[madjak30]

I have a GS500E and feel that it is enough for me at 275lbs and 5’11, but just enough…the bike is great, it accellerates and turns quite nice and the top speed is enough to lose your license…being 20 will help you fit the bike better than me (39)…the 250cc will be great for starting out, but you may find it a little under powered after a short while…if you are looking at the Ninja I would also look at the 500R. It has a little more power than my Suzuki GS, and is also recommended here on the site as a good starter…I don’t know if I would look much bigger than that unless you have previous bike experience…

Good luck and have fun…

[madjak30]

It’s a monument to the lost children outside of our church…

Now the new challenge…a picture of your bike next to a dock…

Sorry about the Low-Res shots…camera wasn’t set up very good…??

[madjak30]

With their “unique” head light treatments and their styling in general. A buddy of mine at work has a BMW and says it is worth the extra to get the quality…but I really don’t know if it has that much quality over the Japanese bikes. The other downside, I would have to drive 1.5 hrs to get to a dealer…that would kinda suck…all the Japanese dealers are within 20mins of my house…

The F800R model is nice though…

[madjak30]

But it has the same riding position as my GS500, which in itself isn’t a bad thing…but my knees take a beating after more than an hour on the bike. The one thing the Bandit has is a higher seat, so my bend of the knee is less…I have decided (the Boss told me) that I will wait until next year before buying my next bike. It is a good idea, and I may just get used to the riding position…especially if I lose some weight (which is another issue with the GS), I might become more flexible…and the 650 would be a nice bike to step up to. I am planning on doing some longer rides this summer, if the weather ever cooperates…

But right now I am leaning towards the cruisers…I just have to go on a few rides to see if my butt will get sore riding more on my tailbone…I am also finding that I am being more aggressive on the “sporty” position, which is another reason to concider the cruiser. I have lowered my taste a little and am leaning toward the M50, instead of the M90…but if I wait until next year…who knows where I will end up.

The one thing I do like about the GSXF bikes is the full faring…I like the idea of the wind protection, not that you can’t get windshields for cruisers…they just look more natural on the sporty bikes…

[madjak30]

I am enjoying riding…and I really like my GS, it’s a great little bike. I’ve been thinking of upgrading, but I really like everything…well everything Suzuki, lol…from the Bandit, to the Gladius, to the Boulevard cruisers and every once in a while I want a V-Strom…I may just keep it until I atleast narrow it down to one style of bike…

I’m sure my wife is sick of me saying “Honey, I’m just gonna take the bike for a little ride”, then not coming home for a couple of hours. The pics I took were around the lake, you know, where the trees are. Everywhere else is fields of crops…it can be nice when the wind is blowing and you get the wave effect on the crops, but the roads are so straight. I’ve contemplated moving to the States for the longer riding season and somewhere that has some nice twisties…lol

I can just hear that conversation…”why did you want to move? SO YOU CAN RIDE YOUR BIKE??? GET BENT!!!”…yeah, I’ll skip that one and just plan some summer road trips…lol

[madjak30]

I have lots of farm land to see…it is nice in it’s own way, but fields of crops blowing in the wind isn’t quite as nice…also being farm area, all the roads are on the grid system…straight blocks…boring!!

I hear ya with the filling the truck, and glad to be riding the bike more…I usually have to fill my tank once a week, and at $120 per fill…lets just say that the $25-$30 per week I spent this month was a lot easier to swallow…I only had to fill the truck up once.

I love my bike, I love my bike…lol

[madjak30]

The Ninja 650R is $8699 here, so that is $1700 less…easier for the first bike purchase, and not quite the power to learn with.

I think it is a great idea. Those are also MSRP…”dealers may sell for less”…and in the States the MSRP is $7099 for the Ninja 650R…with the dollar close to par, I don’t see why there is such a price difference…but that is another topic…

Also, I think the MSRP for the Suzuki GS500F is $7199 in Canada, so the pricing is pretty good for a fuel injected 400CC bike. If Suzuki would have had the Gladius 400 here I probably would have gotten that instead of the GS500 that I bought…

[madjak30]

I am actually going to test ride the M50 SE…horse power is about the same, but with more torque. I really don’t need to have that much more Hp…but it isn’t much more money…lol

The M50 only weights 25% more than the GS500 and has 50% more torque, so it should be a little faster…I’m really more concerned about the comfort (read my knees). Speed has never been a big thing for me, I crave accelleration…I really like the look of all three of those bikes…atleast I didn’t say I was concidering a B-King as a second bike, which is rated at 170Hp ish…I’m just not ready for that kind of kick…

I still really enjoy riding the GS, so I may decide to keep it longer. Who knows…the only real downfall with the GS is the physical size and the suspension doesn’t like my weight (275lbs), I just feel too big for it…like a bear on a bicycle…

[madjak30]

This week I thought I would try riding with my MP3 player tuned into the local radio station (I miss listening to the news and local goings on in the morning commute). I only had the volume set on 8/32 so that I wouldn’t be blasting tunes and ignoring everything around me. I set that volume with the bike idling beside me so that I could just hear the exhaust…the first thing I noticed was that the earbuds don’t block sound very well…better than nothing, but no where near the ear plugs. The wind noise was so loud that I couldn’t make out what was being said. I could hear the music, but that’s about it. So needless to say, I went back to the ear plugs and the realative quiet that comes with them.

