Beginner seeking advise

I am a newbie and I'm interested in Sport-touring bikes. I already registared for the Safty course and I'm taking it this month. To understand my problem, let me state my stats. I'm 24 yrs. old, 6'4 230lbs. I just got back from a dealer. I sat on a few bikes there and the only one there that fit me and felt comfortable was a Kawasaki (spl) ZZR 1200. Now I know that this is way too much power for a beginner but I couldn't find any bikes 600cc or less that would fit me to practice on. Any advice for someone my size? Also, what do you think about the ZZR 1200. In your opinion, is this a good bike for someone my size after I gain experience?

I'm not sure about your question, but on my XJ550 my dad has to sit on the passenger part of the seat, but then again he's about 6'5 and 255.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=256170

Sidenote: an Early 90s 600s, most likely CBR600 F2/F3 would be more than appropriate for you.

In case you think your stature is suited for more than 600s:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=250255

he is looking for a sport tourer... not a sportbike. so no, the F2/3 would not be right for him. check out the goldwings i would say... yeah, they are big, but they are deffently not fast. if you can overcome the weight on them, or any other cruser, i dont think the size will matter much. they are not built to go fast like the Sport-bikes are. i have a freind with both an older Goldwing (88ish) and a 2004 meanstreak. even the 1600cc meanstreak is easy for me to drive. i only have about 3 months seat time in a bike so... i am going to vote size doesn't matter for crusing bikes. your only consideration should be weight... if you dont know anything about a bike that is a diff story. but otherwise (assuming you know how to shift and are profecient in turning and so forth) just get what you want.

Edit:::::
meanstreak or meansteet? the kawasaki(sp) one...
/Edit::::

he claimed he's a newbie, assuming he's a new rider, even if he had previous MX experience. so you wanna send him to a 1600CC just because he mentioned sport tourer? hell, even the Busa is a sport tourer. all the bikes I mentioned are either sport tourer or good training bikes. with the exceptions of F2/F3, in regard of his stature.

Deion, it's also good to look at streetbikes/cruisers below 600 CC.

Thanks for all of your advise. Its great to have someone else to seek advise from other than a salesperson. My taste is leaning more toward a sportbike. I sat on a busa but, I felt more comfortable on a ZZR 1200 because it sat higher. I never even concidered the CBR600's in the early 90's. I always assumed those bikes were too small. I'll check out some of those.

:D seriously, stay away from 1 liter bikes of any kind at this stage. and certainly stay away from Busa, unless you have a death wish. :evillol:

good luck though.

hehe, you better stay away from the busa lol. that is a sportbike!! he said the Sport-Tourers. not even close to the same bikes. my personal fav for the crusers is the BMW bikes. they are great from what i hear, and they say BMW hehe, cant beat that. the busa is NOT a touring bike dude. its a sportbike.


and i OWN a early 90s CBR... i am 5'10 and 190Ibs. at 6'4 he might be a little bit cramped. 230 is not that big of a deal though; especially not for his size (height). but Deion24 if you are interested in the Touring bikes and not the Rockets then the CBR is deff not for you.

thats just my thoughts though. only problem i see with the large crusers is weight... their 'power' is just not an issue... the 1600cc meanstreet is acctually slower than my 600cc CBR, dont know acctuall times, but i beat my freind on his in a strait line from a redlight... not the most sientific prof i know, but if you want to dig up acctual numbers go ahead. it will be close i am sure.

My vote for a good starter would be a good used late model Honda PC800 Pacific Coast. I've had mine since 1989 and it still serves the purpose well. Not too big, enough power but not too much. Another good choice would be the Kawasaki Concours, probably the best deal in a turn key mid weight touring bike around. Over 20 years of production and development, climb on and go anywhere in the world.
:2cents:
Paul in San Jose

hey deion, are you planning on keeping this bike or just learning. I'm 6'4 and 210lbs and learnt on a sports 250 before going to a GSXR750 and now a 954. start low and work up but read the previous threads on first bikes.

if you start on a larger bike you are more likely to stuff up. older bikes will be slightly larger and slower than new ones so try the cbr's. the older ones tend to be less track and more tourer by todays standards. the new cbr600rr is the same physical dimensions as my old 250.

