I was just thinking about getting back on a bike after many years (had a 70 Kawasaki 100 dirt bike) and would like to get a used inexpensive (note inexpensive I do own a 914) street bike. Mostly tooling around town and occationally on the highway. Any suggestions on make and price.

Well I have a Cannondale 2.8 road racing bike for sale in the misc. section. Thnk of it as a means to lighten your car
Oh YOU WANT A MOTOR on yours.

Depends on YOUR budget.....twins are nice, light and nimble. 400-650 cc...new ones have warrantees....if you want to go bigger....Ducati has a 700 twin...starting to get a little pricey when you cross over from the rice to pasta....

Sounds like you need to narrow your margins....occasional offroad, both, street only....

I have two great choices for you!!
Dirt bike: 92 KX 500; 55hp and 220 pounds!
Sportbike: 93 CBR 900RR; 102 hp and 420 pounds.

both cheap.
actually, the RR is actually quite civilized. Much mor the ne R6 I just bought...

A friend mentied the Honda rebel 450. I like that style and looking for under 2 grand

the 900 RR isnt exactly a "starter" bike
If you can still find one the GS500 Suzuki twin is a great starter bike but isnt available anymore and has been religated to track fodder or Garage trash.
My Choice would be the SV650! sweet, light, resonably powered street bike with EFI and plenty of potential to upgrade should you get the itch for MORE!

Just don't go TOO small. You'll grow out of a small bike in one summer

Anything around 700cc or maybe a 900cc will be fine and take a course is you can. They don't hurt and if you pick up one thing good from taking it, it will be worth it.

Cheers.

QUOTE (rdauenhauer @ Apr 18 2005, 08:46 AM)

the 900 RR isnt exactly a "starter" bike If you can still find one the GS500 Suzuki twin is a great starter bike but isnt available anymore and has been religated to track fodder or Garage trash. My Choice would be the SV650! sweet, light, resonably powered street bike with EFI and plenty of potential to upgrade should you get the itch for MORE!

Rich has a great point. If you have $2k to work with, you should be able to get a great starter bike. Some sort of 600-750cc 4cyl twin cam something. The newest you can swing. FI would be nice, but even carb'd ones seem to do just fine.

Yes Rdhauer is right SV 650, get a 99 or 00 and you'll spend less than 3,000 they have no recalls no warranty issues, no fast moving parts. I should know I work for them. If you want to spend cheap, GS 500 is a key model, can be had for less than 1000 and as long a s you change the oil often and don't use iot to commute without chekcing the oil frequently you'll be fien, and both are excellent starter bikes. A for 900 RR, how does it feel to be 50 hp down and weigh 40 pound more than current 1000 technology??? Just kidding, best part of early RR's is wheelies 5-6K 3 rd gear, forever, as long as I have space in front of me. Just add 1/2 quart more to oil the rod brgs, and she is good.


Erik Madsen

QUOTE (Kerrys914 @ Apr 18 2005, 08:48 AM)

Just don't go TOO small. You'll grow out of a small bike in one summer

Speak for yourself Kerry , I have 2 400cc bikes and they are a blast. I don't mind shifting a lot so they are fun...can acutally use all of the rev range...not be idling down the street like on the liter bikes.

I'd suggest something like a used Sv650, they have a twin so they are more of a low RPM bike, and you can always sup them up to make some serious HP when you want...oh yeah, they're cheap too.

I would qualify a Honda Rebel 250 as too small. My neighbor insists that anything bigger is perious. But that 250 can't even get out of its own way.

Myself, OTOH, have a ZRX1200. I few weeks back the words "I need a faster bike" came out of my mouth.

I'm in with the other guys on the Suzuki SV 650. It's just about right in all aspects.

I always wanted a Bandit 400, but somewhere along the way I got fat.

QUOTE (Cloudbuster @ Apr 18 2005, 10:07 AM)

I would qualify a Honda Rebel 250 as too small. My neighbor insists that anything bigger is perious. But that 250 can't even get out of its own way. Myself, OTOH, have a ZRX1200. I few weeks back the words "I need a faster bike" came out of my mouth. I'm in with the other guys on the Suzuki SV 650. It's just about right in all aspects. I always wanted a Bandit 400, but somewhere along the way I got fat.

