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WeaponZeroParticipant
If you really want a starter cruiser and don’t want to go with a 250 (I sure wouldn’t knowing how underpowered cruiser engines are compared to standard/sportbike engines), the Yamaha V-Star 650 should be the absolute biggest bike you consider. The Kawasaki Vulcan 500, however, despite being smaller, is actually quicker and faster due its sportbike-derived engine.
If you won’t go that small, then you really don’t belong anywhere near a bike. I’m sorry but after spending days talking to my friend Lauren and trying to talk her out of buying a GSXR for her first bike, I’m through sugar coating things and I’m not holding back anymore.
You, sir, are the kind of guy who gives the rest of us a bad name. Assuming you aren’t scared sh*tless the first time you crack the throttle open and garage it or sell it after releasing your bowels, you’re going to wreck your bike within a few months after buying it and possibly die from the accident. You will then become a statistic. The kind that insurance companies look to when they decide MY premiums.
Start out on a V-star 650 or smaller, or start putting money toward paying the monthly insurance payments of everyone who uses this forum. You and everyone else who buys a bike that no beginner belongs on for their first bike owe it to the rest of us.
WeaponZeroParticipantThe GSX650F is marketed as a budget sport tourer, essentially a cheaper honda VFR. It has an I-4 powerplant derived from the GSXR series but detuned to produce less top end power and more low-mid range, essentially to make it act more like a twin. The riding position is more like a standard than an actual sportbike. The wheelbase is even longer than typical sportbikes for increased highway stability at the cost of a little bit of handling. You could almost say that it basically is a GS500F (which is more of a standard with bodywork than an actual sportbike) with an I4 engine. Motorcycle.com did a review on it where they compared it to an SV650S, saying despite the full fairing and bodywork, it is actually LESS sporty of a ride than the SV650S and that it is much better and more practical for the roads than the SV650S.
It is NOT a track bike, it is NOT a supersport/repliracer. It is a mechanically redesigned Katana 600 which, for those of you old enough to remember, was Suzuki’s 600cc racebike back in the ’80s and even back then it sacrificed track prowess for real world comfort and driving. There was a reason it had a 5 gallon fuel tank as opposed to the competitors’ 4 gallon tanks, and I THINK that the GSX650F retains the 5.5 gallon fuel capacity of the 1998+ Katana 600. If the fact that it has a 5.5 gallon fuel tank and a really tall, upright windscreen, and standard-style riding position doesn’t convince you that it was clearly designed as a budget sport tourer, then I don’t know what will…
The fact that the reviews say it is even more mild mannered than the SV650 and designed more with real world riding in mind would lead me to believe that it is every bit as suitable of a beginner bike than the SV650, if not moreso. So if you consider the SV650 to be a suitable first bike, then you should also consider the GSX650F in the same league. If, however, all you can see is fully faired 650cc I4, then you’re not seeing the whole picture.
WeaponZeroParticipantAll i know that might help you is that my sister’s husband learned to ride on a 1980 Kawasaki 440 LTD twin. Granted it was almost 20 years old at the time when he got it so it may not have been running at tip top shape, but he said that a 1996 Rebel 250 actually seemed to be quicker. The 440 LTD also had trouble keeping up with traffic on I-95 down in Florida, where the speed limit is 65 but traffic moves steadily at approximately 80-85mph. The speedometer only went up to 85mph which was common for bikes at the time as even sportbike speedometers stepped at 85 back then. This bike, however, couldn’t really do 85. He owned it for approximately 8 months then it broke down on him and said that I could have it if i wanted to fix it, but that getting it fixed might cost as much as $600.
WeaponZeroParticipantUM Motorcycles, as mentioned above, are Hyosungs. Think of Hyosung as being the Kia/Hyundai of motorcycles. They’re a Korean make who is new to the American market but have been around in Asia and Australia for around 10 years now. They look beautiful but are nowhere near as refined as their Japanese competitors and reviews of older overseas models seen on the internet say their reliability is very bad. In the US the bikes are covered under warranty but the shops that service these bikes are having problems obtaining parts which makes the warranty pretty useless. One of the admins of #motorcycles on EFnet IRC channel is a motorcycle technician who used to work for a shop that serviced Hyosungs and he actually quit because of how many times he had to do the same repairs (usually replacing faulty gauge cluster components) over and over again without having access to the proper replacement parts.
WeaponZeroParticipantTo give you a clue of what I’m expecting from it is this:
I live in Pittsburgh, PA, a city where everything is very old and all the roads were originally brick or cobblestone. A long time ago, they paved over most of the brick or cobblestone but many of the residential streets (such as the one I live on) never got paved over. If you look in my avatar you will see one behind me. The area is very hilly and most cobblestone roads take you up and back down again, and many of the stones are loose from the ground.
