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| Elffie01 |
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Elffie01
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Joined: 30 Jan 2012
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 Posted: 19:43 - 17 Feb 2012  Post subject: Choice of bike for a newbie |
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Okay so I am on my way to DAS.. having got CBT on tuesday
Everytime I look at a bike and like it, its a cruiser style bike.
Are these in any way not a good bike to ride on as a learner?
As in does the seating position make much difference to the ease etc of changing gears/braking ?
SDorry if its a dumb question and yer all /facepalming but I am a complete newbie to bikes and no one I know rides one, with the exception of the OH who has just got a CBF125
I was looking at a Suzuki SR125 kind of bike or a van van.
I prefer the older bikes rather than the sporty new CBR/CBF's
Im going on what I like the look of not what everyone else has, if you get my drift 
Thanks in advance for any help  |
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| ninja_butler |
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ninja_butler
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| Lyam |
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Lyam
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
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Posted: 22:27 - 17 Feb 2012  Post subject: Re: Choice of bike for a newbie |
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| Elffie01 wrote: | Everytime I look at a bike and like it, its a cruiser style bike.
Are these in any way not a good bike to ride on as a learner? |
Oh nooooooooooo!
https://www.eotfocus.com/media/full/jpg/2009/08/26/duck-and-cover-drill.jpg
| Elffie01 wrote: | I was looking at a Suzuki SR125 kind of bike or a van van. |
Oh, right, they wouldn't be so bad. The Van Van looks like a barrel of laughs, but they're not that common.
How about a YBR Custom?
https://www.moto-net.com/images/nouveautes-2008/nouveautes-yamaha-2008/ybr-125-custom-rouge.jpg
If you're going via a training school then you'll be doing your training and test on a 500cc+ upright commuter style bike anyway, so if you get a 125 to lark around or practice on, then just get whatever you fancy. If it makes you happy then it's the right bike for you.
Or as Lyam says, just skip getting your own 125, pass DAS and get yourself a Virago 535 or bigger cruiser.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike |
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| Kingstondavo |
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Kingstondavo
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| Dilyan |
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Dilyan
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| Englishman |
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Englishman
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| Elffie01 |
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Elffie01
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| Posted: 09:46 - 18 Feb 2012 Post subject: |
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Ahh right, thanks for the replies guys.
I am doing DAS, just impatient lol, and was thinking i'll get a bit more practise riding in while I have a 125.
The SR looks nice, I prefer the older ones, not the plasticy looking ones...sorry lol
Ill hang on a bit and see how it goes, see if I can bribe the OH into letting me on his plasticy CBF  |
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| Im-STiG |
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Im-STiG
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| Taught2BCauti... |
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Taught2BCauti...
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| Posted: 11:00 - 18 Feb 2012 Post subject: |
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| Kingstondavo wrote: | If you are doing DAS I wouldn't consider a 125, you will only be bored of it within weeks and want a 500+cc bike. |
What a dilemma! If you have enough money for DAS, you might not have any left for a bike, but if you buy a 125 now, you might have to save up for the DAS!
If you can afford a 125 for now, you can get some good experience and practice, so hopefully you will save money by needing fewer paid lessons later on.
If you don't spend too much on a decent (non-Chinese) 125, you won't lose too much when you sell it or trade it in for a bigger bike.
I guess it depends on how soon you need a bike for transport, and how long you plan to take to complete the course to get a full licence.
No point in getting your own 500 now - you won't be able to ride it unless you are in radio contact with an instructor - who must be qualified to instruct that class of bike - it's not like a car, where your dad or a mate can 'supervise' you on 'L' plates.
I think it might be a good idea to see what kind of bikes the school uses for the CBT, and ask the instructors why they choose them.
After the on-road section of the CBT, they should be able to give you some good advice as to the way forward, after assessing your riding ability.
Insurance is another consideration - if you get a 125 for now, and insure it for 12 months - plan to get your full licence before the 12 months is up, and you will have a year's no-claims-discount (hopefully) to reduce the premium of a bigger bike!
Centre of gravity is a factor that you need to consider when choosing a style of bike, which is why the low-riders and cruisers are probably not a good choice for learning slow manoeuvring techniques.
