Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hi Y'all,
I'm thinking of my first bike and have made up my mind about getting a cruiser in the 500--650cc range.
I mainly want to use it for getting to college and back. I don't need much speed. I plan to stick to speed limits. It will be nice if I can take some trips on it too.
I have heard a lot of people mention that freeway trips need atleast 750 cc motorcycles (talking about cruiser class) . But I have also heard of people doing long distance in just a Rebel 250 cc.
So is it true that 500-650cc range bikes are not good for freeway riding and long trips? For how long can these bikes hold 80 miles/hour or thereabouts?

the people that usually say a 600 isnt good for freeway riding are also the ones that are saying you need a 2000cc bike to just 'have fun' on. so take it for what its worth. i dont see any problem with a 600 on the freeway, if it were the case you wouldnt see alot of them being sold or on the roads. youd only see goldwings out there.

A Vulcan 500 will cruise easily at 80 mph all day, unless you are over 350 pounds and riding uphill.

I'm not saying you need a large bike to have fun by any means, but a larger/heavier bike will definately hold the rode better. I have a Honda Shadow 750 and on rt. 287 here in NJ doing 65/70 miles an hour i get blown all over the friggin place. I rode my friends 1100 and I definately got blown around a lot less. What I mean by "blown around" is what you feel when a car or truck wizzes by/passes you, or vice versa... you actually feel the bike move from one part of the lane to the other... with the heavier bike I felt a lot more stable. This is just my personal experience, I'm not looking for a debate here, but I definately noticed a difference. I also see you want to stay around 650, you might as well throw 750-800 into the mix, that extra 150cc wont make too big of a difference and you might end up with a bike that you won't feel like you have outgrown too much. I know plenty of people with 750s/800s that think the are the perfect size, as far as the cc/ci size aside from the extra weight its really personal preference and what type of riding you will do.

ronboskz650sr wrote:A Vulcan 500 will cruise easily at 80 mph all day, unless you are over 350 pounds and riding uphill.

dang, i guess i will start looking for another bike.

There are a lot of folks out there riding 650 V-Stars anywhere they want to go .
Kind regards, Wizzard

earwig wrote:I'm not saying you need a large bike to have fun by any means, but a larger/heavier bike will definately hold the rode better. I have a Honda Shadow 750 and on rt. 287 here in NJ doing 65/70 miles an hour i get blown all over the friggin place.

hmm. I have absolutely no problems 'holding the road' on my KLR 650. Yes, it requires more input to do so, but so what. If I wanted to be able to go in a straight line with almost no steering input, I'd drive my car.

I started riding on a 1983 Suzuki GS650GL, which weighed in at ~510lbs wet. Not a light bike, but it was light enough for me to handle relatively easily. Stayed fairly stable on the highway but was a pain in slow, stop and go traffic or mall parking lots. Required a decent amount of input to hold a straight line when passing semi's.

by comparison, my KLR is lighter and easier to handle in city riding and requires less pressure on the bars to hold a straight line when passing semi's (yes, passing them, not them passing me)

The main thing to do if you want to limit wind blast from oncoming heavy trucks on two loane roads is to move over to the right wheel track of your lane. The wind blast is a lot less and easier to manage. That is also the safer place to be, as it puts you farther away from the truck in case anything happens, like a blowout on the rig.

Addendum some 650cc bikes have no problems doing long trips - I've done a couple of 1000+ mile days on my 650 without any problems at all. The biggest factor is how comfortable you are on the bike. Some bikes have good ergonomics when it comes to spending a long time in the saddle. Some bikes have absolutely horrid ergonomics that are only really suitable for the supremely masochistic.

