First bike

[T-bone36]

Hey I am looking to get my first motorcycle.some ppl are saying to get a small bike but I don't want to get one and have it for a few month's and want to get a bigger one.so now I'm looking at the 800 bikes like the Suzuki intruder .there is one that is 2000 which is a little bit more than I have but I can save some more. What is everyone thought on my first bike

[T-bone36]

Does anyone know about the triumph speedmaster

[Hutch]

Do you have any riding experience?

My advice to you is find a beginner riding school/class if you have no experience yet riding motorcycles. You will learn good habits that will save your life. The things you will learn in a rider school are worth every cent of tuition. Personally I started on an R6, and some would say that is too much bike for a beginner but in my opinion, it's not really the bike, it's the rider that chooses to ride dangerously. Aside from one speeding ticket I had no incidents with the R6 in 7 years.

Next, you want to get a bike that is comfortable for you to sit on. Body position, hands, arms, legs, back, butt. You will be spending many miles on it and you want to enjoy it. Spend a good amount of time sitting on it. Get someone to hold the bike from the front so you can put both feet on the pegs. Turn the handlebars all the way to the stops and see what that feels like. Can you still operate the controls freely? Are your hands binding up somewhere? A few minutes isn't enough to find those little ergonomic things that might cause you pain later on. You should also be thinking about what type of riding you want to be doing, and choose a type of motorcycle best suited for that purpose. For instance, I trailered the R6 to the mountains each time I went up there (5hr drive) because I didn't want to sit on that bike for that long. But a motorcycle that's meant for longer rides might not be as suited for curvy roads, etc.

If I had to give a new rider only one tip it is this: Never apply a large amount of front brake in a turn. This applies to all speed ranges. Your front brake is 2/3 of your stopping power. Try to keep most of your braking while you are still going straight. If you are riding aggressively, keep the gears lower so you have extra engine braking authority to slow down in a turn if needed. For example, with the R6 I was going around a curve with some speed and noticed gravel across the entire curve. A lot of people would panic and grab a ton of brake and with the lack of traction with the gravel, they would go down. I decreased throttle, pulled in the clutch and tried to go over the rocks as upright as I could. This caused my turn to go extra wide but I had the room since it was a left curve I rode in the grass and continued to slow down.

In fact, I think every rider should have experience riding in the grass/dirt/gravel roads so you are familiar with how your bike handles different types of terrain in case you have to ride on it in an emergency. Another example, one time I had to take a detour (state police blocking a road from an aircraft accident) literally the only way to get to where I was going was to take a dirt TRAIL with the R6. The trail looked more like a cow path than a road it had ruts, rocks, water erosion, mud. But I got to where I needed to go safely and without incident.

Ride safe

[T-bone36]

I am taking the Harley class next weekend

[T-bone36]

Really awesome advice. I've gone with a cruiser, Suzuki VL800, for my first bike and it's been great so far! The class has started and it will definitely help and has already done so. Thanks for the feedback!!

[sdweltoro]

Try a Suzuki Boulevard S40; 652CC. Medium size bike, 389 lbs. wet. Good power but very controllable. Nice first bike for an adult.

[brajon]

The gsxr 600 is a great bike to learn also.