How many of you guys have bikes?

get something small , dont get a 600cc sport bike for the first one , 600's are small enough for a beginner but big enough the user can find themselves in over their head fast, get an older cruiser for their low purchase price and they resell very easy and a 750 on an old cruiser is less powerfull than a 600 on a newer sport bike so you wont get into as much trouble. and the older cruisers dont require a beginner to know how to lean into a corner real well to get around as a sport bike requires soem mroe leaning and harder to manuever intown. and TAKE THE CLASS FIRST

I started off on an 88 Ninja 500 and I highly recommend people to start with 500's. 250's are just too small for any enjoyment once you learn to ride and 600's are too powerful for typical beginners. For your price range you'll be looking at a bunch of old bikes like my 88.

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Originally Posted by Goallie11

I started off on an 88 Ninja 500 and I highly recommend people to start with 500's. 250's are just too small for any enjoyment once you learn to ride and 600's are too powerful for typical beginners. For your price range you'll be looking at a bunch of old bikes like my 88.

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You can get plenty of '00 or newer bikes for under $2k

It was 6 years ago when I last looked for smaller bikes so that's probably true

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Originally Posted by Goallie11

I started off on an 88 Ninja 500 and I highly recommend people to start with 500's. 250's are just too small for any enjoyment once you learn to ride and 600's are too powerful for typical beginners. For your price range you'll be looking at a bunch of old bikes like my 88.

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crusiers are not the same as crotch-rockets. if you were referring to crotch-rockets, then yes, i agree. for a crusier, 750 is fine, imho.

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Originally Posted by IPD

crusiers are not the same as crotch-rockets. if you were referring to crotch-rockets, then yes, i agree. for a crusier, 750 is fine, imho.

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I was, and I agree with you, totally depends on if you're getting a crotch rocket or cruiser as to what size is appropriate.

Some good advice in this thread, but something is definitely missing here.

You will go down I repeat, you WILL go down. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. That being said, it should also be a factor in deciding what kind of bike to get.

For a beginner, I HIGHLY recommend an older 600cc Suzuki Katana. They made them for over a decade with hardly any changes, parts are plentiful, and if you crash it, it can be easily and cheaply fixed. It's also a heavy bike, it's the same physical size as the Katana 750, but with less power. Modern 500cc bikes are just about as fast as the 600 Katana, so it's not something to be scared of. I don't think you'd get bored of it as much as you might with a 500 class bike.

At a minimum, wear a helmet. I always wore gloves as well, because in a low speed accident, it will protect your palms when you brace yourself to hit the pavement. A cheap textile jacket for the summer is cheap protection as well. As far as pants go, I normally wore jeans, but they really won't protect you much when you go sliding. I've got plenty of scars to prove it. I eventually bought a pair of riding jeans... they are reinforced jeans with leather inside at the knees and hips. Look just like regular jeans for the most part, but protect a ton better.

Hope this helps. :)

ive been racing dirt-bikes for almost 15 years and would love to have a street bike, but ill never feel safe on them and to be honest i get bored on them. every day i see people texting while driving and generally not paying attention to the road or others around them. on the highway im scared to death of the drunk driver, the texting teen girl, and the guy whose falling asleep behind the wheel. a lot of my friends say they avoid highways but i dont feel any safer on back roads since theres a lot of deer around here.

so i stick to the dirt and i can honestly say i have a lot more fun ripping through the woods and racing GNCC's/enduros than trusting my life to other drivers on the street. if your only looking for a hobby to keep you occupied i would find a friend with a dirt bike and go riding with them once. who knows you might like the dirt better. its amazing how much fun you can have when you dont have to worry other drivers on the street taking you out, plus off-road theres no speed limits, cops or rules in general. hell i cant even do a small power-wheelie on my buddies R6 without worrying that a cop may have seen my 'reckless' act. to me, riding a sport bike on the street is like driving an F1 car and being told not to take it above 65mph... ever.

thats just my $0.02 though and im not trying to bash on street bike riders. i just personally dont feel like the 'fun/risk' ratio of street riding is high enough for me to enjoy it.

that being said theres a lot of good info in this thread. good gear is a must. riding with a bunch of people can help make the ride more enjoyable and also a little safer. you can start on any bike you want as long as your responsible, but i feel like people who start on smaller bikes generally become better riders than those who jump straight to the liter bikes and scare themselves.

whatever you do with bikes just remember to be safe and have fun!!!

I've been lucky... I've never been down hard on the street. Several times I 'thought' I was going to die, but somehow managed to come out of it... One time on my old Honda, I flew over a RR crossing, and induced the bars slapping the tank speed wobble/head shake at 50 mph... Still not sure how I stayed on top of that one, probably only lasted a few seconds, but it seemed like hours while riding it out...

I have not been so lucky on my dirt bike though... Taken some nasty spills on that. Some of them I miraculously was not seriously hurt, but I have managed to rack up a broken leg, a torn up knee, some back injuries, and one very long hour of a doc pulling gravel out of my back with tweezers...

So yes... Protective gear is very nice to have. Seems like every time you go down, you find something else you wish you'd been wearing...

Great info in here guys I really appreciate it!