Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I'm not saying your katana is a great learner bike (still powerful, heavy and coated in plastic) but it's not AS bad. I'd spend a lot of time working in a parking lot. Lots and lots of time.

I was at a custom / repair shop and a dealership today. At BOTH places, the fellows were suggesting that I'd be better off STARTING with a 600-750cc bike. ????????

Now, I can understand the dealership wanting to sell me a more expensive bike ... but they showed me a couple gently used 500cc and 600cc Ninjas that were less expensive than the new 500cc Ninjas they had in stock. ???? Could be that they'd make more off the used bikes, I don't know. But I'm wondering about their advice.

The fellows at the CUSTOM shop (they don't sell bikes) advised me to go with a 600-750cc bike, too!!! I don't see how they stand to make any money off me ... so why would they give me this advice? Maybe because since they're "motor heads" they probably have ridden since they were kids and it was fine for THEM?

I'd think that the PROs would give better advice than this. I'm sure this will be covered in my MSF course, and if not, I will bring it up.

Rictor,

One option is you can go to a dealership or bike mechanic and have them put in restrictor plate to lower your available horsepower. The do this regularly in the UK for the majority of new riders, limit their bikes to 33BHP. Once you feel more comfortable, you can have the restrictors removed.

I was thinking about this and am wondering if a restrictive governor could be put on the throttle? This could be pretty cheaply done (????).

There's still the extra weight of the bike ... but at least the power can be tamed, I think.

Brackstone owns an Aprilia Shiver with a "Rain" setting on the throttle that basically just slows the throttle response so you can't suddely give her the juice. I remember he mentioned that it would be great for learning to control the power gradually, so the technology is definitely out there and common enough that it's being put on stock bikes.

Might ask him what the system was called on his bike and maybe look into it for other bikes, but I couldn't even guess how much it'd cost to have something like that installed aftermarket, but you'd still have all the power available, just not waiting to jump out like a caged lion.


On the other hand, though, another thought is that there are different 600cc bikes out there--there's two versions of the Ninja in the 600cc range: the Ninja 650R and the ZX-6R. The difference is that the 650 is a parallel twin while the ZX-6R is an inline 4. The parallel twin would be a LOT tamer than the inline 4, I'd imagine, so that may be the bike they meant or may have just been trying to sell you a bike that's been on the floor for far too long, last year's model, an old trade-in, or any number of reasons at the dealership. As for the custom shop, were they talking about sport bikes or cruisers, because that can dramatically change the engine size to learning curve ratio, too. A 600-750cc cruiser wouldn't be too bad to learn on (IMO), but a GSX-R600 would be a nightmare waiting to happen without copious amounts of self-control and patience.

No matter which way you go, though, how much you learn will be entirely up to you. Starting on a smaller or less powerful bike just makes that learning easier because it won't be as likely to 'get away from you' or overwhelm you if you make a mistake.

Before you say oh my god he's back, I just wanted to say that some of my comments were rather childish and my remarks werent the most mature to say the least. It just sucks getting downed on every single little thing you say. Which your the experts so apperently I am wrong on everything (No Sarcasim Intended) I feel I made some decent points but I guess none struck home for you guys. And some of you were right when you said I came on to this thread with my mind already made up which was quite true at the time. But buying anything new off the show room floor specialy for 13 Grand just doesnt make sence. I dont know what kind or size of bike I am going to get but Ive bought everything Ive been wanting to buy so now I can invest in something I can really enjoy. But like said before just agree to disagree because everyone told me 400+hp in a 2700 pound truck was to much as I was going to wrap it around a tree but Im still here. (Not Comparing A Bike To My Truck Just Saying) And Fargo360 thats cool your doing your own thing, Im going to NTI after high school and later down the road opening my own high preformace shop. Once again no disrespect towards any of the members or site managers. Most of my comments were late at night after long rough days. So when I get a motorcycle Ill be sure to post pictures on this site.

Cool man, we appreciate it. And when we say what we say, it's coming from experience. Just keep that in mind ya know?
E.G. a 600cc supersport is capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds and a top speed of over 160. Not many vehicles, even modified, are capable of that.

Wrider wrote: a 600cc supersport is capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds

Under 3 seconds.

HYPERR wrote:

Wrider wrote: a 600cc supersport is capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds

Under 3 seconds.

Not with my 300 lbs on it...

Wrider wrote:

HYPERR wrote:

Wrider wrote: a 600cc supersport is capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds

Under 3 seconds.

Not with my 300 lbs on it...