dont assume larger is better. it could be a fatal mistake

i dont agree that people should start with a 250cc... there is no reason you can not start on a 600cc safely. i did and i am fine, i didn't drive dirtbikes before or anything like that. i only knew how to shift mine becuase of my ATV lol. you just cant go out and push it, and if you are the type of person who cant have something and not use it to its limits (or yours...) and if that is your reason for buying a 250cc then you shouldn't own a bike anyway; you are going to get killed.

i vote older 600cc bike if you are getting a rocket, as long as you can respect it. thats my :2cents:.

oh lordy. in australia we have power to weight limits for learners. although i was uncomfortable for 18 months while learning, i believe it was a good thing. i learnt to appreciate how deady traffic can be and on a bike with roughly the same acceleration as a WRX, i was into some dangerous situations quickly. a larger bike can get you into the f@#k up zone alot quicker. high speed track days are alot safer than traffic.

check out the goldwings i would say... yeah, they are big, but they are deffently not fast.

The 1500cc goldwings were faster than any other tourer, and faster than 90% of the cruisers. So if you are racing a goldwing about a 1/8 of a mile, dont dick around because if he gets a good launch you might lose. Also becareful of Valkyries, I have seen two near me that have blowers on them...

i dont agree that people should start with a 250cc... there is no reason you can not start on a 600cc safely. i did and i am fine, i didn't drive dirtbikes before or anything like that. i only knew how to shift mine becuase of my ATV lol. you just cant go out and push it, and if you are the type of person who cant have something and not use it to its limits (or yours...) and if that is your reason for buying a 250cc then you shouldn't own a bike anyway; you are going to get killed.

i vote older 600cc bike if you are getting a rocket, as long as you can respect it. thats my :2cents:.

You started with early 90s 600s, good for you! That's what I also suggested. But dont automaticly go ahead suggest 250/500 aren't great starters bike. There are some things you can learn faster on it than I bet you will on that CBR, which would take you a little while.

hehe, you better stay away from the busa lol. that is a sportbike!! he said the Sport-Tourers. not even close to the same bikes. my personal fav for the crusers is the BMW bikes. they are great from what i hear, and they say BMW hehe, cant beat that. the busa is NOT a touring bike dude. its a sportbike.

Ask any experts here and see what they would classify the Busa as? Sure it's not your typical Tourer like Goldwing, but it's a comfy ride nonetheless. It handles sluggish compared to race-tuned bikes, but good for long haul. And it's heavy! Other tourer types, VFR 800 Interceptor, YZF600R, etc.

and i OWN a early 90s CBR... i am 5'10 and 190Ibs. at 6'4 he might be a little bit cramped. 230 is not that big of a deal though; especially not for his size (height). but Deion24 if you are interested in the Touring bikes and not the Rockets then the CBR is deff not for you.

:wtf: are rockets?? He already said he wants a sportbike. Ya, most deff yo. :rofl:

thats just my thoughts though. only problem i see with the large crusers is weight... their 'power' is just not an issue... the 1600cc meanstreet is acctually slower than my 600cc CBR, dont know acctuall times, but i beat my freind on his in a strait line from a redlight... not the most sientific prof i know, but if you want to dig up acctual numbers go ahead. it will be close i am sure.

This obviously shows you don't know what you're talking about. They have good amount of torque on the low revs, and it's 1600CC! Too much for any newbie rider.

you might find that a honda interceptor (early 90's era) might be a decent bike to start on, its a 750, but has a pretty good seating postion. my friends dad used to have one and he's a pretty big guy.

Lorddarkice, Busa's ARE sport tourer, sure you can turbo them, sure they go fast, but do you ever see them in a race?(moto gp)

BTW, a goldwing is nothing close to sports touring, it is just a tourer.

goldwings don't meet requirements to be a sport tourer because of the engine and styling. And personally though i'v never ridden one, BUSA's are pretty insane

sorry, guess i was wrong... i thought the busa was Sport hehe. kk, im wrong. the goldwing's manaual refered to it as sport-touring though, so i dunno whats up there. then again it is an 89 so.... different back then or something i guess? who cares. nice info about busa... learn something new everyday!!

