Motorbikes
 

Sonny Jim is due to venture onto his first motorised set of wheels.

Three choices:

This or this or this

Which is best for a six foot two-er plus other aspects like performance, reliability, resale value after 5 years, etc?

'Could be wrong but I'm thinking the ninja is the bees knees :thumbup:

Re: Motorbikes
 

OHHH you are a brave man Paul letting your son have a bike!:blink:

I love the Ninja, they are a mean looking bike, they also hold their money well.


My brother had the Ninja 600 and got knocked off at a junction, he lost all the skin off his bum and he was wearing leathers he couldn't sit down for weeks.

Not sure about the height thing. I bet they will be plenty of people on here who know though, I should imagine.

You might be better off putting this in the lounge, is it called? :)

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honda or Kwak every time for reliability etc (have no experience of the hyosungs though), that said he may find neither are great for a 6 foot guy. his best bet is to go and sit on one in the shops and see where it puts his knees on the thanks and if his feet fit properly for the gear change and brakes.

My husband is 6ft 3 and has problems with fitting his knees comfortably around the tank on a number of bikes (and his current bike is the Suzuki bandit 1200) and also with his feet (UK Size 13) fitting on the pedals with the frames and positioning.
I have the opposite problems in only being 5ft3 in reaching the floor. I just kept wandering around bike shops sitting on bikes to check the fit and weight till i found something i liked and was comfortable with.

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Probably a more upright bike like a dual purpose tourer, unless he's into racing. My feet can hardly touch the ground on mine in some places.

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http://www.omnimoto.it/magazine/1062...crisi-famiglia
What about the Honda cb 500 range they do a cross tourer upright version, or a trail type like Suzuki dr 650 or Kawasaki klr 650 or Yamaha xt 660 or ktm do a great range of learner legal stuff.
Hyosung have got much better lately but for quality, reliability & resale value you can't beat Japanese.
I love sports bikes but with speed limits, crap roads & so much to hit at side of road adventure bikes make a lot of sense.

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I agree, but he has his mind on one of those three, you know what kids are like - it's all about appearances. :) I haven't seen much in the way of upright bikes of that size range (250-300cc). There's this one from Suzuki but I can see why it doesn't appeal to him.

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Yes it can be a worry but luckily (and incredibly too :D) both my lads are sensible for teenagers (though a bit stroppy at times). My elder son has kept himself safe and his bike is still in pristine condition after 3 years so fingers crossed my youngest lad is the same. Looking forward to the four of us riding out into the countryside together - my own little biker gang, haha! :D

Getting him to sit on each bike for size suitability is a good plan, we'll try that over the weekend. He's doing the training the weekend after next so we need to decide on something fairly soon.

I like the CB500 and the price is about the same as the 250/300s. Thing is, I got the Honda CBR250 for his older brother a few years back so for fairness, I'm a bit constrained to get him something around the same size. Amazing the learner legal stuff that they can ride these days. In my day we could only have 50cc. The Hyosung we looked at a few weeks ago but it doesn't have the same quality look and feel as the Japanese bikes. The one at the local showroom here even had a small dent on the frame so that put us right off it. A good point about using sports bikes on our bumpy roads.

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The Kawasaki would be the most powerful & judging by the amount you see round here with race pipes on, the most popular as well, was thinking a 500 or 650 might not get boring as quickly as a250/300, but I'm used to zx10r's & Gsxr 1000's etc.
Had loads of fun on a honda mb 50 at 16 but never looked back once I got a rg 250 gamma at 17.
Currently getting Max my 15 yr old & his mates into dirt bikes when I can get them off their surfboards, would love to go on adventure ride when he's older.
Ride safe.

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I also enjoyed my old Honda and Suzuki 50s - used to go all over the place and get up to all sorts of fun with them.

Maybe I'll just give the lad my boring old Kawasaki 500 that is as old as he is and get myself a nice new shiny and fast upgrade. That'll work - not :D

Thanks all for your thoughts on the subject. :thumbup: Ride safely :)

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You are lucky that they have a sensible head on them, my eldest is hoping to get a scooter when he gets to Oz. Personally I don't think he is ready for one, even though both of my lads had motocross bikes when they were younger.
I just don't feel happy with the idea of him being on the road yet but the hubby has said he will buy him one..:blink:

It was one of those scenarios, ask mum, mum said no, ask dad when mums not there, dad says yes! The sneaky bugger!

