Busty Rhodes Wrote:
Cap'n Squirrgle Wrote:
Orrr, you can do what I did, which is just get your hands on a beater bike, and go out riding till it makes sense, wait for about a year and a half, get a ticket for not having a permit, and then take the test.
Like I said, go for option 1.
At 6 feet, the world is your oyster. At 5'4", I have to get something with a pretty low standover height, which limits me a good bit.
$2,000 is tight, but doable. Here's how its going to shake out as you visit dealers, surf ebay and cycletrader.com, and generally learn more about this...
1.
The larger the engine, the more the bike costs. Who cares? Not you, at first, but you will later, and that's how it should be. A new Honda Rebel is maybe $3200 off the showroom floor, and it's a solid little bike. But it's a twin 250cc, and tops out at 80. That means it won't happily cruise above, say 57mph. That means you can't take the freeway ever, or any other road where people average above say 65, which is pretty common. Buuuut, you don't want a big or even mid-sized bike to start with, usually, because...
2.
Every bike will seem huge to you at first. It's a wierd phenominon. The first time you stand next to, say, a Harley Sportster, it's going to seem pretty substantial. And then the first time you stand next to a 1500cc cruiser that's 2 feet wide, it'll seem like a monster to you. Which is good, because people need to be scared real good at first. But after a few thousand miles on something smaller, you'll stand next to a sportster and say "well that ain't so bad." And it ain't, but not until later. You have to work up to that.
3.
It's very tempting to get too much bike to start with. Especially when you're 6 feet tall. Personally, I recommend the following models for you, and I'll explain why, but the gist of them is that they're on the smaller side of "medium," with enough power to hit 120mph, or cruise (more importantly) at 80+, which means you'll never *have to* trade up, even though you probably will want to. These are bikes that I am now working my way up to being able to handle...
- Honda Shadow VLX600. Cruiser, twin 600cc, low weight and height means it's easy to handle when you're stopped, easy to resell, not too pricey because it's "only" a 600 (which will still scare the shit out of you if you get throttle happy, trust me). They're over $5k new, but they're easy to find at 3 years old, with less than 2,000 miles for about $3k.
- Kawasaki Vulcan EN500. Ditto above. Slightly smaller engine, but with basically no difference in performance, and a little less money. The engine is from the Ninja 500, and is very reliable, forgiving, torquey, etc. Lots of these out there too, because people buy them as first bikes, then want something huge later.
- Suzuki Boulevard something or other. I don't remember why, but I never look at these. I think maybe there aren't as many out there used, but suzi, honda, and kawi's are what you should be looking for. They all make similar offerings and pretty much split the market amongst them.
Yes, Triumphs and lower-end Ducati's are waaaay more exciting, but they are nowhere NEAR as reliable, nor as cheap to maintain, nor as easy to find used, etc. It's your first one, so figure you'll have it for a few years until it feels like a tricycle, and then you'll know exactly what you want by then. In the meantime, those 2 I listed above will go anywhere you want, won't have mechanical issues, will resell for something respectable, and will definately make you very happy in the meantime.
***If you look at these and say "yuck," let me know. There are other styling options out there like a Honda Nighthawk 750.***
