OK I am writing this because the amount of people asking for advice about starting out riding is getting out of hand. The ability to search the forum or the internet seems to not exists for some of you, if you would take your time and browse through the forum you would see us answering YOUR EXACT same question a couple times before. So I will write this one last time and ask that it get stickied so new riders in the future will be able to use it for reference instead of asking us one more time what bike to start out on.
Learning to ride a motorcycle is not very hard, however there is much more to riding than simply operating the clutch, throttle, brakes, and balancing. The more time on the bike the more suited you are for over taking obstacles that will be thrown in your way constantly. Be it cars disregarding your existence on the road, hitting or missing debris, simple no-brainer mistakes, or just about any other unpredictable event that you come across, you will need to be very comfortable on your motorcycle to come out of it on two wheels and still breathing (although sometimes making sure your heart is still beating because it skipped a couple).
When choosing a bike, do not lock in on one certain motorcycle, you often overlook the opportunity to start off right. It is a very general consensus not to start out on a sportbike, whether it is 1liter+ or even just a new 600cc supersport. Since none of you asking for help have actually had any street bike experience, you cannot grasp the concept of how insanely fast these bikes are. Even regular cruiser bikes will be able to beat sportcars in the ¼ mile. Imagine being able to beat your friends Camaro by 4 seconds, or your friends Vette by over 2. Now do this all without the stability or safety of 4 wheels and a roll cage, or wind protection. There is so much more you are exposed to on a bike, whether it is wind, weather, debris, or DAMAGE, the costs are far more costly. When you start out on such powerful motorcycles the forgiveness is non existent, in order to get through starting out on a sportbike you need to be nearly flawless in errors. So when you accidentally twist the gas too hard, or pop the clutch too early, the outcome is always worse than when you are on a tamer motorcycle.
We do not try to give you advice that would be harmful to you, we receive absolutely nothing out of us spending our time trying to help you, and the only gratification we RARELY receive is when people actually listen to us. I personally LOVE to answer any question other than “which bike…” because I do not like giving my advice to people and it being disregarded. And you may say that you are saving money instead of buying an older bike first, well think about it, you buy and old bike, then you sell the old bike. You’re out of pocket cost is very minimal, it gives you riding experience, if you drop the bike it costs MUCH MUCH MUCH less than dropping a new bike.
And every single bike is different, and you are usually very aware of this after going from one bike to the next. So don’t plan on being able to hop directly on to a newer sportbike, even after an older one, and be able to drive like Valentino Rossi. It takes time to develop an understanding of the bike that you are straddling. So while it is possible to start out on a sportbike, it will never be a good idea because of the risk you put on yourself, other people around you, and your wallet.
So in the end, if you are coming here to ask which motorcycle you should start out on, ONLY ask if you are willing to accept the fact the bike you want to start out on is probably not going to be one we recommend. And please don’t come back here after you go out and buy a new sportbike, even after we gave you recommendations about what to start on, just to be able to tell other people it is possible to start out on a sportbike, because it is not safe to start like that, and because it pisses people off wasting their time trying to help you. And then the next time you ask for help, guess what? Not going to get any from me and a couple others, and that is bad because I am very knowledgeable about motorcycles.