Which bike for beginner?

[YellowDog]

Mate, get yourself a Suzuki Freewind. A very easy bike to ride with high riding position and excellent manouverability.

[Dave-]

found the suzuki fxr150 to be nice to learn on.

[Templar]

Don't want to read every page to see if this has been said or you've bought a bike, but my 2c is that I borrowed a VTR250 over the weekend and I think it would make the absolute perfect learner bike.

I would, without any hesitation, buy one for my girlfriend if she ever decided she wanted to learn to ride, that's how learner friendly I think it is.

[Monolith NZ]

Go with a GN250. Awesome learners bike!

[BlackMDK]

Yes GN250 looks like safest choice but a lots of people here don’t recommended it. I decided to take it easy and not rush the purchase there is always another day.

[KoroJ]

Just to be different....have you thought about a Trail Bike?

Ideal for learning because you can thrash about off road and get yourself into all sorts of situations without coming to grief. You'll soon find yourself reacting instinctively on & off road and that might save your bacon one day.

A 250cc trail bike will have all the grunt you need for hiway riding or ripping up the countryside.....Oh yes....and it's an easy transition from that to a lovely big cruiser.....except for the ground clearance.

[vamr]

A 250cc trail bike will have all the grunt you need for hiway riding or ripping up the countryside

I was under the impression that majority tend to run out of breath at 100?

[speeding_ant]

how about stop being idiots, listen when someone who knows what they're talking about speaks, and stay on topic, help the new rider find a friggin bike, jeeeez

Agreed!

[KoroJ]

I was under the impression that majority tend to run out of breath at 100?

I haven't ridden a 250 for a very long time, but my old Honda XL would do 135kph standard and that went up to 140+ with a CV carb and porting. Did Chch - Auck return on a couple of occasions.

The TS185 I had would go over 100kph also and I felt OK to take that on main roads....never rode it far though.

[tommorth]

thinking of road legal dirt bikes what about the yam tdm?250 the one with a tzr250 motor in it should have plenty of boogie

[alexthekidd]

Agreed!

Glad someone does lol

VTR's are loveley bikes for what its worth,

Hyosungs seemed very nice when i test rode one, especially if your a bigger person,

Bandits, absolutely brilliant bikes, run rings around most 250's and not many bits to break if it falls over, loved mine, miss it dearly

GN's are great if you've never got on a bike before, but very cramped and get boring quite quickly

Other bikes you might want to consider:

RG150, FXR150, Yamaha Zeal,

Also the ZXR, FZR and CBR if you're game for a sportier ride.

[vamr]

I haven't ridden a 250 for a very long time, but my old Honda XL would do 135kph standard and that went up to 140+ with a CV carb and porting. Did Chch - Auck return on a couple of occasions.

The TS185 I had would go over 100kph also and I felt OK to take that on main roads....never rode it far though.

Ah, I stand corrected, chur for that.

[xknuts]

i'm checking out 250"s for a female friend at present. She's a newbie who would want to ride to rally's, feel comfortable on the open road, and still cruise in the 100-120 range when required.
I flagged the Honda Rebel as soon as I rode it, but I'm impressed with the Honda Magna 250. Any thoughts on this bike?

[botb]

i'm checking out 250"s for a female friend at present. She's a newbie who would want to ride to rally's, feel comfortable on the open road, and still cruise in the 100-120 range when required.
I flagged the Honda Rebel as soon as I rode it, but I'm impressed with the Honda Magna 250. Any thoughts on this bike?

Ok here goes pro's and con's

PRO's
1. Great pick up and go
2. Heavy sturdy bike
3. Handles being dropped quite well lol
4. Nice comfy stock handlebars
5. Nice and low

CON's
1. Solid rear wheel dreadful in the wind
2. Long rake making cornering and tight turning difficult for a newbee
3. Hard to get parts for until more are wrecked here
4. Drum brake i don't like it behaves different to rear disc brake
5. Lots of shiny bling to polish and alas most of it is chromed plastic so if it's pitted and scratched it's a repaint not a polish job
6. No fuel guage i am constantly forgetting to remember k's and have fliked to reserve too late twice this week and had to push it in traffic to side of road to restart lol ( my own stupidity )

Personally if she wants to start out i would suggest a GN 250 easy riding position relatively light in comparison...Magna=171kg/GN=129kg.... dunno if she has ridden before? i had ridden trail bikes and am finding the road-bike scenario totally different!!

My reasoning for buying my Magna is i am trading up to a HD so didn't want it to be a huge change in weight and rake etc so thought well start out as close as your going to be eventually... and a few boys twisting my arm but they didn't have to really lol.... O and don't go for black coz apparantly thats Slutty Check out the maggie at Beaumont Chris see what ya think ... or more importantly she thinks but she'll only find out by test-riding as many bikes as she can i guess.....

[speeding_ant]

Glad someone does lol

VTR's are loveley bikes for what its worth,

Hyosungs seemed very nice when i test rode one, especially if your a bigger person,

Bandits, absolutely brilliant bikes, run rings around most 250's and not many bits to break if it falls over, loved mine, miss it dearly

GN's are great if you've never got on a bike before, but very cramped and get boring quite quickly

Other bikes you might want to consider:

RG150, FXR150, Yamaha Zeal,

Also the ZXR, FZR and CBR if you're game for a sportier ride.

I'd definitely reccomend an RG150. Superb bikes, very quick, reasonably low maintainance if you use decent 2stroke oil. Handles like a 40yr old mum with 3 kids.

Have bandit at the moment, it really depends on what your skill level is. If you know nothing about bikes then I wouldnt reccomend one, they are actually quite quick for a 250. But then again, if you aren't a cocky speed nut then its a great smooth bike. And if you get crash bungs for it, they look cool, and nearly nothing gets damaged in a crash. Unless you get hit by a 4x4 ...