What MOTORCYCLE do you ride and why?

Id say learn or get comfortable on smaller and get the 900.

Vespa 150, twist and go fun!

PJ Diaz said:

I wouldn't get an 1100 for a first bike, you are asking for trouble. What sort of riding do you plan to do?

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I drive anywhere from 40 to 80 miles a day just for work. I'd like to be able commute a few months out of the year. My partner is also getting a bike, and we will probably do some leisurely wind therapy together.

I want enough power to get up and go when I'm around semi trucks or less cautious drivers. I claim no expertise, I just figured with enough practice I can use the power when I need it vs not having the ability and relying on a different escape vector.

I'm totally open to ideas and opinions, that's part of why I'm waiting

Toka416 said:

First time riding id say is too much power. Is your life just be careful. Id prob be injured or dead if i had a big bike like that right off the bat. I rode dirtbikes as a kid so i am a decent rider to begin with. My problem is speed. Love it too much. Id prob be a smear across the highway. I ride a gs500 now and prob gonna get a 650/700 next year. The gs500 is a good beginer bike imo. Twist the throttle in 1st u wont pull a wheelie. U can do wheelies if u want but would have to rev it pretty high and drop the clutch. Hard to do by accident.

4 power options? Is there a really weak one? 900s r really fast and powerful.

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I really want the other GS, the BMW flavor. At some point I'd like to get one of these:

Tolerance Break said:

I drive anywhere from 40 to 80 miles a day just for work. I'd like to be able commute a few months out of the year. My partner is also getting a bike, and we will probably do some leisurely wind therapy together.

I want enough power to get up and go when I'm around semi trucks or less cautious drivers. I claim no expertise, I just figured with enough practice I can use the power when I need it vs not having the ability and relying on a different escape vector.

I'm totally open to ideas and opinions, that's part of why I'm waiting

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For a first bike I'd stick to a 750cc or smaller. Honestly a 650 has plenty of power to pull away and such, they generally top out above 100mph. The new 650 that Kawa is coming out with next year looks pretty sweet. You might look into adventure bikes too, because they are usually taller than cruisers. Here's the new 650 from Kawa, which has a top speed of 119mph:

The weight difference between a 650 and an 1100 is gonna be more than 75 pounds, which is gonna be a big difference when you drop it, and try to pick it up again. Also more stopping distance required for the bigger bike.

Tolerance Break said:

I'm looking at Honda 750 aero or rebel 1100. Going to sit on some Hondas at the dealership tomorrow, but I'm not buying a bike until next spring.

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Thinking about it more, I think the first bike for you is a used V-Star 650. Basically what happened in the early 2000's (I think), is that Yamaha saw all of Harley's successes, and were looking to get a piece of the cruiser market themselves. So instead of coming up with their own cruiser, then instead partnered with US company V-Star to produce cruisers. They wanted it done right, so they put quality parts into the v-stars and sold them at a great price. Lots of Gen Xer's at the time scooped them, up but only rode them occasionally. As a result you can find them in amazing condition on craigs list barely ridden, and at a great price. Check out Craigslist. Ride that for a year, then buy your dream bike once you have properly devoloped your ass calluses.

I just got me a new street legal Chonda Hawk 250 DLX fuel injected dual sport bike. Comes right to your doorstep in a crate (or assembled from whatever dealership) for around 2k. Cheaper for the carbed model.. Haha, you just can't beat the price for a shiny new bike, just make sure to lock-tite all the bolts!

I even got cords coming so I can play around and tune the ecu with my laptop, and do mods to it. Cheap fun, and backup transportation to work, etc.

PJ Diaz said:

Thinking about it more, I think the first bike for you is a used V-Star 650. Basically what happened in the early 2000's (I think), is that Yamaha saw all of Harley's successes, and were looking to get a piece of the cruiser market themselves. So instead of coming up with their own cruiser, then instead partnered with US company V-Star to produce cruisers. They wanted it done right, so they put quality parts into the v-stars and sold them at a great price. Lots of Gen Xer's at the time scooped them, up but only rode them occasionally. As a result you can find them in amazing condition on craigs list barely ridden, and at a great price. Check out Craigslist. Ride that for a year, then buy your dream bike once you have properly devoloped your ass calluses.

Motorcycle Test: Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic

Thanks to the media and the multitude of electronic means of communicating, we can now know what's going on anywhere on the planet in every field. Usually, this access to information is a good thing, a cause for celebration even. However, sometimes knowledge can be frustrating. For example, we...

www.motorcyclecruiser.com

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Thank you for the input! Found some great deals in the tri state area

Drop That Sound said:

I just got me a new street legal Chonda Hawk 250 DLX fuel injected dual sport bike. Comes right to your doorstep in a crate (or assembled from whatever dealership) for around 2k. Cheaper for the carbed model.. Haha, you just can't beat the price for a shiny new bike, just make sure to lock-tite all the bolts!

I even got cords coming so I can play around and tune the ecu with my laptop, and do mods to it. Cheap fun, and backup transportation to work, etc.

HAWK DLX 250CC DOT BIKE HAWK DELUXE MODEL FOR SALE

Hawk DLX 250 EFI Dirt Bike features 5-Speed Manual Transmission: Heavy-duty clutch offers smooth, Kick Start/ Electric Start, Front and Rear Hydraulic Disc brakes.

txpowersports.com

Hawk DLX 250 EFI Motorcycle with 5-speed Manual Transmission and Electric/kick S

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Those are cool, unfortunately not street legal here in Cali due to CARB requirements. For Chinese bikes here in Cali, we're basically stuck with SSR or CSC. The CSC TT250 is pretty cool, but only 5-speeds and carbed. I wanted 6-speeds and FI.

