Is the day where a 1000ccm sport bike was the wet dream of every young bike nut beginning to see an end? 400ccm to 650ccm single and twin cylindered supermotos, flat trackers and street fighters are starting to pop up everywhere. Right now most of them are custom builds or kit bikes, like the Ron Wood Rotax Flat Track Motorcycles. But some of the manufacturers has jumped the band wagon and sent out factory made fun packages ex. Yamaha’s XT660x, MT-03 and Suzuki’s DR-Z400SM, not to mention the wicked Husqvarna SM 610.
You won’t break any land speed records on these bikes. But you will get sore cheeks from the constant big fat grin on your face. Sports bikes have reached a level where they are only in their right element at speeds twice as high as most countries speed limits. So unless you have a driving license dispenser in your garage, or take it to the occasional track-day, you will seldom experience the full potential of your crotch rocket.
The smaller and with less wind protection motorcycles gives you fun where you don’t have to worry too much about speed limits. Most likely you will even become a better rider, because you will learn to push the bike to its limits and fly out of corners, like a true Rossi, without the chance of being overtaken by your rear wheel in the process. Simply because the bikes has less power and you will learn to administer it best possible, instead of having revs and a last bit of throttle where you don’t dare go. Everybody can go fast, it’s how you corner that counts.
I started out on a 250 Nighthawk. In six months, I thrashed it, grew to hate its lack of top end speed, and rode it everywhere. 2-up, interstates, around town, canyon carving… I learned it all on that bike. That’s what I credit for my current accident-free, drop-free (minus one driveway incident) riding record, two bikes later. *knock on wood*
Now, if only squids would quit trying to compensate for lack of skill with bigger engines & bling and instead learn how to ride on more appropriate bikes.
Yes! exactly what I meant.
And smaller bikes are getting much more bling/street cred/modern design, now. And there’s nothing like out cornering a 1000cc bike on a 250cc 🙂
I would go for a 400-600cc motorcycle though, and can highly recommend the single cylinder ones. They are a hoot.
Right after I got my MC license I went straight for a 600cc crotch rocket and thought rolling a throttle open and going over a 100 mph made me a hotshot.
Years later, I ride a smaller bike and love it. They are easier to ride in the city, very forgiving if you make a mistake, and you can ride the hell out of it which means you will be riding it all the time. This in turn give you more hours on the bike and makes you a better rider. Most importantly you have way more fun. I laugh at the people you only ride their big macho 900+ cc bikes in the summertime when it’s sunny and only put on a couple a hundred miles on it a year.
Unless you are touring, or a serious sport rider, you don’t need a big bike to have fun. That just makes you a poseur; not a motorcyclist. It’s the quality of the riding you do, not the quantity of the cc’s you have.