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Catman I stand by that statement, I said 0 to 60, not a 1/4 mile. Now it would take a rider who knew what he was doing, but he wouldn't have any problem beating a car like a vette 0-60.
OT, this reminds me of a foot race i got into with a guy and his horse, At the time I had a horse too.
I told the guy I could beat him on his horse on my 2 feet, and i did.
The race was 100 yards, but at the fifty mark there was a post we both had to run around and start finish back at the start line. A fast man can beat a horse doing that race. I might not be that fast any more, but I was.
Guys (and gals?),
Thanks for your advice and suggestions.
I will definitely take a MSF motorcycle safety course before I buy a bike, and I'm not going anywhere without a helmet and the proper safety attire/equipment. If I can get a license endorsement through the course, great -- otherwise it will be through the motor vehicle dept.
Regarding a Rebel 250, I have read in previous posts (here or somewhere) that 250s need to pull over and cool down after doing 55-65mph for any stretch of time. I do like the fact that it's a Honda, and I hear the engine design has been refined over decades. So I like the Rebel, but don't want to be limited by its cruising speed or range or overheating. Are those things really a problem?
Mike, I had not considered a Ninja 500 but will throw that in the mix. I'm not sure I'd be ready for a 750 and it might not get the kind of MPG I'm looking for. But I will go check out the specs on the Nighthawk.
Thanks for the replies, all.
N
You have been hearing BS... You can ride a rebel all day long and cross the USA both ways and turn back and do it again if you want.
Air oil cooled bikes need to be movin to be cooled...
A buddy of mine rode a old 2 stroke sussie from NH to mexico, into mexico, and back.. It was 250 cc's. A 70's vintage duel sport.
Engine running and not moving in traffic is where things get hot and this happenes to water cooled bikes as well as air oil cooled bikes and will happen to air /oil and water cooled bikes like Nomad, that runs 2.5 QUARTS of coolant for 1500 and 1600 cc engines..
A Nomad or like nomad engine has 3 ways to cool since the fins work and cool oil, plus has coolant.
ALL working finned engined bikes need moving air to cool. I have been caught in traffic at Laconia Bike Week in different years with many bikes over heated. All kinds.... All running engines at a dead stop, of course the police cause these jams for kicks. The trick is to leave the beach party before the party closes and everyone leaves at once under the scrutiny of the LAW.
A rebel will run cool enough from 25 mph to 75 mph to go all the day is long.. It maxes out around 80, and isn't a heavy bike enough to really be on the interstate for long, but no new rider has any bees wax on the boring interstate to begin with.
I crossed the USA both ways and I hated taking any interstates at all because i just want to go to sleep. Long straight roads are boring.
I did take some interstates, and I rode on back roads next to interstates, but mainly I found other roads more suited to my and what I like which is sick twisted sister roads.
A new rider should not exceed 55 mph and not ride there all that much. You must master figure 8's, S curves, circles with locked forks both ways and to ride a plank 8" wide 40 feet or longer, with out riding off the plank.
I am 58 years old and every year I rode since i learned in a field at 12, I have made a track in a empty parking lot, usually a local fire dept.
I use ritz crackers as pylons, and if i break some I open up the track, when I don't break them I tighten the track. The birds don't mind a bit.
As soon as the mud goes and the salt is washed off these roads I am headed to the Fire Dept with a box of crackers this Spring too.
Now I don't know about you, but from Dec to April with no ridin' I get rusty.
Mac_Muz: The two road tests I was able to find on line gave the Rebel 250's 0-60 times as 11.0 seconds and 12.3 seconds. If a Corvette wouldn't do any better than that, no one would drive one. The Rebel is slow as street bikes go, although I like it anyway (speed isn't everything). It only has 20 hp at most and a top speed of about 80 mph.
BTW, I rode my 1967 Suzuki 250 two-stroke 'X-6 Hustler' 688 miles in one day (when I was 21 and weighed about 140 libs)! I rode it from Dallas to north of Indianapolis and back through a lot of states, 3616 miles in total.
I would not recommend the Ninja's just because the riding position is so extreme. I think they require too much weight on the rider's hands and wrists while they are learning to control the machine. Honda Rebels might be easier to learn with. I think a beginner would prefer the old sit up position like the Honda CL350 I learned to ride on.
Muz - thanks for the crackers idea. Visible, cheap and gets the job done. As soon as these rains stop I will be out on the Exit 4 Park & Ride lot learning how to ride the Kawasaurus. It is still in the shop waiting for parts from some organ donors. So far the major repairs have been new float jets, timing chain tensioner, rebuild steering head, clean and seal gas tank and new brake lines.
1) anyone who considers a Ninja 500 an extreme riding position is probably confusing it for its sportier brethren such as the ZX-6 and ZX-10. they share a name only. the 500 is about as neutral a seating position as it gets.