PJ Diaz said:

Those are cool, unfortunately not street legal here in Cali due to CARB requirements. For Chinese bikes here in Cali, we're basically stuck with SSR or CSC. The CSC TT250 is pretty cool, but only 5-speeds and carbed. I wanted 6-speeds and FI.

2024 TT250 Dual Sport Black

The new TT250 is an air-cooled 250cc dual sport, with more emphasis on dirt than street riding, but it's fully street legal. Order online and have it shipped to your door fully assembled anywhere in the United States. An incredible value at $2,495 MSRP. Call 800.884.4173 to order yours today.

cscmotorcycles.com

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Kinda funny how Cali and Oklahoma have such different regs. You can drive anything you want on the streets here, as long as you have brake lights, mirrors and turn signals. We see a lot of Razors, coal pushing high lift diesel trucks smoking you out at a stop light, etc. No annual inspections. No emissions testing. Nothing. If it runs, and has mirrors, turn signals, and brake lights, you can run it. Wanna put together a VW bug with a turbo diesel and Power Hungry performance chip?.. sure!.. It's perfectly legal. Wanna blow a trail of black smoke from the red light?.. It's all good.
I'm telling you, that if you want to strap a diesel to a lawn mower, and it has those 3 criteria, you're golden.

Lets see, you want to get a bike, cool. they are fun. I wouldn't ever suggest a make or model but there are a few things to think about. Forget speed, speed kills. Wear a helmet, you might owe your life to one. Watch out for the other guy, he's not watching out for you.

hhibrownsbacker said:

Lets see, you want to get a bike, cool. they are fun. I wouldn't ever suggest a make or model but there are a few things to think about. Forget speed, speed kills. Wear a helmet, you might owe your life to one. Watch out for the other guy, he's not watching out for you.

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My motorcycle training has bled over to my vehicle driving. I used to road race with an expert license in the CMRA. Now, I cover my brake at intersections, and have my head on a swivel... even in a truck.... But, the wife doesn't like when I take an exit at twice the recommended speed, and hug the curbs to straighten out the race line.... I mean road line.

... but!.. she knows I have experience and she's ok with that. ... sometimes. I used to have a Miata MX5.. you wanna talk about fun?.. the Miata MX5 has always been the choice of training race car drivers.. they have a 50/50 weight distribution, and I used to always take this right hand sweeper onto HWY 81... no speed limit. So, I would take the left hand lane in 4th, dive into it, and slide all four tires though the sweeper. I had a client that was HYW patrol. He said "You can't do that". I said "Ok, drive me out there in you patrol car and show me where it says to slow down from 70 mph"... he was speechless. So legally, I could take that sweeper at 70mph till it ended.. then I would have to hit the brakes 100 yards at the end and bring it down to 55..fun stuff.

DoubleAtotheRON said:

Kinda funny how Cali and Oklahoma have such different regs. You can drive anything you want on the streets here, as long as you have brake lights, mirrors and turn signals. We see a lot of Razors, coal pushing high lift diesel trucks smoking you out at a stop light, etc. No annual inspections. No emissions testing. Nothing. If it runs, and has mirrors, turn signals, and brake lights, you can run it. Wanna put together a VW bug with a turbo diesel and Power Hungry performance chip?.. sure!.. It's perfectly legal. Wanna blow a trail of black smoke from the red light?.. It's all good.
I'm telling you, that if you want to strap a diesel to a lawn mower, and it has those 3 criteria, you're golden.

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I think the main reason for Cali's tuft emission laws is due to the smog plague of Los Angeles back in the day.

PJ Diaz said:

I think the main reason for Cali's tuft emission laws is due to the smog plague of Los Angeles back in the day.

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Im sure... our "air quality" never goes beyond the "green zone"..... amazingly.

.... but then again, we're spread out pretty far. No over population or grid lock traffic. .. well, maybe OKC at 4:30pm , but otherwise, it's free flow traffic.

We've had the windows open, and AC off for the past 7-8 days... good weather right now!

DoubleAtotheRON said:

Im sure... our "air quality" never goes beyond the "green zone"..... amazingly.

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Population density. LA City has over 5x the population of OK City, and LA is smaller in area. Not to mention all the other cities which surround LA.

I gotta say... I don't envy that. I likes my space.

PJ Diaz said:

Thinking about it more, I think the first bike for you is a used V-Star 650. Basically what happened in the early 2000's (I think), is that Yamaha saw all of Harley's successes, and were looking to get a piece of the cruiser market themselves. So instead of coming up with their own cruiser, then instead partnered with US company V-Star to produce cruisers. They wanted it done right, so they put quality parts into the v-stars and sold them at a great price. Lots of Gen Xer's at the time scooped them, up but only rode them occasionally. As a result you can find them in amazing condition on craigs list barely ridden, and at a great price. Check out Craigslist. Ride that for a year, then buy your dream bike once you have properly devoloped your ass calluses.

Motorcycle Test: Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic

Thanks to the media and the multitude of electronic means of communicating, we can now know what's going on anywhere on the planet in every field. Usually, this access to information is a good thing, a cause for celebration even. However, sometimes knowledge can be frustrating. For example, we...

www.motorcyclecruiser.com

Click to expand...

I've got an 1100 V Star that's been bored and stroked. I got it new from Yamaha in 2001 and had it as my daily driver for 2 years before retiring it to weekend warrior duty. They're very comfortable cruisers with a ton of options. I've ridden mine on 12 hour road trips in big packs of bikes and not been numb afterwards. They're good for passengers as well with plenty of room for saddlebags and a rear luggage rack.