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Honda Grom: Beginner Bike Profile + Owner Reviews
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WeaponZeroParticipant
As far as style goes it seems like your preference is leaning toward the traditional “standard” motorcycle, which is essentially the middle ground between a sportbike and a cruiser (compared to today’s “standards” which are more just naked/unfaired sportbikes). Not a bad choice.
You say you have experience under your belt but haven’t ridden in 20 or so years, which I would say puts you in a slightly better position than a new rider as far as the displacement you can go up to.
If you can get past the modern, sporty styling, I think you will find that the Kawasaki Versys and Suzuki DL650 V-Strom, at least as far as how they ride go, have exactly what you’re looking for. Under the skin they’re everything a traditional standard should be. If the styling, however, is a must, then really the only bikes I can recommend to you are the current Triumph lineup of retro-styled bikes (which are all powered by what I THINK is a 900cc parallel twin) or the Harley Sportster 883, and you’ll probably end up feeling cramped on the Harley because its rider triangle seems more suited to those of the more “vertically challenged” variety. You can also look for a ’90s Honda 750 Nighthawk as well which should do you well.
As far as buying older bikes go, I think that when you get into the 20+ years old year range, you start to venture into a realm of uncertainty because there could potentially be problems with a bike that old that a technician won’t pick up on when giving it a once-over. You just don’t know what you’re getting into really, and although taking it to a technician for an inspection eliminates many variables, it doesn’t eliminate all of them. I can only advocate buying a bike from the ’80s or older if you are looking for a project and/or are able to do your own repairs. Yes there are many who will say that people who own motorcycles should work on their own bikes, but let’s be real here. Wrenching away isn’t for everyone and aside from knowing how to do your basic pre-ride inspection and air up your tires, you should have the option of leaving everything else up to a licensed technician if you choose. Also, because motorcycles in northern states are often garaged for the winter and allowed to sit for months at a time every year, they typically don’t age as well as cars unless they’re stored properly and there’s no way to guarantee that it has been stored properly every year for the past 20+ years.
The absolute bottom line is that you should stay away from a bike that old unless you are a competent mechanic or are looking to become one and are willing to invest a fair bit of time and patience into the bike. Unfortunately this limits your choices for potential bikes as the style of bike you seem to favor is a vintage style that has sort of died out, and is only carried on by higher-end brands such as Harley and Triumph. However, if you can get past the looks, I think you will find that while the body is dead, the spirit lives on in the form of do-it-all standards such as the aforementioned V-Strom and Versys.
Hope I helped.
WeaponZeroParticipantThe R6s is not a softer street anything. it is simply the previous generation R6 rebadged under a new name, like how kawasaki started calling the 2001-spec ZX-6R the ZZR-600 after they introduced a new ZX-6R in 2003.
WeaponZeroParticipantWorking on it man! My goal is to fit into leathers.
WeaponZeroParticipantI would but I don’t quite know what size I’m going to be when I do reach my target weight. And thanks.
WeaponZeroParticipantSince weight loss was mentioned here I have to say it–I weighed myself this morning and I am now down to 244.7! An even 90 lbs down! WOOHOO!
WeaponZeroParticipantIt seems like it trades off a lot in the way of protection for style and comfort, which is a purely personal preference. Personally though I would hold out for a good deal on a full perf leather jacket (they can be had for $150 or so on closeout) and then buy a cheaper more versatile textile jacket such as the Cortech GX Sport Series II for when the weather goes outside of the range of the perf leather.
WeaponZeroParticipantIf it weren’t for the fact that you mentioned highway miles as being a priority I’d recommend the DR-Z400SM by Suzuki. Excellent bike, but sucks on the highway due to the uncomfortable seat.
Honestly the only bikes that sound like they meet all your requirements are the Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and Kawasaki Versys, both of which are on the upper edge of what is considered a beginner bike and what isn’t You could start out on them but you’d have a much steeper learning curve than people who started out on smaller bikes. They do everything you said you require of a bike though, and they do it well.
WeaponZeroParticipantI sat through the entire video you linked and I never saw anything I would really consider a blind corner because even in the turns you mentioned, there was ample visibility around enough of the turn to react in case you saw something. I was referring more to bends in the street that take you around rock face or mass of trees where you can’t see anything more than what’s dead ahead of you.
WeaponZeroParticipantI know! I lost about 30 lbs in the winter of 2009-2010 while my bike was garaged and when I pulled it out in the spring, I noticed the weight I lost made for a drastically different riding experience. Not so much on acceleration but on handling & control. Back when I was 300+ lbs I could not have even attempted to do low-speed exercises like “the box” on my SV650 but once I no longer weighed nearly as much as the bike I was riding, that stuff came much easier. I wouldn’t have thought 30 lbs would have made THAT much of a difference.
