MyBB Motorcycle Owners Thread

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Good reminder to calm down and take it slow in traffic. One pothole or slippery road marking and that can happen.
 
I see a few pages back the talk of what type and size of bikes novice riders should stay away from. Makes sense, although it's mostly the very experienced riders who say that. Again, makes sense.... But then, at what point does a rider upgrade from being a novice rider? Is it distance covered, months or years of riding, or amount of bikes owned? I'm just thinking for that guy considering the K8 750, and other members suggesting scooters and 125s...
 
memphis32 said:
I see a few pages back the talk of what type and size of bikes novice riders should stay away from. Makes sense, although it's mostly the very experienced riders who say that. Again, makes sense.... But then, at what point does a rider upgrade from being a novice rider? Is it distance covered, months or years of riding, or amount of bikes owned? I'm just thinking for that guy considering the K8 750, and other members suggesting scooters and 125s...
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Personally I believe you'll know as a rider when you're ready, if you've never ridden before I wouldn't even consider a inline 4.

As Sauron said before parallel twins are a great start, I took that route coming from off-roads and its a perfect fit.

If you've literally never ridden anything before then a 250 is where you should start. Though being an enthusiast a 250 will get slow really quick. And you'll end up wasting money selling and buying bigger. My er6 650 parallel twin is great, plenty of power to keep me happy and safe on the highways but not too powerful to kill me quickly, that said she's no slouch starting on her without patients and understanding can end bad very quickly.

Next month marks a year I've been riding on road and I still feel I'm not ready for a sport bike.
 
memphis32 said:
I see a few pages back the talk of what type and size of bikes novice riders should stay away from. Makes sense, although it's mostly the very experienced riders who say that. Again, makes sense.... But then, at what point does a rider upgrade from being a novice rider? Is it distance covered, months or years of riding, or amount of bikes owned? I'm just thinking for that guy considering the K8 750, and other members suggesting scooters and 125s...
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I think the basic concept is just not to learn to ride on a superbike.

The same way you wouldn't teach someone to drive in a McLaren F1.

Once everything is completely and utterly muscle memory based and there is no conscious thinking to riding then you change to something else and by then you can test ride anything and everything so you can make an educated choice.

To a lesser degree when you can ride that bike at a true 100% then you can upgrade.

Going too hardcore with your first bike actually limits your ability to learn and your riding ability overall.

I can say this because I could already ride and technically started on GSX-R600 as the first bike I owned and rode daily.

I only truly learn to ride properly on the much slower Buell XB9SX after that and in reality I would kick my own ass with that bike against myself on the GSX-R after a year of riding it.

But jumping on friend's superbikes after having learnt to really ride the Buell close to its limits I was in a whole new league with my abilities and much safer at that too.

The fact that I survived my superbike is more luck than talent. And I crashed it properly twice and dropped it a number of times.

At the same time I'm against starting on 125's and even 250's.

Just start on a 650-class Parallel Twin. The key being the type of engine and not the capacity.


Sure it's not impossible to start on a superbike and live to tell the tale and maybe even become a good rider, but the odds are really stacked against you.
 
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125 and even 250 could bore you and they limit you on where you can ride (the former at least). I ride a 125 almost daily purely for commuting and have had my license since 2003 - they're great in slow traffic and save fuel and that's about it.

If you ever need real speed or acceleration to get out of trouble you're out of luck. They do teach you to be humble and extra careful though

The only benefits (apart from the size and fuel economy) of starting on a 125 is that they are very cheap to repair/replace and you won't be wasting a lot of money upfront should you thrash it or realise biking is not for you.

...but you'll most likely get bored within a few months.
 
And that's why some own two bikes...a small commuter and a bigger and faster weekend bike.
 
I think it's good that we mention these things, as there are some privileged folks out there that are able to get a 600cc superbike as their first, not understanding the ins and outs of riding bikes as a whole. There are also some that underestimate the abilities if these machines. I don't mean to put anyone off buying bigger bikes, it's just you have to know what you're doing, as Sauron has mentioned.

I agree with Hamster, these small capacity bikes do limit you, but in the same process, they are good at teaching the rider some of the finer things about riding, without the big speeds these superbikes can do. They are playful little bikes, and very forgiving, and I suppose that's why they are recommended as beginner bikes...
 
And they allow you to use all five gears between robots :D
 
Hamster said:
And they allow you to use all five gears between robots :D
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The bigger problems with the 125's and to a large extent the 250's is that they never teach you lean confidence mostly because of the crazy narrow tires.

This has somewhat improved in recent years with the more modern almost baby superbike class of the 300's and 390's and such.

The new baby BMW I suspect will bring a lot of new riders to the party.
 
memphis32 said:
There are also some that underestimate the abilities if these machines. I don't mean to put anyone off buying bigger bikes, it's just you have to know what you're doing, as Sauron has mentioned.
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Some? More like everyone who hasn't ever ridden a bike.

There is also this fallacy that a 600 is so much less than 1000 so many people fall for that convincing themselves the "little" one will be better/safer/easier than the big one.

Meanwhile they are near identical in performance in most real world situations and will equally outrun many supercars.

The thing I think many non-riders and even some non-superbike riders don't realise is that even a 600 will break the national speed limit in 1st gear.

Hell even my naked Street Triple did.

That is a hell of a lot of power to harness in a few centimetres of throttle response.
 
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My dad has for many, many years said the 400cc class was (is, now with the return of some brands to the 400cc engines) probably the best class overall (at least on road bikes). I'm thinking maybe he was on to something there.

Still want to get my hands on a Duke 390 for a test ride... And maybe commuting if/when I can afford another vehicle (I've been saying this for quite some time now... Though i never seem to get round to doing something about it)
 
I might try and pick up a cheap bike to commute in CT. Around 400-600cc and hopefully not too heavy on petrol.

If I'm looking at a solid older bike from about 2005, might it be worth looking in Joburg and trailer it down? Do you get better value? Will it take longer to rust?

Ta.
 
bromster said:
I might try and pick up a cheap bike to commute in CT. Around 400-600cc and hopefully not too heavy on petrol.

If I'm looking at a solid older bike from about 2005, might it be worth looking in Joburg and trailer it down? Do you get better value? Will it take longer to rust?

Ta.
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Buy a 600 and a ticket back to Gauteng, I'll ride it down for you and fly back up :D
 
SykomantiS said:
My dad has for many, many years said the 400cc class was (is, now with the return of some brands to the 400cc engines) probably the best class overall (at least on road bikes). I'm thinking maybe he was on to something there.

Still want to get my hands on a Duke 390 for a test ride... And maybe commuting if/when I can afford another vehicle (I've been saying this for quite some time now... Though i never seem to get round to doing something about it)
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There are guys on Thinkbike having endless trouble with that 390 which is a real shame :(
 
The new updated 390 looks pretty awesome. Mine was pretty reliable with the 9000kms I did on it...
 
Hamster said:
Well you know how it goes, for every person who has a problem with something there is another that praises it.
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KingMikel (that's also his handle on this forum) Looks like he had an overheating problem with a fan not working (known issue with that model) Seems like it was repaired under warranty, but the head was never looked at, so he had to take it in for a head gasket again. don't think that he is very impressed with their service. that being said, it could just be the dealership that is repairing the bike that is the issue :)
 
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