Greetings From Eau Claire, Wisconsin

[AlaricXI]

Hello everybody. I joined last year but I havn't posted much and I don't think I ever introduced myself so I'll do it now.

I have an old minibike from the 70's that I used to ride around in the woods a lot. I decided I wanted a street bike in the fall of 04 when one of my friends got a bike. Since then another friend has gotten a bike of his own (he used to just ride his dad's), and another friend is going to get one this spring too. Since then I have taken the MSF BRC (so I have my license), gotten some gear, and saved up enough money for a bike.

There arn't many bikes on the market right now so I probably wouldn't be able to find one I want untill the weather gets a bit nicer. The weather here doesn't seem to be able to decide what it wants to do. Last Saturday it was t-shirt weather. I wake up Sunday to find out we have a good 5-6 inches of snow again...

I know most of you people say to keep your first bike small, but I'm kind of set on getting a 750 Nighthawk for my first bike. The 750 Nighthawk seems to have a good reputation mechanically, and I love the look of it. I'm 18 years old and about 5'7" and 145 lbs. I've yet to sit on or ride a 750 Nighthawk though, so if it doesn't fit me right I guess that plan is no good.

I'm rather new to motorcycles so, any suguestions for bikes if the Nighthawk idea doesn't work out for me? I want a standard, and I also like the look of the 70's and 80's UJMs for some odd reason. (Maybe that old minibike did it...) What does that leave? the Honda CB series, and the Suzuki GS series? I'm sure there are some Kawasaki and Yamaha equivalents that I don't know about.

Right now I'm looking in the local newspaper, "The Tradin' Post" (a simi-local thing published weekly where people sell stuff), and CycleTrader. Any other places I should be looking?

I've learned a lot so far from this forum and hope to learn more in the future. Seems like a good group of people ya got here.

[pseudopod]

Hi - I too have been lurking here for a while. I started last year on a '75 Honda CB750 and it has treated me well so far. I would certainly recommend it as a beginner bike. I'm sure the Nighthawk would be a good bike to start out on too. 750cc sounds like a lot but the older bikes don't put out as much horsepower as the new ones do of the same displacement. I'm looking to sell the CB now and upgrade to something a little faster and I expect I should be able to get as much selling it as I paid for it. Good luck in your search!

Here's a pic of the CB:

[jstark47]

There arn't many bikes on the market right now so I probably wouldn't be able to find one I want untill the weather gets a bit nicer.

Not many bikes on the market? Doesn't seem to me like there's many buyers on the market..... I've been trying to sell our Marauder for a while now!