[Gary856]

I’m about the same size as you – 6′, 170 lbs. My very first bike is an ’01 GS500. I still believe it’s the perfect beginner bike. Physical size wise, it felt great in the beginning (easy to flat foot, with knees comfortable bent), but with 16 months of riding experience on 4 different bikes, I now feel the GS500 a little small – the seat is 1.5-2″ too low for me. I think its size is perfect for someone between 5’8″-5’10”, with 28″-30″ inseam.

Take a look at the review and user comments (a few from me) on this site about GS500:

Suzuki GS500F: Beginner Bike Profile + Owner Reviews

[Gary856]

For a second bike I’d go for a 650 over a 500. Not only do the 650 have better performance, bikes like SV650/Ninja650r are much newer designs than the older generation GS500/EX500, and you can see/touch/feel the newer-ness.

Second gen SV650 and Ninja 650r are fuel injected – nice to have.

[Gary856]

The evening that I finished my MSF class, I rode my GS500 for the first time around my neighborhood for 38 miles in the dark. I was surprised by how well I could see. A week later, I started commuting to work (10 miles each way) on the GS500, and the return trips were during the night.

I don’ t thinking riding at night on city streets was difficult due to the fairly low speed. In a way it’s easier to see the cars because everybody have their lights on. What’s not as good is being seen on a motorcycle; this is where high visibility, light color helmet, jacket and reflective panels help.

I ride just as fast on the freeway at night but I do worry about running into unseen debris in the un-lit sections more. Riding in the hills at night on twisty roads is more challenging, but still fun; just can’t go that fast.

Some bikes have better headlights than others…

[Gary856]

Depends on the location (surface streets or freeway), distance (cross town or cross country), terrain (flat or hilly), traffic (light or heavy), etc.

[Gary856]

Squeeze your knees against the tank to brace yourself against the braking force. Don’t stiff-arm or use the hand/arm to brace against the braking force, or you’d have the wobble from the unintentional steering input.

Try this off the bike – ball up your right hand and make a tight fist (as if you’re squeezing the front brake lever). Feel your entire right arm tightening up too? Now shake the arm around to make it loose, while tightening and loosening the right hand. The goal is separate your hand movement from making the arm stiff.

With the rear brake, make sure your heel stays on the foot peg, just pivot the ankle down to engage the brake lever. Again, focusing on moving/pivoting just the foot/ankle, but not stiffen up the whole leg. You can try this sitting on a chair. Now do the hand and foot together but focus on moving them independently, apply different pressure levels…

In the beginning, if you tend to lock up the rear, just apply the rear brake lightly, enough to feel it drag. Focus your attention on the front brake lever – count “one one thousand” (1 second) as you increased the squeezing pressure from light to hard. Again, squeeze means starting from light pressure, and gradually increase to hard pressure over 1 second.

[Gary856]

I hit the freeway on my 11th ride out, w/ a little over 400 miles of riding experience on surface streets. During those first 400 miles I gradually bumped up my top speed until I was doing 60-65 mph on expressways. When I finally hit the freeway for the first time, I exited on the next ramp, got back on and rode longer. It was great. I had been wearing ear plugs and felt fine with freeway speed by then. The wind blast at freeway speed was the biggest surprise.

[Gary856]

Besides the high performance, the 600/750/1000 sportbikes’ ergonomics put your body in a very “unnatural” position – forwarding leaning, head down, arms low, feet backward and high – one that’s great for going fast on the track for a short time, but fatiguing for longer rides (stress on the neck/shoulders, lower back, knees), and makes low/medium control much more difficult for street riding. Also, the head down position (lower eye level) makes situational awareness more difficult on the street. The margin of error is low.

This is not to say that sportbikes cannot be ridden well on the street. A lot of people, including me, enjoy riding them – it’s thrilling and intoxcicating. You just need to know what you’re getting into, take the time, learn the basics on a smaller bike, learn the necessary additional techniques when you switch to a sprotbike, and, most importantly, keep the right head on your shoulders.

[Gary856]

I’d like to caution you against wanting to “prove” something to yourself, or your husband, or anybody else. You cannot force confidence. Confidence is built slowly with competence.