Well, to tell you the truth, the word "Sport" is soooo overused, the only reason why they even tag sport onto anything is just to make it sound better, it is just so ridiculously overused. Sport Utility Vehicle, Sport Wagon, Sport Sedan, Sports coupe, Sport touring, Sport bike, Sport luxury, etc,... Now, try reading the list again, without the word sport...

BTW, I don't even know what defines a Sport Touring bike, I just know for sure that a Hayabusa, and the BMW bikes are all sport touring.

comfy bikes good for long haul, 100s of miles. of course this is figuratively speaking, and not set in stone. I think it's more or less whether it's race replica or not, if it's not, it's probably a "sport tourer" or better suited for street use. the ergonomics are easier on the body, upright seating position, more seat cushion, less fatigue, etc. they also tend to be heavier than race reps.

hey Z, you say "comfy bikes good for long haul, 100s of miles" about the sport touring bikes like the hayabusa, though i wouldn't say 100's of miles on the Hayabusa is a "Long haul" by anymeans....more of a short trip for the people that use them to somewhat their full extent...or well most of the people i know that use them heh

lol, it's a long haul for me, i get agitated having to drive 200 miles in one day on interstates in a car, and occasionally I have to. having a lead foot helps, but on a cage, it becomes a lot more conspicuous to state troopers.

A couple 100 miles is a pretty damn good day ride... somewhere between 300-400 you start to feel the burn and it's not quite so fun anymore.... and this is INCLUDING stops to stretch, etc.

The busa is a SPORT TOURER!!!! Why else do you think it has a big back seat? ;) That's also why it's on a 190 instead of the 180 that is so common today, although that part of riding is changing again...

I would HIGHLY recommend the f2/f3 to start riding on. They are much more upright than most sport bikes, thus making them a bit kinder on the back/shoulders/etc.

The Pacific Coast wouldn't be a bad starter, IMHO. I almost got one instead of my SecaII but decided I didn't really want to do long trips on a regular basis just yet. The 750cc Interceptor would also be an "okay" starter bike. Just try to get one before the 800ccs with VTEC... sure, it's only a valve thing, but you CAN feel it b/c you are carrying so little weight. My dad is 6'4.5" and sits fairly comfortably on his Interceptor.

Yeah some people will start to ache after a few hours of riding, but others, myself included, would ride all day everyday if they didn't have to work for a living, but hey work=motorcycles! heh well that's how I see it anyways. Try an find one of the older interceptors, I am still kicking myself for not buying the one off of my buddys dad, he sold it for $800 and it was in good condition.

hey, thanks for all of the advice. I just finished takeing the MS course. Now I just have to find a bike. I'll look into the early 90's CBRs and Bandits. What about the Katana 600? Would that be a good bike for someone my size? I just want to know if anyone else could give me their opinion on it before I drive 100 miles to check one out. There aren't any where I live.

Katanas were pretty popular in their day, I'm sure they have pretty good performance and they look cool too, otherwise so many people wouldn't have got them. They might be comparable to a cbr600 only watered down because of comming from the early 90s era. Thats my opinion but ask someone whos actually ridden one.

The Katana is a pretty tame 600. Even the newer ones are less "performance oriented" than the CBRs and the R6's et al. The Kat's were supposed to be more friendly for longer rides, as I understand it. My bike (Seca II) is very upright and very tame, but it's half-naked so it gets some weird looks.

Hey,

I have a question. I'm still on a quest for finding a used begginer bike for under 3,000. I came across an 89 Ninja 600. I was wondering if this would be an ok bike to start on for my size (6'4 230lbs). My friend had a 98 Ninja 500 that he let me ride on and I felt fairly comfortable on it as just something to learn on, but I only rode it on 1rst gear (this was before I took the MSF class and I wasn't comfortable enough yet to go through the gears). Now he has already sold the bike so I can't practice on that. So, I just want to know what some of you think of the 89 Ninja 600 as a starter for someone my size.

Deion, that 600 should be fine for you to start on. It's a nice, respected, older bike. Give it a shot. :)