About to take the plunge... couple questions...

[Uridian]

Hi all, I've only just recently found this site, but I read all night last night and all day today. I'm finally making some money after spending several years in college, and I'm not going to waste any time getting myself a bike (I've been wanting for many, many years). I'm going to reserve my spot in the MSF training course tomorrow for the first week in August. I'll be shopping for equipment and motorcycles in the meantime.

Anyway, my big question is... drum roll please... what bike? Not in that sense, though. Ultimately, I would love to have an R6 or similar class of bike, but I'm not going to get a 600+cc bike and spend $6000+ dollars right off the bat. I'm all for spending $5-800 on a beater to learn on, then sell it and move up in a few months or after winter. What I'm confused about is whether it would be a good idea to spend $800 or so on a mid-80's "standard" style and learn on that, then switch to a sport bike? Or should I instead try and find a mid-90's sport bike for $1000-2000 (500cc or less) since that's more like the style of bike I'll want to be riding? I'm not so concerned about my image during the learning period, just whether or not learning on a different style of bike will be an impediment to the process.

Also, I've read that I should expect to spend around $1000 for equipment (no less than $600), and I fully intend to, but I'm little unsure about how much I should expect to spend per item. I see $450 helmets and I see $80 helmets, and that sort of range across the board.

Thanks in advance!

[ngsalvo]

I may get run out of town for this, but I reckon the first bike is simply to get some experience up your sleeve. Sports bike, tourer, or cruiser is simply a matter of choice. I have a 250cc sports, and I love it, but I fully intend to move up to a cruiser. At the end of the day, it's a matter of personal choice.
What I have read about sports bikes suggests that bigger sports bikes are the ones that you need to be wary of. My 250 rides great, but I've never had the power band kick in too much that I couldn't control it. I don't believe it would be the case if I had a 600cc sports, or 1300cc sports tourer! Those things are tuned so tight they ought to be on a leash! But the 250 is pretty tame.
Smaller capacity lets you learn how the road works while remaining alive in my opinion. What does it feel like to go over tram tracks, how do car drivers react when you're less than two feet away from their face at traffic lights, what happens when you park your bike facing DOWN a hill, etc? I know that when my little 250cc starts to slide in the wet because I've braked too late and too hard, I can easily get out of the skid. I don't think I'd be able to control a beast of a sports bike as well as I can my little one.
Just my opinion. Smaller capacity is great for learning HOW to ride, not necessarily WHAT to ride.

[Kal]

80's UJMs rock!

Especially to get your basic skills in on as they generally have neutral ergonomics and fairly neutral handling. They are usually very tough bikes with the addition of engine bars and spares support is still pretty good.

If you can I'd suggest increasing your budget for the bike to roundabout 1k. As we are talking about your first ride it would be worth springing for an independant inspection by a mechanic.

Positioning, vehicle body language, bike controls, counter steering and pretty much all the other critical skills to ride a bike can be transferred from one type of bike to another.

Kit covers a wide price range as you've noted. Helmetwise you are looking for DoT stickers on it at least, sme people swear by snell certification and some people believe its more dangerous - afraid the jury is still out on that one. As long as it has DoT though it met the basic criteria of protecting your head as far as the governement is concerned.

Personally I go cheap because helmets are disposable items. If you go down the helmet is a goner, every few years it needs replacing - its just not something I want to spend a ton of money on.

After the DoT sticker the second most important thing about a helmet is the fit. Everyones heads are shaped slightly differnetly and consequently different helmet manufactureres tend to have a different fit.

There is a sticky thread about helmets in the safety forum here, but the short version is that it is worth going to a shop and getting one that fits you properly.

[Nibblet99]

I'd say go for the cheaper standards than the sports off the bat, for 2 reasons

1. It is mostly for road experience and developing bike control skills, those will translate well into both cruiser and sports bikes.

2. You may decide that, although you like the look of sportsbikes, you would prefer to sit in a different position. and prehaps choose a standard or dual sport instead once you have an idea of what you really want from a bike

[Uridian]

Excellent feedback, guys. That's precisely what I was looking for. I will up my bike budget and see what I can find. So exciting!