Insurance?

I was wondering how much insurance would roughly be for an 18 year old male. I was thinking about getting a Yamaha R6 for my first bike. I'm covered under state farm right now for the past 2 years for my mazda6 and for just liability is $150/month roughly. I have already had 2 tickets and took defensive driving and deferred adjudication for them.

Probably a ridiculous amount huh? :runaround:

I will be entering college in the fall going to the University of Houston so it will probably be very rainy and it might not even be worth getting a bike huh? I don't think I can afford to pay for both vehicles but easy and fast transportation with low gas mileage looks very nice right now and motorcycles are cheap.

I think your an idiot for buying an R6 as a first bike at 18. Your insurance will be alot, prolly 200-300 dollars a month. If you really want a bike, id suggest you learn to ride on something a lot smaller like a Ninja 250R or some other Sport Bike. A super sport is a death sentence for an 18 year old first time rider.

Welcome to the forum DrewN,

take a moment to read the stickies at the top of the thread list.

We have covered the reasons for NOT buying a high performance sports bike as a cock extender numerous times.

Bikes are NOT cheaper to run than a car. It a myth based on peoples perceptions that they have small motor's therefore use less petrol.
People forget that bike motors run at twice the RPM than a car, so consume more petrol than the equivalent sized motor in a car.

I have done 1000k's in a small Suzuki hatchback on one tank of petrol (40L) and the same on my Fireblade 954 trip used 55L of petrol and I had to fill up 4 times.
Tyres: one good rear tyre cost me the same as 4 new tyres for my car (still performance tyres) and I only get 5000-7000K's out of a rear tyre yet I can get 20,000K's out of my car tyres.


Insurance. If insurance is high its because there has been a lot of people wiping themselves out in that age bracket and bike style. The insurance company doesn't give two shits about you but does want to a) cover its arse in case you crash and b) get as much money out of you before you kill yourself.


If you have already had two tickets, you have shown that you can't stick to the road rules. Is it them safe to assume that you would act the same way on a bike?

Its so easy to be killed on a bike its not funny. (read the countless threads on this topic to save us the time re-typing please).

Great advice for a newbie..... buy a smaller, older bike to start. Think 400 cc twin from the '80's.
Why? It's cheap to buy, cheap to insure, cheap to run and easy to ride. It will go quite fast enough to scare the newbie rider, but it's way more forgiving for mistakes etc.

Get a couple of years riding it, then get whatever you want. You can hopefully get valuable riding expereince, and hopefully, stay out of trouble so your insurance rates will be affordable when you get a bigger bike.

Thanks for the reply guys. And I wouldn't be stupid enough to go like 150 after first learning how to ride a bike. I've just read on a few other sites that buying a 250cc is pointless because you learn in a week or two how to ride the bike and handle it well and you're already ready to move onto bigger things. But it is a good idea I suppose to buy a cheap old bike easy to insure to get used to it.

Thanks for the reply guys. And I wouldn't be stupid enough to go like 150 after first learning how to ride a bike. I've just read on a few other sites that buying a 250cc is pointless because you learn in a week or two how to ride the bike and handle it well and you're already ready to move onto bigger things. But it is a good idea I suppose to buy a cheap old bike easy to insure to get used to it.

I would not take any advice from any forum that said you can learn to ride a motorcycle in a week or two. It takes years and many thousands of miles to really know your motorcycle and your skills. There is a reason people who have been riding for 20+ years still go and take a rider safety course every few years. The hardest part about riding a bike, is not controlling the bike or riding it, its learning to accurately predict what other cars around you are going to do. Learning to not be distracted by things you might normally look at while driving in a car. Learning to be constantly aware of every car and every driver around you and be ready at a moments notice to react to there stupidity.

Its very dangerous riding a bike, people in cars dont notice you as often and you really have to realize that its not a question of if you are going to get into an accident but when. On a bike you are the smallest thing on the road, and the first time you find yourself next to a big 18 wheeler, i would be shocked if you werent instantly struck with fear.

A lot of younger males think they need to get a big fast super sport because of peer pressure and the penis enlargement factor. Those are honestly usually the ones that end up as smears on the pavement. Bigger bikes are alot less forgiving when it comes to a mistake and an inexperienced rider has even less chances of making it out of a mistake ok.

