Total Motorcycle Community Forums

hey guys,

just wondering what some of your thoughts are about gettin a yamaha yzf600 as a first bike, its not the R6, and i hear its a decent starter... what do you think?

I rode one the other day, and the responsiveness feels sorta like the Honda CBR600F4i's stock power. It's nowhere near the hair-trigger responsiveness of the R6 or GSX-R 600.

why would you want to start on a higher end bike like that? its no secret 90% of the people here recommend a much smaller more tame bike to learn on. read the stickys. unless you have a specific reason for starting on a bike thats not recomended? why the big need to start out on the yzf600?

I have the slightly tamer honda version of that, and I wouldn't even let you sit on it. Of course I'd be out 9 grand if you dropped it, but that's beside the point.
There is no reason to spend money on a fz600 as a first bike, it's a 750cc inline 4, but god. It's just a waste, you cannot use it to its potential, and there's a good chance you'll end up in a situation that you REALLY don't want to be in because of it.
I recently went on a group ride with a bunch of people... one person had an 1100 honda shadow, my friend had a maxim 400. My friend was able to out corner, and keep a straight line WAY better. WAYYYY better. He was by far the superior rider, and he'd only been riding for about a year, the guy on the shadow had many years experience. Riding a small bike to start will teach you to not rely on pure power to get you out of a bad spot. It will make you a better rider as you wring every little scrap of power out of it.

What about an older FZ 600? Say an early 90's model? Would that be an acceptable starting bike. I'm pretty set on getting a EX500, but I've seen a lot of good deals on FZ 600's so I'm just curious if it' would also be an ok starting bike as well?


Eric

there's no reason to jump in head first. Plus, if you buy something smaller now, for less money, you can upgrade in a year or two and already have the gear - plus another bike to ride (unless you sell your first). Rest assured, you will still have loads of fun, even on a 250cc Ninja.

On a tangent, you could learn to drive a tracked vehicle in an M2A3, or an M577A2. The number of pushups you'll do if you wreck one is in the stratosphere, as are the damage costs on both. One has no weapons system, small tracks, and isn't very "HOOAH". The other has a 7.62 machine gun, a 25mm belt fed gun that can send AP or HE love down range, night and thermal capability, TOW missles, and a squad of Infantry in the back. Substantially cooler. Rest assured, pivot steering is fun regardless of which vehicle you're in - kind of like motorcycles are fun regardless of how many cc's the engine is.

Anthony

I just noticed on the specs part of this site that from 86 to 88 the FZ 600 had 54.64 HP and 32.5 ft-lb torque rather then the 91 hp and 48.5 ft-lb it has from 89-93. I don't think I want anything that old anyway, but I figured that if it was under 50 ft-lb of torque and a little over 50 hp it might be ok for a beginner. Guess I'll keep looking for an EX500.

Oh while its on my mind does anyone know how the EX500 or EX250 changed over the years. From what I've gathered both bikes have remained esentialy the same. In 1994 I know at least the 500 go some upgrades including larger wheels, larger fork, rear drum replaced with a disc break. Is there anything I should consider about different year bikes?

Also what's was the bike called before 1994, most people on these forumns refer to it as the EX500, but then I've seen in listed on other sites as a GPX 500?


Eric