What size (cc) bike did you start out on?

[Bassplayer]

SV650---
Vtwin baby!

[JK]

350, 30+ year old cc's.

[r!der]

Spent a few weeks on a borrowed GSXR 600. At the time, someone I knew had 4 bikes and wanted me to get into riding so bad, he let me borrow a practically new bike (800 miles). After a few weeks I decided it wasn't the best idea to learn on a borrowed $9K bike, so I returned it. Thinking back it wasn't a good idea to start on a SS PERIOD. Took the MSF Class. Few months later I picked up a used 91 Honda F2. Rode that for a bit and ended up selling it...got an offer I couldn't refuse. Couple of months later I bought a brand new 05 GSXR 600.

Attached a pic of the F2 and the GSXR when I first got it. Damn I miss the way it looked with the stock plastics.

Before you all ask about the girl with the tig bits. She came for a car photoshoot, photog saw the bike and asked to snap some pics. I said sure!

[Mrs. Colleen]

First bike I ever rode was a 01 Honda F4i 600
The bike I really started on was my 92 Yamaha FZR 600

[itgirl]

Originally Posted by fnfalman

This is a tricky question for me to answer. First of all, the bike that I started on was not the bike that I owned as a beginner. I started on a Honda Hurricane. A dumbass Army buddy of mine who didn't know squat about motorcycles (neither did I) decided to go get a Hurricane because it was the coolest thing out there. We went and picked it up in his pickup truck, neither of us know how to ride a motorbike. We read the manual about the clutch and throttle and brake, etc. He climbed on, no helmet, T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes (I was similarly attired) and roared down the parking lot with the bike careening out of control, skidded down the right side with the lucky bastard rolling in the grass. The whole right fairing was screwed up. THEN it was my turn to get on. I follow suit and fell on the left side. So the brand new bike was fucked.

Anyway, I bought a Kawi EX500 (aka Ninja 500 nowadays). Not because I learned my lesson but because that's all I could afford. MSF? No way, man. I was too macho for that shit. All I need was cruising around town for a bit with the boys on Saturday night, trying to act cool for the chicks. Bareheaded, James Dean-style black dress leather jackets, black Army dress gloves, some sort of cheap half boots and Levi's. The first time I ever rode in a twisty was to ride to Nashville on the backroad, I crashed at an easy 30-MPH turn. An easy low side into the side of the road that was covered with leaves. Walked away without a scratch with minor scraping on the bike's fairing. Didn't understand why and how I crashed either. Later on I realized that I didn't know shit from shinola because I never bothered to learn how to ride the correct way. I thought that leaning was how you turn the bike into the corner.

MSF, MSF, MSF, MSF, MSF. Enough said.

and look at you now! you own some of the cooolest bikes ever!

Originally Posted by r!der

Spent a few weeks on a borrowed GSXR 600. At the time, someone I knew had 4 bikes and wanted me to get into riding so bad, he let me borrow a practically new bike (800 miles). After a few weeks I decided it wasn't the best idea to learn on a borrowed $9K bike, so I returned it. Thinking back it wasn't a good idea to start on a SS PERIOD. Took the MSF Class. Few months later I picked up a used 91 Honda F2. Rode that for a bit and ended up selling it...got an offer I couldn't refuse. Couple of months later I bought a brand new 05 GSXR 600.

Attached a pic of the F2 and the GSXR when I first got it. Damn I miss the way it looked with the stock plastics.

Before you all ask about the girl with the tig bits. She came for a car photoshoot, photog saw the bike and asked to snap some pics. I said sure!

love that honda! very clean looking!

[pickle.of.doom]

My first was 850 cc's. 1980 Suzuki GS850. Probably had less power/weight ratio than the 08 Kawi 250, definitely nowhere near a modern 600.

[Smittie61984]

Originally Posted by neebelung

So for the most part, we all preach "start small!" to new riders, and yet, many of us didn't do this ourselves.

So what size was your first STREET bike (knowing many people started out on dirtbikes)?
Was it an I4 or a Twin?
Did you have previous experience (i.e. with dirtbikes)?
If you started on something "bigger," do you think it hurt your development as a rider or do you wish you'd started smaller?

1. 600cc 60hp Yamaha SecaII(Technically 599cc)
2. Air Cooled Inline 4
3. I rode my friends SV650s once
4. I probably would have died if I started on something bigger because I don't have much sense at all

[Mudpuppy]

my first "street bike" was a yamaha xt600.. it was what got me interested in giving up riding dirt bikes and riding street bikes only.. that and the lack of good places anymore to ride dirt bikes around here..

[Mr Lefty]

my ZZR600... wasn't the first bike I rode... but it's my first bike and I've learned more on it than I did on the 650 I borrowed from a friend for a couple months

[kanwisch]

Originally Posted by neebelung

So for the most part, we all preach "start small!" to new riders, and yet, many of us didn't do this ourselves.

So what size was your first STREET bike (knowing many people started out on dirtbikes)?
Was it an I4 or a Twin?
Did you have previous experience (i.e. with dirtbikes)?
If you started on something "bigger," do you think it hurt your development as a rider or do you wish you'd started smaller?

That clearly doesn't apply to me. 1984 Honda VF500F, and because it was a tank it took my newb beatings really well. Those are V-twins and I had no previous experience at all. I'm extremely glad I didn't start out on something larger and actually wish I'd started out on a 250.