Later.

[madjak30]

I avoid the pot holes regardless of whether they are full of water or not…either way, my suspension will bottom out and I don’t want a flat (puncture)…or a bent rim…I really did enjoy the ride in the rain…like I said, I just took it slow in the corners and enjoyed the ride…I think I may put my insurance papers in a ziploc though…lol

All of Rab’s suggestions are true, but they are common sense….although that isn’t too “common” these days…lol

Enjoy the ride…no matter what the conditions are…the fresh air will do you good…

Later.

[madjak30]

Does it have to be a “monument” or can it be any statue or structure that has a plaque…I live in small town Alberta…I don’t want to have to ride for three to four hours to find something…???

[madjak30]

If you will be riding with any of those uncles, you will not want to start with the 250cc cruiser bikes. They won’t have enough “poop” to keep up with the Harley’s…not that Harley’s are the end all be all, but if your uncles are die hard Harley fans, I’m betting they done ride the 883 Sportsters…a 650cc in a twin or a single (Suzuki) will be good enough to learn on and not be too powerful that it will hamper your learning curve. I have only been riding for two months (midlife crisis myself), but I have researched the cruisers and an 800cc is about the equivalent of the 500cc sport bikes…(please no one take offense to this) the performance of the Ninja 500, or the GS500 is similar to the 750cc to 800cc cruiser bikes…the cruisers have more style, but the sport bikes have better performance…I still haven’t decided which way to go myself. I own a GS500 and like the sporty feel, but the style of the Suzuki M50 or M90 is very tempting over the Suzuki Bandit GSX1250FA…

I find that the sporty bike makes me feel like I should be riding faster, and I do…but I really like to just accellerate quickly to the speed limit and “cruise” along…I will wait for another year before making the decision, but my Suzuki dealer keeps offering me a “test ride”…make me nervous…I’m very impulsive…

Like Munch said…go to the dealer and sit on them all…but I would say do it a few times before making the decision…you can never be too sure…

Remember, this is fun and the bike you buy should be comfortable above all else…don’t limit yourself either, sit on the sport bikes, the touring bikes, the adventure bikes and the cruisers…you may be surprised which one feels the best to you.

Later.

[madjak30]

1) I don’t have a Ninja 250, but I ride a Suzuki GS500E…another highly recommended “learner/beginner” bikes. I found that the straight line accel. is great for the first week, then you are looking for more. But a bike isn’t about stop light racing, it’s about learning to carry speed through a courner and taking the back road because you want to. I found that I try to take a “joy ride” after work, and I have a big stupid grin on my face doing it. Am I faster than any car out there? Nope, I got beat by an Escalade the other day…I’m sure the guy told his buddies that he beat a “sport bike”, but my bike may be “sporty looking” but not a sport bike…similar to the Ninja…low power, but extreme fun!!

2) The “everyone drops their bike eventually” talk has merrit (as said above, in the stats). You shouldn’t drop your bike if you are aware of the possibility, but as soon as your mind is elsewhere…you may put your foot down in some loose gravel, and……if your bike is lighter, you will have more of a chance to save it (I did, luckily). As for at speed, it is more of a defensive driving vs agressive driving issue…if you ride it like you stole it, you will probably have some kind of incident. But if you are aware of your surroundings and ride defensively, you are much less likely to ever add to those stats…(I almost did, over accellerated through an on ramp and ended up right on the line…no other car right there, but if there was they would have probably swerved and honked…BAD ME!! Learning curve.)

4) The anti-fog insert is just that, an insert. My helmet came with one and it works well. I didn’t put the chin piece in, so on a windy day on my way to work I found out what it is for. It helps to stop wind from hitting your chest, going up into the front of the helmet and hitting the breath deflector to end up hitting you square in the eyes…not great, I pulled over and yanked out the deflector…

5) I think it is helpful and hurtful to have previous experience in a car…the basics are the same, but in a car you are told not to “ride the clutch”. On a bike you are told to “slip the clutch” to control your speed at slow manouvres…so you have to unlearn one of the first rules that you are told when learning in a car…it’s kinda like explaining “counter steer”, it doesn’t make sense to most people until you try it…then it becomes clear…

Anyway, I know I skipped #3 but I didn’t have any problems with my helmet fitting or feeling wrong…maybe because I have a big head…lol ???

My suggestion is to go with the 250cc bike for the first year, if you buy used you will probably get what you paid for it…free use for a year (minus insurance and fuel).

Good luck and remember, this is fun!!

Later.

[madjak30]

I was trying that at 130kph (80mph)…it didn’t help that it was dark and rainy…first night ride too…I think I would like it if it wasn’t raining…

I might have to try the finger squeege…but Rain-X is pretty cheap too.

[madjak30]

I forgot to size the picture…I won’t go any bigger than 600×450…seems to work pretty nicely.

But now that I know how to do it….

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