I know this isn't the majority view, but the idea that a 250 is "too slow" is just plain silly. Anything that will get up to 70mph is adequate, and even a 250 Rebel will out-accelerate even a fairly fast car.

I haven't had a bike in 5-6 years, but I've owned about 15 of them, and ridden another 30 or so, and raced three different onces, over the past 20 years. The slowest was a 200 single which would just barely get up to 65mph, and was great fun to ride. The fastest were all over 1000cc except for an RG500. Certainly nothing accelerates like a liter-class bike, but IMHO, anything quicker than the current crop of 600s is getting into wretched excess territory. Nice to have for bragging rights and the infrequent full acceleration run, but hardly necessary.

I'm not a particularly fast rider, yet I've spent plenty of time dogging people on bikes with 3-4x the power simply because I spent time on making the bike handle well.

Any stock 914 owner should feel similarly. Power isn't what makes the 914 fast, and acceleration is not what the 914 is about.

As for the original question, the best starter bike is a well-used bike. Depreciation is amazing on most bikes, and $2K should buy you any number of very nice bikes. If you're actually looking for something useful as a daily ride, I like dual-purpose bikes, as they can easily be modified in to acceptable dirt or street bikes, they're cheap, they get good mileage (nearly all singles), and they can be dropped w/o causing much damage. They can be customized with 17" rims wearing street tires, and lowered a tad, to be killer bikes in the curves, too.

I would say the Honda NT650GT Hawk. Its sporty, pretty, affordable. It has enough power to do its job, but not so much that its scary. They handle awesome, and I mean awesome. You can really lay one of those over and drag whatever you are comfortable with. They are kind of a poor mans Ducati. They were a little misunderstood much like the 914.

Upon review, they may be the 914 of the MC world. They sure do compare in alot of columns.

checkout www.hawkgt.com

QUOTE (jasons @ Apr 18 2005, 10:54 AM)

I would say the Honda NT650GT Hawk. Its sporty, pretty, affordable. It has enough power to do its job, but not so much that its scary. They handle awesome, and I mean awesome. You can really lay one of those over and drag whatever you are comfortable with. They are kind of a poor mans Ducati. They were a little misunderstood much like the 914. Upon review, they may be the 914 of the MC world. They sure do compare in alot of columns. checkout www.hawkgt.com

Love the Hawk, absolutely my all-time favorite. I used to run an info site on that model. Check the FAQ and you'll see my name in several places. I spent lots of cash putting serious suspension on one of these years ago, and produced something that would outhandle the best 600s of the day.

However, they're not at all common, and they're such a cult bike that prices are actually rising. If you can find one, they're wonderful.

QUOTE (lapuwali @ Apr 18 2005, 11:08 AM)

Love the Hawk, absolutely my all-time favorite. I used to run an info site on that model. Check the FAQ and you'll see my name in several places. I spent lots of cash putting serious suspension on one of these years ago, and produced something that would outhandle the best 600s of the day.

Thats funny, I use to have one back in like 95. We may have crossed paths on the internet before. I probably at least read your stuff in the FAQ.

Mine was a 90. I did the pipe and jet kit, corbin seat, CB-1 bars, front springs and oil. removed a bunch of the ugly stuff like reflectors, blinkers, chain gaurd. I tried the CBR-900 shock mod(didn't like it because it was kind of cobby). I never had the money for the fox because I was in school. Eventually, I wound up on a 93 Duc 750ss. Sold the Hawk to a friend. I still think about tracking him down and trying to get it back if he has it.

Now I don't own any bikes with motors. Cell phones and SUV's (well and age) kind of pushed me past my threshold for risk on MC's.

Hard to find and somewhat valued but excelent bikes.

QUOTE

and even a 250 Rebel will out-accelerate even a fairly fast car.