After turning off of the main road to enter my neighborhood to get to my house, you travel down what starts out as a perfectly flat and level normal paved road. After about 200 feet, the pavement ends and the road turns into a cobblestone road. Travel another 100 feet or so and it begins to go downhill, rather steep. Halfway down is a four-way intersection with stop signs. I have to turn left at this stop sign intersection and the ground I’m turning on is still on the side of a hill and I’m still going back down. Once i finally get to the very bottom of this hill, the pavement begins again and all is clear.
I’ve tried different techniques, but nothing I’ve found seems to help alleviate the fear and lack of confidence when travelling low speed downhill on a cobblestone road and then having to stop and turn while still angled downhill. It feels like I could lose the bike at any moment. What I really want out of the MSF course is to learn the proper way to go down roads like this with confidence and no fear because there are a LOT of them in this city.
WeaponZeroParticipantGhost Rider has a theme song? is it the Rollins band song “Ghost Rider”? or that song they used in the movie, “Ghost Riders in the Sky”
WeaponZeroParticipantBecause you don’t want contaminated oil sitting in there for 4 months. I’d do both though.
WeaponZeroParticipantYou’re right, you won’t have a lot to worry about. But you’ll still have to do the oil change, battery, and gas tank stuff. That’s about it though.
WeaponZeroParticipantThis site has PMs? thats news to me.
WeaponZeroParticipantHere in Pittsburgh you basically can’t ride at all from December (sometimes as early as late October) up to April, sometimes May. It sucks. We usually get the worst winter storms of the year after winter has officially ended.
August 12, 2008 at 11:21 am in reply to: Friend wants brand new GSXR for first bike and won’t listen to reason. How do I prevent her from making a serious mistake? #10360WeaponZeroParticipantI told her something along the lines of what Ben mentioned, and I think it’s really sinking in. I don’t know if it’s 100% true or not, but if it keeps her from hopping onto a gixxer for her first bike then frankly I don’t care if it stinks of the tooth fairy and the easter bunny.
I told her that if she starts out on a 250 rather than on a 600 supersport her skills will develop much quicker and she’ll be able to jump onto a literbike much sooner. I also made it quite clear that regardless of what bike she starts out on she’s going to have to go thru 3 or 4 bikes before being able to step up to a ‘Busa, but going from a 250 to a literbike is not unreasonable as long as it’s not a brand new CBR1000RR/R1/GSXR1000/ZX10R. I explained to her that there are skills she needs to master before she steps up to a large displacement sportbike that she will need to practice on her first bike, and with the way 600 supersports make their power its not really possible to “practice” these techniques if you aren’t already familiar with them. As I said I don’t really know if it’s true or not, but it sounded good and it makes sense when you think about it, and if it keeps her off a 600 then I’m happy.
I’ve also been showing her pics of older bikes from the late 90s that are no longer being built such as the road oriented ZX-9R they used to make that got replaced by the track scratcher ZX-10R (bad move on kawis part IMO but if it sells more, whatever), the old CBR900RR thats powered by the current 919 engine, and the Suzuki RF900 and she’s really taken a shine to them. I explained to her that the fact that despite the fact that theyre sportbikes, these bikes were designed with real roads and mind, not just as track bikes, and that makes them better on normal roads than the supersports of today when not on the track. She’s taken a liking to them and is asking me why they don’t build bikes like that anymore. Unfortunately I don’t have an answer that would make sense to someone who doesn’t understand the whole win-on-sunday-sell-on-monday thing.
I could be wrong but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for someone who’s spent a year riding around on a Ninja 250R to move on to one of these older ’90s road-oriented literbikes.
WeaponZeroParticipantbest beginner cruiser on the market = kawasaki vulcan 500.
August 12, 2008 at 11:03 am in reply to: Why it’s better that I started riding at 27 rather than as a teenager. #10358WeaponZeroParticipantLoki: That is a bit young but there are always exceptions. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is that when an older more experienced rider gives you advice, even if it’s something you don’t want to hear, treat it like it’s the law. To do anything else is to prove my point.
WeaponZeroParticipant1. sportbikes are higher to insure than cruisers because they take into account that people who ride sportbikes generally ride more recklessly and the bodywork makes for expensive repairs.
2. do you have any accidents/violations on your record? I know im 27 but that quote seems real high to me. I use progressive and my insurance only costs me about $300 per year for full coverage with everything maxed out on a naked SV650.
WeaponZeroParticipantQuestion is . . are YOU the other half of MINE?
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