Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hey All,

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Greg and I am a 47 year old man, married to a wonderful lady. We have two boys (19 and 13) and live in North Carolina.

I'm not even a new biker yet, but I am very interested in becoming one. I've been reading A LOT in preparation for taking the plunge, and I love this web site! I plan on taking the MSF course at a local community college soon, and if I am still enthusiastic, buying my first motorcycle and enjoying the ride. I'm leaning towards a sport bike and am thinking that a used Kawasaki Ninja 500 would be a good choice, but won't really know what type of motorcycle I want until after I take the MSF course.

And what a surprise ... I have a question of you experienced folks.

I keep reading about a new rider limiting themselves to 500cc or less and understand that it's about staying under a certain HP/torque level until one gets used to riding.

My question is: WHAT if anything is so "magical" about the 500cc limit that is so universally quoted? Is this the point at which HP/torque levels more or less really start to take off? Or is it just that the line has to be drawn somewhere and 500cc seems reasonable through experience and is about at the 50/50 (hp/torque) numbers? Or does the physical weight of the motorcycle also have a lot to do with it besides the power of the engine?

Thanks in advance for any replies, ladies and gentlemen.

It's just a line somebody came up with. It does have a nice ring to it. I think less than 50hp/less than 500lb is a better rule of thumb to use.

yeah, i don't think there's any hard, fast rule. it's just kind of a suggestion to steer (us) learning riders away from bikes that could get away from them (us).

to be honest, i'd never heard of the 500cc rule before now, just had people keep mentioning the same bikes over and over as good starting bikes. usually this was mentioned in conjuction with its maneuverability, reliability, and general solidity as a bike. the less you have to worry about the bike, the more attention you can pay to the road and to putting your book/classroom learning into practice sort of thing.

Most of the manufacturers make pretty mellow bikes at the 500cc level. Once you get up to 600cc and above most of the bikes are high-strung and track oriented. It's not that you couldn't find a mellow 600, it's just that they're not very common.

Greg . wrote:
My question is: WHAT if anything is so "magical" about the 500cc limit that is so universally quoted? Is this the point at which HP/torque levels more or less really start to take off? Or is it just that the line has to be drawn somewhere and 500cc seems reasonable through experience and is about at the 50/50 (hp/torque) numbers? Or does the physical weight of the motorcycle also have a lot to do with it besides the power of the engine?

Thanks in advance for any replies, ladies and gentlemen.

Take the course and it will make sense. Typical "Range" bikes are 125 to 500 cc. Weighing between 250 and 350 pounds. They usually have well below 50 hp. Typically as low as 18 or 20hp.

For more info, read the sticky "sportbikes are not beginner bikes" - it has a lot of related info.

P

I think that in general, once you get up past 500cc the weight of the bike becomes an issue for a new rider.

Thank you all for your replies.

Lion_Lady, I did read those posts/articles, but still had the question. I reckon I'm just wondering if there is a dramatic "knee in the curve" of manageability for most bikes at about the 500cc engine size that produces the "500cc suggestion" for beginners -- be it HP, torque, bike weight, handling, etc ...

Greg . wrote:Thank you all for your replies.

Lion_Lady, I did read those posts/articles, but still had the question. I reckon I'm just wondering if there is a dramatic "knee in the curve" of manageability for most bikes at about the 500cc engine size that produces the "500cc suggestion" for beginners -- be it HP, torque, bike weight, handling, etc ...

It seems that most 600cc-650cc and bigger bikes (especially sportbikes and even some standards) are on the "torquey" side and can be quite the handful for learning riders. That's why we usually include HP along with the cc guideline... under 50hp (70hp is getting into the gray area) is a good guideline.

The bigger cruisers (600cc and up) are HEAVY. And though that isn't as much of an issue for most men, weight shouldn't be ignored.

P

Also, another thing that shouldn't be ignored is the brakes that come on the 600+cc sport bikes. I remember here in alabama, the limit on what you could get as a 15 yr old was actually brake hp. The brakes on repli-racers, when panic grabbed, can you get you in a lot of hurt real fast.