Disagree. The Rebel will reach 60MPH but will take you close to 18 Sec to get there!
I did my stint as a MSF instructor and these were the predominant fleet bike. Very Low so inseam challenged or female rides could use but SLOW.
Todays traffic is fierce if your gonna be in it, ride something that has the power to save your ASS.
Remember the addage: if you find your self in trouble, use the throttle! Youll either come out the other side or Crash...but youll solve the problem quickly.

Speaking of bikes...I have a buddy that might give me his 1970 Yamaha HS1...90cc of raw power...

I don't really know much about bikes, but thought it might be a fun project to see if I could get it running again...anybody familar with these bikes?

Seems like it would be a fun bike to putt around on...would probably be waaay scary to attempt the highway on that thing

they look like this:



Tony

QUOTE (rdauenhauer @ Apr 18 2005, 11:34 AM)

Hard to find and somewhat valued but excelent bikes. QUOTE and even a 250 Rebel will out-accelerate even a fairly fast car. Disagree. The Rebel will reach 60MPH but will take you close to 18 Sec to get there! I did my stint as a MSF instructor and these were the predominant fleet bike. Very Low so inseam challenged or female rides could use but SLOW. Todays traffic is fierce if your gonna be in it, ride something that has the power to save your ASS. Remember the addage: if you find your self in trouble, use the throttle! Youll either come out the other side or Crash...but youll solve the problem quickly.

OK, I'll admit to never having ridden a 250 Rebel, but the several 175-250cc bikes I have ridden would all do the 1/4 mi in under 18sec, and all were doing 70mph by the time they got there. A couple (like my race 250 Ninja) were pretty fast, period. The Rebel must have very tall gearing to be so slow.

btw, I regularly, daily, drove a 850cc Mini that had a 0-60 of damned near forever (0-50 was OK, that last 10mph, though...) and offered only slightly more crash protection than a bike. My 1000cc Mini was substantially faster, but was still no threat to a Geo Metro.

jasons, I expect we did cross paths at some time. I had my Hawk in the '95 timeframe, as well. I'm also no longer riding, for similar reasons to you. I feel uncomfortable enough pulling up to a light in a 914 surrounded by SUVs.

ok, my two cents, kinda seriou...

a good starter bike is a cheap bike, that way you can drop it and stuff.

And gutless bikes are a waste of time, unless you are unable to control your wrist...
there are a lot of good mid size bikes out there, and cosmetically damaged ones are cheap.

The honda hawk is a pretty good choice.

or I have and RZ350 too3

I'm not a bike expert, however my son recommends SV650 or the Ninja EX250/EX500.  Also should consider older CBR F2/F3's or FZR600's.

QUOTE (carreraguy @ Apr 20 2005, 02:58 PM)

I'm not a bike expert, however my son recommends SV650 or the Ninja EX250/EX500.   Also should consider older CBR F2/F3's or FZR600's.

That's a smart son...good to hear there are some out there. I'm still a youngster and am typically in the minority due to my thinking that starting small is a good idea, and wearing a gear is a good idea.
Too many people out there riding in t's and shorts with no gloves with a $350 helmet on a 750 or 1000cc for their first bike

Funny how you get some of the best starter bike advise on a porsche BBS eh?

I would reccomend the SV650 as well. It sounds great, has a great aftermarket following. Is more fun than most 600 sport bikes 90% of the time. Has its own racing class to really challenge and improve your skills (many transfer to driving cars better).
Has earned best of class marks year after year from bike mags. They hold their value well, so if you decide to move up, you won't take a big hit.

What ever you decide, just be heads up and pretend you are invisible.

Good luck-

I would dis-recommend the EX250 (aka 250 Ninja) anywhere in NoCal, and maybe SoCal, too. The 250 Ninjette hasn't been made in awhile, and NoCal had (has?) a long-standing racing class the bike is ideal for. As a result, most, if not damned near all, of the Ninjettes you're going to find here have been thrashed pretty thoroughly on the track, or they'll be competitive race bikes that cost much more than a starter bike should, and aren't street legal. Wonderful bikes, and a great class to start racing in, but not all that useful as a starter street bike.

