• 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 .
Threw my first leg over a two-wheeled moto of any kind in 2011, at age 41. I too started on an '06 Ninja 650R. After 8k miles of mostly Marin back roads, I sold it and bought the new, "mild-mannered" and much slept-on CB1000R. 40k miles later, it and I are going strong - been riding the living piss out of the bike for awhile now. And while I'm overdue for something more exotic, powerful and tech-wow, I won't be selling my Honda. Can't think of a better back-up bike!

While I have no regrets with the path I've chosen, I'm actually getting ready to revisit the 600-700 class in the form of a street thumper. The occasional times I find myself on narrow, goaty, winding mountain roads, I recognize a shortcoming in my skill-set & confidence (not to mention, my bottoming-out CB). That new Husky 701 is looking gooood.

Anyway... zero crashes, a near-miss, and a few pucker moments - all attributed to a mix of maturity, talent and luck. Age alone isn't the key, but I believe maturity/life-experience figures most heavily into the success or failure of a new rider. Regardless the engine size.
 
redruM said:
Threw my first leg over a two-wheeled moto of any kind in 2011, at age 41. I too started on an '06 Ninja 650R. After 8k miles of mostly Marin back roads, I sold it and bought the new, "mild-mannered" and much slept-on CB1000R. 40k miles later, it and I are going strong - been riding the living piss out of the bike for awhile now. And while I'm overdue for something more exotic, powerful and tech-wow, I won't be selling my Honda. Can't think of a better back-up bike!

While I have no regrets with the path I've chosen, I'm actually getting ready to revisit the 600-700 class in the form of a street thumper. The occasional times I find myself on narrow, goaty, winding mountain roads, I recognize a shortcoming in my skill-set & confidence (not to mention, my bottoming-out CB). That new Husky 701 is looking gooood.

Anyway... zero crashes, a near-miss, and a few pucker moments - all attributed to a mix of maturity, talent and luck. Age alone isn't the key, but I believe maturity/life-experience figures most heavily into the success or failure of a new rider. Regardless the engine size.
Click to expand...

And we've bumped elbows a few time on the Sunday Ride, no? I think you're a pretty safe and smooth rider! Fast too.
 
redruM said:
Aye we have, sir - and thanks. Perhaps I owe it all to Bev Cleary? :laughing
Click to expand...

Wheelie for safety!

mouse%26mcycl.jpg
 
Gabe said:
For sure! Why did you buy it, what happened and what was your next ride?
Click to expand...

I bought it for two reasons.. the main one being that I let my friends convince me that I'd "outgrow" a 600 too quickly. The other is, given I have very long legs, there were few options in smaller sizes that were relatively tall and narrow.

At 100 miles or so I drop it in a parking lot, taking care of the "new" part. Had two small lowsides in slippery conditions with no real damage to bike or me.

What opened my eyes was riding my friends F4 and Hayabusa. Oddly both were much easier to ride than the TLR, but the F4 in particular was just so much more fun. I didn't buy one because its just too small for longer trips.

So I ended up owning two ZX12Rs (2000 and 2002) which were great bikes, and I never crashed either one. But still, they weren't comfortable enough for longer trips, were brutal on truly bad roads and a handful on tight ones.

After eyeing the 990 Adv for a few years I finally replaced the ZX12R and have lived happily ever after, with a bike that has the least HP/lb I have even owned yet fastest over all on all types of roads. I also own an Multi which I love, but if I had to own a single bike for the rest of my life I suspect I'd pick the 990 over the Multi.

If I were to start today I'd get myself a used Versys for a couple years, or maybe jump straight to a Tiger 800 or BMW 800GSA.
 
Last edited:
My Royal Enfield was a great first bike for me... hilariously safe handling, no power, and a distinct tendency to fall apart. I could literally bring it up to near top speed, take my hands off the bars, and smack either hand grip with no discernible effect on the course of the bike. In the event of doing something stupid, the bike just defaulted to going straight, upright and slow. An extremely forgiving bike.
 
Didn't respond to the poll, because, well, I started riding more than 5 years ago. I am, however, just past the 10 year cut off in the original question.

My first time on anything with just two wheels and a motor was in 2005 at a MSF course in Wisconsin. For a couple months shared my now-ex's '96 ZX6. Purchased my first bike, a '99 ZX6R that summer.

Definitely started too big - bike had been bored, set up for NOS (no longer attached obviously) and was geared for tons of torque. I didn't realize any of this when I purchased it. Made a few stupid mistakes on that bike, thankfully they were at slow speeds and walked away from all of them. After about 40K miles I moved to a liter bike, and have stayed in that class on the street since then.

Less than the size of the bike I regret far more not getting to the track (or some kind of formal training on my chosen class of motorcycles) sooner. I had 7 years worth of bad habits I had to break when I started doing track days in 2012....it took the better part of 2+ years to break those habits to the point of removing the muscle memory and creating good muscle memory. Honestly this is the first year I feel like I've moved past those habits and am working on developing new, correct, habits rather than breaking old ones.
 
Gabe said:
Thanks for your responses, fellas! You made my column much better. Big thanks to everyone here!

http://www.motorcycle.com/features/skidmarks-finding-your-fit.html
Click to expand...
Good article. :thumbup

Didn't respond because I didn't notice this until the survey was over. Concerning the question though, I think my bike is probably a too heavy for a starter bike. Even for someone my size 500+ pounds is a lot to handle, but in terms of power I don't feel overwhelmed. I kind of appreciate the lack of technology like Traction control or ABS because I am forced to learn to approach the bikes limits carefully instead of being able to push the bike way too far too soon.

I think it will be really nice for newbies in a few years because there will be a lot more options for great starter bikes in the 300-500 cc range used market.
 
At least training got a brief mention once in a longish article about new riders choosing their first bike. Didn't see a mention of recommended reading though.
 
GAJ said:
At least training got a brief mention once in a longish article about new riders choosing their first bike. Didn't see a mention of recommended reading though.
Click to expand...

"He also would have read more, citing the value of theoretical learning offered by books like David Hough’s Proficient Motorcycling and Keith Code’s Twist of the Wrist."
 
Bassem said:
"He also would have read more, citing the value of theoretical learning offered by books like David Hough’s Proficient Motorcycling and Keith Code’s Twist of the Wrist."
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction. :thumbup
 
GAJ said:
Thanks for the correction. :thumbup
Click to expand...

Cheers :)

For the record, I also mentioned "total control", "sport riding techniques", and the Gary J books.
 
Cool article Gabe. Thanks for the mention. You're absolutely right about starting on dirt. Pretty much at any point of a riding career dirt training can / will help improve.
 
Bassem said:
"He also would have read more, citing the value of theoretical learning offered by books like David Hough’s Proficient Motorcycling and Keith Code’s Twist of the Wrist."
Click to expand...

+100 to this .. although the funny thing about Twist of the Wrist ( in my case at least ). Every time I make a 'breakthrough' on the track, I come back to watch that video again and always find that "breakthrough" I just learned has been there all along in his teaching. Some how my mind "knew" the lesson from hearing it so many times but didn't "click" into my riding until after I figured it out another way. Then watching the video again clarifies and reinforces my "breakthrough".

For example, for the longest time I couldn't figure out why I was stuck at my sucky lap time. It was a bunch of trackdays / instructors of trying to fix misc things like body positions / shift points / ect until Dave Moss followed me for a few laps and told me I was charging corners on the brakes. Working with Dave, I adjusted and almost instantly improved my lap time by a pretty significant margin. Then I go back to that video and that entire lesson has been there the entire time. But this time I actually GET it and the lesson makes so much more sense.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top