[WeaponZero]

I bought a mirrored face shield with my first helmet, and I once took it to go hang out with some friends during the day. I ended up staying out until after dark and tried to ride home in the dark. I was almost totally blind. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life. My advice is to avoid them and, if improving sun visibility is that much of a concern to you, be sure to buy a helmet with a built in flip-up sun visor like the shark evoline or scorpion EXO-1000.

Now, onto your bike choice…

Having gone through the MSF course does not in any way shape or form prepare you for a bike like that. Beginners have no business whatsoever being on those kinds of bikes, and you will still be just as much of a beginner after completing the MSF course as you do now. Mothball it for now and buy a 2nd bike thats something you aren’t a fool to try to ride at your skill level and practice on that for a good year or so. THEN you can bust out the GSX-R. And if your financial situation won’t allow for that, then well.. to put it bluntly

You f-cked up big buying a GSXR for your first bike. Plain and simple royally f-cked up.

[WeaponZero]

The Ninja 500R is liquid cooled. The GS500F is air-cooled. Since you plan on spending a lot of time in urban environments, that means a lot of sitting in traffic. Liquid cooling is a must for that.

That being said, I think you’d be much happier on the Ninja 250R than either one. Plus it looks sexier.

[WeaponZero]

Important facts:

1. Any bike, even a 250, will haul 300+ lbs without it significantly engine performance. The issue with smaller bikes and heavier people is in the suspension, not the engine. “Beginner” bikes typically come with non-adjustable suspension thats undersprung for us heavier folk. You don’t start seeing fully adjustable suspension until you start getting into bikes that no beginner has any business being on, unfortunately. An upgraded aftermarket rear shock will fix that, though.

2. The Ninja 500R has been discontinued. The 650R is its replacement. Kawasaki actually ceased production of the 500R in 2008 and all “new” models you see are actually left over from the last production run. 650Rs are respectable beginner bikes.

3. DO NOT start out on a 4 cylinder bike such as the CBR600RR or Ninja ZX-6R you mentioned above. You will make the learning process even more difficult for you. Stick with twin and single cylinder bikes due to their more manageable power delivery.

4. Since you’re dead set on sportbikes, here is a small list of beginner-friendly sportbikes out there. Note that most of these aren’t ACTUALLY sportbikes, but rather standards that are wearing sportbike bodywork.

Hyosung/UM – GT250R, GT650R
Kawasaki – Ninja 650R, Ninja 500R, Ninja 250R
Suzuki – GS500F, SV650S/SV650SF
Yamaha – FZ6R

These are the only current production model motorcycles you should be looking at as they are the only beginner-friendly bikes currently out there on the new market that a beginner has any business on. Aside from the SV650S/SV650SF, which is in every sense a “true” sportbike, all of the bikes on this list are actually standards that are simply styled like sportbikes. Honda unfortunately does not make any bikes that meet your requirements.

5. Your height may be an issue on sportbikes as their seating position forces you into a tuck which taller riders like yourself with naturally find VERY cramped.

Now, some things you should know IMO. I have been riding for two years and I still own my first bike, which is a 2000 Suzuki SV650 naked that is completely stock aside from an upgraded rear shock. When I first bought it, I weighed 335 lbs and my weight was somewhat of an issue on that bike. Even after having ridden for a year I was still struggling with many basic MSF techniques. It wasn’t until after I lost some weight and dropped down to about 275 that I was able to do things such as the box. Sportbikes simply aren’t built for big guys like us. Not smaller ones anyway. I’m going to give you a piece of advice someone once gave me as a big guy that I wish i had followed. Regardless of what type of bike you want, learn on a dual sport or supermotard-style bike. A Suzuki DR-Z400SM WILL do the job, and very well. If, after a year or so you are still dead set on a sportbike, trade in your dual sport or motard on a proper sportbike. This will allow you to bypass the beginner bikes and move into the bigger sportbikes that are more ergonomically friendly to us big guys.

[WeaponZero]

kawasaki KLR650.

[WeaponZero]

Learning in the dirt isn’t an option for a lot of people. I grew up in South Florida where there was no place you could legally ride a dirtbike off-road. Nobody owned one because everything was all urban and the only “wooded” areas around were the swamp land of the Everglades which was protected. Unless you live out in the suburbs or country, learning on the dirt is simply NOT AN OPTION in the world of today.