WeaponZeroParticipantI want to do track time but I’m not small enough to fit into leathers yet. I’m losing weight at a pretty quick rate, but I think it would be pointless to invest in leathers to do track time right now at the rate I’m dropping sizes.
WeaponZeroParticipantVulcan 500 is an excellent choice. Another good one is the Suzuki Boulevard S40, which has been around for about 20 years but for some reason its name has changed like 3 times. It has been called the LS650 and Savage 650 as well so try looking for it under those names as well. It has more of a raked out “chopper” look to it than the Vulcan or many other entry level cruisers, which is purely a preference thing. Personally I would go for the Vulcan 500 because it has a sportbike engine at its heart
WeaponZeroParticipantIt’s true. An SV650SF with suspension upgrades (unfortunately it needs a whole host of them to do this–not just the cookie-cutter GSXR rear shock conversion) can do anything a supersport can do in the street as long as the pace doesn’t head upwards into triple digits. And because of the torquey nature of V-twins it kicks you in the pants like a literbike even though it’s only a 650.
My personal suggestion is to buy an SV650S/SF and use the money you save over buying a supersport into upgrading the suspension. New springs, cartridge emulators, rear shock, and you’ll be able to hang with a ZX10R or ZX6R on any road that isn’t a straight.
EDIT: Honestly I think Suzuki would have a real gold mine on their hands if they came out with a version of the SV650SF that cost a few dollars more but had the suspension upgraded to, say, older generation GSXR spec with fully adjustable rear and a cartridge front. It would literally give you the best of all possible world in a streetbike. I know that I personally would be willing to pull more out of my pocket for an SV650 that came from the dealership with all of the “cookie-cutter” suspension upgrades already done at the factory. Dumping an extra $300-$400 into higher end suspension components at the engineering phase would easily give Suzuki an excuse to charge an extra $600-$700 for the bike (which I would gladly pay), and as long as they still kept the lower-end version in the lineup they would still be competing with the 650R as well.
August 18, 2010 at 2:45 am in reply to: question on sport bikes for Eternal, Mega, or anyone who can help. #28126WeaponZeroParticipantMy mirrors don’t see my hands. They around my shoulders. If they’re looking at your hands you’re either sitting wrong or have your mirrors positioned weird.
WeaponZeroParticipantAssuming I’ve interpreted what you said about your riding experience correctly, you have approximately 10 years of dirt-only experience on a 250 dirtbike and have never ridden a street bike. Yeah, I’d say the ZX-10R is TOO much. While your experience does exempt you from the normal “start out on a 250” speech, I’d say that given your lack of street experience, you still shouldn’t rush to the top. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you could probably safely start out on a 600 supersport, which is more than I can say for most beginners.
But realistically, unless you plan on doing track days, racetrack-focused sportbikes like the Kawasaki ZX* line of sportbikes, Honda CBR-RR series, Yamaha YZF-R series, and Suzuki GSX-R series are total wastes. You’re sacrificing a LOT of comfort and real-world rideability over something like an SV650SF for a performance edge that, for all intents and purposes, only exists on paper. Because unless you realistically see yourself doing speeds in excess of 130mph in the street (something we don’t exactly advocate around here) OR plan on hitting the track regularly, then you will NEVER find yourself in a situation where the tradeoffs you make in choosing a track-oriented supersport over a more street-oriented sportbike (such as the Suzuki SV series or Yamaha FZ series) are worth it.
The reason why is because in the street, low-end torque and midrange (something track-oriented supersports are severely lacking in) matter MORE than top-end horsepower. That’s where you get your ability to carry speed through corners, and that’s where you get your ability to take off like a bat out of hell from a dead stop. On top of this, the riding position supersports force you into makes the bike more difficult to control at, well, REALISTIC speeds than the more upright seating position of those street-sportbikes.
So yeah. Chase your dream in choosing the bike you want, but just be sure to keep in touch enough with reality to buy the bike that’s meant for the type of riding you’re going to do. I can promise you that as long as you keep to riding in a way that still holds onto some grasp of sanity, you will have just as much fun, if not more, on a more street-oriented sportbike than on a pure repliracer.
WeaponZeroParticipantAlso though I would like to say that it depends on what constitutes freeway speeds where you are. The speed limit on the freeway is only 65 sure but depending on where you live traffic could flow up to 20-30 mph above that. Where I come from in South Florida, freeway traffic flows in excess of 90mph. I certainly wouldn’t want a 250 for that. But at 75-80, like here in Pittsburgh, sure, no problem.
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