The EX500 is hit and miss. They're inexpensive, and reasonably powerful. However, they were quite cheaply made, and most I've seen were pretty tired and required suspension rebuilding and re-bushing. A low-miles model that spent much of it's time sitting might be worthwhile.

Remember the term "Starter Bike" you guys. If there is a $2k budget, any late 80's early 90's 4cyl 600cc or abouts will do the trick. It all depends on your riding intent, but I would stay away from sport minded bikes and try to get an upright sitting bike of the prev mentioned nature to start out with. Don't waste your money and get something only a couple of years old. What if you don't like it? What if riding the bike scares the crap out of you and you want to just get rid of it after a few weeks? Well, the newer anything you get, the more money you will loose.

Start in moderation man. if you like it, upgrade. I have had two bikes so far. Ride everyday, rain, shine, 21 degrees out, no shit, I do. Spent $500 on the first bike, $700 on the second. Sold the first with 50k on the OD for $500, bought the second bike with 8500 miles on it, has 22k miles on it, owned it for 14 months now. 650cc 4cyl twin cam. Love it, great bike to ride.

Don't spend that money so fast, slow down. I love the bikes I have bought so far, but you may not.

QUOTE (Root_Werks @ Apr 21 2005, 10:02 AM)

What if you don't like it? What if riding the bike scares the crap out of you and you want to just get rid of it after a few weeks? Well, the newer anything you get, the more money you will loose.

Plus you could drop it even in the parking lot or garage.

QUOTE (carreraguy @ Apr 20 2005, 02:58 PM)

however my son recommends the Kawasaki Ninja EX500.  Also should consider older CBR F2/F3's or FZR600's.

the older Yamaha's FZR's are going to be pretty UNcomfortable, pain in the wrist wise.

whereas the EX500 & the CBR's are alot nicer around town.

I have a hard time recommending a CBR, but I'm weird. I had an 'F3, and a good friend had an 'F2, both bought new. Both of us left them parked in the garage most of the time and rode something else. Now, when I had bikes, I rarely had less than two, and often had as many as five. Bikes are cheap, esp. used, and it's easy to gather a collection of several different types to suit mood and what kind of riding you're going to do.

The CBRs didn't suck. That was basically the problem. They were so good they were BORING. The Miata of bikes. Lots of people like them. Lots of people like Miatas. Both are very good at what they do. Both put me to sleep (I've owned Miatas, too).

But I'm wierd. I've also owned a silly number of cars, and generally gravitate towards the quirky and unloved.

I'd certainly not recommend a CBR or any other bike with extensive bodywork as a starter bike.

Cheapish used bikes:

First vote:

93ish to 2002ish Kawasaki ZX6E Ninja

Not the Ninja 600, not the ZX6R not the D the E. I forget the exact years, but they occasionally came in black and looked like a ZX11.

Second vote YZF600

On the somewhat more obscure market, the Hawk or a CB1 would be really cool but both are very cultish.

QUOTE (lapuwali @ Apr 21 2005, 09:41 AM)

I would dis-recommend the EX250 (aka 250 Ninja) anywhere in NoCal, and maybe SoCal, too. The 250 Ninjette hasn't been made in awhile, and NoCal had (has?) a long-standing racing class the bike is ideal for. As a result, most, if not damned near all, of the Ninjettes you're going to find here have been thrashed pretty thoroughly on the track, or they'll be competitive race bikes that cost much more than a starter bike should, and aren't street legal. Wonderful bikes, and a great class to start racing in, but not all that useful as a starter street bike.

From the son again:
Kawasaki still makes 250's.  Brand new ones retail for 3k and NICE lightly-used ones can go for as low as 2k
if you look hard enough.  Nice condition EX250's are everywhere, check Craigslist.  They're excellent starter bikes and ideal if you want something a little less sport-oriented, better for standard around-town riding.  The EX250's basic design hasn't changed in over 15yrs of production and there's a reason for that.