First motorcycle?

[HoLeChit]

Find a old good running Honsa Rebel 250 or 450. Ride it a summer to see if you like it and want to stay with it. And possibly depending on your size a Honda Shadow 1100. That are shaft drive, easy maintenance, and low center gravity.

All this talk about fit.... This is a bit of concern for me, as I'm only 5'9" 200lbs. Any good resources online or in the city of figuring out what is a proper fit? It's my understanding that it good to be able to flat foot at least one leg when at a stop, but that's all I have heard.

 

[CHenry]

Find a mid 90s Suzuki Intruder 800, thats what I rode and liked it a lot. It was a bit small for me so sounds like it would fit you well. Low center of gravity, shaft drive and nice styling.
This looks just like mine

 

[Shadowrider]

To be honest with you I would stay from 500cc to a max of 750cc for a first bike. My 1st street bike was the fastest production 750 of it's time. But.... I learned to ride on the dirt so I already had my wrecks out of my system. I've never had to lay a street bike down but I've had a lot of close calls. For learning it's very important not to buy too much bike, but it's also just as important not to buy too little bike. You want enough power to be able to get yourself out of trouble but it's really easy to get INTO trouble with too much. Also the weight and handling is a lot easier and just generally more fun in traffic on a 400b bike vs. a 900b bike, it's a huge difference. Too bad Buell isn't around anymore because a Buell Blast was the perfect 1st street bike and they were literally a blast to ride.

Something like this is a close second.

 

[Buddhaman]

Here's a question though, so old used bike..... What about an old early 90's 600 street bike? Those are ridiculously cheap. Still too much?

Depends on the rider. I learned on a '95 CBR that had almost 100 hp new and never got over excited with the throttle. If you're looking at a Shadow 600 then they have much less power and a different riding position that I never cared for. Id start with a Ninja 250 then move up to something more permanent.

 

[beardking]

One thing to think about with the "ridiculously cheap" 600cc street bikes is that a lot of those have been rode hard and put up wet, so to speak. That's not to say you won't find the same in the cruisers, but it's definitely more common in the street bikes.

A suggestion that I would make is that you take the rider's safety course before you even consider buying anything. When I took mine, there was another guy in the class just like me. He had never ridden before, was in his 30's (at the time) and had ALWAYS wanted to own a bike. I talked with him at the end of the first day of the class and he said he wasn't coming back the next day. I asked why and he said that he had just saved himself a bunch of money because he found out that he really didn't care for riding as much as he had thought. He hadn't had any issues with the class, didn't drop the bike or anything like that. He just realized that riding wasn't for him.

That being said, I'd definitely look at spending less than $5-8K for your first bike. It will really hurt when you drop that $5-8k on the pavement and scratch it all up. It doesn't hurt quite as much when it's only around $2k or so. Just a thought.

 

[COZICAN]

Interested in a squeaky clean 1998 Fatboy?

 

[Yourshoesareuntied]

I have made a lot of legs for bikers.

 

[Yourshoesareuntied]

If I wanted one, the enduro would be somthing i looked at.

 

[yukonjack]

One of those Honda 250 Rebels is the way to go.

 

[Sooner67]

I had a Kawasaki KLR 250 back in the day,good bike to learn to ride on.