Advice for first time rider

[Al Feral]

Hi

I would be grateful for any suggestions as to how to go about choosing a first bike. I am not afraid to get into tinkering and maintenance in fact this is part of the appeal.

I have been looking at an old Yamaha SR250 and stroking my chin. Does this seem like a good place to start?

Cheers for any advice,
Al

[guest40]

G'day, Al.

I have until recently had a SR250  1982 mod (1982) and can say this is a bike that is bullet proof. Light and easy to ride with enough oomph to keep a newbie happy for a good while. With a decent muffler it even sounds the part. I could'nt kill mine, and the newbie who bought it reckons apart from the rattles which sound like a vigoruosly shaken tin of rusty nuts and bolts, it is still going strong. The only real mod I made to mine was using a 7" sealed beam off a car, so I could actually see at night, and a second hand muffler to replace the original rusted out one with the good sound.
Actually, the sealed beam was overkill, but was cheaper than the original globe. You dont need better lights, as it doesn't go fast enough to catch up with the beam anyway.

[squirrelciv]

Only advise I would offer is to keep things simple. Air cooled, Kick start, Single piston brakes, chain final drive, single carb (preferably not CV) CD ignition that sort of thing. Play with it and cut your teeth on a nice simple thumper, then you can start adding a bit more technology. Don't know about the sr250, but I started with a XL100 many years ago. Haven't progressed on the technology front much to be fair, just got a bigger engine (currently own a NX650)

Good thing about these sort of base level bikes is they don't lose much money as they are cheep in the first place. So if you come a cropper you shouldn't be too much out of pocket. Jump on a R1 and over cook it and you have a seriously BIG bill coming your way once they let you out of hospital.

Most of all enjoy! and remember, bigger isn't necessarily better

[Al Feral]

Cheers!

Yeah I am definitely looking to keep things simple. It'll be the wise thing while i get my head around it all. I am not wanting to wrap myself around a tree after biting off more than I can chew either! 

Kurt are you still based in Perth? I am down the road in Freo. Not been here for all that long... a little over a month. Can you suggest the better places for looking in the second hand market? Is it really only the Quokka for WA or am I missing some other avenue?

Thanks again
Al

[guest40]

There are a few good bargains around at the moment. but like Squirelciv said, keep it simple as a newbie. I tend to check out the trade ins around the smaller dealers, that way you will get some sort of redress if something goes wrong. The Quokka is good if you know what you want.
Also at the moment there are some nice cheap new bikes out there too.

kurtrb2@hotmail.com if you want further info.

[Andy M]

IMHO you're starting in exactly the right area bike wise. Enough go to keep it interesting, but nothing over complex too big. It's a tough market here in the UK. Too many people do direct training on rented bikes and skip straight onto 650's. Any basic Japanese (or Korean?) 250 or 500 with a street/cruiser/not too extreme set up will do the trick. My dad had a Kawa ER-5 that was a proper do anything all rounder. He decided he liked electrical gremlins or something and bought a Guzzi  but there are plenty of times he misses the ER.

I've no doubt you've thought of this already but you are bound to drop it. Don't worry, it'll probably be in car park, but you need to budget for some protective gear and maybe the price of a new mirror or lever in the first year. Helmet, gloves, boots and jacket are the first priority,  but get some armoured trousers when you can. Second hand/surplus/old stock works for everything except the helmet up to a point but you'll probably want to upgrade once you've got the feel of things and get some miles in. I'd go basic now and decide later what sort of kit works for you. Don't forget inusrance costs either, i don't know about Australia but here the 250 class will see you doing well on the basic cost but will cause pain if you add theft cover.

Let us know what you go for.

Andy