New noob wanting advice

[Rosie]

A few things in defence of 2-strokes...

From my understanding (and I've never been on one), the 2-stroke 250's you can buy are primarily designed as race/track bikes, this means that they tend to be higher maintenance, quite powerful, and peaky (the power arrives all at once). A lot of fun, if you are into that sort of thing, but suboptimal for learning to ride.

Most of the 2-stroke 150's you can buy were designed (at least my KRR was) as commuting bikes for Southeast Asia. They aren't as highly-strung as the 250's, meaning less maintenance, and more even power delivery. They have a moderate amount of power, but you have to go looking for it, if you want it to be fairly sedate, it will be. I was a pretty timid learner, and I never had the KRR get out of hand. Reliability-wise I did have engine trouble with it, due to it running out of oil at some point in it's past. I suspect a 4-stroke run without oil wouldn't have fared much better (or been any cheaper to fix).

[McDuck]

Dont be to upset if you do drop it. AS IN mess up puting it on the sidestand or while turning into a gravle drive way. These sorts of things you jest need experiance. I would deffently go for a twin or a newish (post about 1998) inline 4. I say this because the older inline 4s CAN, SOMTIMES be a bitch to get running right.

[breakaway]

There are post 1998 IL4s in NZ?

[McDuck]

There are post 1998 IL4s in NZ?

Dont know, all i know is my pre 1998 IL4 is a pain in the arss to get running well.

[avgas]

Absolute bollocks.

We cant all be Mr Perfect.
Some of us ride fast.

[Swoop]

We cant all be Mr Perfect.
Some of us ride fast.

It is not about riding fast. As a learner, one is expected to make a few mistakes. If a person isn't riding at the bleeding edge all of the time, there are possibilities that some bikers will not go around binning at every opportunity.
Learn to ride correctly from the beginning, may help in the future?

Some of us ride a Honda, so we cannot ride fast anyway!

[EJK]

Yes as some have stated, don't going buying a brand new bike if you have never ridden before, it won't look brand new for long trust us, if money is an issue perhaps you may not consider a fully faired bike as when it does go down fairing really likes to damage and break, if you don't mind riding a sport bike with damaged fairing then by all means thats ok.

Hes got a point there and I can tell you that!

I felt gutted (totally) when I wrote off mine. Eventho it was a sub $4k brand spankn new bike, still it was a BRAND NEW BIKE. I felt totalled ey

What I should've done was buy an old bike and learn to ride.

It's my 2c. Some people buys a new GPX, GT250R etc etc and it's their choice really.... I don't dis them

[avgas]

It is not about riding fast. As a learner, one is expected to make a few mistakes. If a person isn't riding at the bleeding edge all of the time, there are possibilities that some bikers will not go around binning at every opportunity.

Very true, but likewise you do not have to ride to drop your bike. Sidestands are as reliable as the titanic. Learners dont realise this all the time. I would be pretty pissed off at myself to walk in to the shed and find my bike resting on $$$'s worth of fairings.
In my experience if ya learn on a 125 trial bike with road kit.......stuff comes alot slower eg speed, bills and the tarmac!

[Swoop]

I would be pretty pissed off at myself to walk in to the shed and find my bike resting on $$$'s worth of fairings.
In my experience if ya learn on a 125 trial bike with road kit.......stuff comes alot slower eg speed, bills and the tarmac!

Also very true!
Well said.

[Tank]

What I should've done was buy an old bike and learn to ride.

No EJ - you were already learning to ride (and doing well BTW).

What you shouldn't have done was fall off - that's where you went wrong.

[martybabe]

Welcome,consider a road legal trail bike to start off on,dirt is generally softer to land on and in the middle of nowhere there's not so many to laugh at you when you do.Seriously though,a great place to start.

Top advice here mate, They are great things to learn your craft on and very forgiving if you do have a little whoopsie daisy. A year on one of these then pick something sexy dude. Take it easy and have fun.

[Luker]

Yea thanks guys,

Thinking ill get something cheaper 2-4k.

No dought knowing my luck lol It will fall over in the wind or something...