If you are primarily going to be using the bike for city commuting and running around town, then that is what you should be focusing on - a 700lb cruiser might be great for the long haul on the highway, but it's going to suck crawling along in city traffic, unless you are very strong with a great sense of balance. That's why I bought a KLR and not a Goldwing. Most of my riding is in town, with a short blast of highway between home and work. While I do do a lot of long distance riding on weekends, the majority of my daily riding time is spent in traffic. The wing would have been great on the weekends, but it would have been just work on my daily ride.

my , YMMV

einjun wrote:Hi Y'all,
I'm thinking of my first bike and have made up my mind about getting a cruiser in the 500--650cc range.
I mainly want to use it for getting to college and back. I don't need much speed. I plan to stick to speed limits. It will be nice if I can take some trips on it too.
I have heard a lot of people mention that freeway trips need atleast 750 cc motorcycles (talking about cruiser class) . But I have also heard of people doing long distance in just a Rebel 250 cc.
So is it true that 500-650cc range bikes are not good for freeway riding and long trips? For how long can these bikes hold 80 miles/hour or thereabouts?

There's what can be done (going cross country on a Yamaha R1) and what can be done comfortably. The bigger bikes, in addition to being able to stand up to crosswinds and semis, usually bring more to the table as far as comfort goes. You say you mainly want it for commuting to college, and therefore that should be your primary focus. With that in mind, a 500-650cc will do just fine assuming you fit on one okay (i.e. you aren't too tall, too short, too light, or too heavy).

I have ridden a CX500 round-trip to Detroit, and a NightHawk 700SC round-trip to Chicago (both from Ohio). The CX500 did okay as far as running freeway speeds for that distance, but my arms went numb big time and I ended up with Prostatosis (an inflamation, not an infection) from the seat. The NightHawk had serious problems maintaining 75mph in a head wind, but I avoided the prostate issues by switching to a Corbin seat before the trip. Both bikes were fine commuters, but neither was really a good choice for an over-night trip.

I now ride a ~700lb, 1600cc Kawasaki with a really comfortable aftermarket seat with removable back-rest. The bike doesn't budge in even the strongest winds, it'll hold 100+ mph in a head wind, and I haven't had any prostate or back issues since I replaced the stock seat. This is where the advice about bigger bikes for long trips comes from. Yes, I can ride to Chicago on a 700cc bike (or even on a 250cc Rebel), but how wore out I will be once I get there has a lot to do with the comfort, weight, and power of the bike....at least, for me it does. As a daily driver, a 500-650cc bike is perfect....and the occasional overnight excursion wouldn't be outta the question, either. But do a three day trip involving 1,000 miles or more and the limitations of your bike become very evident. If the trips you plan on taking will be brief, like I stated, you should be just fine.

WhyteGryphon wrote:Addendum some 650cc bikes have no problems doing long trips - I've done a couple of 1000+ mile days on my 650 without any problems at all. The biggest factor is how comfortable you are on the bike. Some bikes have good ergonomics when it comes to spending a long time in the saddle. Some bikes have absolutely horrid ergonomics that are only really suitable for the supremely masochistic.

If you are primarily going to be using the bike for city commuting and running around town, then that is what you should be focusing on - a 700lb cruiser might be great for the long haul on the highway, but it's going to suck crawling along in city traffic, unless you are very strong with a great sense of balance.
my , YMMV

I appreciate your input. Great stuff. I get a clear idea now of the issues involved.

zootech wrote: As a daily driver, a 500-650cc bike is perfect....and the occasional overnight excursion wouldn't be outta the question, either. But do a three day trip involving 1,000 miles or more and the limitations of your bike become very evident. If the trips you plan on taking will be brief, like I stated, you should be just fine.

Thanks a bunch for the awesome reply. That's exactly what I'm planning to do. Mainly city commuting and an occasional long ride. I really don't want to go through the pain of handling a huge bike in city traffic.

earwig wrote: I also see you want to stay around 650, you might as well throw 750-800 into the mix, that extra 150cc wont make too big of a difference and you might end up with a bike that you won't feel like you have outgrown too much. I know plenty of people with 750s/800s that think the are the perfect size, as far as the cc/ci size aside from the extra weight its really personal preference and what type of riding you will do.

Great input there. Yeah, I've added 750s to my list but I don't want my bike to get too heavy.

Wizzard wrote:There are a lot of folks out there riding 650 V-Stars anywhere they want to go .
Kind regards, Wizzard

V-Stars, now don't they look awesome.