New rider - what should I get?

**wbks** · 20th January 2009, 21:23

take my my zxr for a good ride if you end up coming further my way if you want.
Bigger in the saddle then cbr which would be good because i remember you were a bit taller then me and the cbr seems crampt after a while. Hornet-cbr-Been discussed here if you do a site search. Conclusion is that hornets are generally slower but still arent much off the pace, because of the fact that the cbr is 20 years old and has been thrashed by learner riders its whole life. Two strokes are obviously faster but I passed a two stroke, r6 and another 600 a few times on my zxr so if you are a good rider you will still go plenty fast around the corners on a fourstroke. Tzr's can be hard to trace certain parts for so I hear, early model (really early) rgv's had a habit of dropping reed (or powervalve, not sure) pins into the engine, NSR's aparantly crank issues sometimes and the rs 250s are good to find parts for as with rgvs because they are the same engine. This is all what I was told over again when I was asking about two strokes myself. Two strokes sound like a bit of a fuss for a road bike so I would just get a fourstroke unless you are going to do heaps of trackdays or f3 races. Or do what the first guy said and buy some 600! lol Or you could even slap a number plate and rego and lights off another bike onto your flash rs bucket

**Buckets4Me** · 21st January 2009, 06:57

Originally Posted by wbks

take my my zxr for a good ride if you end up coming further my way if you want.
Or you could even slap a number plate and rego and lights off another bike onto your flash rs bucket

would love to give your bike a go
rode a suzuki harley lookalike (was better than I thought but not up to what I would want from it) great cruser and was able to chase a 900 bandid threw some twisty corners but boy oh boy was the suspention lacking and there just was no grunt at all much like I remeber the gn250's

was tending towards a swipe card nsr 1994 ish or the aprilla as they both had good suspention setups
want to try a cbr250 or similar 4 stroke (would love to know if the power was much down on the 2 stroke )

well let you know when I do finaly get back to the shops

ps hows that honda coming along

and yes I had looked at reging a bucket just so I can test them on the road
but you know speeding tickets and all lol

**wbks** · 21st January 2009, 10:54

Well the batt is flat so I haven't had it running in a while but I changed the oil (only had 600mls of tar-black thick oil in, which explains why it made a squealing noise the first time I started it

), put a new plug in, put the new battery in, the new coil, and this sunday me and the ol' man are going to make a couple brackets to hold the battery in secure, make one for the coil etc! After that, new chain, maybe rear sprocket and just clean it up. It doesn't seem to want to go into second push starting unless you only go slow jogging pace so it's a little bit of a handfull to push start some times. Just remember with the swipecard nsr- It's HP restricted (and speed) and it's a big deal to get it de-restricted. Not like the r6's "pull a wire out here, tape it up here". Only way to get the full power card is to get the HRC ignition-Which is presumably expensive and rare. The card system was just a flashy gimick to make it extremely hard to de-restrict past jap reg's so the "wet weather card" or "dry track" and stuff like that are just variations of 45hp powerspreads. So like I said, if you end up coming this way for any reason PM me and you can take my bike for a ride if you want. I'd drop it off at yours but its a bit of a drive for an hours worth of trying out a bike

**Buckets4Me** · 24th January 2009, 20:21

haha took a rgv for a blast yeasterday
da it was fun but they are small

and boy oh boy dose it bounce around and threten to throw you off
much like my first bucket at pukekohe

didn't like it that much specialy since it had trick upside down forks
but I guess the rear shock was a bit nafed being 18 years old and all

try something differnt next time

wbks if the offer is still there would like to give it a go later thanks
try anything now
but I want something with good suspention
will try a prilla later 1998+ model I think

**wbks** · 26th January 2009, 14:00

Yea the offer is still open if you come down this way but it might be easyer to test ride one from a shop closer to you. Prilia late models would probably be the best chassis/suspension/condition but then there's still wether or not you want to ride a two stroke and all the maintanance or just turn the key and go on a fourstroke but I'm sure you already know all that

**Buckets4Me** · 26th January 2009, 15:32

some of the 2 strokes I've looked at have done 30-50 thou k and noone seems to know what hase been done in the way of maintanance to them lol

**Cheshire Cat** · 26th January 2009, 16:26

hornet

**wbks** · 26th January 2009, 20:30

Lol well my zxr is pretty high in k's (very high) but I know whats been done in terms of maintanance (isn't much, just new cam tentioner, oil every 3000k's and a new chain about 700k's back) and the suspension works good (not rock solid, not like a bouncy castle either). Compression is fine, seems to run fine, only ever goes over the half way mark on the temp guage when revving high at low speeds (like going through the pits for instance) but then the fan kicks in and cools down so generally it's in pretty good nick. When I was looking at two strokes I wouldn't go near anything that the owner didn't have proof of a rebuild for every 10k or so kms or especially if they didn't know. That's usually "It's had so many k's on the top end It probably needs a new crank but no rebuilds yet, so I'll just keep that on the lowdown and pretend I don't know" or they generally don't know so it could blow up on the way home for all you know lol. Someone was looking at a nsr 250 to buy a while ago and was the "don't know last rebuild time" and the pillion seat aparantly kept hitting them in the back, the tires had like 20psi in them and the shock was rooted aprantly (if he gets it jumping over hills like you say you did I wouldn't be surpised... You know who you are lol)

**Paris** · 9th February 2009, 19:44

I started riding 2 months ago ... CB250 Hornet, and love it.. a mate just bought a 250 Suzuki Intruder brand new for the same price - better for him as he's much bigger than me and struggled with the riding possie on the Hornet, so for me it depends on what you're comfortable on - the Hornet is a lot of fun with an 'oversize' rear tyre to boot ...

**wbks** · 12th February 2009, 17:39

Ten characters

This pic was taken a while ago as the L plates how but it's the same, just a new tinted black screen that'll get here soon and the sport demons are scrubbed in (mostly, apart from a few mm of chicken strip left on each side but I wouldn't consider that a bad thing when buying a used bike)

**Buckets4Me** · 12th February 2009, 17:43

I like the suzuki intruder but to me it's a cheap bike when compaired to what I'm use to in the way of suspention and power
the one I rode was keeping up with a 900 hornet in the twisty bits
( not as brave as me lol ) the frount wheel on the intruder was jumping sliding across the road at tad

but not my style the 250 hornet is a posibility thow

**Zealnz** · 13th February 2009, 08:03

Don't think anyone has mentioned the good ol' ZZR250 yet, which could be worth a try.

Nice and big for a 250, most people can't tell what cc it is until you fire it up or tell them

Sure it's not as fast (or as expensive) as a zxr or cbr, but mine manages to do highway speeds plus some without too much trouble, and it's all about the twisties anyway isnt it?

However, being a parallel twin 250, since you've been riding a while it might not be quick enough for you, but worth thinking about anyway.

I'd offer you a ride on mine but it looks like you're on the wrong end of the island

**NOWOOL** · 20th February 2009, 13:00

Just buy what fits your budget and is comfortable for learning. After you get your full licence you'll probably end up selling it anyway. The less you spend the more you'll recoupe at trade-in or selling time.
Personally, I'd go for a Suzuki GN125...cheap as chips and slow...but comfortable and reliable. I'd stay away from the 'racier' type of bikes because of the lack of straight line trackablility...the more cruiser and upright the easier it'll be to go in a straight line; composure counts but high speed cornering isn't in the practical test.