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I am a new rider, and I definately want to go Japanese for a bike. But what is everyone's opinion as far as the best Bike maker ( As far as motor, reliabilty, and quality ) style is not as important as the rest. I'm leaning towards Honda, but only cause I have only driven Honda vehicles. Most likely a sport bike I will buy not a cruiser.

For a new rider leaning towards sportbike/standard type bikes the Ninja 500, GS500, and Ninja 250 are good choices for a first bike. Honda and Yamaha don't sell any bikes of this engine size in this class in this country. They all make good bikes, just depends on what type you want.

gsJack hit the nail on the head.

I would add that for all practical purposes, all three of the big Japanese makers are essentially even on the criteria you are looking at.

slushpunk wrote:I am a new rider, and I definately want to go Japanese for a bike. But what is everyone's opinion as far as the best Bike maker ( As far as motor, reliabilty, and quality ) style is not as important as the rest. I'm leaning towards Honda, but only cause I have only driven Honda vehicles. Most likely a sport bike I will buy not a cruiser.

I don't think that any of "the Big Three" motorcycle manufacturers is decidedly better than another. They've all been around long enough to have the basics of reliability figured out. I think it boils down to what YOU'RE looking for in a bike.

For your first bike, have you looked at used? Brand doesn't matter much, since you can plan on upgrading (with no loss of $$) in 6 months, 12 months, whatever.

P

Big three or Big four? I though they were Kawi, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki

but to get back to your question they're all about the same

Obviously I can't count!

slushpunk wrote:I am a new rider, and I definately want to go Japanese for a bike. But what is everyone's opinion as far as the best Bike maker ( As far as motor, reliabilty, and quality ) style is not as important as the rest. I'm leaning towards Honda, but only cause I have only driven Honda vehicles. Most likely a sport bike I will buy not a cruiser.

To answer your first question, I would have to say Honda.

To answer your second question, if you are talking about a sportbike, ie 600RR, R1, ZX6R, or GSXR, you are really splitting hairs as they are all incredible bikes.

I would have to say

none of the japanese sport bikes . Italian all the way lol.

Well, I love Honda, but when it came time for my first bike... I went Kawasaki Ninja 250. The Honda beginner bikes had too many of what I felt were compromises on design.

But now that I've got miles under my belt, I'm not really sure when/if I'd graduate to such a level as running a CBR600RR, Interceptor or even the ST1300... Cost is a major factor including the large jump in insurance cost from my 250 to any of those bikes.

RhadamYgg

I would agree that Honda is probably the "best" one. Of course, there are some issues they have too, but overall they seem to have the fewest that I hear about.

However, as mentioned, Kawasaki is the only one who puts out a 250 sportbike in the US. I haven't been all that thrilled with Kawasaki though; in terms of service and reliability, but I do like my bike (when it runs).

Also, while I've decided it's completely impractical for me to get a cruiser, I really like the look of the Yamaha(Star) cruisers most. I've heard that Yamaha has pretty good reliability/quality too.