What's a Beginner Bike? I'll be posting pages from my little ebook
Motorcycling for Women: Beginner Bikes the next few days to invite
thoughts and commentary. The ebook is targeted to women even though a
lot of the information applies to men, too, because of the growing
numbers of new women riders. I think many of us are being steered too
fast to buy big bikes too soon.
Here's the introduction. I welcome your comments.
From Motorcycling for Women: Beginner Bikes – free ebook download (pdf)
I was lucky. I learned how to ride when I was 14 years old, flying through tobacco fields and over hills and through the woods. When I fell off I bounced right back up again. When the bike broke I either figured out how to fix it or pushed it back home. Usually I’d figure it out.
The little Honda I started on was definitely a beginner bike—a term widely debated today. Makers of large motorcycles claim their new 500cc machines are beginner bikes. I beg to differ. They’re heavy and have so much power they can flip a newbie onto the road while the bike continues on down it.
Yesterday’s 500cc motorcycles were considered mid-sized. An 800cc motorcycle was impressively monstrous. Today, a 250cc or under bike may actually be all you need for years if you’re riding backroads, commuting, or enjoying off-road adventures. When your skills are honed, and you decide what kind of riding style you prefer, you can always trade up. Most beginner bikes hold their value.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find a little bike waiting for you somewhere in a barn or in a neighbor’s garage. If not, go shopping! The kind of bikes recommended in these pages will give you confidence, allowing you to hone your skills and to enjoy motorcycling in the long term.
Carla,
I strongly disagree with your comments about big bikes. The skills you need to keep a big bike under control are exactly the same as for a little bike. IMHO if you disagree you didn’t learn the real core motorcycle control skills (clutch and rear brake, essentially) correctly on the small bike.
With those in hand I had absolutely no problem stepping up from a 195kg BMW F650GS Dakar (my first bike) to a ~215kg BMW 1200R and finally 280kg BMW K1200GT, with over three times as much power and around twice as much torque as the Dakar. No, the added weight of the GT was not a problem. Not even on the first day.
What matters is competency with those basic skills. If a rider can’t get those nailed down tight, they’re going to be a poor rider on all bikes.
Note that I am talking about motorcycle control here, not safe riding. The latter as you’d know is another topic entirely and one that in my humble opinion has been done to death, though no less important for it.
Incidentally, my F650GS, which I still own, is slightly lighter than my partner’s Honda CB400 Super Four, though being a dualsport it is much taller and a bit longer also. I think the F650GS is a fabulous first bike, and I’m certainly not alone there…
John
This is a beautiful little book, Carla, nice graphics and easy to read, just the kind of self-help thing that the mega book stores go for, more so than your other titles. I don’t think that it should be free.
You could do a trial run of only 100 copies with Morris Press, as I did, and then send these to interested parties. The e-book format may be the future, but a lot of people like me tire of looking at CRTs all the time, and just want to curl up with a good old-fashioned paper book.
Most of your fans are not as technologically advanced as you are. I tried Facebook, but I only have 6 friends (7 if you include yourself), and none of them wanted to be on it. I think you’re up to 134 now?
Twitter is too much for me also; it’s like the CB radio of the internet.
Anyway, these blogs are excellent, and I hope you keep doing them.