____________________
Honda Varadero XL125(V8)
www.TheFutureIsHere.eu |
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| Kingstondavo |
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Kingstondavo
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| Teflon-Mike |
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Teflon-Mike
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| Posted: 19:33 - 18 Feb 2012 Post subject: |
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OK, I was abit confuddles at first what you were 'about'...
| Elffie01 wrote: | see if I can bribe the OH into letting me on his plasticy CBF |
Presumptiose of me, but should we assume you are of the female 'form'?
If so, have you had a look at Bendie's comments about bikes for those of shorter, fairer stature?
Now; taking 'style' out of the equation; this a learner bike, to help you 'learn' - not a piece of furnature, an ornament for the mantlepiece of a bit of sculpture to stick in the garden, whose's value is almost entirely asthetic. Nor is it a designer frock, to cause admiring or enviouse glances from fellow guests at a party or collegues at work.
Its a motorbike; and first and fore-most its built to be RIDDEN.
You didn't learn to walk, as a two year old, straight off in five inch stilletto's, did you? You had 'sensible' shoes strapped to your cutsy little feet! So that when you were a little bit wobbly on your own legs, you didn't have any more problems than you need.
BIKES IS NO DIFFERENT!
Regulation Learner-Commuter, like your O/H's 'plasticy' CBF is the brightly coloured 'My First Shoes' of the biking world.
Its easy to ride. It has a neutral, upright riding position that gives you the BEST visibility and control over the bike. Its steering geometry is all 'neutral', to make it 'stable' but still easily manouverable, so you can exploit the 'control' of that riding position to best effect, and not have any impediments to make JUST riding the thing any more difficult than it need be.
Debated in another thread the MANY advantages time on a tiddler offers.
They are not daunting to ride, and while riding a bigger bike CAN be easier; they fact that they are easier, and the fact that they have weight that makes them stable, and damps clumsiness, means that they will 'flatter' a new rider, and wont so readily highlight problems you may have in 'basic' machine control and handling.
So time on a tiddler can be 'fun' and it can quickly highlight areas of basic machine control for you to tidy up your riding and put in a really 'good' foundation skill-set, to build on later.
DAS, and particularly intensive DAS, often fails to do this in large measure, and teh very big risk is that qualifying via intensive DAs you get a quick-licence and either come out the other end thinking becouse you have done the course you know it all, or suddenly deprived of an instructor in your ear the whole time, bereft of that falce confidence and wornering what the hell to do.
EITHER instance is very dangerouse, and stuck on a large displacement bike, starting your early riding learning a VERY dangerouse place to be, able to get into a LOT of trouble you possibly cant handle very, very easily.
Back to these here regulation Learner-Commuters. The 125's offer an awful lot that can help you put down a foundation skill-set, and three months 'practice' on one, doing 'cheap' lessons on one, where you dont have to rent the bike, and you can practice what you are tought on a lesson, to your hearts content on your own time, can be a VERY VERY good way to get a GOOD solid 'grounding' in preparation for riding bigger bikes.
Lots of schools dont cater very well for 125 learners and are reluctant to offer spaced out lessons if 125 training at all... so may be a case of 'doing DAS' anyway...
But if so, warnings heeded about it; you come out with a licence VERY LITTLE better prepared than you are now, and have still got to get those early miles learning in.
The 500 Commuter twins, like the Honda CBF500, are 'bigger' learner-commuters, which is why the schools use them as DAS bikes....
Do same thing as a CBF125, though as mentioned, able to damp and flatter clumsiness, being more flexible and easier to ride, they can engender a certain 'laziness'... but riding possition, geometry again, offers good control and manouverability when you need it, and makes it easy to ride and get those early miles in without the problems, and if coming straight off DAS, you can mimick or back up what you might have done in weekly 125 lessons, taking 'refresher' or 'advanced' lessons, to dress up your riding, and fill holes in your skillset, and bolster confidence as you gain experience.
NOW... cruisers.
If you are of the more petit build, JUST because they are SHINEY.... doesn't mean they are great bikes, or that they are actually made of metal! Many modern Cruisers are as much a 'Plastic Fantastic' as a race replica, only instrad of the plastic being stretched out into one big panel cobering the engine, and painted blue or white or whatever & covered in stickers.... its in smaller mouldings dotted everywhere and is just elecro-plated to look like 'Chrome'.
Frequently atratctive to lady riders, becouse of the Magpie effect, they are also sold on the fact that they have a low, wide seat, to suit the more usual female 'physique', and a 'low centre of gravity' that makes them easier to manage.