[WeaponZero]

First generation SV’s are preferred for the track because they have more grunt pulling out of turns. Aside from the lack of EFI they’re better than 2nd gens in virtually every way. But they do have one problem: Their charging system is faulty and many first gen SV owners go through regulator/rectifier units as often as they do batteries, if not moreso. My bike is a 2000 model that is on its third already.

The problem is that the R/R unit (and wiring leading to it) are insufficient for the bike. They were pulled from the Suzuki Savage 650/LS650/Boulevard S40 and are insufficient for powering the SV. The most common “fix” for this if you don’t want to have to replace your R/R unit every so often (expensive part–upwards of $150.00) is to retrofit one from a Honda CBR600RR/HondaCBR1000RR (the 5-wire 2005-spec ones, not the newer 7-wire ones). it requires some wire splicing and you have to run an in-line fuse in it, but once it’s done, your first gen SV650 will never give you problems again.

[WeaponZero]

I generally choose to give my business to a specific retailer even if they may charge more money. I love sportbiketrackgear.com because after speaking on the phone numerous times with both them and newenough.com as well as other retailers, I find their staff to be the most knowledgeable as every single one of them is passionate about the product. They’re just good people doing what they love.

[WeaponZero]

While I haven’t ridden all THAT many bikes, I’ve ridden enough to know that supermoto bikes such as the DRZ have the most raw fun-factor you can have on an urban road.

I own an SV650 and while it’s a great urban commuter and an overall fun bike, to really be able to have *fun* on the bike requires taking it to special roads that I have to ride a good ways just to get to. There isn’t a whole lot you can do with it on city streets which is where I spend the most of my time. The bottom line is that with bikes like this, and even moreso with repliracer type bikes, you have to go really far out of your way to actually find a place you can truly have fun on your bike, if youre city folk like me. And getting there isn’t always fun when it involves navigating congested roads and freeways that are being detoured due to construction.

But supermoto bikes, well, they’re urban assault weapons. They may not have the power to do 90+ MPH but you don’t need it if you use them for what they were meant for. They were made for guys like me who want to be able to have their fun without having to ride an hour away just to find some mythical pothole-free winding road to be able to get up on it and toss the bike around. It can do at that left turn at the four-way intersection up ahead what your supersport or streetfighter can do on a winding mountain road, and it can make your commute to and from work fun even on pothole-ridden roads where you can’t even come close to cracking the throttle open.

These bikes were made to give you the same thrill supersports and other sportbikes provide without having to leave your urban jungle. They turn the city into your playground. Go into it understanding that, and you will see them for their magic.

[WeaponZero]

The reason I recomend gloves with kuckle protectors is because I’ve heard numerous stories from people who said their knuckles were caught under the bike handlebars in an unscheduled getoff.

[WeaponZero]

As a man who weighs more than you, I can tell you from personal experience that the engine performance, even on a 250, won’t really be affected by your weight. The areas where it might struggle are the suspension. I would not trust a 250 to carry my weight without suspension upgrades. A 500 I think would be suitable. My SV650 has no problems at all, but it has a GSXR rear shock upgrade.

Mostly any *budget* oriented bike with non-adjustable suspension MIGHT have issues with us heavier set guys but a simple rear shock upgrade will take care of that.

[WeaponZero]

But if you’re anything like I was, and like almost everyone I know was, you didn’t have much left over after buying the bike itself and the helmet to invest in top of the line gear, and you probably don’t have the patience to save up for it either knowing you have a perfectly good, ridable bike in the garage/driveway. That will only encourage you to ride without gear at all. That being said, there IS such a thing as “entry level” gear for people who want the basic protection necessary to learn in safety but don’t want to invest lots of money into gear before they truly know whether or not riding is for them. It is for those people, and for the people who don’t have much left over after buying the bike, that I put my list together for. it sure beats the hell out of riding without any gear at all which is exactly what will happen if you try to hold off on buying the gear until you have enough money for the *good* stuff.

The basics are: A DOT/ECE approved full-face helmet (I still say Scorpion is the best in the entry level price range), an affordable textile jacket (leather is better but if you’re considering leather, stick to what’s on sale/closeout at this point), gloves with knuckle protection, leg armor or overpants, and boots.

[WeaponZero]

I do buy from the local shop when I’m in a pinch, but the problem is that dealers often charge 30% or MORE than online retailers or even Cycle Gear. The day after I bought my Joe Rocket Atomic 3.0 jacket from a local dealer for $180 I looked online and saw that it sells for only $120.00. That feeling of knowing I paid too much for it SUCKED.

