Total Motorcycle Community Forums

So I passed my MSF course this weekend, which I was pretty excited about. I used Freedom of the Road Riders here in Missouri and they were great. The teachers were patient and actually did teaching when needed. The bikes were in good order with no major damage. One guy laid one down while doing figure 8's, but no injury. I got to use a Suzuki 250 which I wasn't happy about, since I saw a few really nice Rebels. All the girls were given the Rebels, so guess they are good bikes.

I also picked up a bike that I got in trade for an old vw bug I had. The bike is a 2002 1500 Kawasaki Mean Streak. I can tell that it is a hole lot of bike. My question is do I keep the bike a slowly build myself up around my neighborhood or trade it in for a smaller bike?

I am 6'3 190 and have road a friends Ducati 620 Multistrada a few months before taking the MSF course.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Yep, that is a whole lot of bike. It's pushing 650 pounds, hovers somewhere around 72 HP... would not be my first choice for a brand new rider. The ideal would be if you could store the bike for a while and pick up something a little more newby friendly, but if that's not an option, learning on it is not impossible. Lots of people learn on big bikes and do fine; in that same vein lots of people learn on small bikes and don't do well.

Your skills will improve faster on a smaller bike, and you'll likely feel more confident and the typical beginner mistakes will be less amplified. A year on a good starter bike will give you an edge in the long run; it's less of a hassle to drop a small bike, some of the "oops" moments on a smaller bike will just be a DUH kind of moment instead of a pick-the-bike-up-off-the-ground moment, and it will be less likely to get away from you.

The Mean Streak--while I haven't ridden one--is a big bike and won't be forgiving on the mistakes you *will* make. That said, if you love that bike and don't want to get rid of it for something smaller, and can't afford to store it and get a better first bike, you could learn on it. Not ideal, but you could. Stay in parking lot situations for a while, do a ton of start-stop practicing, get to know that clutch and its friction zone intimately, do serious practice on emergency braking, get comfortable with leaning it in both directions...and if it doesn't have an engine guard, put one on. That will help when you need to pick it up.

Personally, I would get a smaller bike. Maybe not a 250, but something lighter and less HP.

Congrats!

I'm guessing you'll probably be ok riding the Mean Streak as long as you respect the machine, pay attention, and don't get overly ambitious. In my opinion, one of the worst things you can do is to be overly nervous when you hop on a bike (or overly confident for that matter).

It'll likely take you a lot of miles before you really feel like you own the bike, but each time, you will hopefully become more comfortable.

Ultimately, it all depends on how you feel each time you head out. I'd use that as your gauge before swapping bikes.

The Mean Streak is a muscle cruiser...it was meant to provide hard accelleration, so it probably isn't the best choice for a first bike...but like Thumper stated, it can be done...it would be a nice bike for just cruisin' down the hiway, but might be a bit of a handful in slower parking lot type manouvers...especially in your first two or three months...

That being said, the power is smooth out of a Vtwin instead of peaky on a four cyclinder bike...your torque shows up right away and just stays there (just watch out for the engine braking, it will be stronger than you think!!)...the biggest problem will be the weight of the bike, when going slow a bike tends to want to fall over and the brakes seem to grab harder than you expect, hence the weight being an issue...and this is where the confidence would come quicker with a lighter bike...much easier to catch mistakes on a 400lbs bike, than a 650-700lbs bike...

It's ultimately up to you...so good luck and let us know which way you decide to go...

Later.