Being brutal; many of these reasons for selling a Cruiser to a woman are only half truths at the very best.
Any advantage from the 'low' seat is deminished by the foreward set foot-pegs and high wide handlebars.
If you have short legs, you probably also have short arms, and so having a seat close to the floor for when you are propping the bike upright in the show-room may seem like a good thing, and reaching to the bars , might not seem too stretched, and even quite comfy...
But get that thing moving, and stick your feet on the pegs.... and try turning those bars to full lock to get out the show-room doors, and THEN changing gear with your leg stretched as far as it will go?
At best, its clumsy and a LOT more work than it need be, and for a learner? A horendouse compromise for the sake of style!
Snowie, my O/H was 'sold' a 125 Cruiser, you would expect to be a bit 'easier' being smaller, becouse she is only 5'5" on similar reasoning, and couldn't understand why it was HORRIBLE to ride, until I watcher trying to go round a roundabout and realised she was having to lean the WRONG WAY off the bike to keep hold of the handle-bars!
So, for NOW; I would seriousely reccomend IF you follow the 125 idea, get a 'boring' one; JUST to give yourself the BEST start you can on bikes, EVEN if you do your lessons and tests on a DAS bike.
IF you do intensive DAS and get your licence that way; forewarned that there will be big gaps in your skill-set, and you have all that early miles learning to do.... curb that 'eagerness' and 'impatience' to get YOUR IDEA of the bike you want.... same as I tell the newbies that want to jump straight onto a plastic fantastic super-sport 600, through the Magpie effect.... DONT jump straight onto a cruiser, a regulation 500cc commuter twin, is a far better starting point to get those early rider miles under your belt.
You are far too likely to 'drop' and skuff up your early rider ANYWAY, and no bike looks great with scratches in the paint-work, so no great loss of style, and after however long it takes you to decide that you have had 'enough' and want to get on the bike of your dreams, you will ACTUALLY not only be far better prepared to ride it, BUT you will know the difference, have something to compare it to, and actually apreciate and enjoy it FAR more.
But DO evaluate the 125 option; it really can be a great way to get the mortar in the foundation skill-set, no matter how much people may tell you that riding a 'big-bike' is easier and as good a place to learn as any.
125's are NOT 'toys', or second class bikes; bottom line, you are facing the exact same dangers riding one, so they are no 'safer'. They are more demanding and often more involving to ride, making them a good training tool, and also a lot more interesting to ride, quite often, for all their restricted performance, and even within the power limitations of Learner-Legal restrictions, they can often go as fast as ANY bike is legally allowed to go in this country; and do much of what you might want a bike to do, and ought not be 'dismissed' quite as readily as they so frequently are!
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?' |
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| Elffie01 |
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Elffie01
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| Posted: 20:06 - 18 Feb 2012 Post subject: |
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Thanks for all the replies.
I have decided after reading the posts on here, thanks for all the input, and speaking to one of the instructors that I will be going for an upright 125. The riding position was also mentioned today as I questioned the guy.
I was looking prior to actually parking my butt on a bike seat, now I have ridden for an hour or 2 I am questioning the seating positioning and ,y angle to reach pedals etc, and am thinking Ill save all that extra effort for when I have some miles under my butt.
I am female and yeah you're right the shiny metal is a magpie effect to me, in a fashion, BUT I am not 100% and that was why I was questioning the decision.
Im 5'4 and seems I dont have the longest leg or arms in the world  so will be careful what I get. Am still looking at a SR125 which I love the look of, the older looking bikes appeal more to me.
Thanks all for the replies, much appreciated. Seeing as I know nothing about the bikes and there are a few different options on the market, its nice to get some helpful advice rather than the usual *your a nub go get a scooter!* lol 
I am taking the DAS but slowly, mainly due to working shifts and stupid days off fitting in with instructors. So the thought was to get a 125 and get some riding miles under my belt.
So no, im not rushing into anything, dont fancy dropping nothing so will be sensible about it, and just wanted some sound advice. |
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
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| Posted: 11:12 - 19 Feb 2012 Post subject: |
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It's a very sensible way to go about it, you'll be much better off than a One Week Wonder.
I like the look of the SR125 as well and if you buy smart it's unlikely to lose much or anything when you sell it on.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike |
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 14 years, 17 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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