Recently there was a story of a 40 something woman from China, Maine, mother of 3, got killed during her first ride, with her husband and brother-in-law riding in front of her. On a straight country road, she swerved in front of a truck and had a head-on collision. A real tragedy. The news story does not say why she swerved, but many in a motorcycle forum “guessed” that she might have paniced at the sight of the truck, tried to steer away from it, got confused about counter-steering and ended up steering into the truck. Again, that’s just a guess. I had a similar (but not nearly as tragic) experience when I was brand new. I had ridden a couple of hundred miles and thought I knew counter-steering well, so I headed into the hills. The first time I hit a serious curve in the hills, I went wide and nearly crossed the double-yellow line into oncoming traffic, because my left hand was fighting my right and resisted the turn. That was a holy-shit moment. I made it thru that ride, but it was very uncomfortable. I had to pull over to let faster cars go ahead of me.

As a brand new rider, following an experienced rider could be very bad. That experienced rider may think he’s slowing down for you, but he may not know how slow he really needed to be. If you really had to ride with your husband, ride in the front and set your own pace. Don’t ever go fast on other’s account. Let your husband bring up the rear. If you really can’t keep a comfortable pace on the street, get off the street and find a parking lot to practice. Think of yourself as a baby – learn how to walk (ride slowly, very slowly, get the techniques right), and then learn how to run.

[Gary856]

other than reliability, bikes that old usually have weaker brakes and worse suspension than their more modern counterparts. Maybe no big deal if you just ride it around town, but I would not want to ride a bike (or car) that old hard on a demanding road.

The older 4-cylinder are also considered much more tame than the new ones, so power-wise I’m guessing it’d be ok.

[Gary856]

In my 40 mph low-side on the left side almost a year ago, the bottom portion of my First Gear overpants got totally shreded from sliding and I had a nice rash on my left butt cheek. That area didn’t even seem reinforced. When I looked for a new pair of overpants I wanted better abrasion protection in the bottom area. I got Rev’It Turbine overpants which looks thicker in the bottom area, but I’m still unsure how it would stand up to a slide, so I’d like to get leather pants which are supposed to be the best for abrasion protection.

My theory on why the seat of the pants are not padded/armored is: a) it would interfere with you seating comfort, b) like others have said, the “impact” points are usually joints like elbow/shoulder/hip/knee, and c) there’s a lot of meat in the bottom so impact protection is “less critical” than abrasion protection in that particular area.

[Gary856]

No reason. GS500 and Ninja 500 are very similar and comparable, so it comes down to personal choice/preference.

[Gary856]

Many bikes are crashed out of commission or die from neglect before their engines wear out. Also there’s the question of how it’s ridden – w/ tender loving care or red-lined upon start. Depends on make and model, a well maintained and regularly ridden bikes can go for 30k/50k/100k miles and beyond.

People have posted check-list for buying used bikes here and there on the web. Also, if you don’t know what to look for, it’s recommended to have a mechanic check out the bike before purchase. (I didn’t, and I got lucky w/ my bikes.)

You can check Wikipedia for GS500 model history and year-to-year differences.

[Gary856]

Look for an older GS500 (2002 and before). They should go for $1,500 to $2,000 if maintenance are up to date and tires are in good shape, even lower ($1,000 to $1,500) if in rough shape. It’s a great first bike.

[Gary856]

Here in the SF Bay Area we have pretty good brand selections and pricing from local stores. For riding gear, generally the convenience of local stores outweighs the savings from online retailers for me.

In the beginning I didn’t know one brand from another so I shopped by price point. However, after wearing my gear for a while I ended up wanting to, and did, upgrade for better protection and better style. Just like upgrading to newer/better/bigger bikes, gear upgrade is a natural progression for a rider. You’d figure out what you need and want after doing it for a while.

My Shoei RF-1000 helmet still feels snug and comfortable after 16 months of constant wearing. It’s a very nice helmet for the price.

[Gary856]

I tool a quick look and was overwhelmed by the amount of good technical info in that book – it’s a treasure trove of engineering data, available to everyone! It’s incredible how much engineering is involved behind the scene in everyday life, large unnoticed by the average person. I can see having a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of bike design gives a dedicated rider more insight in the fine art of riding.

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