[WeaponZero]

Their gear is not the absolute highest quality and won’t last forever, but the price is right and it WILL protect you. One unique thing about their jackets is that other brands don’t offer is a lot more adjustment, enough to allow the jacket to grow or shrink a LOT if you happen to gain or lose weight. I bought a Joe Rocket Atomic 3.0 textile jacket (their lowest-end textile jacket–currently on sale at newenough.com for like $70.00) as my first riding jacket. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money because I was planning on losing weight which meant going down a size. At the time I weighed a whopping 335 lbs and the jacked fit me ike a glove with all of the adjustments on max. I still have that jacket today despite the fact that it has protected me through two low speed crashes and it is still in remarkably good shape overall. The best part however is that despite the fact that I have lost 60 pounds since then, the jacket with all its adjustments tightened up STILL fits me well (although I am now getting to the point where it’s starting to get too big for me even with adjustments tightened up).

All Joe Rocket gear is built with lots of adjustment and lots of ventilation in mind. With the vents on that jacket opened up I can ride comfortably in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.

That being said, they won’t last forever. They use cheap zippers and the stitching is, lets just say, far from premium. But they are the best in entry level gear.

Also, ICON, a higher-end gear manufacturer who makes gear specifically for the street rider, has a textile jacket called the Merc textile jacket currently on closeout for like $85.00 from virtually any online gear retailer. It doesn’t have the versatility or adjustability of the Joe Rocket jackets but it’s far better where raw safety is concerned.

For helmets I would go with a Scorpion EXO-700. If you’re anything like most beginners then you probably can’t afford to spend more than $200 or so on a helmet (although if you can, that’s great) and the Scorpion EXO-700 is THE best helmet in the under $200 price range. HJC and KBC (the other two major budget helmet brands) don’t even come close in quality to the Scorpion helmet line.

My recommendation if you’re on a budget:

Joe Rocket Atomic 3.0 or ICON Merc textile jacket (both under $100 currently on sale). OR if you are willing and able to spend more, newenough.com and sportbiketrackgear.com has some nice Scorpion LEATHER riding jackets on sale for just a bit over $150.00. The Stinger and All-In specifically.

Scorpion EXO-700 helmet (roughly $200.00 or less if you get one of the color patterns currently on sale from sportbiketrackgear.com)

You can find good quality gloves from any reputable manufacturer on sale for undr $50.00 if you know where to look. Newenough.com has some nice Joe Rocket warm-weather riding gloves with knuckle protection on sale for less than $20.00.

Footwear won’t be as easy because whenever they go on sale, the ‘common’ sizes sell out REAL quick. You can expect to pay anywhere from $90.00 to $150.00 for a decent pair of riding boots if your shoe size is anywhere from 9-13 US (the common sizes) because you’ll never find sale items anywhere in that size range. I personally use Tourmaster Solution WP waterproof boots (roughly $130.00) but I have found that when it comes to footwear, anything that’s waterproof will roast you in hot weather. It’s best to forego waterproofing for ventilation if you ride mostly in temperature exceeding 85 degrees. Personally i feel that the ICON Field Armor boots (roughly $130.00) offer the highest degree of protection and all-day comfort for the price. Sportbiketrackgear.com has some Teknic boots for pretty cheap too, with the Violator boots (roughly $180.00) being probably the best deal in riding footwear going right now.

Finally we have leg protection. Let’s face it. If you’re a street rider and you ride often, then buying dedicated riding pants which you only own one pair of is not the most practical solution, although it is the safest. A good compromise would be to buy leg armor such as the Icon Field Armor leg armor or the Alpinestars leg armor and wear it under your jeans. You won’t QUITE have the same degree of protection as you would with dedicated riding pants, but it’s a good compromise between protection, affordability, and practicality.

[WeaponZero]

I’ve been living off of a diet plan I call the Protein Trifecta, which basically consists of egg whites/egg beaters, fish, and lean white-meat poultry. I cook them a variety of different ways, from chicken parmesan to chicken burritos, etc. I use only low fat/fat free ingredients such as kraft fat free shredded cheeses. My fruit and vegetable intake comes in the form of between-meal snacks. I drink lots of water. I also have gotten used to eating smaller portions.

For a while I was only dieting, not doing any exercise, and I saw results. But I wanted to speed things up so around the beginning of December I bought some Body By Jake workout toys (the Tower 200 and the Shadowboxer Knockout Body system) and they have sped things up TREMENDOUSLY.

[WeaponZero]

Unless you’re looking for a restoration project bike, you should NEVER buy something that doesn’t run like new. I’d pass.

[Author]

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