Honestly the best and safest way to get into motorcycles is to start out small. When you jump right to the bigger bikes you dont learn all the basic bike skills and what bike limits are.

I highly recommend you get a used Ninja 250 for at the very least the first season. You can pick up decent used ones for a few grand and they hold there value very well, you should be able to sell it for near the same price you bought it for as long as you didnt drop it or anything like that.

The 2 best things a new rider can do

-Take a motor cycle safety course, they are usually like 30-50 bucks and a weekend thing, they will teach you more in one weekend than you can learn in an entire year of riding.
-Start out small, learn the basics of riding and how to handle the bike in emergency situations, after a season of riding if you feel confident to move up, then do so.

Riding is dangerous enough if you are an experienced rider, its a near death sentence for new riders on new bikes that are above there skill level. There are really 2 types of riders. Normal safe riders and "squids". Squids are the ones you always hear about dieing in some horrific accident because of racing/stunting/or just doing stupid shit on a bike. Those are also the same ones telling you that you can learn to ride a bike in a week or two and that its pointless to start out on a 250.

I've just read on a few other sites that buying a 250cc is pointless because you learn in a week or two how to ride the bike and handle it well and you're already ready to move onto bigger things. But it is a good idea I suppose to buy a cheap old bike easy to insure to get used to it.

Buying a 250cc pointless??????
Its not about the speed that you MAY do. You can speed on a 250 easily. Its about the reaction time. A 75HP 250 will not accelerate as quick as a 150HP 1000, nor will it snap as quick. If you rip the throttle around on a 250, it will move bloody quick and scare the living bejesus out of you. Do it on a 1000 and you'll be picking bike bits up off the road while wondering where the fuck your jeans and arse have gone.

I had to learn on a 250 for 18 months. I rode that every day to work and back, rail hail or shine. Every day there is some dickhead not paying attention , twittering, smsing, doing makeup, and if you need to react quick, you need to be 100% with the throttle.

Its the fuck-ups that will be the test for you. You can quite easily ride on the street if no-one else is around you and you can learn on a 600 without an issue. Put soccer moms, taxi's, drunks, cars full of kids doing stupid shit on the same street and thats when experience will come into it.

Sorry if I have repeated what Jayson has said, he replied at the same time.


Just do us a favour, don't crash and jack up our insurance policies!

And another thing, Dress for the Crash, Not the Ride.

Be prepared to go down. It WILL happen one day. How it happens may not be up to you, but how your protected is 100% your responsibility.

VruWHHEnZGw

Okay guys I completely understand you. There are some incredibly dumb drivers especially around the houston area so I will start out small

One last thing to Drew:

Keep in mind that if you learn how to ride "right" and learn well that you have the REST OF YOUR LIFE to ride something big and flashy.



I really hope you do heed the advice they've given here and go with something smaller. If and when you decide to make the purchase, please check back in with us and let us know how it's going!

Alrighty then, I will listen to all of your guys advice. I'm checking out the Kawasaki Ninja 250r because from what I've read it's a great bike for beginners. :naughty:

If you can, buy second hand. That way the the bike has already lost most of its value, so when you sell it, you'll get almost what you paid for it.

Also, You are learning, so you will make mistakes. We all have.

You'll park it on a hill at the wrong angle and it may fall over. You'll stall it, run out of petrol, over balance when you move it, etc. All of these things are part of learning and can damage your bike and pride. Imagine doing it to a brand new bike!

When you buy your safety gear, there are two ways of thinking about it. Buy top of the range gear because it will last longer than your first bike, BUT, as your learning, you will drop your helmet and do stupid stuff. Also you may spend top dollar and it may not fit properly or you may not be comfortable in it.

If you buy from the middle value range, you may be getting less protection but you haven't invested top dollar if you want to change, or if you damage it.

Personally, I bought top of the line gear because my life was worth it. I considered it a better insurance policy to have the good gear and be able to get up and walk away than save a few bucks and maybe a end up in hospital. (this is all hypothetical, because you never know when you'll go down or how)

I had a mate go down in normal jeans and a cheap RJ's jacket. He tore the jeans from his legs and the jacket stitching gave way leaving him with nasty road rash to his legs, arse and arms. I've come off wearing Redmax Kevlar jeans and Dainese jacket and all I had to do was to use a leather conditioner to take out the scuff marks and wash the jeans.