this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024
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If you want both fun and comfort, try a naked bike! You get fairly upright ergonomics, but sporty street performance. Good beginner bikes would include the Yamaha MT-03 and Kawasaki Z400.
If you like crotch rockets, a beginner sport bike is a great choice. They're even sportier but still not very uncomfortable like the 600s. The Yamaha R3 and Kawasaki Ninja 400, or one of the older Ninja EX500's are my beginner recommendations.
If you like the big cruiser V-twins (that's Harley's thing) instead, something like a Honda Shadow 750 or Suzuki Boulevard C50 gets you that experience without paying Harley prices.
Speaking of prices, I highly suggest you buy a used bike as your first, because you may drop it while getting the hang of things and you avoid most of the depreciation of a new bike. Then, you can see what kind of riding you really want to do and upgrade from there!
Hell yeah, love the info. So if I understand it correctly now, cruisers are the sons of anarchy kind of bikes, and sport bikes are the leaned forward racing looking ones, and naked bikes look to be somewhere in between?
That being said I think I'm really excited about the cruisers
Yeah, although naked bikes usually look a bit more like sportbikes (they were originally sportbikes without fairings, hence the term naked bike) than cruisers.
Honda also makes the Rebel cruiser bike, but they look less like a "sons of anarchy" kind of bike than the Shadow or the Fury, although I wouldn't recommend starting on a bike as big as the Fury.
I just searched all 3 of those and I see what you mean about the Rebel.
I can see myself enjoying any of those 3 bikes, this is awesome
A Rebel 300 or 500 makes a great beginner bike!
Also, don't be afraid to look at the used market for other metric cruiser bikes, they're plentiful and cheap. The 4 main companies are Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki. Heck, I started on a metric cruiser, the Suzuki GZ250. It was kinda slow though, I'd recommend something with a bit more power than that.