Total Motorcycle Community Forums

As some of you may have noticed from my posts, I`m 17 years old and i am going to be buying a bike in the spring and I am quite conflicted between getting a cruiser or getting a sport bike. It`s driving me crazy. I love the bad "O Ring" look of a cruiser and the comfortable position, but i love the speed and performance of a sport bike, such as the Ninja650R. This is quite a conflict that i have but hopefuly i will have it sorted out by the spring
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Ecstasy Rehab Forum

My suggestion to you is that after you take a MSF course, {during which you will ride possibly a Honda Rebel 250 furnished by the course) and get your motorcycle endorsement, take rides on both sport and cruiser bikes to get some idea of the differences aside from pure speed & handling. The newer cruisers are not exactly slugs, especially the bigger displacement models.Naturally, cruisers won't have the blinding speed and instant handling but as you mentioned, comfort is a factor especially if you plan to do any touring or long distance riding.
Insurance costs are also something to consider.

Or you could call it even and go for a naked bike


You won't really know until your ride them, or at least sit on them. I was like you when I was shopping too. I sat on a cruiser and it fit well. Then I sat on a sportbike and loved it. Then I went to a naked bike out of curiosity.


DH rides a cruiser. For whatever reason, he always had cruiser in his view. And he loves his bike, and was excited and saw stars the whole few weeks after he got it. But now that he's ridden my bike a few times, he's talking about how fun it is and looking at them for himself.

Anyway, you might end up changing your mind along the way. When you bring your first ike home and its sitting in your garage and you're s taring at it at 10pm in your underwear, you'll enjoy having a bike you won't worry about the next one for a little bit.

Pick the bikes that you think will work for you. Consider all the factors that new riders should consider when choosing. Remember this is your first bike, not your last.

hm I dont really know much about naked bikes, are they basically just inbetween a cruiser and a sport bike, like so they have good performance but are comfortable to ride?
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bho hash

stephen85858585 wrote:hm I dont really know much about naked bikes, are they basically just inbetween a cruiser and a sport bike, like so they have good performance but are comfortable to ride?

yeah... on standard bikes... the pegs are under you seat, the handlebars are high. you sit upright on them.

the ninja650R you want is a standard bike w/ sportbike style fairings.

standard bike is kinda in-between a cruiser and a sportbike... a good balance between comfort and manueverability.

Kal wrote:Of course some of us prefer to believe that Cruisers and Sportsbikes are extreme mutations away from True Motorbikes...

what is the 1st motorcycle anyway? im feeling lazy to search it myself.

got a link to a pic of it?

stephen85858585 wrote:hm I dont really know much about naked bikes, are they basically just inbetween a cruiser and a sport bike, like so they have good performance but are comfortable to ride?

This link is a very good read on types of bikes. It will explain it better than I can:

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/school-SectionThree.htm

<b><i>Open to interpretation but we have;

1867

Steampowered bonecrusher built by Sylvester Howard Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts. There is an existing example of a Roper machine dated 1869. It's powered by a charcoal-fired two-cylinder engine, whose connecting rods directly drive a crank on the rear wheel. This 2 cylander machine predates the invention of the safety bicycle by many years, so its chassis is also based on the "bone-crusher" bike.

1868

Frenchman Louis-Guillaume Perreaux patented a similar steam-powered motorcycle, probably invented independent of Roper.

I should point out there is some discussion about the accuracy of the above dates. Either way both were pioneers.

1885

Internal Combustion engined bike built by German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Cannstatt (since 1905 a city district of Stuttgart). The the inventors called their invention the Reitwagen ("riding car"). They had not set out to create a vehicle form but to build a simple carriage for the engine, a 4 stroke ICE unit that had been invented in 1876.

1894

The Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first motorcycle that was available for purchase by the general public.

1903

Harley Davidson start manuafactoring, however their output for the first year is one vehicle. Early H-D's were raced to bring brand recognition before H-D started mass marketing their motorbikes.

Alternatively there is this article here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hild ... r_1894.jpg

Looks like a chopper to me