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Yeah, the little buggers - mine do the same. :sneaky:

He'll have to wait until he's 16 and three quarters, if Vic is anything like the ACT. :D

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Watch the servicing. Most are every 6000k. Nothing here if using it for commuting. Unless ACT is more competitve:unsure: $280 to $400 is nothing for a basic service, the catch being of course you need to have them done to keep it under warranty:unsure:

Re: Motorbikes
 

Absolutely. The servicing costs soon mount up. It's not cheap finishing off the raising of two teenagers. We use a non dealership for our bike maintenance and repairs which is a bit cheaper and the owner is a good, honest bloke. Like the UK, the laws were changed to stop the requirement to go back to the dealership to preserve warranties.

The main dealership in Canberra has lots of attitude so I prefer not to do business with them if I can help it, but they do have a monopoly for Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki in the ACT and import duties make it extra costly to buy a bike interstate. The other dealer who has a better attitude sells only Hyosung and Yamaha, the first make being a bit lacking on quality and the second not having a suitable road bike in the 250-300cc range.

I spotted another bike I want for myself though. This'll do me just nicely! :cool:

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And the winner is.... :cool:

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Great choice. And having ABS is a really good thing for anyone riding a bike, not least for a beginner rider.

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I agree, though previously I wasn't in favour of ABS, believing that it would make my lads less skilled with braking. But the benefits of stopping safely in an emergency outweigh all that. I just need to drum it into him that even with ABS he still has to allow for safe breaking distances. 'Looks like I've got a few weeks of motorcycle instructor-ing ahead.

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Nice bike. :thumbup:

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with both parents bikers we had little chance of saying no to my youngest when he wanted a bike.

He now rides my old bike a Honda hornet 600, he has designs on his Dad's blackbird.

I have always used Hondas for commuting as I found them more reliable but the Ninja has street cred with the lads.
I hope he has many fun years and no spills :thumbsup:

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My eldest has owned a Honda CBR250 for a few years now and it's served him well, a nice bike. :cool: The Ninja looks amazing. Youngest son's mates want one too but most of their parents wont let them. I'm just following the tradition that my parents set: motorbikes then cars. Great for seeing them through their uni days in the most cost effective way plus they acquire their motorcycling skills early on. :thumbup:

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As a biker for many many years I would do literally everything to dissuade my kids from riding a motorbike. I just cant imagine them on bikes, it will be bad enough in cars.

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Feel the opposite way to Chris955. As someone who has also ridden bikes since being a teenager, I would rather teach my daughter to ride her own bike, than have her riding on the back of someone else's bike. At least that way she can make her own decisions on speed etc.

Good luck to the son of the OP, have fun, and stay safe.

ps, if you ride around without the proper gear on, your a muppet. Don't be that person.

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Thanks. I completely agree. The world hasn't changed so much that we are justified in depriving our children of the pleasures that we enjoyed.

PS: I also spent a fortune on protective gear for him, worth absolutely every cent. :)

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:thumbup:

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I wouldnt want my kids on bikes either riding or pillion, its just too dangerous nowadays. This is from the perspective of someone who rode for many years, also my wife rode for more than 20 years. Fortunately our boys have no interest in riding bikes.
Agree about the gear, it saved my leg years ago.

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That is a baseless statement. :rolleyes:

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point in case of protective gear, my son's mate has just come out of surgery, he was going slowly and someone pulled out on him he avoided them but came off. He was running late so didn't bother with his Kevlar jeans just wore ordinary ones. if he had worn the Kevlar he would have been bruised but no deep cuts.

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There's some reasonably-priced motorbike safety gear coming up at Aldi next weekend (the 9th). :thumbup:

http://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload...24319/aldi.pdf

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@Paul, they also have some good running gear at Aldi.




For those reading this in the UK.

I have a kids Motocross helmet, if anyone is interested. Size L. Good condition. It's got to go before the end of August as I'm not taking it to Oz.

Email or PM me if you need more info.


Cheers.

Re: Motorbikes
 

Not here in Australia as far as I've noticed. Here they have new gadgety/equipment product lines every couple of weeks, similar to the "When it's gone, it's gone" sales that Tesco used to have. They try to be seasonal, for example: just before the snow season begins they have all the skiing gear, etc. They also have themed foods from time to time, for example South African foods.

From those motorbike gear ads, the short cut boots look okay. Not so sure about the rest.

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is the young fella into dirt bikes? would be a good option for his height, xr400 is an awesome bike and he could have a ton of fun on the trails

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No, at this stage he's just into road bikes. We got him the Kawasaki Ninja, and he seems very comfortable on that. A beauty of a bike, I wish if it was mine. :greenmonster:

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good choice mate, kwakas, can't go wrong :)

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Yeah, he was going to settle for the Hyosung which is bigger and cheaper but I didn't like the finish on it and thought hell for another couple of k he'll have a dream bike. His is identical to this.

Re: Motorbikes
 

definitely the right choice mate, its easy to get sucked in on those hyosungs but then 3 years later the resale is terrible, the kwaka looks lovely, lucky lad there :)