2) to the OP, do not confuse engine CCs with power. the Nighthawk 750 i recommended to you is actually quite tame. really, there is little correlation between CCs and power when you compare the full spectrum of motorcycles. sure, a 600cc sportbike is slower in a straight line than its 1000cc counterpart, but does that mean it's slower than a 650cc dual-sport dirtbike? certainly not. definitely look at HP and torque numbers (graphs if you can find them) for any bike you look at so you know exactly what you're getting into.
Greg, this is why my Liberty bike stays in state. Parts for bikes are made for around 5 years after the model stops, car run 10. So getting parts right now is a problem for vintage bikes. Liberty being a 1981 yammi 850 triple. I never want to take her to far from home so I stand a chance of getting back home for a truck and trailer if something breaks all of a sudden.
Cat I don't know spec for spec, but a 250 rebel can do 60 still in 1st gear, so can my Nomad if I push it hard enough. Just about there the rev limter kicks in on the Nomad. That's a bit ugly.
Most all of the bikes listed will work for you. I had a Honda Rebel 250 (girlfriend's bike) (long story) and it's OK for a guy your size, you *could* ride it coast-to-coast on the Interstate if you wanted, to me the bike was more "comfortable" on back roads. I don't much like riding on the Interstate anyway. The 450 Rebel probably would be a better choice and wouldnt' be a bike you would necessarily outgrow quickly.
You could consider older bikes too, Honda supports their old bikes well, an original version 750-4 is still a very viable bike.
The 500 Ninja is another classic good starter bike.
I keep discovering new bikes that I hadn't considered before. Also, so many people have said they avoid the interstate that I have changed my criteria some. I really do like the idea of having a bike that could easily go off-road (doesn't have to be on a MX track) like the Suzuki DR-Z400SM. But the Ninja 500, Suzuki SV650, and Yamaha V-Star 650 are also appealing. The Rebel is a good bike, but I can do without the name "Rebel" plastered on there when I'm driving to work. It would be enough that I just drove a motorcycle.
LOL Rebel is bad, but Ninja is ok? So far I like this one best...Suzuki SV650...., A sport touring bike lots of newbies like.
The V Star 650 has a great air oil cooled engine, but I hear complaints of needing another gear up, so expect to hear some rpm at sustained hi way speeds. It is a great bike for fast back road riding, where you are over the limit one second and under it the next.. This engine has a chrome lined bore, which makes me like it better than Honda's 750 shadow.
Back in my day 650ccs was a big bike, it was about the biggest brit bike you could buy. There were a few punched out 750's made from 650's, and these came in Triumph, BSA, Royal Enfield, Norton, And a few other odd ball Brit bikes, I can't remember well enough now to say if they were models like in Norton there was 'Commando' and 'Atlas', or a brand name for another company.
The next step up was Harley with a cast iron engine a mess of a charging system which they still are with the 2 wire system, and the permanant magnet alt. And these engines at the very biggest were 1,200cc or 74 cubes....
650cc's is nothing to sneeze at for a first bike.
There are under tuned engines in 650 and over built, peaky engines in 600 cc's. You really want to avoid the peaky ones. The make no power in lower RPMs and come into the power band suddenly, and will run away, forgiving No Errors. This would be one as GXS-R 600.... not a good bike to learn on... Not a good bike for a old man like me either. My son has that bike in 750, which has more displacement, but is de tuned..
That bike kills my neck, and I just don't look that good with my ass in the air, higher than my head, and then getting off that thing makes me dizzey.
And he can't ride my heavy cruiser one inch, he rides like he was born on a bike.
So this is a strange game to learn. Again! His 750 will blow the doors off my old 1981 same year as my son 850 yammi triple. I ride that to tease the ever livin &*^% outta him, and before he married to get all his girls ;D
But that old 850 will smoke most any factory HD any time it sees one.. That old 850 has that power band thing going on where around 6,500 rpm it begins to want to fly. The valve timing is such that the cam spins up, and the breathing gets very real very fast. This tops out around 9,000 rpm... A far cry from my 06 Nomad, which red lines and hits a limiter wall around 5,400rpm.
I had a nomad 1500 in 05, which was stolen and got the 06, and am still learning how to ride it. It is a 900 pound beast, like the Freightliner of all factory bikes. All the power is managable way down low in the rpm and it has no racey cam, that turns on at all, just shear grunt.
I bought the 01 to ride the country both ways 2 up, and pulling a trailer. It did that well. I would hate this bike in city traffic for every day use, but I don't live anywhere near a city. To just get to the interstate it is an hour no matter which way i go.
And I hate interstate riding. In all I have maybe 250,000 miles under my butt, and so when I tell you, and other guys tell you the interstate is boring it is, and we mean it.
Living in more or less east and central NH, if a guy calls from Manchester by the Sea Mass., and says Lobster is lunch and on his dime, with beer, I will hit that interstate, but I don't like it. I just really like lobster, and beer!
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