your face from scratch. But if you’re lucky, your nasal bone will have been sufficiently smashed into your brain on impact to kill you.

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1. The Ninja 250 is a very low-displacement bike
2. It is NOT powerful, even though it’s plenty fun to ride
3. It is very nimble, and easy to ride for a beginner
4. It’s a short/light bike, making it easy to heft
5. High ground clearance means less risk of dragging hard parts when learning

Really it comes down to the fact that your dad (if he wants to get a “huge-displacement cruiser”) doesn’t seem well informed as to what is or isn’t a good beginner bike, and should get pointed towards this site or others. The Ninja 250 is THE world standard beginner bike, so claiming that it’s too unwieldy for beginners is a show of ignorance on his part.

P.S. One tiny anal-retentive note: The 250 is a parallel-twin, not a V-twin.

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I should also mention that, for normal street riding, my stock tires would have been just fine. Sure, I’m that much more confident on the street, but the stock tires weren’t at all unsafe. The extra grip comes in handy for more aggressive riding, which the bikes aren’t fitted for when they roll off the assembly line.

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It’s not so much that stock tires wear too fast (though, on average, they might). Mine, for instance, were too slippery for my taste. It’s more that stock tires tend not to be the tires for you. Between people like Munch, who want durability, and people like me, who want grippety grip grip grip, and between people like Miami Matt, who want traction in the wet, and people like California Cal, who want dry performance, tire manufacturers can’t possibly fit a stock tire that makes everybody happy. So they pick something in the middle. And that inevitably pleases no one.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if, as Munch was suggesting (and he would know), there is a plot to fit new vehicles with fast-wearing tires. All the same, that’s not the issue for everybody.

I think SCR’s advice is great: you already have the stock tires. Ride ’em. This will let you get a feel for the bike without wasting miles on a fancy schmancy replacement tire. Many miles spent on the stock tires will give you a better idea of what you’d WANT in a replacement. When you hit the wear bars, grab a new set!

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It’s a feat to handle a Speed Triple. Those things are beasts. Drool-worthy beasts, but beasts nonetheless.

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I really recommend gauntlets. They offer more protection, and they offer the added benefit of insect/wind/etc.-proofing the would-be gap between your glove and sleeve. And they just look cool.

Boots, as other people have said, rely mainly on fit to your particular foot. Other things to look for include height (at least up to your mid-shin), ankle protection, heel protection, shin protection, and resistance to torsion (you don’t want your foot to end up pointing behind you after a crash).

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This speaks to the vast difference in front brakes between a sportbike and something else. The only way you will ever need to pull a sportbike brake lever far enough that it hits your fingers will be when you’re in minute 30 of a 150mph track session and your brakes have begun to exhibit fade. When riding on the street you won’t even come close.

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Granted, it’s not in the same league as the gixxers, but it is an inline-four sport touring bike that puts out 80hp. Granted, that’s not that different from the SV650’s 75hp or so, but the SV is a V-Twin, and is undoubtedly easier to ride.

But hell, I’m going to add it anyway.

You know, honestly, this list is just going to end up having everything. There’s no good cap for any metric as there’s always a special case somewhere. A comprehensive list of bikes and their stats will still be useful in convincing the nubblets that certain bikes are ill-suited to their abilities.

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That’s largely a question of appearance, which matters to only one person: you. Some may write off a bike’s looks, especially for a beginner bike, as being less important than other things. The fact of the matter is that image plays a huge role in the way you feel for a particular bike. Part of the reason I love my 250R so much is precisely because of the 2008 redesign. As much as a pre-08 Ninja would have yielded a very similar (though not identical) experience on the road, my attachment to the bike would have been far weaker.

That said, if the first thing you’re going to do is strip the fairings on your GS500F if you get it, and ride naked until you’re “good”…well that may be a waste if you were going to upgrade at that point anyway. If you think you’d keep your first 500cc bike around a long time, the GS500F might be the way to go. Otherwise I’d stick with the cheaper, uglier bike and spend the big bucks on your first real* bike.

* Note: in no way do I mean to insult the GS500; I only meant that if you’re getting it because you want a beginner bike, there’s clearly a “real” bike you want to ride but don’t feel up to quite yet.

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