FAO CB41: Bike preferences are really subjective ...

CB 500 is a good all-rounder and a decent starting point for comparison. It's a Honda so it will work properly, highish bars and lowish pegs give comfy riding position. Not too heavy so you can chuck it about a bit, easy to handle at slow speeds filtering etc. Reasonable performance so you can still easily piss all over 4 wheeled vehicles - even fast ones. Overshadowed by "showier" models so good value. Good choice for short hops and around town - good fun too.

If you're going to tour you you will want something with a full or half faring. Wind blast on a naked bike above 70mph is a real issue. Sticking with Honda - maybe a Hornet. If you're doing big tours, full faring and bigger engine - maybe a Pan Euro.

If you want to go fast, lower bars higher pegs, full faring. Maybe CBR600.

Touring fast: as fast but with bigger engine - say Blackbird.

Touring slow: go for a cruiser, laid back, cool, very high bars, pegs forward, look good, noisy - poor speed and handling - best thing out for Sunday afternoons.

Luggage - if you need to regularly carry stuff only Triumph and BMW seem to offer integrated luggage systems across the range. Kits for other bikes can be expensive.

Engine preference - V-twins sound much better, more torque, in line 4s are smoother and less vibey more bland. Bigger engine = better straight line acceleration + top speed, but poor low speed handing and generally less agility.

Reliability - stick with the Japs, recent triumphs & of course BMW. If you more interested in style go for italian bikes, look the dogs but break down a lot. (bit of a sweeping statement but broadly true).

Assuming you can ride, the best thing is to go a try out as many bikes as you can - see what you like. Any decent shop selling bikes will let you test ride any number, specially if you tell them who haven't got a clue what you want.

Bikes tend to be better looked after than cars (another sweeping statement) and generally have much lower mileage than 2nd hand cars. I just picked up a 9 year old bike with 5000 on the clock - and that's quite common.

Should be able to get a decent middleweight naked Honda for 2-3k without shopping around too much.

Do you ride already ?

Posted By: butnooneshome on July 24th 2008 at 14:51:18

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