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

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yes it can be a worry but luckily (and incredibly too ) 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!

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.

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.

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

Thanks all for your thoughts on the subject. Ride safely

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..

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

Yeah, the little buggers - mine do the same.

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

Watch the servicing. Most are every 6000k. Nothing here if using it for commuting. Unless ACT is more competitve $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

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!

And the winner is....

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