thats in good shape,,

 

i'm a fan of the 7-R.. ask prom how he likes HIS first bike.. whick is an older 7-R.

if you seriously feel you can handle it, then get it.. or, get the 500.. it's (guessing) probably 400 lbs or so..

i know people who've started on R1's and have never wrecked and can (now) ride pretty well.. ya.. theres a certain amount of restraint you'll have to exercise with either bike, but you'll be hard pressed to outgrow the 7-R.

we're about the samw size, and i've ridden just about everything under the sun.. you're tall enough for either bike.. you weigh enough for either bike.

i mean, if you're scared of F'in up hardcore, then look at a 250, but honestly, if you show restraint and a willingness to learn from us experienced riders, you'll do fine on either one.

what kind of commuting do you plan on? that makes a difference as well..

welcome to KF!!

 

It's the fact that you have to show a lot of restraint that limits your ability to really learn. I can almost always spot the guys who started out on too big bikes. They're the ones who're always just a fraction off the pace. Size and weight aren't an issue. I've spent a lot of years teaching people how to ride, and the ones who start small are almost allways the better riders in the long run.

This doesn't apply if you can do most of your riding on the track, but that's not true for most people.

Comments like 'if you're scared' are immature and unhelpful. The very obvious and very wide chicken strips in the photo above say a lot.

Rob

 

williamr- you are fully aware that a motorcycle can be used for more than just one purpose. As in drag racing or stunting can and will leave the so called chicken strips. Enough said about your last comment.

But as mentioned, everyone is different, learns differently and should not be pigeon holed to what some may deem to be the best class. Even though that may be some of our best intentions.

I started on a 65 Honda 305 Dream, put some knobbies on her and learned how to ride that mammoth jammath. So when I got the mx360, it proved to be so much easier. Basically, learning at your comfort level is key. Not one person is ideally the same. Some are close and learn that way. Yes, I like my 750 class over all classes because that power band that I tuned for that meets my needs. Everyone is different, normally go with your gut over what some yahoo on the internet like me tells you is the best to try. You know yourself better than any of us here. Good luck

 

Go sit on some bikes before you buy, I started to ride on the street on a 600. It just depends on what you want, and how mature you are. Good luck and welcome to KF.

 

I have a very simple attitude to riding street. It's that when all my defensive techniques, all the observation, experience and careful positioning fail, and once in a while they will, then I may need to use the extreme limits of the bikes capability to avoid wrecking.

That can include braking on the edge of a stoppie, so stoppies get added to my technique repetoire, or tightening a turn to the limits of my tyres or ground clearance. Two or three times over my riding life I've even got out of trouble by accelerating hard enough to lift the front wheel, so riding a controlled low wheely gets added to the list.

These are all techniques that need to be learned fairly early in a new riders riding life, and learned at speeds that the brain can cope with while it's building the new pathways that go with riding, and while the body is developing the muscle memory that will get you out of trouble in the future.

That, and a lot of time teaching riding, is the basis of my argument for starting on a small bike and riding it fairly hard, rather than starting on a big big and having to rein it in. Plus the fact that many new riders misjudge their speed and screw up as a result - sometimes fatally

On the chicken strip issue, I like to get new tyres to the edge a couple of times so that I can trust them if I need to. My current tyres are 400 miles old and have only been used in wet conditions with lots of fallen leaves on the roads, and only used for commuting. There's about a 1/2 inch of unused tyre and about another 1/4 inch of little used rubber. Commuting in the dry will use about another 3/16ths of an inch. That's normal riding. Chances are I won't get an opportunity to take them to the edge until winter's over as I only use the bike as transport and don't ride for pleasure in winter.

BTW - I liked the 305 Dream. One of the few bikes with sensible front suspension, even if it was as soggy as wet cardboard. It's performance was about right for a newby

Rob