What was your first street bike?

DECIMIS

DECIMIS

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What was your first street bike?

How much riding experience did you have before acquiring that bike?

How long did you ride it for/why are you no longer riding it?

Do you feel it was a good first bike? Please explain.
 
89 katana 750 with cams and pistons. 0 street exp, rode a dirt bike once or twice before. Used it for 2 years and blew the second gear. Great first bike with lots of power

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk
 
YSR50. Best bike I ever owned had it for 2 years. I'd probably still have it if someone didn't steal it. Little to insure, used next to no gas, not fast enough to get you in trouble.
 
Suzuki sv650
I had some dirt bike experience but not anything major.
Still riding it
I think it is a great first bike.... just don't get cocky like I did.
 
1990 VTR250 Interceptor

MSF course and Scooters on a Mexican Vacation

9 months so far, Not sure what i'll do this season

It's perfect, it was made one month after I was born, its easy to work on, has a huge community of supporters and doesn't mind getting dropped since I removed the fairings.
 
DECIMIS said:
What was your first street bike?

1984 Yamaha 550 Maxim

How much riding experience did you have before acquiring that bike?

Just the riding course weekend

How long did you ride it for/why are you no longer riding it?

A couple years / because that was 20+ years ago ;)

Do you feel it was a good first bike? Please explain.
Click to expand...

Sure it was a good bike, but would hardly recommend a nearly 30 year old bike ;)
 
A new 1981 Suzuki GS400S from Sonic Cycle. Zero experience, but still had tons of fun. The one pictured is a 450, but mine looked exactly the same.

gs450s.jpg



Traded it in two years later for a new 1983 Honda CBX550F. Really cool bag-of-snakes exhaust and not so cool enclosed disc brakes.

8200050B3013083100100.jpg
 
R6

rode a dirt bike once before that

rode it for 12 days , stoped riding it cause all I could sslvage was the motor

i do not recomrnd this as a first street bike
 
1977 Kz650 (it was 2002 and I was 16), had 10 years dirt experience. I think I rode it for a week till I found the keys to my dads 98 ZX9-R and put 15,000km on it before it was stolen. Sold the Kz 3 years ago.
 
Current '85 FJ600, bought in August. Essentially 0 experience before that. Test-drove a dozen or so bikes, all beaters, before deciding on this one. I picked it because it was ultra-cheap, seemed easy to work on, and had basically the same power-to-weight ratio as my brother's bike, a 2013 SV650 that was the very first bike I rode.

I think I chose right, it's just the right amount of power for spirited city riding, and you have more than enough power for the highway. It feels just fast/slow enough. Another Yamaha I test drove, a '92 FZR600, was a bit intimidating. A Ninja 500 felt heavy and slow. Ninja 250 felt too small and the putt-putt sound was a bit ridiculous, although the bike was amazingly comfy and easy to ride. Same deal with the CBR250, which felt too much like a scooter.
 
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1984 Honda Elite 250 scooter. No experience when I bought it. Moved to a Yamaha XV535 Virago after 3 years.
 
DECIMIS said:
What was your first street bike?
Click to expand...

2011 KLX250S purchased in March 2013 with 2km on it

How much riding experience did you have before acquiring that bike?

MSF course thats it.

How long did you ride it for/why are you no longer riding it?

I will probably have it a while as I really like it for off road and it still gets around alright on road. I put 16000Km on it so far.

Do you feel it was a good first bike? Please explain.[/QUOTE]

Yup, easy on insurance, easy to work on and ride.
 
77 gs 550. it was 3 years younger than i was at the time.

I simply repaired it, and got on and rode (only knew shifting concepts). Was such a dangerous thing in retrospect.

But fun. Bike was good. Decently powered, heavy so it wasn't flying away from me. Upright and comfy. wasn't a hot bike or a fast bike so i didn't have the attitude behind ownership. Rode it for about 2 years i think before stopping riding for a few years (before websites were up, so meeting up with riders wwasn't as easy as today) - didn't have a good solid crew to ride with regularly.
 
1970 BSA 500 Royal Star, bought when I was 16. Rode it for a couple years, then put it away in favour of my first car (a 1965 Rambler American with a flat-head six!),
because the girlfriend's parents wouldn't let her on the back of the bike. Still have it - 38 years after I bought it - tucked away in a shed in the back yard. Full restoration
will be a retirement project - at least that's what I keep telling myself!
 
GL1100 fully loaded Goldwing with stereo and cruise control. I was 16 and my friend that owned it moved overseas for 3yrs and left it with me. Had 10 tears of dirt biking and had ridden a half dozen s of my friends road bikes. It sure wasn't ideal but I put thousands of kilometers on it and it gave me a freedom to travel I would otherwise never have afforded.
 
Thanks for all the reply folks! I'm having a good time reading all the responses. Yeah - you guys know what this thread is really about, but I tried to make it about you, and not me!

(I'm so overwhelmed and inexperienced!)
 
2000 gsxr 600
No prior experience. Wouldn't recommend starting on it but I'm still alive
 
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