250cc Bike for my wife

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havegunjoe · Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:33 am

Ok experts I need some advice. I have a Hyosung GV250, my first bike, and I like it a lot. The price was right and the gas mileage is great. Those are two very important things to me. I won’t go in debt to buy a bike and I want good fuel efficiency or it isn’t worth it to me overall. 250’s are a good size for me and the driving I do so I am not much interested in upgrading and loosing a lot in the way of mpg’s. My wife rides a 150cc scooter and would like to upgrade to a 250cc bike like mine so we can do a little more riding together. She is 5’2” and about 130lbs or less. (She won’t let me see for real.) We have looked at the Hyosung, a comparable Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha version of the 250cc. All are low enough for her to straddle. The weights are close enough for government work so I don’t think that will be much of a determining factor. She has never had to shift gears so she is a little worried about that but I don’t think it is something she won’t be able to overcome. So I am soliciting opinions on these choices first. Second are there any automatic motorcycles out there or are they called scooters? Third is there an additonal brand and model I should also have her look at?
Thanks for your help folks.

Oh, I forgot, it has to be a cruiser type body, no offense but no crotch-rockets please.

Joe

jstark47 · #2 Unread post by **jstark47** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:51 pm

There are a few automatic motorcycles, but none at the 250cc size. Ridley makes relatively small automatic transmission cruisers, but they're still 740cc and weigh 460lbs.

For someone petite, of the bikes you mentioned I'd pick the Honda Rebel simply because you can't beat Honda reliability.

tymanthius · Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:47 am

Why not have her take the BRC for training? That way, she can learn to shift, and decide if she wants a motorcycle, or would rather a larger scooter.

havegunjoe · Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:29 pm

tymanthius wrote:Why not have her take the BRC for training? That way, she can learn to shift, and decide if she wants a motorcycle, or would rather a larger scooter.

We did take the safety course but she did it on her scooter. I may see if she can get into a one or two day course so she can try a bike with gears. I'm not sure I want her to try it on my bike and do some damage to my bike and I'd like to not have to pay for the entire course that she already passed. That would be a waste of money when she only needs a small portion of the training.

luis_alberto · Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:40 am

I had a 125cc Yamaha Vino scooter before upgrading to a 200cc cruiser bike. I bougth the scooter and then took the BRC, just because I enjoyed so much the scooter and wanted to learn how to change gears before buying a motorcycle.

If you don´t want to waste money, think about what would be more expensive.

a) Letting her learn on your bike
b) Buying her a bike (preferably used) so that she can learn
c) Taking again the BRC (with professionals to teach her)

Let me tell you, it´s a big change from a scooter to a motorcycle. Just gettin into my mind that I had the clutch instead of the rear brake in the left side of the handle bar was quite a challenge. I think she should reconsider taking the BRC again before upgrading.

Luis.

flw · #6 Unread post by **flw** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:06 am

I thought there was a couple of Honda's over the years that had autoshift/clutch on a smaller bike but I don't recall the model name or years. Nighthawk maybe? If someone could help me out on this. I know they had one that was a engine size bigger than you wanted but they may have made one for a 250 as well.

Used on any 250cc bike will also get you low or no payments.

#7 Unread post by **Wrider** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:59 am

flw wrote:I thought there was a couple of Honda's over the years that had autoshift/clutch on a smaller bike but I don't recall the model name or years. Nighthawk maybe? If someone could help me out on this. I know they had one that was a engine size bigger than you wanted but they may have made one for a 250 as well.

Used on any 250cc bike will also get you low or no payments.

Yeah they had the Hondamatic in the '70s which was a 750 and the tranny was NOTORIOUS for breaking regularly.

Now they've got the DN-01 which is a 650.

Now for a 250 with an automatic/cvt you're gonna have to go with a Korean company, in which Kymco would probably be your best bet. Not up to American, Japanese, Italian, or German quality but more reliable than Indian-made stuff...

jstark47 · #8 Unread post by **jstark47** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:12 am

Wrider wrote:Now for a 250 with an automatic/cvt you're gonna have to go with a Korean company, in which Kymco would probably be your best bet. Not up to American, Japanese, Italian, or German quality but more reliable than Indian-made stuff...

Kymco makes lots of scooters with CVT's, but the only 250cc motorcycle they sell here is the Venox, which is a standard transmission, not automatic.

Maybe you're thinking of bikes made in the PRC like QLink? They have automatics. I specifically excluded them responding to the OP - I would not recommend a PRC-made motorcycle or scooter to anyone.

gsJack · #9 Unread post by **gsJack** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:04 pm

Wrider wrote:
flw wrote:I thought there was a couple of Honda's over the years that had autoshift/clutch on a smaller bike but I don't recall the model name or years. Nighthawk maybe? If someone could help me out on this. I know they had one that was a engine size bigger than you wanted but they may have made one for a 250 as well.

Used on any 250cc bike will also get you low or no payments.
Yeah they had the Hondamatic in the '70s which was a 750 and the tranny was NOTORIOUS for breaking regularly.

Honda also had a CM400A after the 750 Hondamatic. I had a 81 CM400A Hondamatic I bought with 2k miles on it and added another 96k miles to it and gave it to a friend and it had over 100k miles on it last time I saw it. Totally reliable bike. Suzuki made a GS450A Suzukimatic around the same time.

These were really semi automatics. Two speed gear box and a torque converter in place of a clutch, no clutch to work. Just shift gears a wee bit, Could leave it in high and ride around shiftless all day or just leave it in low if you were in traffic.

drrick · #10 Unread post by **drrick** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:45 am

My wife had never shifted before the MSF course. Never even drove a stick shift car. In fact she tried to learn how to shift a car and couldnt get it down. After the course she could shift just fine. She has a Virago 250 now and has had no problems. She will be getting a bigger bike this year but it worked out perfectly for her.