• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Started too big? Started too small? Share your regrets!

Was your first motorcycle the right choice?

  • I started out too big and wish I hadn't

    Votes: 17 23.9%

  • I started too small and wish I had gone big

    Votes: 6 8.5%

  • I'm baby bear and I did it just right

    Votes: 45 63.4%

  • Turbo 'Busa!

    Votes: 3 4.2%
  • Total voters
    71
  • Poll closed .
Gabe

Gabe

COVID-fefe
Joined
Oct 26, 2002
Location
Where's Cleveland Heights?
Moto(s)
FZ-07 farkled-by-Amazon Edition
Name
Gabe
BARF perks
AMA #: 1006675
PLEASE DON'T ANSWER THE POLL IF YOU STARTED RIDING MORE THAN 5 YEARS AGO! YOU ARE SKEWING MY RESULTS.

Yes, it's time for my column on Motorcycle.com once again, and as usual I've procrastinated and am panicking to get it done by tomorrow's deadline. So I'm axing you here on BARF, and please, only riders who started riding in the last 10 years:

Did you start out on a too-big bike? Did you grow into it? Did you regret it? Or did you start out on a too-small bike that you grew out of too quickly? Did you regret that?

Thanks for your helpful and intelligent response in advance. Unhelpful and unintelligent replies will be publicly shamed and ridiculed by their own stupid post.
 
Last edited:
Well, I didn't start too big even though that's how I voted.

I started out on a CB 50 in Belgium that I should have name "crashalot" as I did due to zero available training.

Fast forward 15 years or so to the mid 80's after I moved to CA and bought my second bike, still with no training; a K75S.

After a few "oh shit" episodes, mostly involving the inability to corner at high speed I went to CLASS and CSS a few times.

Countersteering was a revelation to me.

If I had to do it over again I would have bought a smaller bike as my first California bike and immediately gone to training.

Riders today have far more resources at their fingertips should they choose to look into them.
 
Started out on a 2000 DRZ-S. Bike was a lien sale, bought it for $1500 and probably spend another $1500 to get it on the road. I think it was the perfect bike to start out on. Affordable to purchase and maintain, on top of being reliable and fun. I spent about 1.5 years with the bike, before it got totaled. Went to a FZ6 from there, which was significantly faster, but not regrettably faster.
 
I started about perfect with a Street Triple R in '09. Enough bike to easily kill myself on, but not enough to be successful in doing so.

I still have it and put 50K miles on it. I have yet to out grow it but can use most of its power and capabilities now. That being said I added a SD1290r to up the level of stupidity and continue learning.

I don't regret it at all and the best part was the great brakes and suspension. I could deal with less power if you kept the good chassis. Unfortunately this rarely ever happens.
 
I started out on a very small bike, but I wouldn't call it too small, really.

It was a 100cc Kawasaki that had less horsepower than my current lawnmower, which isn't even self-propelled. It had a top speed of about 60 mph, and couldn't be ridden on major highways. But it got me where I needed to go and helped me learn to love both dirt and street riding. Because excess power wasn't an issue, I learned the rest of the aspects of riding without the problem of going too fast for conditions.

The only real issue I had was when I would test ride other motorcycles with more power, I was used to using full throttle all the time to get going, so I would tend to get going too quickly and have to get on the brakes hard at the end of the street. :laughing

I tend to enjoy motorcycles for what they are and accept the amount of power that each one has as part of its character. I've never really had one with too much power, unless we're counting off road, then my KTM has way too much for the dirt. It actually has a little more than I "need" for street riding, but only by a little bit. :cool
 
RD350....perfect
 
Just right.

Started on a yz80, yz125, cb500, cb750 and on and on.
Still never ridin anything over 800cc.


oops.... forgot about the 883.
 
Last edited:
I love the posts from the old-timers, but I'd love to hear from newer riders. If you started riding in the 1860s, there weren't many motorcycles available with the power-to-weight ratio of even an SV650. Please post them stories, young guns!
 
Gabe said:
I love the posts from the old-timers, but I'd love to hear from newer riders. If you started riding in the 1860s, there weren't many motorcycles available with the power-to-weight ratio of even an SV650. Please post them stories, young guns!
Click to expand...

:twofinger



:afm199
 
Rode scooters when I was teen living near the beach but then didn't ride again until my late 20s. I was hypnotized by the Honda CBR600F4i but couldn't afford a used one, so got a used Suzuki Katana 600 instead. It was too much bike for me weight wise but I was fine with the power. Also I did the MSF course before buying the bike so I was cool with push steering etc. If I could do it again I'd get a bike of equal power that weighed under 400lbs.
 
I know you don't want to hear from the aged but the size of the bike is less important than the amount of training IMHO.

A 300 may be too much for a 21 year old with no training but a 1,000cc bike with a well trained 21 year old would be just fine IMHO.
 
Gabe said:
I love the posts from the old-timers, but I'd love to hear from newer riders. If you started riding in the 1860s, there weren't many motorcycles available with the power-to-weight ratio of even an SV650. Please post them stories, young guns!
Click to expand...

Trigger!! Where's BARF's safe zone. I need a safe place to express my outrage at this blatant ageism. :afm199
 
250 for the first 4,000 miles, then a 600. Just right.
 
So 6 people say they started too big--it'd be great if you wanted to share your story. You can PM me or post.
 
For me, it isn't about engine size. I started at a young age on an RM-80. I REALLY wish that someone had introduced me to trials bikes/riding when I was young. The more I think about this, the more I feel that it was straight-up child abuse that I was not introduced to the world of trials. :laughing
 
Started on a 750 standard
Got into it on a 500 Interceptor
Learned how to ride on a VFR750

Then a bunch of other bikes :teeth

It was a good progression for me.

*Whoops, I didn't read the rules* :twofinger
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top