Good Beginner Bikes
 

What are some good 500cc bikes that are good for beginners?!?!? I am only 5'6 and weigh 140 pounds. So not very tall, and don't weigh very much. I'm looking for a bike where I'm not on the tip of my toes all the time. Gas on the 5.0 is killing me so I signed up for my motorcycle safety classes and i should have my license in a few weeks so i will need a bike shortly after. Any help appreciated. O yes, the bike also has to look half decent. I like the crotch rocket look, like gsxr's and honda cbrs.

The almost universally acclaimed beginner bike is the Suzuki SV 650. It's a two cylinder bike and has a fair bit of torque, so you don't have to rev it so much to get it moving like a smaller displacement 4 cylinder bike. You can pick up great condition bikes for well under $5k (considerably less if you look and are patient). Here's a zero effort find on CL that looks pretty good.

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/mcy/1489966372.html

The other nice things about the SV is the tremendous aftermarket support if you want to tweak on anything and the relative ease with which you can resell them when the time comes.

heypal and/or Nordy Racer can help identify a good purchase better than I can. You might want to invest a little extra after you get it to have it set up specifically for you. Things like ride height, etc. can usually be adjusted quite a bit to suit the rider (not sure how much on an SV).

Other good beginner bikes are
Yamaha FZ6
Suzuki Bandit 600(s)
Honda VFR 600

BTW, all of these will be PLENTY snappy and faster than you might expect. They're considered sorta beginner bikes, but lots of guys use them for years as commuter bikes etc.

As true sport bikes, Gixxers, CBRs, Rs, etc. are going to be much more expensive on insurance.

ZX14 maybe with a modest turbo kit. :sm_laughing:

You're going to end up killing this poor guy :sm_laughing:

That should fix Sean's post

I recommend a 250 Ninja. Crotch rocket look with none of the power, should be able to keep up on the highway though.

Those things are cheap, and I'm sure they sip gas. A lot of the crotch rockets actually do pretty bad on gas. I think a 750GSXR is in the 35s while my Neon does 33s. Those things have small indy engines basically. 12 or 13:1 compression and 15K rpm isn't a gas saving motor. It's just not horrible because it's tiny.

What about this Buell. I like the look of the Buells.

I also think the SV650 is a great starter bike. You can't go wrong with a light v-twin that's not too tall. I have a '88 Honda NT650. the SV650 is a modern version of my bike.

Like was previously said, the SV650 has plenty of low end torque so you are always in the right gear. My brother has a CBR600F4i and I can feel the weight of the bike on turn-in compared to mine. After riding a bike with a v-twin, it's hard to go back to an I4. Plus SVs are cheap enough that you won't feel too bad if you drop it.

Buells are nice niche bikes, but they still rely on old harley tech so I am not sure about their reliability or leak tightness (not trying to start a flame war or anything, promise.) The Buell Blast is a nice starter bike, but it's pretty small and is more sized for a small woman. Plus, for the same price, you can go with the Ninja 250 (which has been the same bike for almost 30 years!)

RC-51, Oh how I desire thee...

I'm to tired to right a big ass paragraph about the sv650 and how great it is. Do a little google search on that bad boy and tell me its not awesome for a beginner bike...Just saying. And for the record my gsxr1000 gets 42mpg last time I checked and there is a few 180mph sprints on that tank...Like 2 I was trying to see what is my best and well there it is 42mpg hahhahah...I normally get about 130 miles 3.5 gallons hell once I did 90 and 4 gallons its all in how you ride. My old 600 was a 50mpg monster till I milled the head, did cams, so on and so on. I also do 80% highway so thats why my numbers are higher. I get in the 30's in the city.

Like I said all in how you ride

http://www.gsxr.com/showthread.php?t=35506

+1000 on the sv650 I still might go out and get one for a daily.